Within each and every one of us there is capacity to live a life of joy. Whatever the issue, circumstance, time in life, we can choose to appreciate moments, people, activities with a sense of wonder. Joy is the result of allowing ourselves to feel elated by what is around us.
According to Dictionary.com, joy is defined as “1. the emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying; keen pleasure; elation: She felt the joy of seeing her son’s success. 2. a source or cause of keen pleasure or delight; something or someone greatly valued or appreciated: Her prose style is a pure joy.”
We see in this definition that joy is an emotional response, taking pleasure in what we see and feel around us. When we find delight and value in what’s around us we move to this elated state. Joy is larger than the emotions happy, sad, excited, fearful, content, it is a state of being. Far too often, we hold ourselves from feeling joy, because it feels vulnerable to lean so completely into the wonderful moment. In fact, it may feel so vulnerable that we can be afraid of it – even subconsciously. Whether it is fear, suspicion, thinking about the future, worry about the past or any other of a number of emotions we feel, we may hold off truly absorbing a joyful moment that can blossom into a joyful state. We may even have negative connotations around this joyful state such as, “I’d better be careful the other shoe is going to drop,” (foreboding joy) or “I’m being complacent and not reaching my potential if I’m joyful and content.”
“We create most of our suffering, so it should be logical that we also have the ability to create more joy. It simply depends on the attitudes, the perspectives, and the reactions we bring to situations and to our relationships with other people. When it comes to personal happiness there is a lot that we as individuals can do.” ― Dalai Lama XIV, The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World
There is little joy without gratitude. A daily practice of gratitude cultivates the awareness that allows for a life time of joy. When we are always focusing on what is good in our lives, we are poised to enter a joyful state.
5 Simple Ways You Can Become Joyful
- Go general.When we are too specific in our thinking, too conditional, joy can disintegrate. If our thinking is focused on general awareness, allowing in the sights and scenes around us with an attitude of wonder, we are able to notice and appreciate nature and simple things that can lead us to joyful state. When you are cooking, driving, laying your head down at night, say things like I appreciate this food, the smell of cooking, I appreciate my car and paved roads. I appreciate my bed and pillow.
- Be willing to feel better. Open up to the perspective that you shouldfeel good. Allow yourself to lean into happy moments or pleasant experiences savor the good for a few minutes. Allow your brain to catch up to your interest in finding joy regularly. Like exercising a muscle, you are informing and retraining your brain to feel good and see good. Over time, the good will come to you and you can experience joy all the time.
- Make a “joy list”. List and observe all of the things that you love to do. Get in touch with your own interests, desires, happiness. Make time for these ‘joys’ in your life.
- Practice gratitude for at least 5 minutes every day.Gratitude is the cultivation of soil and planting of seeds for the garden of joy. Feed and water your garden daily to experience joy in your life.
- Spend time each day with someone or something that you love.During and after, pay close attention to your feelings. You will begin to see an expansion of your joy.
Cultivating joy is based on finding as many brief moments of joy that you can in a day and letting them pile on top of one another. Ultimately, life is what we make it. There are many examples of people who have had difficult circumstances but choose joy anyway. Joy is the purpose of life. Experiencing the ups and downs, triumphs and tragedies, celebrations and devastations and choosing to see the good that surrounds us is true joy.
For more information on how to add joy to your life, contact Helene Verdile, [email protected], (518) 470-0048 or Kim Perone, [email protected], (518) 301-3593. www.center4c.com.
