Joy is an elevating emotion, to be filled with this kind of inner light and upliftment is one of the greatest gifts I know. But somehow we always seem to place a limit on it, whether it’s by our choosing or old habits and thinking that die hard. Maybe we get stuck in the false belief that we don’t deserve too much of it. We’ll all go through periods of difficulties and low times but when things are always bad it’s time to take a closer look at what we’re doing or not doing. Zero joy is not an option, that kind of world is barren and lifeless. Of course the day will come when we’ve had enough and we change it up, but why wait. Why are we postponing our own joy?

The truth is joy is an inside job. But to be more joyful we have to get used to how it feels and tend to it like we would a garden. It doesn’t just miraculously come, we have to court it. There may be specific events or people that shift how we feel for a time but what we’re really after is continuity of joy. A time when we are more joyful more often, more joyful in every nook and corner of our lives. And honestly it should be like that for all of us. Not just fleeting moments of joy, not a pinch here or a smidge there, but heaps of joy everywhere. And why not? Why can’t we have as much joy as we can stand and maybe even a little bit more?

Joy is always there for the taking. But the truth is only we can decide to let more joy into our lives. The world may never hand joy to us at every moment but we can attune ourselves to the inner cultivation of greater joy no matter the outer circumstances. The most obvious way is through doing something we love. But there is a subtle catch to joy, a joyful slight of hand, it may appear as if it is coming from the outside, but really we either allow or withhold joy from ourselves. Don’t get caught up in the idea that something or someone else is going to hand you continuity of joy, it never can, in the end that’s our job.

So how do we bring greater joy into our lives? It happens when we begin to see differently. We can start by being grateful for what we’ve got and the people and things we’re truly happy and excited about. We can start small with a hobby, a morning walk, or our favorite music. Then we start paying more attention to how we feel during the day and start to cut away what saps our joy. We cultivate the life we want to live. This is how we bring more joy more of the time into our lives. We keep consciously creating until joy is a thread that weaves our lives together, even through the tough times.

So don’t hold back, let the flood gates of joy open and let in as much as you can drink up. Let joy weave its magic and change the way you live your life.

kb