This easy daily exercise could spark joy all year

Editor’s note: David G. Allan is CNN’s executive editor for features sections.

(CNN) — Useful life advice can be found in unexpected places. And like most wisdom, it has a way of sticking around.

In the pilot episode of the 1990s quirky cult TV show “Twin Peaks,” the lead character, FBI special agent Dale Cooper (played by Kyle MacLachlan), walks into a diner with the local sheriff and orders two coffees.

“I’m going to let you in on a little secret,” Cooper tells the sheriff. “Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don’t plan it. Don’t wait for it. Just let it happen. It could be a new shirt at the men’s store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee.”

“A present,” the sheriff replies, “like Christmas.”

When I saw that, it sunk in deeper than most television dialogue; it’s essentially a philosophy about being mindful of the details in life we too often underappreciate. It’s not just an invitation to “treat yo’ self” (to borrow a catch phrase from another cult TV show, “Parks and Recreation”), but to recognize when you have done so.

Later, I learned that the creator of “Twin Peaks,” director David Lynch, has been a daily practitioner of Transcendental Meditation for most of his life. He even has a foundation to facilitate this deep mindfulness practice being taught in schools. So here is an artist with a wisdom-inducing habit, giving us a pearl inside an entertainment shell.

In erstwhile New Year’s resolutions and past phases of my life, I have been inspired to act on this cupful of wisdom. I intentionally gave myself a daily “present,” which gave me pure joy. Like Christmas or Hanukkah or whatever you celebrate, but every day.

It doesn’t need to be a big-ticket item. Time with a great book. Watching a movie or playing a game with my family. Enjoying an ice cream cone. Sharing stories with a friend. Browsing a bookstore. And even, as Dale Cooper suggests, a cup of black coffee in a coffee shop.

Your versions of this experiment are specific to what you love. It may be a shoulder massage. A walk in nature. A nap. A slice of pie. Bird watching. Sports watching.

It helps to track them someplace, in a calendar if nowhere else. And while “Twin Peaks” says not to plan them, I don’t know if you can always leave it to the universe to deliver these presents to your doorstep like a mystical Amazon.

The year 2025 is, for me, a great year to bring this mindfulness practice back. I feel the tug to get back to basics, to dig for easily accessible sources of happiness and bring them to light. Daily sounds like the right cadence.

So, my “one small thing” (as this series is named) will, once again, be one small thing. A present. Like Christmas or Hanukkah or your birthday. But every day, once a day.

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