Living in Joy by Suzanne Roloff


Our lives are meant to be filled with happiness and joy…this is our birthright; for all of us. Joy and happiness are meant to be experienced now. Make a conscious choice to start and end your day with joy to start with. Most of us are so busy and thinking of so many things not of joy and worrying about things that never happen everyday that we completely miss out on the joy and happiness in our life. Take more of those moments filled with joy and happiness; seize them, look for them, expect them, and I guarantee you, you will start to live a joy filled life. You will come to expect it and you will find it in your everyday experiences without looking for it.

Most of us are used to the opposite of joy; we are used to the pain and the struggle and the hardships in life and that is what we focus on and expect. Start to break that pattern in your life. Notice something in your house that really brings you joy everyday; then notice something close to where you live in nature that you see that brings you joy every day, then notice something about yourself that brings you joy, and then about others, and on and on until you start to see the joy in many things and people in your life. Instead of spending time worrying about what “might” happen, spend that time letting yourself feel joyful about something.

It is easy to get stuck in the same old ruts and same patterns that keep repeating in our lives every day. If this sounds familiar, then you need to make different choices and do something different then what you are doing every day. What is that saying? Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over again and expecting a different result…. If we keep making the same choices, our life will be the same, if we choose different choices, it can be different, it is up to us.
Sometimes in order to let something new or different into your life, you have to be willing to let go of something old or that is not working for you. Be willing to give up what is not working for you and try something new or different. Just be willing and open to change and the process will start. Do one thing differently each day, even it is getting up or going to bed at a different time, or taking a different route to work or fixing a different meal. Plant the seeds of change, and know that change is always available to you and you always have a choice. That was one of the most important light bulb moments of my life, realizing that we always, always have a choice, no matter what. Each day we can choose to make different choices in our lives.

Find out what you love to do, what brings you a feeling of joy, peace, and happiness and be in that space as much as you possibly can. If you are so out of touch with any of these feelings that you don’t know what would bring you peace or joy, let yourself think back to your childhood or a time in your life where you did feel these things. Start with what makes you feel good and let yourself do or experience that each day, even if it is for a few minutes and then build on that each day. Put this together with noticing things in your environment or about yourself or others that make you smile or bring you joy. You will soon find that you are not looking for this but it is all around you.
Especially at first if you are not used to these feelings, you may need to make a conscious effort or intention to feel and find joy each day. Like attracts like; what you put out comes back to you. If you are feeling sad and lonely, you need to choose to make a conscious effort to feel otherwise. If you are feeling lack and concentrating on what you don’t have, start with one thing you are grateful for in your life that you do have and build on that.

Here are a few suggestions to help you create happiness and joy so it starts to become a familiar state in your day to day life:

• Let go of judgment, resentment, criticism, unforgiveness, and blame; focus on your own life and your own path; let others have their own experiences and lessons and focus on your own (it simplifies your life greatly)
• Practice random acts of kindness or giving without the person knowing you have done it
• Replace every negative thought and emotion you can with a positive one; try to get in the habit of always doing this, catch yourself with every negative thought and replace it with a positive one
• Get in touch with a Higher Power than yourself each day, look at the big picture in life and don’t sweat the small stuff
• Stay in the now…let the future be the future and the past be the past, learn to live in the now as much as you can
• Give some service or something of yourself to someone that is more needy than yourself (there is always someone else worse off)
• Pray, meditate, go within, and get “quiet” every day; listen to what your higher self wants and needs
• Feel gratitude for something and someone every day; make a list if you can of what you are thankful for each day, just start with one person and one thing you are grateful for each day and build on that; you can also add one thing about yourself that you are grateful for each day.

Be open to miracles and good things happening in your life; believe this is so and expect it. Change your thinking each day from low vibrational energy of pain and struggle and expecting the worst to higher vibrational energy of grace and joy and ease and expecting the best.

Notice what you see in the world, what you see in yourself and what you see in others; notice who you spend time with, how much of your time each day is doing what you should or are supposed to do? How much of this do you enjoy and is actually for your higher good? Do you know how to put yourself first? Give to yourself? Do you believe you deserve to feel joy and happiness? Are you focused on other’s lives and how to fix them and not your own?

You can change your life by the thoughts you think each day. Do you watch the news and read the paper and think of how awful the world is each day? Stop doing that... Don’t watch the news (I guarantee that if something happens you should know about you will find out); read an uplifting book or meditate or take a walk instead, play with an animal or a child or do something for someone else instead; focus on the positive things in your life and in the world (there are always some), choose positive thoughts, people, and laughter as often as you can.

How much joy and happiness do you think you deserve in your life? Think about it….how much joy will you allow yourself? It is up to you to ask yourself this every day…….what you focus on becomes your life and reality.

If you focus on a life of joy and ease and grace, then that is what you will have…..start a life of this for yourself now, there is no better time on the planet to do this….the planet needs us to do this now, it is what we came here for in this lifetime….to find our joy and live our purpose…. the time is now…we are living in miraculous times….choose joy…choose happiness…choose unconditional love…forgiveness…compassion…choose to shift the vibrations of the planet and yourself now.

Everyone is capable of making this shift of bringing more joy into their life and just think how this would transform the planet! Why not start today?

Blessings In Joy,
Suzanne Roloff
http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/Living_in_Joy.html

For your reading ease, the 10 TED Commandments are:

Thou shalt not simply trot out thy usual shtick
Thou shalt dream a great dream, or show forth a wondrous new thing, or share something thou hast never shared before
Thou shalt reveal thy curiosity and thy passion
Thou shalt tell a story
Thou shalt freely comment on the utterances of other speakers for the sake of blessed connection and exquisite controversy
Thou shalt not flaunt thine Ego. Be thou vulnerable. Speak of thy failure as well as thy success.
Thou shalt not sell from the stage: neither thy company, thy goods, thy writings, nor thy desparate need for funding; lest thou be cast aside into outer darkness.
Thou shalt remember all the while: laughter is good.
Thou shalt not read thy speech.
Thou shalt not steal the time of them that follow thee.

Whether you're speaking at TED or elsewhere, these are certainly worth following. :)

"Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do." ~ Leonardo Da Vinci 

Just watched a quite dark, existential, weird and multi-layered movie - "Synecdoche, New York", 2008 by Charlie Kaufman that stirred many thoughts, feelings and beliefs. Sharing some intense excerpts here even if they are out of context... Seeing & experiencing the whole movie is probably needed yet I felt the need/urge/desire to share these as they are in text format first...

 

Double dose of NaPoWriMo - a poem on friendship in Renga format & visual haiku inspired by the Passiona di Flora and Perfection in Pink. EnJoy & share yours! :)

How about co-creating a word salad with just 50 words arranged in couplets? EnJOY! :)