I can be a bit sceptical about new ‘trends’ in the wellbeing space, so when I came across two articles in as many days about Vorfreude (thank you
for this post ) which I’d never heard of before, I may have rolled an eye or two. But I’m extremely on board with this one! It’s a German word meaning the ‘anticipation of joy,’ which I think is brilliant and definitely shouldn’t be underestimated. I realised I’m a huge vorfreude lover when it comes to travel - I love the planning and research phase almost as much as I love the trip itself!It fits with a lot of what we know about the science of wellbeing - experiencing positive emotions and cultivating optimism improves our capacity for resilience and coping through stress, and creates the conditions for increased overall wellbeing.
I see vorfreude as a bit like reverse gratitude - which is well documented as being brilliant for cultivating mental and emotional wellbeing.
I think I’m already well practised in vorfreude in terms of big events like travel.
But I’m probably missing a bit of an opportunity when it comes to the smaller, day-to-day stuff - like my lovely dog walks in nature, or relaxing with a book in the evening.
I notice that as I sat down to write this, I was feeling a little distracted and slightly anxious by the thought of my looming to-do list. But thinking about where I could cultivate some vorfreude in my everyday has led me to feel much calmer and more positive, and puts a bit a of different spin on things. Instead of worrying about when I’ll fit things in and dreading the messy challenge of starting something new, I’m excited for the weekend ahead and looking forward to spending time with family and I’m feeling optimistic at the thought of moving forward with an ongoing project next week. It’s not that anything’s changed - I’m simply enjoying the anticipation of the small but positive moments.
So, this week I’m planning to get really curious about the anticipation of the joy of smaller things and how I can lean into this more.
As an experiment, I’ve decided that I’m going to write myself a vorfreude list each morning - 1-3 things that I’m looking forward that day, and will see how this impacts on my day and my wellbeing.
Here’s today’s - as you can see they are nothing big or fancy - but simple things that I know will bring me joy
Seeing my mum and dad tonight
Eating my husband’s amazing veggie lasagne for tea
Starting the new David Nicholls novel
Would you like to join me? I’ll report back on how I get on during the week in the comments, in case you’re interested. And I’d love to hear your experiences too!
Enjoy your weekend!
Rachael x
Did you miss The Career Wellbeing Scorecard ? It’s a short quiz that gives you a snapshot of your overall work and personal wellbeing.
More importantly, it gives you a breakdown of your scores for each particular domain of wellbeing that contributes to your Career Wellbeing, so you can identify the areas that are working really well for you, as well as the areas that would benefit from some attention and nurturing.
It takes 3 minutes (or just under) and you will also get sent a link to a workbook afterwards that helps you to understand how to nurture and grow your score.
I would LOVE you to try it out - and please DO let me know what you discover!
I've been enjoying writing my vorfreude lists each morning so far - interestingly I've noticed myself putting some things off so I can prolong the vorfreude experience...I'm looking forward to an afternoon walk before meeting a friend for dinner today.
I’ve never heard of vorfreude before but it’s a fabulous word in of itself!
And I picked up a copy of David Nicholl’s book last week it’s great 👍