Today’s blog is short and sweet. It’s about tapping into joy to bring peace, happiness and satisfaction. If I asked you to detail the main things you do in a day (shower, go to work, meet with Bob from accounting, shop for dinner, play playstation, drink wine, jog etc) how many of them bring you joy? What does joy even feel like for you? It’s no surprise that a positive mental attitude and a big dose of joy can make life easier to navigate and more pleasurable. But it’s also hard to find when you are stressed, anxious or scared. So how can we start to tap into the joy in our lives? And how can we do this without comparing ourselves to others or shaming ourselves for not feeling joy already ? What could bring you joy this year?
- You value what brings you joy and vice versa. Start with awareness – write it out, draw it, vision it. Where do you find joy and how? How does it make you feel ? How can you access more of that.
- Get out of autopilot – focus and be present. It is easy to miss joyous moments when you are not in your headspace. Explore how not being in the present “contaminates” your joy. Can you be joyous watching your child do something amazing for the first time when you are also checking work emails on your phone?
- Fake it till you make it. You have probably heard of the visualisation trick with the lemon? If you haven’t, try it now: think of a big juicy lemon. See it in your minds eye, the colour, the texture of the skin, the size. Now imagine taking a knife and cutting the lemon; watch the knife cut through the lemon exposing the pith and the juicy yellow flesh. Cut a slice and imagine lifting it to your mouth and tasting it, imagine how it tastes on your lips and teeth and throat. 9/10 when you do this exercise, your saliva gland pucker and produce extra spit in anticipation of the sour acid. And yet there is no lemon! The mind body connection is so powerful! So use it to your advantage – sometimes when you don’t spontaneously bounce around with joy, you need to fake it til you make it. Behaving joyously creates feelings of joy and strengthens the bio feedback loop.
- And the most simple and perhaps the one that is hardest – do what makes you happy and enjoy it. It really can be that simple. Forget the expectations, forget what you are supposed to do and instead start saying yes to things you know will bring you joy.
After all, its not enjoy for nothing.
