Joy is ours to make

I went for an early (read, before-it’s-too-hot) run this morning. On Monday runs I push my smile harder, more often. The Monday Syndrome was hard at work on the minds — and the faces — of most of the drivers this morning. Smiles seemed miles from the fronts of their minds. (Here’s something to think about: every seven years we live means we’ve lived one year of every day of the week. So, when I’m 70, I’ll have lived 10 years of Monday. Same goes for each of us!)

I smiled right and left, up and down the streets of my neighborhood. Not too many smiles in return. Made me conscious of today’s Daily Word: Joy and its tagline:

I express the full joy of living.

So I’m sharing my three-point approach to joy (and maybe a few toss-in thoughts as well!). Maybe you don’t need them. If not, that’s wonderful. Maybe you know someone with whom to share them. If you share them, that’s wonderful, too!

JoyPoint 1: when you’ve got joy, give thanks for joy. You don’t want to let joy moments pass unnoticed. A little (or a big!) thank you, God decidedly gives notice. It’s so easy to say, Thank you, God, for this ____ joy.  The more often you say, the more joy you’ll recognize.The ROI is that when you decide to say thank you, you pay (more) attention to what you’re thankful for. The ROI-plus is that after you say thank you, your mind returns to the cause of the joy and appreciates it even more.
“To the lover of life, life offers love.” The one who’s thankful joy experiences more joy.

JoyPoint 2: when you don’t see the joy, look closer. Somewhere in the haze of “another Monday, darn it” are specific gifts of joy. One is that Monday afternoon is coming, and it is always better than Monday’s start. This applies not just to Mondays. No matter what’s not joying you, somewhere within it is something to make you smile or make you glad or make you peaceful. (How do you define joy?)
I’ve even learned to enjoy rousting out specific joys in times or situations that aren’t so joyfilled at first.

JoyPoint3: when you just can’t find the joy, do something else. I’ve been a runner for more than 30 years. Still, there are those mornings when I’ve laced up my shoes, strapped up my knee, set my watch to 0:00 and started running…only to realize in a few steps it’s not going to be a Big Time Joy run. Sometimes I push it a little bit, give it a few more strides. A few of those times, that works. But when it doesn’t, when I know I won’t enjoy the run, I let go and look for another joy cause. Maybe I just slow down and enjoy walking. Maybe I sit by a tree and enjoy the day waking up. Maybe I return home and enjoy another cup of coffee.
We make it so much harder to create joy when we saddle ourselves with the mis-belief that I must do this even though I really don’t enjoy it.

Lesson #116 in A Course in Miracles:

God’s will for me is perfect happiness.

We can create our joy. It is so much easier that God wills us to be happy.

To your every joy!

Posted on June 11, 2012 at 3:30 pm by Tim · Permalink
In: Happiness, Joy, Peacefulness, Prosperity · Tagged with: ,