Per Elizabeth Gulino, in refinery29.com “‘Glimmers’ Can Make Us Happier — & They’re All Around Us”.

“In significant life events, joy is supposed to be easy to find. Things like marriages and children and graduations and job promotions are the times when we expect to feel happiness and contentment with our lives — and we often do. But what about the inbetweens, the smaller moments? And we’re not just talking about concerts, sunsets, parties, trips — we’re talking about even smaller moments, the ones that might just pass you by if you’re not looking close enough. Those moments? They’re called glimmers.

Branded as the opposite of triggers, Deb Dana, LCSW, psychotherapist and author, coined the term glimmers, and says that they’re tiny micro-moments of joy that allow us to feel calm and give us a sense of inner peace. While the word glimmer — defined as a faint or wavering light — insinuates that these small bits of joy are hard to find, blink-and-you’ll-miss-them kind of moments, in reality, glimmers are all around us. They’re your favorite song being played in the grocery store and a flower growing out of a crack in the sidewalk. And, while brief, these small fleeting moments can fuse together to create something substantial enough for us to run with."

Glimmers is a term coined by Deb Dana in her book “The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy”. Triggers activate the sympathetic nervous system and can send us into fight, flight, or freeze mode. Triggers make us feel unsafe. Glimmers on the other hand activate the paraympathetic nervous system which help us feel relaxed and reduce stress.

Take time to enjoy and appreciate those tiny moments of joy every day…..be it your morning cup of coffee/tea, a beautiful sunset, catching the sight of a surprise rainbow, birdwatching, the touch of soft fabric, or the gentle smile of a loved one or even a stranger. Find those glimmers! They are there!