We increase the chance that we’ll experience joy by identifying candidates for joy. What will provide the heartwarming feeling of joy? Here are some reasonable candidates. They do not come with guarantees but they are worth considering as investments.
One candidate is beauty. Beauty is both a suspect word, as we can be seduced by beautiful things (like a glorious sunset caused by air pollution), and also as pure a word as we possess, as when some pigments on a canvas bring us unadulterated joy.
Another candidate is love. Aren’t love and joy natural partners? If we opt to love, as opposed to standing back at arm’s length and stonily observing the universe, won’t we feel that warmth all through our body, that supernova of joy made real?
Another candidate is service. When, as a volunteer, we care for an infant brought to an emergency care nursery and see that infant smile after all her crying, the joy we feel is immense. For one split second, we experience a warmth that is indescribable.
Another candidate is mastery. It can bring us joy that we have excelled at something. It can bring us joy that we did a hard thing well. If we both do the next right thing and also do it well, what more can we ask of ourselves? And some joy may follow!
Another candidate is creativity. Creativity is the word we use to stand for manifesting loves like writing, painting, singing, crafting, inventing, and so on. Spinning a yarn or spinning yarn are age-old joys that are still abundantly available to us.
Another candidate is intimacy. There is no joy like the joy of chatting quietly with an intimate. In that secure space, the world seems safer and saner. Yes, it is possible to choose the wrong intimates. But what a joy to secure a right one!
Another candidate is family. Maybe it isn’t our birth family: maybe they are too difficult and not to our liking. Then we create family, where we lavish friendship, loyalty, and caring and from which we receive a real measure of joy and pleasure.
Any one of our life purposes is also a possible source of joy. To live our life purposes is to promote joy. And while those moments may be brief and occasional, they are also our wealth. Those joyous moments are our human riches.
You experience more joy by identifying candidates for joy and then investing in them. This simple idea is worth its weight in gold.
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Eric Maisel is the author of 50+ books. You can learn more about him at www.ericmaisel.com, subscribe to all of his blog posts at https://authory.com/ericmaisel, learn more about kirism here, and write him at [email protected]
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This post is republished on Medium.
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