The Secret to Joy?

The Secret is believed to be a secret and principal law of the universe, it has been around for thousands of years. What is The Secret?  One woman's mission in life is to teach it to everyone, and by so doing, bring JOY to billions.  That's a lofty goal, definitely worthy of looking into...check it out:



So what exactly is it?  Basically it is the "law of attraction", which is the idea that our thoughts and feelings attract energy: If we are negative, we attract the negative and if we are positive, we attract the positive.  In other words, it is believed that by using 'The Secret' we can actually alter our reality and create our own destiny.

Surrounding ourselves with symbols can be a powerful resource in bringing the energy we want to attract.  What do you want to bring to your life?  What is your goal?  Since joy is my goal this year I'm using symbols around me to help both attract joy to my reality as well as understand better what exactly it is and how I can live it more fully.

For several years now I have chosen a new word each year to focus on.  In the past I have chosen:

Love

Believe

Hope

Dream

Passion

Enough

Well, obviously a year on each topic has NOT made me a master of any but it has definitely helped me to bring a more positive energy to my life by focusing on something important to me.  Each year I surround myself with things (symbols) that remind me to focus on the word, think about the many dimensions of what it means and how it effects me, as well as how I want to live it and create it in my life.  And the hope, of course, is that I will attract that energy into my life.

I've only begun my collection of the symbols of joy.  I'm a word person, so it's usually the word in different forms, but it's fascinating to me that once you focus on something, you find it everywhere..The Secret at work attracting it all to me, right? First it was the tattoo my cousin saw at the henna store and encouraged me to get:

 Then it was a key ring that said, "Find Joy in the Journey" that I found:

And today it was a wood sign on sale, that of course, I had to have:

Well, I really AM finding JOY on my journey (at least the word!).  I'll post more as I add to my collection!  

Here is an interesting article about:

The Power Behind Symbols in Reality Creating

The Joy (and Power) of Vision Boards

Today I spent a relaxing Saturday afternoon creating my 2016 Joy Vision Board.  

A Vision Board is a creative way to help clarify, concentrate and maintain focus on your life goals.  You can use a poster board, box or basically anything that you can display words or images (cut from magazines, written, painted, etc.) that represent what you want to be or have in your life (or as in my case just for this year). 

I hung mine in my bathroom in place of a not so inspiring picture. I included all the things I'm focusing on for this year as I 

JOURNEY TO JOY!  

I've been making these for years just because they are fun but they work too!  Here's one I did about 8 years ago after I was divorced and trying to create my new life...and guess what?  I created a great new life!  Try it out!

Great article on: The Reason Vision Boards Work and How to Make One

Sensory Delights of Joy

Well, this is a fascinating find, The Institute of Joy is a hotel clinic specializing in joy treatments.  I'm sure that would be a fascinating getaway.  Although I don't plan to travel across the world for a joy treatment any time soon (the expense would more likely steal joy from me than add to it right now), I do like their teaching on the importance of using the five senses as a practice to feel joy, they actually offer a workshop to tap into deep joy through the senses.

This week's practice in the Art of Joy includes experimenting in my own workshop of the senses here at home, focusing on all the sensory delights around me. This goes right along with finding joy in ordinary life by being more aware and living more fully in the present.

As a gift to myself, I bought an aromatherapy diffuser from Amazon which just arrived.  Joy therapy tonight included a mix of lavender and eucalyptus essential oils (smell), kava tea (taste),  jacuzzi time (touch), enjoying our ocean view (sight) and listening to music (hear)...I've got it covered today, I found joy!  I will practice paying closer attention to the sensations of life. 

Just a few of my favorite sensory delights include:

Sight: The ocean and crashing waves I can see from my window, it's different every single day!  The changing colors of the sky throughout the day.  I love seeing words, I have a lot of word art in my home. The soft glow from burning candles, and surrounding my home with bright colors...I especially love red/orange and turquoise/aqua, the colors of the sun and ocean.

Taste: Cookies, always a favorite.  Kisses and herb tea, daily treats.  Chocolate melting on my tongue, popcorn at the movies. This could go on forever...

Touch: Massages, hugs, pedicures, sitting close to someone I love, the feel of textured fabrics, sand between my toes, swimming in the ocean or sitting in the Jacuzzi.  The feel of rain on my face.

Hear:  Music, lots of it...these days I mostly listen to zen calming music, it really helps with my anxiety.  Sounds of the waves crashing, singing in the shower, the soft breathing when our dog sleeps.

Smell:  Flowers, aromatherapy lotions and oils, candles, clean laundry and fresh baked bread. The smell of babies head.

What is Joy?

This year I am choosing to create a life of joy.  I am 52 and have had my share of hardships in life, just like everyone else.  I definitely struggle with too much anxiety (menopause anyone?).  This blog is my response to that anxiety. I'm researching how to bring more joy into my life and let go of all the toxic thoughts, behaviors, and other things that destroy my joy!  My goal is to learn and live the art of joy as a daily practice.

I've been analyzing what joy is exactly for the past twenty days since I chose joy to be my companion for a year (rather than happiness).  I wondered about the difference between happiness and joy, can you have one without the other?  This became a long discussion with my cousin and I on a recent trip, with a little help from Google.

After much research, I found this beautiful poem published by one of my favorite websites Rebelle Society that expresses it eloquently, I definitely couldn't say it better myself:

the difference between happiness and joy

by ALICE DOLPHIN

To feel joy

Is not to wrap myself in the blank word

The blanket

Of happiness

It is not

Swaddling and pulling so tightly

That my toes turn blue

From the force of my longing

But it’s okay because

I’m happy

Or I am going to be

With that

Next party

Next friendship

Next next thing

Happiness

A word stuffed full of expectation

So stuffed

It is a landfill

Bursting open with garbage bag disappointments

The idea of it

The mania of it

All upswing, no downswing

All up and up and up

Where is the descending arc?

The fall?

Like the season, it’s going to come

And I can kick my heels and scream No No

I have to be happy

If I am not happy, I have not done my duty as a North American

I have not been performing to my peak level of functioning

Everyone else seems so content

Seems

But let’s pick apart their

Seams

Their threads

On the Internet that tell their tale

Forget happiness

It’s an illusion

Patched together

In movie magic illuminated scene pops

And White-Out smiles

It’s not the real world

I think: I can have that

I can possess happiness

Like a pet newt

Hold it close

And suffocate it in my clammy-handed ferocity

My grasping hand needs one thing

One thing only

Happy

The books

How to Be happy

Happiness 101

Be happy in 30 days

Be hip hop happening happy in a blink of an eye

A wiggle of a bottom

Put a pencil between my teeth

So I smile

Trick my body

My mind into thinking I am happy with false inputs

God, I am sick of the word happy

Because it zeroes in on one thing

My failure to be it

Always

Perpetually

Without break, like a worker without rights

Slaving under the Big Boss

The Big Happy

I’d rather be comrades with joy

Not elation

Not ecstatic

But joie de vivre

Joy is conceivable

Think not as emotion

But as being

It is simply to enjoy

Not as: wow, this is the best thing ever

But as: I can appreciate even this anger

Even this depression

Joy sees the squirming black legs of despair

And flips them over

Into a red ladybug

And fear has nothing to squawk at anymore

Joy does not bully like the assembly line of happiness

Into the conformity of good and only good

Feelings

All the time

Every time, and reject any defects

Any cracks in my smile

Joy recognizes the beauty

In contrast

The red against the black

The blue following the yellow

The beauty of things morphing into other things

There is room for change in joy

But happiness is rigid

Like a Popsicle stick

Sticky with the juice of desire

It snaps under pressure

Splintering when the neon orange sweetness is gone

In Joy there is no fix

Each moment appears Whole

and leaves Whole

An egg waiting to hatch

Bring forth life

Responding to the warmth of your heart

Do I throw away the egg, saying:

No, I wanted a bird?

A bird of paradise

And not this round brown thing

Do I miss out on the big picture

Because I am in pursuit of perfection?

Big overblown happiness

A bag full of wind

Or do I choose joy?

In all moments

Upswing

Downswing

Upriver

Downriver

On a train

On a plane

eating green eggs and ham

I am

In merely one possibility of the spectrum

One band of the rainbow

Scintillating constantly

Red, yellow, violet

I accept

I choose joy.

Do I need to say more?  So here we go on a one year journey to joy!  This week I'm focusing on the most ordinary things in my life, even the struggles and finding the joy within them.

10 of my favorite things right now that bring me joy:

1.  Hula hooping with the Danskin weighted hula hoop.

2.  Cookies from McDonalds, along with a Diet Coke, of course.

3.  A walk on the beach...luckily I live next door to the ocean!

4.  Blogging, hah!  I've missed writing my life out.

     "I don't know what I think until I write it down" Joan Didion

5.  Reading - just starting a new book, Two Serious Ladies.

6.  Traveling, for a day, a week, whatever...just seeing and experiencing new things.

7.  Jacuzzi time...every night

8.  Sleeping late with my hubby.

9.  The beautiful view from my office window.

10. Me, on this journey to joy.

I'm excited to see where this year takes me!