Hi Friends! Sorry, it has been awhile since I last sat down and spoke to you all. I have had a challenging few weeks and have had a hard time thinking about anything else. I usually keep very personal things to myself but I am slowing learning to share more and not keep so much to myself. I had a direct COVID scare it’s brought me such fear and anxiety. As of right now I have been negative and not had it but am waiting on an additional test to verify. I struggle a lot with anxiety to begin with and this particular situation really brought me back to a hard place with it. I have worked really hard over the years to learn how to manage it and work with it so that it doesn’t hinder my life as much but still at times really struggle. So if you do as well, know you aren’t the only one. Which brings me to today’s post which is about a topic that is so important to me creating JOY ✨. Something I didn’t realize for a long time is that joy can live alongside of hardship, illness, anxiety etc. That we don’t live in a world where you get to only experience one or the other.
So many of focus on creating/cultivating happiness and put so much emphasis on that where instead I think we should put it on doing the things that fill us up and fill us with joy. If you do that, happiness comes as a byproduct of that. But how do we create joy? Especially if we are in a place where we aren’t finding it around us. Don’t worry! It is not lost, you just have to relearn how to look for it and create it. Creating joy to me is one of life’s greatest gifts and I try to do one thing each day that brings me some. This is how I keep it present in my life. For me that could be as simple as making a cup of my favorite tea and drinking it while doing nothing else or reading a few chapters of my book before I start my morning. Self-care and joy get tossed around a lot on social media and are often grand/ superficial. You don’t actually need things to create it, it’s more about entering into the mindset that joy can be found all around you. I believe that about magic too but we’ll save that for another day 🙂
If this idea of creating/looking for it/ is foreign to you, I suggest writing down a list of things that you like to do or bring a smile to your face. It can be anything. Blue skies, putting cinnamon in your coffee, baking, listening to music etc. I think we often look past the little things we enjoy so try not too. It’s important to really think about the things you write down. It’s a list just for you, not what other people say they love etc. Here’s a few things my joy list in case you want additional examples. (It’s supposed to say feeling* crisp air on my face)
Mine are all pretty simple and I didn’t list them all because then my list would be a mile long but I think it’s also important to put joy items on your list that aren’t only situation based, thing based, or rely too heavily on others. So do put things on that are free and always available. Like taking walks during the different season, etc. Think of the idea of not waiting until Friday or the weekend to be happy/live. If we base our joy list on things or situations we’d be spending a lot of time waiting for joy to appear.
So tell me what brings you joy and what did you write down on your joy list? Are you going to try and include one in each of your days? I so hope so! Sending light and joy to all of you.
-M
Whimsy & Willow 