Is it just everything and anything that feels good? And does it matter?
Joy matters because it is something that we all long for. When you think of any desire of yours, anything that you long for, or want in your life, be it a fulfilling work, relationship, experiences… If you keep diving into why you want it, sooner or later you will find that what you’re really after is joy.Still, few of us have that experience of joy all the time and in all things. So how come we want it so much?
We want it and we long for it because it is our most natural state.
However, joy is not the same as happiness. Happiness is something temporary. It is that sweet state we experience when something nice happens outside of us. The downside of it is, that when that something is gone, so is happiness. Joy never ends. Why? Because it lives within us. Joy is our nature.When we are born, we are in a state of wonder and unconditional joy. This is why babies so often make us smile. We can sense that energy within them.
But then life happens. Those babies (and we when we were very small) experience separation, pain, education and everything else that comes along with growing up. Along the way we lose the connection with our true, joyful self.
It’s still there but most of the time most people cannot feel it, and don’t even know that they have it within them. We all forget who we really are and what riches are hiding within us.
Then, sometimes, for some of us, awakening happens. Just as it happens, we find ourselves in an endless oneness of love, and joy.
For most of us, the total awakening doesn’t last. We disconnect again, we forget again.
What can and does continue though is the journey of awakening. I call Awakening To Joyful Living because along the way, as we reunite more and more with our nature and therefore also with our world, there is more and more joy.
No matter who we are with, no matter what we do, no matter what happens around us. In our work, finances, relationships, creativity, physical life and of course our personal and spiritual life.
Like everything else, joy can be felt in all kind of ways. It can be anything between calm and bliss, it can have all kinds of nuances and expressions. But one thing is for sure. Joy always comes from within; it is not dependent on our circumstances.
Where in your life can you feel that flow of unconditional joy?Where in your life is it difficult to find?