The most common and curious aspect about joy I hear all the time is that people tend to forget their joys. That’s not how it is usually articulated, but that is the essence of this most common problem. You see, people everywhere are searching for more joys in their lives, but the issue isn’t that they don’t have them, but have forgotten what they were. The central problem is that the things to which they’ve attached their joys are temporary and lack substance. They haven’t learned that joy is a constant…a rock solid constant.
At most times our joys arrive in situations, be it a promotion, financial windfall, childbirth, or some other good news. At that time the experienced joy is associated with a specific time point or event. In our minds we tie joy to that one thing. While it is true we do receive joy in situations, this isn’t the true nature of joy. When we make these associations, we limit the amount of joy we can experience.
I’m sure everyone reading this understands what I am saying. Good news brings feelings of happiness and relief. Then, as the situation changes or ages, the feelings of joy diminish. After all, life moves on, right? What we choose to do next determines the amounts of joy in our lives. If we choose to seek the next emotional high, we are placing ourselves in the position of a never-ending search. Think of it as a hunger for joy that we are forcing upon ourselves.
In order to correct this, we must first come to the realization that joy is not tied to a particular thing or event. Joy is an absolute constant that never changes. This is a significant difference. Try to think of joy like a rock. A rock is real. You can touch it. Throw it. Heck, you can even name it if you want to. Didn’t they used to sell pet rocks in the seventies? Well, joy is as real as that or any other rock…and just as plentiful.
Situational highs are temporary feelings of happiness that come and go like the wind blowing through a field. Joy, on the other hand, never changes. True joy is that intense and deep-seated feeling of happiness and contentment that never fades. It with you always.
Take for instance, childbirth. It is a wonderful event. The world celebrates the event as a universal constant. Then we move on. The event fades and the child grows. Those special feelings lessen and soon we forget the way we felt. In reality, what we should do is cherish the memory, but we should cling to the blessing of a new life that we get to experience on a daily basis. The birth was only the beginning. Each day that child is with us should be as joyful as the day they arrived. If we can cling to that, then the special memory of that birth will just be a part of the day-filled joys we receive every time we look at the child for the rest of our lives. That is real joy.
So forget the situations and things. Put your joys where they belong and attach them to the daily blessings we discover and cherish. If you can picture your joys as a rock, then you will no longer look for joy, but instead, rest happily on your very own rock solid joy!
Immobilienmakler Heidelberg Makler HeidelbergSource by Steven Morse