Hi everyone.
Welcome back to Lavendaire.
Today is another episode
in our Back to Basics series, and today we're talking about joy.
Joy is a key part of a good life.
Everyone always talks about wanting to find happiness and joy in our lives
because honestly, I think a huge part of life is having fun, enjoying this experience of
living in this human body on this earth, living the lifestyle that you live.
Whatever it is,
there's joy to be found everywhere and there's beauty in the way life is.
Today I actually want to share an exercise that I did over a year ago that revolved around
joy
and then I want to share what I discovered from that exercise.
And you can totally
do that exercise as well.
This was just the exercise–really easy.
It's one journal prompt.
List all your recent moments of pure joy.
Think back.
It doesn't have to be so recent.
It could be within the past year, or two years, or in your entire lifetime.
But look back and remember all the moments where you felt pure joy.
You know what I mean.
Pure joy is when you're laughing until your stomach hurt
or when you're riding on a roller coaster, for those who like roller coasters,
and you're having a ball.
You feel like you're flying.
And pure joy, to me,
is when your mind is not clouded by anything else.
There's zero worries, zero stress,
zero thoughts, actually.
You're just living in the moment.
You're enjoying the moment 100%.
To me, that's what pure joy is.
It's when you're fully present and fully alive.
What I did is: I looked back and I remembered the moments of my pure joy.
Laughing with my brother, going to the theme park, eating amazing food, exercising,
doing yoga, dancing, singing.
All of these little moments where I felt pure joy,
where I felt 100% alive, and I wrote all of these down.
And after I wrote my whole, huge list down,
what I did was: I started categorizing where joy came from.
For me, I found that joy came from these five areas.
They're human connection–
joy came from moments where I was laughing with my friends or with my family,
having a good time or having a really good talk with someone.
That's where I felt pure joy, that human connection.
Number 2: Joy came from when I was engaging in my passions, so when I was singing,
dancing, creating.
Whatever it was that was something I was really interested in,
really curious about, I felt pure in that too.
Number 3 was when I fully engaged my five senses.
I'm not talking about
engaging them all at once at the same time.
If you think about taste, your sense of taste,
eating really good food can make you feel really joyful.
Or listening to really good music
can make you really happy.
Or even touching a soft plushy pillow or petting a dog,
that is touch.
That sense can make you feel really happy as well.
And what else is there?
Smell.
If you smell a really nice candle or any nice essential oils,
that can bring joy to your life too.
Just engage in any of the five senses can really bring joy.
Number 4 was physical movement.
I noticed that when I was running, doing yoga, dancing,
just moving my body, I felt more joy.
That's probably because of the endorphins.
I mean, exercise is just good for your body.
Our bodies are meant to move.
And obviously, the more you move, the more happy you'll feel.
It's actually a scientific fact.
And lastly is humor.
I wasn't sure if this could fit into any other categories so I just made it its own.
To me, comedy, humor, jokes, having fun, laughing, that brings joy naturally.
I don't know about you but humor and laughing is contagious.
When someone is laughing
and having a good time, it's like you want to laugh with them as well.
Humor, it can bring joy.
I feel like that's a very human thing, just when something’s funny.
I feel like when you live life in a very light-hearted way, you can find funny things everywhere.
Everything is fun.
Everything can make you laugh.
That's what beautiful.
Also, the last thing I want to say is: joy is contagious.
If someone is experiencing joy
through any of these forms, whether it's from passions, human connection,
engaging the senses, whatever, it is naturally contagious and it will spread joy
to everyone around them.
I don't know if you've ever seen anyone who's eating a really good meal
and they're really enjoying it, like really enjoying it.
It makes you feel good and be happy too.
If you're watching someone dance their heart out onstage or sing their heart out,
it gives me the feel.
I don't know about you, but there's that contagiousness of joy
where you feel their passion.
I don't know, when someone's laughing or you see a happy baby,
it's just so contagious.
Joy is contagious and the more joyful you are,
the more joy you're going to bring to everyone around you.
I want to end it on this: focus on the joy that you have in your life in the everyday
little moments,
little pockets of joy here and there.
The more you focus and be aware of the joy
that you have in your life, the more you realize, "Oh my god, there's so much joy,
so much beauty around," and your life will be enhanced because joy, like I said,
is a huge part of life.
Everyone's searching for happiness.
Everyone just wants to be happy.
Happiness is not something that you find.
It's something you create.
It's something that’s actually here right in front of you.
You just have to see it.
You just have to feel it for yourself.
So start seeing the joy that's in your life
in all these little corners in your life.
And remember the five areas where it can come from:
human connection, passion, engaging the senses, physical movement, and humor.
And like I said, you can also do that exercise on your own, listing out
all your previous moments of pure joy and you can find out where joy comes from in your
life.
And once you realize where joy comes from in your life, then you can actively recreate
that joy.
You can do that same thing again.
It's that easy.
It's that simple.
Joy is cheap.
So that's it for today.
I hope that this lifted your spirits a little bit, especially if you're going through
a down time.
Just know that joy is right around the corner and it's attainable for everyone.
Alright, thank you so much.
I'll see you next time.
Make sure you watch the other videos
in our Back to Basics series right here.
And have a beautiful day.
Bye!