Become a Member for as little as $4/mo and enjoy unlimited reading of TSLL blog.
“Choosing joy often means stepping into the unknown. It can mean letting go of what’s ‘practical’ and taking a risk on something uncertain.” —Josie Ane Sakura, writer and yoga instructor
Choosing that one particular hat to wear out into the garden. It may not look like it fits, it may be all bedraggled, but wearing it makes you smile, lifting your spirits in an indescribable way as you potter about in the soil among the flora.
Or maybe you choose the route to return home that is out of the way and takes a bit more time, but you know that the tulips will be in full bloom this time of year in that one particular neighborhood, and just seeing them provides a balm of calm to your day.
Joy, feeling it, works precisely the same way. It is a choice to experience. It resides within each of us but only can be experienced if we choose to bring it forth. Eckhart Tolle reminds, “joy arises from within” in his explanation of the primary difference between pleasure. And when we choose joy, just as the quote above describes, sometimes it doesn’t make ‘practical’ sense, but to us, it makes complete sense entirely. Why? Because we know ourselves. We know what nourishment we need, what energizes us, what our inner compass is drawn to and draws inspiration from, even if we can’t explain it in logical terms when asked.
Often the reason why what brings us joy appears to be impractical is not because we are ‘odd’ or ‘weird’, but is as a result of a limited perspective from those defining what practical is. After all, how could something be impractical if it infuses us with joy, thus feeling fully alive in the most wonderful of ways to be alive?
In my own life, so much of the everyday involves taking joy in details that others don’t quite understand as to how it is possible. From celebrating genuinely each time it rains, preferring the company of my pups over most people I meet, and craving nothing more on a special day than to have the freedom to choose to follow my energy (case in point, my birthday would have appeared entirely ordinary to an onlooker, but to me, it was the most nourishing day I have had in a very long time).
Choosing joy often involves taking risks, but because the motivation to take the risk comes from within, almost a yearning unexplained by nothing more than, “I just need to try this”, the risk doesn’t feel all that risky. Rather, to not take the risk feels more uncomfortable and unsettling. Taking the risk is the only thing that does makes sense, and so we figure out a way to do just that. To ignore this yearning would be to remain numb to life and thwart where our curiosity is wanting us to go.
And this is where travel, at least for me, comes into play, specifically travel to France and Britain. While yes, I have traveled, to France in this instance, many times, and so it may seem this is not a risk, the risk resides in doing and going and exploring new and different places and events, and this time, packing along with me a slightly better French language capability 🙃❤️🇫🇷 and daring to try and speak this most beautiful language. When even just the slightly success occurs while traveling abroad to my two favorite destinations simply by anything going smoothly without hiccups, the endorphin rush is momentous within me. The joy of seeing France, to be in France, surrounded by the culture that has given so much, so generously for the sake of freedom, beauty, and reason, each symbolically what Marianne, the national personification of the country stands for unwaveringly, I quake in my shoes at the good fortune to be there.
While within TSLL community, this joy to seek out time in France makes perfect sense, so impractical is the furtherest descriptor of such an experience, but to many others, such a choice may not appear to be so. To them we pay no mind because we know ourselves. To listen to the inner compass is to tap into the gift of joy within us and bring it into our lives, as if to let it be a paintbrush that decorates our lives painting our unique journey exactly as it knows will bring us fulfillment, discovery and contentment.
Which leads me to point out the key similarity between joy and contentment: both reside within each of us. Neither can be taken way whether by outside events in the world unwanted or celebratory. And neither can be defined or changed by influences beyond ourselves. The choice we make is to understand how to cultivate contentment and understand what our joy is, to do the work, to put into place the skills and then to be courageous as we tap into what brings us joy. That joy we discover that has simply been waiting for us to nourish it, to water it so that it can bloom, is what leads us to discovering our dharma, and dharma is at the core of living a life of contentment.
“Contentment is falling in love with your life.” —Swami Rama, and Indian yogi guru
The beautiful paradox of knowing what brings us joy is that we don’t have to try to figure it out. Steve Hagen in Buddhism: Plain and Simple writes, “What you really need and want will never appear as an object to your mind. Nevertheless, you already know Truth and Reality (what you truly need and want) now. If only you would stop telling yourself what it is, or asking yourself what it might be, or speculating on what it might look like, it would become readily apparent.” In other words, let go, relax and follow where your inner compass guides you.
In my own life journey, as I shared in last week’s Motivational post, the reason why France arose in my heart more than 25 years ago as a place to explore, study and visit doesn’t have a concrete genesis. I don’t know where it came from, but it did and I trusted it. It is yes, only upon reflection, that I can say, my inner compass spoke, I listened and I am ever so grateful that I did so because what has transpired is what you see in my entire life at this moment both in my personal and professional life.
Listen to the joy when it speaks, nourish it, and trust it. It wants to lead you to what will bring you to discovering how to cultivate a life of true contentment.
SIMILAR POSTS YOU MIGHT ENJOY
~Photo captured during my trip to the Loire Valley in 2018
