Reasons to be Joyful

This week's article is about making a conscious effort to be more joyful and more often. Because in being joyful we are connected to high vibration energy: a pure, unadulterated manifesting energy.

In this higher energy, we feel more connected to self and others, we feel more "relevant" and purposeful, we become more creative, we achieve greater insight and vision, we see and attract opportunities and not challenges, we become more resilient and we activate physical healing through the parasympathetic nervous system. Experiencing joy more consistently can actually help us live longer.

We always have a choice to see the good, bad and the ugly in every situation. We can create more suffering if we choose to focus on what's not working or what's not feeling right in our world. Similarly, we can just as easily flick on a different switch - one that connects to our joy.

According to the dictionary joy is defined as an emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something good or satisfying. A source of keen pleasure or delight. I would argue that is an old paradigm definition. Joy is really you activating something special and divine within you. It's not looking to an outside cause to create the effect of joy within. However, as I share later on below, there are prompts and methods that can help us access the joy within.

Moreover, joy is not happiness. Happiness is more a fleeting or ephemeral feeling based upon happenings or whether things are going well or not.?So it ebbs and flows. Happiness is an outward expression of feeling good.

Joy, on the other hand, is a more permanent condition, an emotion that comes from the depth of our being, from connection with our soul or Spirit. The reason I say this is because joy is from the Greek noun Chara which describes?an emotion of inner gladness, delight, rejoicing and deep-seated pleasure. It’s more of a serene form of happiness. It equates to an uplifting expansiveness within the chest cavity where our heart resides (which is the seat of our conscious soul). It can be described as a lightness, openness and spaciousnesss. But it also gives us a depth of assurance and confidence that ignites a cheerful heart.

Joy can be felt even amidst suffering. Joy is one of the fruits or the results of having the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. You cannot fake joy…you either have it or you don’t.

The Book of Psalms have more references to joy than any other book in the Bible. All the spiritual texts, including quotes from Jesus, are telling us to lighten up?on whatever earthly burdens we have, including all our cluttered thoughts, and turn these over to a higher power.?This lightness produces joy. It creates space and stillness where your inner spirit melds with divine source.

Joy?in the new testament is virtually always used to signify a feeling of "happiness" that is based on spiritual realities (and independent of what "happens").?

Children in general are great keepers of joy. It’s because they are unburdened, unfettered and give free rein to their emotions. So to access more joy, let’s look to them for guidance. Watch them play or whilst they sleep.

Here is a raft of other suggestions you can follow to experience more joy in your life. It's all about how and where you focus your attention (your energy):

• Begin by detaching yourself from the busyness of your life and find stillness to breathe, meditate, journal and even pray. I invite you to listen to my own Meditation for Joy.
• Go out in nature and explore its miracles, including beautiful sunrises and sunsets. Being out in nature helps put things in perspective. Birds chirping merrily usually does the trick for me.
• Perhaps you may even need to find a new job or occupation to find your true passion or calling (fulfilling your Dharma - check out last week's article here on LinkedIn). Dharma is all about finding your true self, expressing your unique talents and sharing them for the greater good, to bring happiness and joy to others. This is encapsulated in Day 14 of the 21 Days to Abundance meditation series by Deepak Chopra, so I invite you to listen to this.
• If you work from home, brighten up your surroundings with vibrant flowers or plants on your desk, buy a pot (wrap it in bright wrapping paper) and put colourful pens or crayons in it. Put colourful sticky notes around the wall, each saying how grateful you are for this and that and congratulating you on what you have achieved so far.
• Take a field trip, break up your working day. It's best if you can find a place where you can hear running water (fountain, stream, river or sea).
• Work on a visual board for your next vacation/holiday. Plan out what you want to do. Put up photos and "to see and do" lists. This creates anticipation and improves the joy in our experience of the trip when it happens.
• Music - play your favourite upbeat song and dance like no one's watching - even better find a place out in nature and dance there.
• Count Chimneys - as you’re walking around, keep a tally of chimneys, spires, or weathervanes. Looking up at the rooftops lifts your gaze, which opens up your posture and allows more light into the eyes, two things that can help to improve your mood.
• Wear a bright, vivid colour to energetically empower and lift your spirits. There's a reason why so many successful women love wearing red.
• Fake it till you feel it. Try a smile from ear to ear or just laugh for the sake of it. The hormones released will help create a happier mood even if you didn't feel like it in the beginning.
• Go find somebody to cheer up (perform a small act of kindness) and in doing so you feel better and more joyful in yourself.
• Plant a sunflower in bloom in your garden or place a pot of dwarf sunflowers on your windowsill.
• Put something cute on your desk, such as a picture of your kids or pet, or a figurine of your favourite cartoon character, cute things not only bring joy, but some research suggests they also can help us focus.
• Buy a bottle of bubbles and just blow them - try to stack them before they disperse or let a pet or child jump and pop 'em!
• And if it's raining when you're reading this, just put on some wellies and kick a few puddles into touch. Dance like Gene Kelly with your umbrella (even sing "I'm Singing in the Rain" if you dare).
• Read The Book of Joy by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the late Desmond Tutu - it's a beautiful inspirational work inviting us to experience more joy.

Every day is a new opportunity to begin again. Joy is the gift you give to yourself, in your heart and mind. It therefore cannot be found in pursuit of any goal or achievement, nor does it come with fortune or fame. It is totally an internal reset, a button you decide to activate within.

Experiencing joy on a regular basis is important because it is high up on the vibrational scale of emotions. What does that mean? It means we can manifest more, we can be more in harmony with cosmic law and the divine dance of nature. It’s a life-affirming emotion taking us on a higher plane of consciousness.

If you enjoyed this, please spread the love and joy by sharing and/or commenting.