Joyful by Indrid Lee Fetell [Non-fiction Review]

Summary 💬

Have you ever wondered why we stop to watch the orange glow that arrives before sunset or why we flock to see cherry blossoms bloom in spring? Is there a reason that people–regardless of gender, age, culture, or ethnicity–are mesmerized by baby animals and can’t help but smile when they see a burst of confetti or a cluster of colorful balloons?

We are often made to feel that the physical world has little or no impact on our inner joy. Increasingly, experts urge us to find balance and calm by looking inward–through mindfulness or meditation–and muting the outside world. But what if the natural vibrancy of our surroundings is actually our most renewable and easily accessible source of joy?

In Joyful, designer Ingrid Fetell Lee explores how the seemingly mundane spaces and objects we interact with every day have surprising and powerful effects on our mood. Drawing on insights from neuroscience and psychology, she explains why one setting makes us feel anxious or competitive while another fosters acceptance and delight–and, most importantly, she reveals how we can harness the power of our surroundings to live fuller, healthier, and truly joyful lives.

Goodreads

Review ✍🏻

Introduction

Joyful was one of my first reads of 2023. I learnt about it last year during Nonfiction November from Linda @ Shoe’s Seeds & Stories. When Katie @ Doing Dewey invited me to buddy read Joyful in January, I thought it would be a great book to kick off the new year. I have long been aware of how my space affects my mood. (I still recall how much better I felt after buying a new lamp for an apartment with dreary fluorescent lighting nine years ago!) At the start of the year, I was feeling bummed out about my extremely dull office, so I thought this book might offer tips for freshening up my space while also explaining why I find certain things around my home joyful.

What follows are my thoughts as shared with and evoked by my discussion with Katie. So many thanks to Katie for a fun reading experience! This was my second buddy read using the Story Graph feature – I still highly recommended it.

Design Perspective

Joyful gets off to a good start by asking the question, “How do tangible things create an intangible feeling of joy?” I have met more than a few people who don’t undeerstand why I buy ‘stuff’ (ex. posters, figures, lamps, hardcover books, etc). They don’t realize that these items spark a sense of joy for me. Initially, I somehow didn’t expect Joyful to be specifically about design, but it made sense once I thought about it a bit more. The ‘everyday things’ we spend most of our time around are the ‘things’ (ie design choices/decor) in our homes and work spaces. So, I appreciated that the book comes from the perspective of a professional designer.

The book is organized into ten chapters, each an aesthetic of joy. I touch on eight of them below. (I left out Freedom and Surprise.)

Energy

A discussion of color transforming prison-like spaces (pg 23) was all it took to motivate me to finally add some decor to my office! I worked in a very old-fashioned, poorly designed office, with no windows in my particular room. This chapter motivated me to bring in some of my ‘joyful’ items from home and arrange them on a shelf at my desk.

We dismiss color and joy as childish and frivolous, prizing neutral hues as a mark of collness and mature taste. […] The message is clear: to be worthy of society’s approbation, we must outgrow our natural inclinations toward joy or learn to suppress them.

Joyful pg 30

This notion of color also made me think of my (grey, beige) workplace where everyone also wore grey beige clothing. I often wore a colourful top or pants, and I often received comments like, “I love your pants but I could never wear them!” Which was a little sad to hear. I completely agree that if we can embrace some colour, we’d get a boost of energy each day. My home is a rented apartment with white and characoal walls, but I have filled it with mid-century modern style furniture in red, green, blue, and yellow. One year after moving in, I still feel joy when I look at everything coming together in the space.

Abundance

The idea that the joy of abundance might have a deeper resonance was compelling to me, but I was also becoming aware that this joy had limits. On one side of the line lived quirky collections, potluck dinners, and boxes of assorted chocolates. On the other loomed overstuffed landfills, obesity, and hoarders. While it is hard to overdose on the energy aesthetic (I don’t think anyone has died from too much color!), abundance, by its very nature, could take people oveerboard.

Joyful pg 45

And another snippet from pg 52: “[…]the kind of abundance that really matters is not material accumulation but sensorial richness.” !!! Well said. I will have to try to explain this concept next time someone tells me I have too much stuff in a space. 😜 But seriously, I went through a phase where I thought minimalism was the way to go but I quickly dropped that because it felt dreary to me, even though I had a bit of guilt about accumulating material objects. This chapter helped me understand why I found minimalism dreary and helped me realize no, it’s not just satisfication of greed that makes abundance joyful. I saved so many quotes from this chapter. Later on, Fettell Lee writes “Choosing abundance is not a moral failing. It’s an expression of deep, human delight” (pg 72) and I never felt so vindicated, haha. Highly recommend reading this section.

[On The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up] But what I realized is that Kondo’s philosophy isn’t really minimalism. It’s sanity. After all, we still have plenty of stuff. And now that we can see the things we have, our place actually feels more abundant, not less. That’s because abundance isn’t about just accumulating things. It’s about surrounding yourself with a rich palette of textures that enliven your senses. If true minimalism is like clear-cutting a field, Kondo’s method is like weeding a garden. It’s a process of removing the background nosie to create a canvas on which to build a joyful home. Yet it’s also worth remembering that just weeding alone doesn’t create a beautiful garden. You have to plant flowers, too.

Joyful pg 59-60

Harmony

Order isn’t dull and staid. It is a tangible manifestation of a vibrant harmony, of disparate parts workin gin concert to sustain the graceful balance of life.

Joyful pg 106

I didn’t take too much away from this section, but it did make me wonder if there are better ways I can arrange my furniture, especially in my bedroom and entryway…

Play

This was an intriguing section, because how do you invoke a verb through design? Fetell Lee suggests incorporating circular, round, or flowing designs, such as through room dividers, furnishings, carpets, art work, or desk accessories.

“Why to be serious do things have to look serious?” I believe we unconciously abide by this principle because our notion of work is rooted in an industrial economy that values efficiency and structure at the expense of joy and creativity. […] But as Stuart Brown observes, the separation of work and play is a false construct. “The opposite of play is not work,” he often says. “It’s depression.”

Joyful pg 154

Transcendence

Reading about treehouses and lofts and transcendence had me recalling one of my ‘joyful places’. It was a tiny cottage I spent three weeks in while WWOOFing in Ireland. It looked like a little witch’s hut, with its pointy thatched root, and had a loft area for sleeping. I think about that space so often, even ten years later! I would love to recapture that feeling of joy… (how do I get a hammock in my apartment haha I think that would help).

What do you do if you wish you could live in a house of air? Consider inflatables, bubbles, balloons, bubles, visual weigh, etc. “By using light colors and sheer fabrics, leggy furnishings and translucent accessories, we an bring some of the lightness of the sky down to earth.” (pg 207) Another memory unlocked! One of the first decorations I put in my bedroom as a kid (I was in grade six) was foam clouds I cut out myself. I had blue walls because I wanted my room to feel like the sky. This chapter gave me words to describe why I wanted that and what I enjoyed about it.

I’ve met many people who believe that the spiritual world is closed to them because they are agnostic or atheist, because they don’t feel special or chosen, or because they aren’t disciplined enough to maintain a regular spiritual practice. Recognizing that we can find transcendence in our surroundings liberates the sacred and allows us to redicscover our connection to it, regardless of what we believe.

Joyful pg 209

Magic

“Another favorite magical object of mine is the prism, which reveals the spectrum of colors hidden in ordinary sunlight.” (pg 229) Before I even moved into my apartment last year, I bought two suncatchers. I never had suncatchers before but I really wanted to capture sunny days… nine months later I still find delight and unexpected joy when little rainbows appear all over my walls, and move throughout the day with the sun. The sense of magic is real!

“The first fall of snow is not only an event, but it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of world and wake up to find yourself in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment, then where is it to be found?” (J.B. Priestley) I love winter and snow and especially snow that dazzles in bright sun; this guy gets it 💙

There is an event that my city participates called Nuit Blanche. If there is one around you, I would highly recommend checking it out. My city’s version features lots of outdoor art installations that usually play with light. It was around this part of the book (the last two or three chapters) that I started to wish there were some photos included. I resisted the urge to pull out my phone and google everything she mentioned…

Celebration

Katie noted needing more celebration in her life and I completely agree! I thought of folks who see no point in celebrating birthdays. I think, it’s not reallyyyyy about getting a year older or about being the ‘center of attention’. A birthday party should be an excuse to celebrate and have fun and experience each other’s company joyfully (see pg 269).

Renewal

Cut flowers can seem like an extravagance, and I know many people who love them but struggle to justify the expense. But the effect of even a single bloom on a space can be dramatic. […] While the static nature of the objects around us engenders comfort and predictability, it also drains away our connection to the vibrancy of the earth. It’s the opposite of the fervid growth of Ireland and the blossoming profusion of the sakura. And at moments when our lives feel a bit stuck, our inanimate surroundings can quietly aggravate the problem. Flowers, light and ebullient, have an energy that shatters this stasis.

Joyful pg 286-7

I am one who loves cut flowers but struggles to justify the expense. I love the colour and life they bring in. It’s hard to live so removed from nature. Cut flowers can bring that sense of renewal and vividness, in a way that having potted plants around the home doesn’t quite achieve.

Resources

I thought the worksheets included at the end were a little too… worksheet-y? Self-help-y? Not sure the adjective! But I thought the ‘joyful palette’ on the final pages and the ‘aesthetics finder’ on pg 307 the most useful pieces of the toolkit. For example, when I think of my office and think “Ugh, this spaces makes me feel dreary”, I can connect that to energy and think of ways to bring more energy into the space.

The Bottom Line 💭

An insightful read for those who wish to transform their spaces into something more positive, Joyful provides many practical tips while also explaining the why behind the effectiveness of those tips. This could be a great book to keep around for reference – turn to it whenever you start feeling stuffy in a space.

Further Reading 📰

🍂 Author website
🍂 Interview @ The House that Lars Built
🍂 Related: For another book full of practical tips to implement in your daily life, check out my review of Solving the Procrastination Puzzle. (This review is seven years old but I think the book is still alright??)

What are some design choices you’ve made that make you feel joyful?
Or, what aspects of your space could use some improving?