Apr 6
Lessons in Joy
While I’ve been a joy practitioner for years, this last week is the first time I’ve dedicated so long to the pursuit of joy. I’ve been doing the practices each day, and having told the world that I’m doing this and putting it out there in the way I have, it’s made you all my accountability partners. Whenever I encountered difficulties during the week (I have three hormonal teens/pre-teens in my house), I held myself to a higher standard due to the commitment I made to joy, and to you.
When things happened that would normally push me into stress or distress, I asked myself how I was going to maintain as joyful state as possible given what was happening. The result was a much calmer and more compassionate version of me. I think I was kinder too, and more gentle. I was also able to return to feeling joyful much quicker. I didn’t sit in bad feelings, I approached the difficulties by asking myself, “What would joy do in this situation?”
Overall the amount of my day spent in a joyful space has increased significantly in the last week. I discovered that my new joy project and joy posts were making some people angry, some people told me they were unfollowing me even because of them. Initially that felt a bit sad to me, I asked myself had I done something wrong but then I reminded myself that I’m not everyone’s cup of tea and that some people struggle with even the concept of living joyfully. I decided to send love to those people who aren’t into my joy offerings. I let them go with love and appreciation. I used it as an exercise in surrendering. I only want people who are into me and what I have to offer anyway, so it’s best that those who don’t resonate with me aren’t in my energetic circles.
I’ve also had a lot of love, support, and kind messages from people doing the joy practices along with me. Those have been heart warming. Heart lifting. I’ve had way more nice messages than negative ones this week and I’ve spent time being in the energy of appreciation for every person who took the time to contact me or comment. It’s lovely to feel a little community building.
The best thing for me from the last week has been that I have very simply experienced a lot more joy. possibly more joy than any other week of my life. I’m extremely excited to see how a month of dedicating my life to the pursuit of joy will feel. Then a year! I’ve already gained so much.
Thank you to everyone joining in, you are so loved and appreciated. I’m excited to hear how other people have got on in the last week too, looking forward to the feedback.
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