Hello beautiful friends,
Today I’m sharing with you my 5 Top JOY TiPS for keeping your spirits elevated when times get rough.
“He who binds to himself a JOY does the winged life destroy; but he who kisses JOY as it flies, lives in eternity’s sunrise.” William Blake
I so love this quote. It speaks to me of the changing nature of life and of the life within us, namely our thoughts and emotions. And Blake is so right. We can’t ‘bind to us a JOY.’ It’s unrealistic to think that we can always be on top of the world. There will always be ups and downs, hills and troughs and mountains and valleys for us to navigate in life, as well as in our changing inner landscape of thoughts and feelings. It’s only natural.
Life contains it’s own intrinsic challenges and if we continue to grow and learn new skills throughout our lives also, this implies that we must come face to face with our limitations, which just isn’t always comfortable.
Think of yoga. A lot of deep breathing goes on when you meet your body’s ‘edges’ on the mat!
So uncomfortable times are here to stay. We can’t avoid them but we can certainly minimise their discomfort through our attitude about what’s happening and the way we treat ourselves.
What follows here is the JoyQ way to negotiate the dark muddy patches in life’s terrain, remove some debris from your path and find a clearing in the sun. You’ll notice that I don’t include things like think happy thoughts, put a smile on your face, find 10 ways to be grateful, call someone you love, go for a run or do something positive… etc, etc, etc.
These can all be ways to turn yourself around, yes, but they can also be avoidance strategies and result in issues being suppressed (rather than addressed) only to rise up eventually in other ways such as relationship issues, sleep disturbances or physical symptoms and dis-ease.
The JoyQ Way is this. If you feel good, feel good. If you feel joyful, then enjoy it. But if you don’t, then BE REAL, look it in the eye, meet it with awareness, embrace it with love and follow these 5 steps…
5 TOP TiPS for RAISING YOUR JOY
1. SAY IT LIKE IT IS, MAKE IT REAL
Get clear and acknowledge exactly what you’re thinking and how you feel.
2. LET GO OF JUDGEMENT
Everything happens for a reason. Open up to the possibility that your thoughts, how you feel and what’s happening right now is perfect and right.
3. STAY IN THE MOMENT
Release all thoughts of past and future and focus only on what’s here in this moment and only this moment. This moment is all you ever have and is the only moment that counts to make a difference, to create change. Let go of the past, stop imagining the future and be here now.
4. LOVE YOUR FEELINGS
Don’t make your feelings wrong or bad and add suffering where it’s not. Much of our discomfort with our emotions arises from the belief that they’re bad and the expectation that they’re painful. So let that go. Invite in love and acceptance and ….
“Simply breathe, drop into your body, feel your feelings and repeat”.
5. MOVE SPONTANEOUSLY
Allow movement (action) to arise of it’s own accord. As you follow all of the above, being real, optimistic, present and honouring your feelings with love, you’ll find that whatever you need to do or whatever needs to happen will arise spontaneously and you’ll feel relaxed and just a little lighter. The key is to allow the action to arise naturally from within.
When you’re feeling sad, you’ll probably find that you need to rest until you feel regenerated and when your energy is disturbed, irritated or angry, you may feel an impulse to go for a walk or take some positive action. Either way, relax, open up and follow the energy of your body. Choose the path of least resistance. Whatever’s RIGHT will feel LIGHT.
Then as you follow your emotions, you’ll find that your energy naturally changes and moves towards greater balance. Try it out. The key to managing the low times is to face them, feel them and heal them through integrating your emotions. Take the time to follow the 5 steps and invite grace into your life.
“By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. When you try and try, the world is beyond the winning.” Lao Tzu, founder of Taoism.
See you soon on the blog.
JOY and Peace in letting be and letting go.
