The 'hooray' game

The ‘hooray’ game is an antidote to grumpiness. When it works, it is a joyful, spine-tingling celebration of all the little things in life that can ruin your day. It almost certainly arises from one of the many valuable lessons learned from improvisation and mindfulness: things will not always go to plan; you can’t change that, but you can influence how you respond.

It started in Denmark after J and I wasted three hours of our precious holiday being ridiculously bad-tempered. The reason? Had the sea washed away our tent? Had the sky fallen in? No. The cause of our ill humour was an unspeakably bad fish and chips lunch in Skagen. It’s true that Skagen, a beautiful town on the northern tip of Jutland, is renowned for its fish restaurants. Only the previous day we had enjoyed a magnificent fish platter at a table bathed in warm sunshine, just two restaurants away. But this day was different. 

First, there was the rain. Heavy. Prolonged. Wet. Then there was the conical-shaped fish—who’d have thought it possible?—the dense batter and the hard, greasy chips. Everything about it was faux British. It even came wrapped in a fake Times newspaper cone. We might be two restaurants down from the fish platter experience, but we might as well have been in a motorway services off the A1 in the 1970s. 

Back at our campsite we stomped along the deserted, white sandy beach in silence, each of us fuming. J fuming about the unfairness of life, me fuming about J fuming. And then one of us—let’s say it was me—grabbed the other’s hands, raised them to the sky and hoorayed. ‘Hooray for lousy fish and chips’, I yelled. ‘Hooray’, we chorused together. ‘Hooray for choosing the only crap fish restaurant in Skagen,’ J shouted. ‘Hooray’.

We grinned at each other and a sense of perspective descended. The fish and chips horror was one bad meal, not the last meal we would ever eat. And—look—the rain stopped ages ago, and—hey—we’re the only people here on a beautiful Danish beach famed for its amazing blue light. Hooray.

If it’s going to work, you have to commit. You need to feel the hooray in your whole body. An empty beach was a good place to start, but with regular practice you can hooray almost anywhere, and any number can play.

Solo hooraying works, too. I’ve hoorayed dropping a whole carton of eggs on the tiled kitchen floor. I’ve hoorayed stepping in my own dog’s poo. I even tried hooraying an eye-watering repair bill for my car, I’ll admit with less success.

So ‘hooray’ away a minor irritation today and you might just stop a perfectly okay mood turning sour.

Do try this at home.