On a quest to find joy. I've been asking myself, what if I already have it?
Over the last few weeks, there has been a little addition to my morning routine. Most Mondays I have joined Mrs Big on her Instagram live for 6am Journal Club! I'm not a big fan of 6am, it does not bring me joy, but on a Monday it does! One of our prompts this month was "How do I want to feel by the end of the day" and I wrote 'joyful' and 'complete'.
Finding joy
As I went about my morning, these words stuck in my head, joyful and complete. What I couldn't shake from my mind was why the two felt inseparable. I am a hard J on a Myer Briggs, I hate the in-between, I'm not a fan of the journey (unless I know a rough eta, what landmarks to look out for, and have control of the music!) which gave some explanation. Why though, should joy need me to feel complete. As I poured coffee into my mug and headed, to stand in my front door frame and breathe in the morning, another question formed: what if I already am complete? What if I already have complete access to joy?
I have to be honest, it was so unexpected a question that I batted it to one side thinking it was pre-caffeinated nonsense. Until, there it was again, what if you are already complete, what if you already have access to joy. With that, I grabbed a pen, parked up on the sofa, and embraced the idea.
Bring me joy
I realised, that this was truth rising up through my murky morning grump! I do have complete access to joy, I am already complete. This doesn't mean that I have toxic positivity (you can see my last post to understand that), but it does mean, I don't need to strive to feel these things. I don't have to shop for it, or beg for it or dwell on any lack of it.
I do believe God gives people, things, actions, and places to us that individually stimulate joy.
This month I've been on a journey to work out what that looks like for me. Yet to rely on only these things would be unhealthy. For me, a lot of them have been taken away this year, yet my joy has remained? Why?
The more I looked, the more I realised how I can easily think these things make me happy! If only I had, if only they would, if only I could afford.... *she pops onto the amazon app for only a moment*
The antidote is joy
Instead of looking at the 'if only' I decided that day to look at the 'right now' and see it as complete. Trust I have enough for today, feast on joy and what I already have! People call it contentment, but I call it joy; a happiness in what is, and a hope of what is to come!
The overflow
This is already longer than I had intended! I was heading for a point, but in my overflow of thought, I have taken a different route.
I will perhaps unpack this a little more next time but I will leave you with a thought I have been pondering on. We know, that joy and happiness are different, but we also know they are related. I'm thinking about the two main ways that joy shows itself (at least to me) and that is gratitude and happiness. In my blog last week I talked about 'jumping for joy' and so the question my heart is resting on this week is this:
"What should, and what does, the overflow of joy look like, in my life"
until next week.... Lx
Opmerkingen