Many of us reserve joy for special occasions. We leave it in the back of the wardrobe, zipped up in a protective bag, and bring it out only when we have been given an excuse to wear it.
Surely joy shouldn’t be something we set aside for births, weddings and parties? Let joy be unconfined! Let it be a frequent occurrence, and let us find it in the most mundane of events and experiences.
I’m fortunate enough to work part-time in a modern, spacious office with a large, light-filled cafe that sells home-made cakes. Every time I come up the escalator into the Sky Lobby (which is its James Bond-esque name), I feel a frisson of everyday joy.
And the more I focus on such frissons, the more joy I find myself experiencing in unlikely places. I even had an attack of everyday joy walking across a busy station platform.
While at a workshop the other day, I was guided through a process into the internal territory of joy – and it was deep, peaceful and limitless.
It reminded me that, no matter what is happening in the outside world, that place is always there, should I choose to visit it.
This isn’t about denying reality – we all go through tough times and may feel sad, scared or angry. What I’m saying is that even when we feel those emotions, joy is always there like a blue sky behind clouds.
For years, I denied myself permission to feel joy. I allowed it to drown in a deep and seemingly bottomless well of sadness. I even started to enjoy feeling miserable – because at least I was feeling something.
I often felt irritated by other people’s joy, and even more so if they mentioned bliss. I had no idea what bliss felt like and dismissed it as an imaginary by-product of spiritual tourism. What a sad story that was…
Nowadays I frequently experience bliss – and I put this down not only to regular sessions of breath work but also the fact that I have been keeping a gratitude diary for several years. Every day, I scan for little things to celebrate.
These can include the smell of my coconut shampoo, the laughter of the children in the playground opposite my house or hunkering down in bed when it’s raining. Bliss..
When I focus on my inner landscape, the outer landscape takes care of itself. The more I tell a story of everyday joy, the more the world reflects that back to me.
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