In my first post of 2012, I challenged my readers to carry the feeling of joy out of the holidays into every day of the new year. Wishing it to be so is no way to sustain it. Without awareness, it can be elusive.
- First, you must begin to understand what brings you joy. What is it you are doing, thinking or experiencing when you are filled with that feeling? For more insights on the energy around joy, check out Anabolic ‘n Catabolic Energy Defined.
- Now, ask yourself what is getting between you and having joy daily in your life? When I work with my clients, we use the Energy Leadership Index Assessment to uncover the ways they have withheld joy from themselves.
- My clients then learn to identify their core values, gifts and what gets them inspired, motivated and living on fire. From there, they write the outline and create the steps of ways to generate a daily life that speaks to them and fills them with joy.
- Next, you must identify the resources and opportunities required to generate it more often on a regular basis.
- Finally, give yourself a kick in the ass by checking out Are You Living a Life or a Lie?
No matter what your circumstance, there is a gift you have, a thing you do, a way you are in the world that, at times, gives you access to joy. It is within you and it is a gift only you can give yourself. Sometimes it is simply allowing yourself the permission to feel it.
When my late husband was struggling with cancer, I allowed guilt to tinge the moments of joy that sometimes dotted the landscape of those years. How could I feel joy when he was going through such great suffering?
I now know that having compassion and caregiving for him was not an either or to having some wonderful moments during that time. They were an “and”…because “and” there is still beauty in life even during the darkest times. We may simply need to look a little harder to find it.
