One of the sections in my book “Elevating Your Origins to Love: A Guided Journey of Transformation, Healing and Power” that readers comment on as particularly powerful, is called “Finding Joy.” In it, we find a moment where we have experienced joy – perhaps out in nature, with a beloved pet or person, or successfully completing a challenging experience – and allow ourselves to truly savour the feeling of joy.
Why don’t you try it right now? Wherever you are, take a moment and scroll back through your history for a moment of joy. Don’t worry about what might have come afterwards, just find a moment that was pure, unadulterated joy, and put yourself back in that experience.
Immerse yourself within this delicious, joyous state. Notice the surroundings you are in. Feel the physical sensations that are present. What you are looking at. Sounds you may hear. Scents in the air. Perhaps even a taste in your mouth.
Feel whatever inner sensations this moment of pure joy elicits, within your body. Perhaps you feel a sweet warmth; or tingling; or simply a deeply satisfying, peaceful stillness. Experience YOUR experience of joy, complete and unique to you, in full technicolor.
Now – if someone else was part of what elicited this moment for you, gently remove them from the equation, but without diminishing the feeling. Take away any external cause, while staying in the energy of joy. Keep feeling it, in all its glorious, sensory aspects.
As you do, begin to recognize that this joy actually comes from within yourself. Sure, something/someone ‘out there’ may seem to have been the cause, but in actuality joy is a quality that is generated within you. It’s no stranger, you know how to get in touch with it. Or maybe it IS a stranger, because you haven’t allowed yourself to feel it for a long time.
Why would that be? Within our bodies and emotions, we are able to feel the whole spectrum of life, from the lowest lows to the highest highs, but early on, most of us find a setpoint we call ‘normal’ that is far from joy. We have to be ‘responsible,’ and joy seems rather… frivolous. With all the problems of the world, feeling joy can seem almost… irresponsible!
And yet – all of us have limited time on the planet, one day each of us will take our leave. And all the opportunities we could have had to feel joy or love, to cultivate a feeling of kindness instead of judgment, will no longer be available to us. During the time you have left, what kind of energy do you want to feel and project out into the world?
Be bold! Consider starting to cultivate more joy in yourself, just for the joy of it.
It might not seem like world peace – but just maybe, it is.
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