“To get up each morning with the resolve to be happy…is to set our own conditions to the events of each day. To do this is to condition circumstances instead of being conditioned by them.”–Ralph Waldo Emerson
Jump for Joy! Fill your heart with joy! Put a smile on your face and face the world with joy! Just do it!
Close your eyes for a minute and imagine your life being filled with joy. What would that look like to you? How would it feel? What things could you accomplish if you were filled with joy? How would your world look? How would you look? How would it make you feel? Why not start today to have that joyful life you are imagining become your real life – a life filled with happiness?
Here are 6 steps you can take today to begin living your life in joy:
1. Smile. The easiest thing you can do to bring joy into your life is to put a great big smile on your face. What? You say to me, “My life isn’t joyful. I’ve got problems. I can’t smile. I’m too sad.” Well, I say back to you – Just Do It! Simply turn up the corners of your mouth and smile – for only a minute – see how it feels. Do it again. Pretty soon, you’ll be smiling not only from the outside, but maybe a little bit on the inside too!
2. Hang around with positive people. Get rid of the energy drainers in your life. Don’t listen to naysayers. Surround yourself with people who will support you and encourage you to be the best you can be.
3. Eat a healthy diet. Provide your insides with joyful foods that will give you energy and vitality and you will see that health and happiness will show up on your outsides and in everything in your life. Nourish your body and nourish your soul.
4. Take time to sit in silence every day. Listen to the sound of nothing. Shut off the TV and (OMG!) turn off the computer. Meditation, or just sitting in silence, will give you a chance to think about happiness, a chance to tune out and turn in and finally hear what you have to do to live a joyous life.
5. Pamper yourself every now and then. Get a massage. Take an aromatherapy bath in luscious lavender and joyful jasmine. Slather some rich, luscious body creams all over yourself. You deserve it, right?
6. Get up and move. Get off your chair. Get away from your computer. Put on some music (I personally like Zydeco – just click and listen to Queen Ida and her Bon Temps Zydeco Band go!). Dance! Jump! Joy!
