Awakening Joy
So lately I have been struggling to feel joy. Not only have the recent events in the world impeded my joy but challenges in my own life have also made it difficult to feel joyful. I was noticing the other day that I didn't even know what I wanted to do in order to get connected to a happy joyful feeling. I almost felt guilty that I would be thinking about joy when the world is in a state of sorrow. Than I remembered what Abraham Hicks says and that is, you can never help anyone by getting imbedded in problems and low energetic vibrations. The only place you can be of service is in faith, hope and yes joy. With that I decided I really needed to focus myself into a more joyful state of being. At first this seemed so daunting. Everywhere I looked I seemed to bump into negativity and problems. Current events were a constant in my life and I was always pulled into despair, anger and fear. Fear for the future mostly, worried about what might happen and how helpless I feel. So I was finding my quest for joy to be difficult and fleeting. This made me realize I had to pay close attention to what I was focusing on and make a very conscious decision to not only change my focus but also work to hold my focus on good things happening around me. Worry would always want to creep in and steal my joyful moments and as I noticed this I began to become curious. I seemed to be more comfortable in a state of worry than a state of joy. Maybe this was a habit, or maybe I thought if I worried about something enough it would make it not happen. Either way I began to feel as if Joy were a vulnerable place that frankly living there too long scared me. Something would surely pull the rug out from under me at any moment. If I became too focused on joy maybe I would miss the signs of something bad coming and fall into a trap or hole that would be harder to get out of than if I was always on the lookout. This became so interesting to me because I have been doing work on myself for a long time and knew this to be completely false. Worrying about something will never prevent it or help it, it will only make me suffer along the way.
I decided maybe my path to joy started with faith. Keeping the faith that everything is always working out for my highest good. Faith that life is a journey to be lived not perfectly but messy and unpredictable. Faith that if I followed my heart it would always guide me to exactly where I needed to be in this moment. Joy may be a byproduct of faith, trust and following your heart. So I am a work in progress and as I move forward to focus myself more into joy here are a few things I am going to try and do.
1. Keep the Faith - I have faith that the world is safe, and we are moving in the exact direction we are supposed to be moving. The world is messy but maybe we have to get messy in order to change and grow into something better. Like cleaning out a closet you need to make a mess in order to reorganize and make it better.
2. Gratitude - Always appreciate the little things around me that are beautiful and going right. On a recent trip we had dolphins swimming next to our boat and the playfulness and joy that they exude is contagious. They don't seem to have a care in the world and so why shouldn't I live my life more carefree as well. There is way more good than bad if that is where our attention goes.
3. Present moment living - Rarely is there really anything wrong in the present moment. It is our own thoughts that create problems that most often never come true. Day to day life rarely has anything catastrophic happen and when it does we are equipped to handle it.
4. Trust - Trust that everything is working out. Trust that even when I feel negative emotions this too shall pass and trust that I am more resilient than even I know so everything is an ebb and flow.
5. Lighten up - Don't take life, daily hassles and other people so seriously. See that life is supposed to be fun and enjoyed to the fullest. When I lighten up I literally shine my light on others and the world and this not only has a healing effect on me but on everyone else. We really can heal the world one person at a time.
