{"id":2324,"date":"2025-03-08T12:30:18","date_gmt":"2025-03-08T12:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kimjoneswrites.co.uk\/?p=2324"},"modified":"2025-06-06T10:05:52","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T10:05:52","slug":"simple-pleasures-for-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kimjoneswrites.co.uk\/?p=2324","title":{"rendered":"Simple pleasures for free"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"507\" height=\"566\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kimjoneswrites.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/simple-pleasures-1.jpg?resize=507%2C566&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2325\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kimjoneswrites.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/simple-pleasures-1.jpg?w=507&amp;ssl=1 507w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kimjoneswrites.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/simple-pleasures-1.jpg?resize=269%2C300&amp;ssl=1 269w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 507px) 100vw, 507px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For the Daily Express, I interviewed wellbeing experts on their favourite go-to things to do that bring them happiness &#8211; but that, importantly, don&#8217;t cost them any money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As the cost of food and fuel soars, latest data from the Office for National Statistics shows that 54% of us have cut back on non-essential spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That means those little luxuries that bring everyday pleasure &#8211; think eating out at lunchtime or treating ourselves to a big bunch of flowers &#8211; &nbsp;might be off the menu for a while.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the good news is that not all enjoyable things involve splashing out cash, says Clare Gogerty, author of a new book Simple Pleasures (Pavilion Books)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;It can be easy to forget that the most precious and rewarding pleasures in life are the simplest, and certainly not measured by money,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;The joy of these simple pleasures is that they can be found amid the humdrum business of daily life. It can be the unexpected joy that arises when hanging a line of washing on a breezy spring morning, the deliciousness of biting into a warm slice of buttery toast, or the sybaritic pleasure of a long hot bath. Nature is a constant and reliable source of mood-boosting pleasure, too, from the simple task of planting a seed or watching leaves caught in the wind to the thrill of seeing a bird of prey wheel in the sky.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The experts came up with some lovely, inspirational pleasures. My favourites include keeping fairy lights up all year long (why restrict them to the festive season?); enjoying other people&#8217;s front gardens (who doesn&#8217;t love a nosey as you walk down the street?); browsing in a library (I&#8217;m passionate about keeping these places alive and thriving) and taking an early morning sound walk &#8211; no looking at phones is allowed &#8211; and definitely no headphones &#8211; so you can immerse yourself in the sights and sounds of nature all around &#8211; you may be lucky enough to see all sorts of wildlife come out of hiding <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For the Daily Express, I interviewed wellbeing experts on their favourite go-to things&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2325,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[178,235],"class_list":["post-2324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-news","tag-kim-jones-journalist","tag-simple-pleasures"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kimjoneswrites.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/simple-pleasures-1.jpg?fit=507%2C566&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paGpsf-Bu","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kimjoneswrites.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kimjoneswrites.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kimjoneswrites.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kimjoneswrites.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kimjoneswrites.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2324"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kimjoneswrites.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2326,"href":"https:\/\/kimjoneswrites.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2324\/revisions\/2326"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kimjoneswrites.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kimjoneswrites.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kimjoneswrites.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kimjoneswrites.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}