Thoughts on Joy
A common question I have been hearing recently is "how can I feel more joy in my life?" This question got me thinking about the human experience and what it actually means to feel an emotion like joy.
As humans, our egos assume that various experiences in life, such as joy, should just come to us. Our egos believe that this emotional experience should be served to us on a silver platter and when it is not, there is something wrong with us. To feel joy can be a challenge for many of us yet we expect it to come effortlessly. Feeling sadness, disappointment, anger and other heavier emotions can feel more natural and second nature. Especially taking into account the world that we are living in; genocide, climate crisis and an overall diminished sense of hope. It got me thinking: how can we identify an emotional experience if it is something that we are unfamiliar with? What if our definitions of joy have led us to believe that this emotion is far more difficult to attain than it actually is?
To feel joy may require us to look for it. Sure, we can sit idly by and wait for joy (or happiness or gratitude) to find us, or we can be proactive and learn to cultivate it in our daily lives. The more we look for joy, the more we will find it. The more we look for negativity and hardship, the more we will find it. Our perception truly does shape our reality. I used to think that joy needed to be these larger experiences that I could hold onto day in and day out or that I should wake up feeling every day. I think we as human beings go wrong when we try to grasp onto joy rather than looking for the smaller, more fleeting daily moments. Of course joy can be those larger and more obvious experiences but it can also be: spending time with friends and family, a beautiful sunset, a delicate flower, a new growth on a beloved plant, adventuring into nature, enjoying a morning beverage before the rush of the day begins.
What if joy is always around us? It may require intentionally looking for it or altering our definition of what it means to fully feel and appreciate what may be hiding by in plain sight.
Happy New Year!
