Finding Joy in our life

Have you ever noticed that “hope”, when it finds its way into your heart, creates a flush of love, joy and a feeling of potential? And hope, I have found, is kind of sneaky.It doesn’t announce itself, advertise itself or promote itself. It seems to slide in the back door when we’re not looking. On the other side, when we’re not looking, we can stumble, fall, hurt ourselves, cry and fall into a well of sadness.

After recovering a wee bit, we may begin to long for calm, joy and happiness. It’s when we shut down our antennae – our guidance system – that we stop looking where we are going and rely on the opinions, ideas and agendas of others. I believe that is where we lose hope and joy: when we give up our own sense of inner knowing and self-trust as inside the lion a guidance system.Taking cues from others is great, but only if we have first made sure it fits our own sense of who we are. Hope is an amazing feeling. It holds within it joy, as well as happiness. And the miracle is that even if we have lost everything – house, security or loved ones – it can find its way to us.

Joy and hope, as a closely knit pair, come when we feel we are given a sparkling, brand new direction that fits our deepest inner self.

That new direction could come from a sentence in a book, a word from a friend, a thought out of the blue, a realization of a new way.

We become who we want to become, not from following others, but from following our own star.

Others have their own directions, their own paths that fit them perfectly. Each of us has a deep knowing of our true preferences, of what matches our vast, crazy, out-of-the box soul, of what fulfills our unique passions.

Even if we have family responsibilities and very little time to think about ourselves or our own ability to find jooy in the rush to care for our loved ones, we can still take time quietly at night as we fall asleep or wake up to observe what our deepest passions are.

Following up on these passions is the key: to take time somewhere in the routine to pick up the passion and discover its limitless power for us. When we hit that deep vein of gold in the ground, the power surge is worth our full attention.

Suddenly our stresses, cares, fears, uncertainties, disappointments, low self-esteem, relationship crises, you name it, pale into the background. The reason we don't find joy is just that we feel our true selves stir, like a caged lion ready to be let out. That lion in us understands it has responsibilities and fulfills them well. However, it has enormous, explosive potential to find joy waiting to be explored. This potential – when allowed to open, be fully recognized and enjoyed – becomes our star that guides us into our deepest joy.