Presley, To experience joy in your life, you must begin with the intention of wanting to experience joy. Most of us hope or pray that joy will turn up in our lives. We think of it as partying out loud or something that pops into our lives like fireworks that explode overhead, sending streaks of light across the sky. Those fleeting moments are not joy. They’re exciting, stimulating, and fun. But they are transitory jolts of happiness.
Joy is a state of grace in which we experience communion with our selves and the Divine. Joy is an internal calm, a feeling that despite all the raging storms around us, inside all is well.
We think we know what will make us happy: success, fame, money, beauty, power, or intelligence. All of these attributes are wonderful, but I can assure you, as one who humbly can say I have had the privilege of all of these; they don’t manifest joy, diminish suffering, or create peace in your life. Medicating our depression, dissatisfaction, disorientation, and disease with possessions, distractions, drama, and diversions is not the answer we seek. We can justify and rationalize the necessity of all these things, but joy is an inside job.
We all have the seeds of joy within us, but if we don’t water, nourish, and tend our joy, it is difficult to know it is there. It can be cultivated by living mindfully and by continually developing our awareness.