What A Joy Based Life Feels Like

Photo by britt gaiser on Unsplash

What does a joy-based life feel like?

It can be hard to get your arms around the idea that a life filled with joy is possible, given the conflict, war, and destruction in our world. Joy has the potential to shift us from living a fear-based life to one that honors the good in ourselves, each other, and the earth.

Would you like to think it is possible to live this way?

Joy Feels Friendly

Joy has only one intention: it serves the good in life.

As a result, joy feels friendly. It feels low conflict. There is no comparison because joy stands on its own. It is therefore everyone so there is no one to exclude in order to have joy. 

Because joy is friendly, it is also egalitarian, which we need more of in the world so it serves the necessary rebalancing underway to make life fairer for more people. 

Joy Feels Constructive And Complete 

It is annoying when we have to do something that does not work for us and then have to go back and redo something to clean up a mess that has been created. Our world, with its demand for speed, operated this way too often and we get to pick up the pieces. The latest gun violence, poor food quality that creates illness, or ridiculous prices for homes that are poorly built are all examples of how we are not being served by a high-speed, high-consuming world.

We need a world that is constructive not just consuming. When what we are doing is constructive, when our world values being constructive, we feel complete when we do something. When was the last time you felt complete? joy will help you experience it.

Joy Is Resourceful

When your life is all about joy, why invite joy-reducing people, activities, and things into your world?

So many resources are being used poorly. For example, we have poor quality food that increases illness and increases health care needs and all the resources our health care systems consume. By looking at what you need to be truly healthy and fully enjoy your life, you will make decisions that support that reality which can reduce not only your costs in life but also the strains on our natural resources. Make similar decisions in all areas of your life other forms of self-care including clothing and you will go a long way to helping the planet recover from overconsumption and you will have your life in balance as well.

Most importantly by doing so, you create joy for yourself because you like what you are doing. It feels good to be resourceful. It means you can do more of what you want and also contribute what you have to give which feels good as well.

Joy Is Smart

How often do we hear people calling others stupid for one reason or another? Too often. How wrong that is!

When we are told that we are stupid, when we have models held up to us to emulate who are not necessarily wise, we learn to doubt ourselves and our intelligence. We are all naturally intelligent, as the whole universe is naturally intelligent. The only reason to tell someone they are stupid is to control them. We need to do the opposite: invite people to discover and appreciate their natural intelligence.

That is how we get to joy, and it is also how we create high-functioning democracies that we want to be a part of. I invite you to explore and feel the good in your intelligence. I invite you to feel the beauty and happiness of joy in you.

Learning to invite and appreciate all the ways in which you have and can have joy in your life is an important part of liking yourself and your life. Think of joy as the next great adventure in the human world, one that will heal the planet and all of us. Would you like that kind of adventure?