Joy - You Have to Want It, You Have To Really Want It

Nothing in this life comes easy and anything worth having takes work, some things we have all hopefully come to learn as we grow. On top of that it is a never ending battle, not one you can conquer one day and forget about the next. Every morning when you wake up you start a new day. That means a new chance each and every day to make something of that day and the choice of wether you are going to allow yourself to live with joy or not. It all comes down to you. You have to decide that it is what you want and then you have to go after it with everything you have every day from now on. That's where those seven or eight hours of sleep come in handy; when you wake up refreshed and well-rested it is much easier to remember those joyful things in your life. When you wake up tired or stressed or hurried your brain doesn't even have a chance to focus on seeing the joy all around you. A mind that is preoccupied or hazy is on a single track and that is getting you to point B and getting whatever it is you need accomplished done.

Focusing on the joy in your life is like having two film loops running at once in your mind. The first one is playing everything that is happening here and now and everything you are thinking about at that moment and the second one is shown as if through a filter. Through this filter the only things aloud are feelings of joy and the long standing feelings of joy and comfort that we carry with us to keep us strong. Those individual little moments of joy and happiness that we carry our whole lives are what make us who we are and what make us stand out as amazing individuals.
When you wake up on those mornings when you have only had four hours of sleep and are late to work you have to remember and hold on to those things that bring you joy. You have to have those things running on that second loop in the back of your mind all day. It's important to hold on to those because on those days when everything is going on there won't be anything else to help pull you up out of the mire. You have to want that joy, that inner peace among the war, in order to get it, really really want it.
I had been feeling down for a week or two until yesterday when I realized, while I was diving my truck to work on the freeway, that I was on that verge of being joyful and content but for some reason I was stuck and couldn't get there. Something felt off, and it made everything else feel just a little bit off somehow too. So that afternoon when I got off work I went to the Sepulveda Wildlife Basin & Dam for a hike in the sunny eighty-four degree weather. After I got home I sat down in bed with my laptop and worked on my husband's website for a couple of hours doing a complete overhaul while I watched tv. Then I did my taxes, yep just did them all there myself. It really only took me like thirty minutes and now that is all done. Sitting in bed writing I felt so good because I felt like I had accomplished and done so much. I felt good about myself, my body felt better and more relaxed. I felt more joyful whereas earlier I felt so lost and like I was under a crumbling mountain of stress. I have a new meditation application I bought for my iPhone as well that I really want to try. That is my challenge to myself this week. To try and see how that helps. I will follow up and let you know.
The point to all of this though is to remind you that you have to keep that second track running in the back of your mind. You do. It's all up to you to see it there, to focus on it and stay focused as you go through life. The next time you start to feel discouraged try, like me, to see that second reel and when you do - focus on that. It is there, I promise it is. It is something we have to try for every day, we can't get complacent in our contentment and joyfulness. The difference between having joy and wanting it is actually doing something about it.