Finding Personal Joy

I believe my first recollections about finding personal joy came from reading a number of stories in the news which all had some type of negative connotation about them. It is not hard to read a headline, breaking news or other similar highlighted topic on social media that would immediately take you down a rabbit hole of downward spiral conversations. For me, it is too easy to follow those and when you do, you don’t feel like you have forwarded any action. It all ends up making us feel like there is a heavier weight on our shoulders and one can even lose some sleep at night if you keep running some of these topics over and over in your head. What I have attempted to do over the recent years of my adult life, is to put some concentrated effort on finding the joyous moments that exist in varied amounts throughout a given day. It is quite interesting when you begin to put some effort into specifically looking for these gems and as time goes on, they come with a larger frequency and in greater amounts. One can begin their day by meditating, saying an affirmation, praying or deliberately speaking to yourself about what you would like to accomplish, as it relates to finding purposeful moments. Being intentional about what you wish to seek can open a door that can bring with it a swift enveloping wind which can embrace you with a warm hug and make you realize that there is much to be grateful for. My mom finds many of these moments in her precious garden which is adorned by the many types of different roses that paint her front and back yards with vibrant colors taken out of a beaming rainbow. Whenever I visit her, I take time to walk around and admire up close the beauty that exists there, while taking with me a wonderful aroma that can be stored in my memory’s inventory for any future date. In addition, my mom has also taken to providing a sanctuary for the many different birds who visit her backyard on a regular basis. My Siamese cat Diego made a trip with me recently and much different from the view outside of my windows at home, his eyes danced back and forth as he saw doves, pigeons, crows, hummingbirds and some other bird species that I could not recognize populating her backyard. I laughed just watching him as he took all of this in from the ledge of a dining room window, while the birds jumped in and out of different bird baths, ate from bird feeders and congregated amongst each other in this large aviary yard. Other folks may find joy in cooking, baking or finding happy moments in their kitchen. Perhaps you may get this fulfillment from various forms of nature; the desert, an ocean, lake, mountains or other bodies of water that you find this type of jubilance. Doing so can add a more purposeful balance to your life which can end up bringing more smiles to your face. I personally think if you have too many wrinkles due to excessive smiling or laughter, it is worth wearing those like badges of honor for the world to see. My point in all of this is that you can seek any moment of joy by being intentional. In closing, think about all of those things that can be this conduit in providing you with resolute cheer. Seek out the moments of personal joy which can transcend your day, week, month or year. Remember that you can orchestrate this for yourself and your loved ones around you. All you have to do is put some conscious effort and then wait to see what may arrive in those special instances that can be transformative in providing you with a higher level of fulfillment.

“When you do things from your soul, you feel a river 

moving in you, a joy.”

― Rumi