From Survival to Scintillas
Motherhood is a wild, beautiful ride—full of chaos, challenges, and moments that take our breath away.
Today, I’m so excited to introduce you to Jordane, a fellow mom who has navigated some truly intense seasons of life and found a practice that has helped her stay grounded through it all.
She calls it “pursuing Scintillas”—tiny sparks of joy and goodness that keep us anchored, even when life feels overwhelming.
In this guest post, Jordane shares her journey and how you, too, can start noticing and creating these small but powerful moments in your own life.
Meet Jordane
Hi! My name is Jordane. I’m French-Canadian. I was born and raised in Quebec, Canada, and now live in upstate South Carolina.
The past five years have been incredibly hard on so many levels. One of the things that has helped me tremendously was developing the concept of Scintillas and working on how to pursue Scintillas every day.
But first, let me give you a quick rundown of some of the crazy we’ve been through because it’s actually important to the story.
A Love Story with a Twist
I met my now-husband over twenty years ago.
We were different people back then. Timing wasn’t right. We went our separate ways.
Years later, we reconnected and embarked on a long-distance relationship.
We eloped in July 2020 after the pandemic canceled our wedding plans. I became not only a wife but a step-mama to three beautiful children.
That first year was spent figuring out how to be a wife, a mother, navigating co-parenting, COVID, and homeschooling—all in a new country, away from my friends and family.
I thought things were pretty intense back then… I had no clue what was coming.
Embracing the Nomadic Dream (and Reality)
Year two was spent planning our move from house to RV.
We wanted to do the nomad lifestyle thing—selling our car to get a van, buying an RV, and selling most of our belongings. By this point, we had the kids pretty much full-time. I was also pregnant.
Year three… We moved into the RV.
I gave birth literally four days later.
We were all learning how to live in a very small space.
At the same time, I was dealing with postpartum, breastfeeding, and struggling with the tiny space. RV life wasn’t as glamorous as we had anticipated.
Anxiety was rising for everyone.
We also got a dog (and I regret that decision every day!).
In an attempt to establish a more secure source of income, we moved from the Midwest to the East Coast, setting up the RV in my brother and sister-in-law’s backyard for about six months.
Unexpected Turns and Unstable Ground
Year four… The remote work opportunity we were pursuing fell through, and we decided to pivot. We sold the RV and moved back to the Midwest.
But life threw us a curveball.
We had secured housing and work through a work exchange situation at a horse rescue farm.
After being there for less than a month, things kind of imploded.
For the safety of our family, we had to leave quickly—two weeks before Christmas.
We ended up spending a lot of time couch surfing with family members and spent most of the year “homeless” in the sense that we didn’t have a fixed domicile.
Amidst all that, the older three kids left for a visit with their mother, 12 hours away.
It turned into an almost six-month stay.
Finding Stability Once Again
We’re now almost halfway through year five.
We’ve moved from the Midwest to the Carolinas to be closer to the kids’ mother. We’re again in a position where we have essentially full custody.
We’ve started unschooling (if you’re unfamiliar, it is a homeschooling method).
Anyways, with all of that being said, it finally feels like, for the first time in a while, things are settling down a bit.
Crazy. So much crazy!
Why Am I Sharing This?
You might wonder why I’m telling you all this.
I want you to understand just how crazy my life has been lately. And those are just the “highlights”!
Stress and anxiety have been a constant in my life in one form or another for quite a while now.
One last thing you need to know about me before I dive into why all this backstory is important: I have a tendency to catastrophize everything.
I will see the bad and the negative before anything else and get absolutely overwhelmed by it all.
So what does it mean to find Scintillas?
The word Scintilla means: a tiny, brilliant flash or spark; a small thing; a barely-visible trace.
I honestly don’t remember when exactly it was that I came across that word for the first time. I do remember immediately falling in love with that word.
Instantly, I knew that this word held a deeper meaning for myself. I needed to find out how to apply it to my life.
This word has become the core to this life philosophy that I now strive to live by.
It’s essentially a mash up between a more traditional gratitude practice and this new notion of glimmers that is currently emerging on social media (a glimmer being the opposite of a trigger).
This is about not only noticing or finding the scintillas in your daily life but to actively pursue them.
That takes work sometimes. But those tiny little flashes, those barely-visible traces of goodness and joy that sprinkle our everyday life, are worth it.
Even if we have to actively create them.
Be it the comfort of that morning cup of coffee, or the laugh of your toddler after you spent twenty minutes trying to calm the tantrum and screaming.
That sunrise when you’re up earlier than you might like.
Or maybe it’s that feeling of incredible satisfaction over some accomplishment.
Whatever it is that reminds you that life is indeed good.
Simply noticing those naturally occurring Scintillas is the first step. But as you learn to notice, you also start to actively pursue those Scintillas and even try to create them for yourself and those around you.
Why is it important?
Those little moments, those little things, they matter. And oftentimes, they go unnoticed.
When you’re under some sort of pressure, it can be harder to notice the good.
Life being what it is these days, most people face pressure in one way or another.
As a mother, there’s also an added layer to that as we navigate pregnancy and hormonal changes, postpartum and dealing with lack of sleep and breastfeeding.
It just doesn’t ever stop as we move into the toddler years and school years and then teens…
But as you start pursuing those Scintilla moments, they start adding up.
They have a way of changing your perspective on life so that even through tough times, or stressful times, you are better equipped to stay grounded.
What are the benefits of Scintillas?
Pursuing the Scintillas in your life can help foster a more positive outlook on life in general and just improve your overall well-being.
Like I mentioned earlier, this is essentially a form of gratitude practice and there is a lot of documentation to support how beneficial this can be for your life.
Let’s go over the five areas most commonly associated with benefits from such a practice:
- Mental Health.
- Reduced stress and anxiety.
- Noticing the small joys or spark of goodness in your life can help regulate cortisol production in the brain.
- Improves mood.
- Not only can it regulate cortisol, but it can also trigger the release of dopamine and serotonin. Both of those being linked to feelings of happiness.
- Ease symptoms of depression.
- I’m not a doctor, and depression or postpartum depression can be a serious thing.
- Please, do reach out to your doctor or a loved one if you are experiencing symptoms of depression.
- With that being said, practicing gratitude and being mindful of the small Scintillas that bring you joy or even just contentment, can help ease the symptoms of depression.
- Reduced stress and anxiety.
- Physical Health
- Improves sleep.
- A lot of people with a daily gratitude practice report having an easier time falling asleep and being able to sleep longer (as long as they don’t also own a toddler).
- This is especially true if at least part of this practice is done before going to bed.
- Lowers blood pressure.
- Lower stress levels can in turn lower blood pressure.
- Again, not a doctor, simply relating the findings of multiple studies.
- Reduces inflammation.
- Same here. Lower stress, lower anxiety will in turn lead to lower levels of inflammation in your body.
- Improves sleep.
- Deepens Relationships
- By noticing those scintillas caused by other peoples’ input in your life, you appreciate and value them more.
- Because of that, the way you interact with them will change, deepening your relationship along the way.
- Productivity
- Increased motivation.
- It’s very simple, the more positive and happy you feel, the more motivated you will be.
- Help people achieve more.
- Goes hand in hand with motivation.
- If you’re more motivated, you’ll get more done, whether that’s in a professional work environment or simply at home with the household tasks.
- Increased motivation.
- Increased Self-Esteem
- As you notice the small things about your life and yourself, it can lead to a boost in your self-esteem.
How can you find Scintillas, too?
For the longest time, taking time daily to list out Scintillas was just too much for me to even handle for myself.
In the state of stress and anxiety I was in, the thought of finding something good in every day felt overwhelming. Which brings me to my first point:
Just start!
Just start keeping a list. For me, I started doing that by snapping pictures on my phone. But it can be a list in a notebook, or on your note app on your phone. Or even voice memo if that’s what works for you. Just start.
Keep it simple, but be consistent!
This is meant to be fun. It’s meant to bring joy. But it does work best if you are being consistent about it. So if there’s a lot on your plate, keep things simple, and aim to do this only once a week.
Do what works for YOU!
We want this to be easy. So make it work for you.
At first I would do once a week and document mostly through photos because I’m a photographer and that’s what makes sense for me.
But you do you!
Twice daily, daily, weekly (I wouldn’t suggest less than weekly cause then it’s too easy to forget).
Write it down as a simple bullet point list; in a notebook, on your phone, on a white board.
Journal about it and add context and details.
Do it junk journaling or scrapbooking style.
Just find the outlet that works for you and your current lifestyle.
Make it a family thing!
Include the kids. Have them tell you about their Scintillas (or in simpler term; what makes them happy).
I promise, it’ll give you a whole new perspective!
Okay, this is 100% self promotion here and you obviously do not need to be using my templates.
But if it can help simplify the process for you, why not?
I designed them when I started including the kids (because post-its on the wall wasn’t a sustainable solution).
It consist of two pages; the Daily Scintillas, which include a morning and an evening section, and the Weekly Scintillas.
I got the daily one laminated and we use dry erase markers. The weekly ones gets put in a binder so we can look back on it at the end of the year.
As I embrace these Daily & Weekly Scintillas practices, it has made it easier for me to be in a mindful state and actively notice those little sparks along the way.
So I would just encourage you to just start. And the more you do it, the more you see them and the easier it becomes.
To wrap it up
It’s been a journey.
But I firmly believe that through all of the crazy years, this concept, of pursuing the Scintillas, served as a lifeline for me.
Even though I’m still learning to put this into practice myself, and often struggle with being consistent, I can see the benefits in my life.
I am 100% convinced that it’s not only making me into a better person, but also better equipping me to face adversity.
Which is why I would like to just encourage you to start. The more you do it, the more you it, and the easier and more beautiful your life becomes.
To connect, hear more about how this concept unfolds in daily life, and access templates for Daily Scintillas and Weekly Scintillas, join me on Instagram @thescintillalife.
From Survival to Scintillas
I love Jordane’s perspective on finding those small, meaningful moments that can shift our entire outlook.
Sometimes, it really is about pausing long enough to notice the joy hidden in our everyday chaos!
If mom life has ever left you feeling guilty for not doing “enough” (spoiler: you are!), then you won’t want to miss tomorrow’s post—Day 17 of the challenge—where we’ll talk all about overcoming mom guilt.
See you there!
xoxo, Angie
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