Each month, the SELF Well-Read Book Club highlights a timely, delightful, and crucial book on a subject that helps readers live better lives. So far, we’ve covered everything from the politics of running to the state of modern motherhood.
Are you the kind of person who feels overcome with awe when the sun streams through your window, illuminating your bedroom just so? Does your heart swell when you spot an elderly couple holding hands as they cross the street? No matter how cynical you might be, there is probably something that pulls at your soul, inciting that familiar, precious feeling: a perfectly hot cup of coffee on the weekend, your old sweatpants, fully charged AirPods before a long commute, a good hair day. Little victories or tiny moments of good.
This feeling—and the occurrences that lead to it—is the subject of Cyndie Spiegel’s new book, Microjoys: Finding Hope (Especially) When Life Is Not Okay. Spiegel, a writer, speaker, and community builder, is following up her 2018 book, A Year of Positive Thinking, with one that incorporates some recent perspective: After experiencing the pandemic, the loss of her mother and nephew, and a breast cancer diagnosis, she understands that happiness is not always attainable—and says that is actually okay. But no matter what is going on in the world, we can do our best to reach for something smaller: microjoys. Spiegel describes these as the often-mundane, sometimes-elusive moments that bring a fleeting instant of contentment, which is sometimes both all you can muster and totally enough.
As we approach the three-year anniversary of the coronavirus pandemic, many of us are all too familiar with feeling like life is not okay. And as we continue to process and cope with the way the world shifted, finding small slivers of hope that are everywhere and accessible to everyone seems like an excellent salve. That’s why we’re thrilled to select Microjoys as our March SELF Well-Read Book Club pick.
The book is a microjoy in and of itself, broken down into short chapters in which Spiegel recalls microjoys she’s experienced and the magical, miraculous ways she’s come to find them. At the end of each chapter, Spiegel provides a prompt to consider, guiding you to discover microjoys in your own life too. Her writing is visual, poetic, and whimsical. It’s refreshing to be instructed to find purpose and calm in something other than elaborate self-care routines and self-help manuals—because actually, as Spiegel demonstrates, the simplest things in life can bring about the biggest change in perspective.
What’s next?
- Buy the book here.
- Read an exclusive excerpt here.
- Check out our recommended reading list below for a collection of SELF articles on what it’s like to be a parent today.
- Save the date: Rachel Miller, SELF editor in chief, will be hosting a livestream discussion with Cyndie Spiegel on Monday, March 27 at 1 p.m. EST.
And some Microjoys companion reading:
For when you’re going through it:
Food for thought:
Microjoy inspiration:
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