Episode 1: Happiness Spells & Good Things
The spells work best if you listen to them with headphones on. They will be read, separated by moments of stillness to give you the space to think about a time they were true for you, when you felt this way, or if not, to imagine how they might make you feel.
Reaching up, grabbing a low branch of a large tree, feeling your body flex as you pull yourself up and stand in the crook surveying the ground as you decide to climb higher, your hands gripping the rough bark.
Making a meal from scratch and loving it so much you could make it again and again.
Tracing the lines of your lover’s face with your fingers, staring at them in wonder even though you’ve seen them a thousand times before.
Finding a letter your grandmother wrote you where she calls you by a pet name that you haven’t heard in years.
Playing a new game with someone you don’t know too well, messing up all the rules and having it be ok anyway.
Spritzing on a small cloud of a strange and complicated new perfume that makes you feel powerful, wise, sensual and unstoppable by mere mortals.
Organizing a small space just for yourself -- perhaps to write or just to exist in, cleaning off the surface of a desk that’s been buried under bills and books and instead setting down just what you need, just what you want.
Taking a deep breath of vanilla, sweet, so sickly sweet, with the hint of spice to it.
Feeling the muscles in your arm expand as you bravely reached out and hold hands with someone new the very first time.
Buttering a bagel that’s been perfectly toasted, feeling the slight give in your hand, the crunch of the knife against the surface spreading with soft, bright butter.
Thinking with love of a person who took a chance on you when they didn’t have to, the one who helped pull you up and gave you the tools to take your best shot and started you on your path to where you are now.
Receiving a playlist from someone you loved, knowing just from looking it over that they thought long and hard about what you might like.
Coming across the exact thing you needed to hear exactly when you needed to hear it, a single sentence so true, meaningful and perceptive, it sends a jolt of adrenaline straight through you.
The way the light falls silvery and spare in the living room of a friend’s apartment in San Francisco, one morning very early in the year.
Happiness Spells Podcast is a five minute list of all the greatest pleasures and smallest joys in life. Increase your capacity for positivity, curiosity and gratitude. New episodes every Monday and Thursday.
This episode of Happiness Spells was written, arranged, recorded and produced by Amanda Meyncke in Los Angeles, California. Our music is by Chris Zabriskie.