Seven Minutes

"There are those little moments in life in which you need some joy." -Jeff Kane

While you were walking to your office today, did someone pass you by with a smile and say good morning? Did someone possibly hold the elevator door for you or possibly help carry groceries to your car? During our day, there are small things that create joy in our lives. These small things are seemingly insignificant gestures in life that happen to us which create happiness.

We also know there are small things that try to steal that joy from us. It is those types of harsh moments that we tend to focus on. We focus so much on them until the meaningless irritation consumes our day. It causes stress inside of you, frustration develops and causes you to have a bad day.

What we need to do is to look for the joyous moments which do happen. Those moments are there. You simply need to look for and recognize them for what they are, moments of joy. When you feel frustrated, stressed or the anxiety of a long day; find a place, a moment of memory or a thought that brings you back to joy. Try to take seven minutes daily to relive the joys that do exist in your life.

Why seven minutes?

In psychology, the "Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two" is the title of a 1956 paper by the cognitive psychologist George A. Miller which showed the following. When test subjects were asked to choose a number between one and ten, most people will choose the number seven. It is the most common number thought of off the top of one's head.

Other possible reasons for using the number seven:

• Number of openings into the human head; mouth, 2 eyes, 2 ears, 2 nostrils
• Traditional number of Wonders of the Ancient World
• Viewed as a lucky number in both Japanese and many Western cultures
• In music it is the number of notes in the musical scale
• Number of days in a week
• Number of the ages of man into which William Shakespeare divided a lifetime
• Figurative number of seas
• Traditionally thought that there are seven continents on Earth
• Number of colors of the rainbow
• Number of points on a sheriff's star
• Number of spots in a common ladybug
• Number of objects in the solar system visible to the naked eye — Sun, Moon and five classical naked eye planets: Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn

Seven is simply a number and to think of it in numerical terms, you are only taking .4% of your day. If you take the average number of hours one should sleep each night (8 hours), then you are still only consuming .7% of your day reliving a joyful moment or thought. There is that number seven again.

Okay, I have made my point about the number seven.

What really matters is that a small amount of time can have a huge impact on your life. So take a few minutes to remember the joys in your life. In fact, take a moment right now and take seven minutes to relax and enjoy the goodness in your life.

Now pass along that joy to someone else. Smile at someone passing by, hold open a door for the next person, maybe give them a bit of encouragement. Seven minutes can improve your life, improve someone else's life and improve the world around you.

Stay inspired my friends.