The fundamental, basic behaviors that invite peace into the heart and into the home are prayer and spending some time in the words of the prophets and the words of the Lord in the scriptures. Spend some time reflecting upon those things, and then look for ways to have fun with your family. Enjoy life. That kind of balance of spiritual, mental, and emotional health through all the busyness of life creates a level of peace and calm and a foundation that everyone can stand on, even in the challenging moments.
Let’s be honest; it’s rather easy to be busy. We all can think up a list of tasks that will overwhelm our schedules. Some might even think that their self-worth depends on the length of their to-do list. They flood the open spaces in their time with lists of meetings and minutia—even during times of stress and fatigue. Because they unnecessarily complicate their lives, they often feel increased frustration, diminished joy, and too little sense of meaning in their lives.
Editor-at-large Gerard Baker wrote a column earlier this year in the Wall Street Journal honoring his father, Frederick Baker, on the occasion of his father’s 100th birthday. Baker speculated about the reasons for his father’s longevity but then added these thoughts: “While we may all want to know the secret to a long life, I often feel we’d be better off devoting more time to figuring out what makes a good life, whatever span we’re allotted. Here, I’m confident I know my father’s secret. “He is from an era when life was defined primarily by duty, not by entitlement; by social responsibilities, not personal privileges. The primary animating principle throughout his century has been a sense of obligation—to family, God, country. “In an era dominated by the detritus of broken families, my father was a devoted husband to his wife of 46 years, a dutiful father to six children. He was never more present and vital than when my parents suffered the unthinkable tragedy of losing a child. … “And in an era when religion is increasingly a curiosity, my father has lived as a true, faithful Catholic, with an unshakable belief in the promises of Christ. Indeed, I sometimes think he has lived so long because he is better prepared than anyone I have ever met to die. “I have been a fortunate man—blessed by a good education, my own wonderful family, some worldly success I didn’t deserve. But however proud and grateful I feel, it’s eclipsed by the pride and gratitude I have for the man who, without fuss or drama, without expectation of reward or even acknowledgment, has got on—for a century now—with the simple duties, obligations and, ultimately, joys of living a virtuous life.”11
My humble invitation to all of us is to never give up! We are called to “lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.”12 It is not so much about what we are going through in life but what we are becoming. There is joy in pressing toward the mark. I
...I have always observed that those who express surprise at my enjoyment of life are those who use their senses imperfectly.
I am firmly of the belief that the Gospel of Jesus Christ does not insulate us from trials and hardships. It’s not meant to. Because both holy scriptures and modern prophets teach that joy are the object of our existence, many Latter-day Saints inadvertently assume that (1) joy and happiness are defined by positive emotions and that (2) the pursuit of these positive emotions is our purpose in life.
The purpose of the Gospel is not to make us happy (as the world defines it, e.g., positive emotions), but to make us holy. And this holiness is what divine Joy looks like.
The way I see it, misery is pain that is embittered with resentment and fueled by selfishness. Suffering is pain that is sweetened with forgiveness and empowered by love. In this world (and in the next) there will be pain and hardship. But the Love of God can transform that pain from misery to suffering, by making us whole in our hearts and holy in our souls.
It becomes necessary, therefore, to determine if there is associated with power, gifts that make worth while the eternal searching out of knowledge in order that greater power may be won.
The more advanced the intelligence, the greater the number of laws that are understood to which adaptation may be made, and therefore the greater the possibility of joy.
True freedom, which is full joy, is the complete recognition of law and adaptation to it. Bondage comes from ignorance of law or opposition to it.
This second class, often called the spirit matter, is perhaps most important, for it is not unlikely that from it are derived all other forms of matter.
How long man remained in the first estate, is not known. Undoubtedly, however , it was long enough to enable him to become thoroughly familiar with the manifestations of all forms of the spirit substance. Only when education in this division of the universe was completed were we permitted to enter the next estate.
Consequently, the spirits passed out of the spirit world, and were born into the world of earthly things, the world we now occupy, as men and women clothed upon by a body consisting of gross matter, so that intimate familiarity with the nature of possibilities of gross matter might be acquired. This is called the second estate of man.
In this estate, both the spirit matter and the grosser matter composing our final bodies are represented by their essences, and therefore permit perfect freedom and ease of movement and thought. These celestial bodies, as they are called, connect the intelligence with all parts of the universe, and become mighty helps in the endless search for truth. This is the third estate of man.
The more completely law is obeyed the greater the consciousness of perfect joy.
see, the very nature of God and aim of our earthly existence is happiness,20 but we cannot become perfect beings of divine joy without experiences that test us, sometimes to our very core.
Those who try to qualify God's omniscience fail to understand that He has no need to avoid ennui by learning new things. Because God's love is also perfect,there is, in fact, divine delight in that "one eternal round" which, to us, seems to be all routine and repetition. God derives His great and continuing joy and glory by increasing and advancing His creations, and not from new intellectual experiences.
The future duties to be given to some of us in the worlds to come by an omniscient God will require of us an earned sense of esteem as well as proof of our competency. Thus the tests given to us here are given not because God is in doubt as to the outcome, but because we need to grow in order to be able to serve with full effectiveness in the eternity to come. Further, to be untested and unproven is also to be unaware of all that we are. If we are unknowing of our possibilities, with what could we safely be entrusted? Could we in ignorance of our capacities trust ourselves? Could others then be entrusted to us? Thus the relentless love of our Father in heaven is such that in His omniscience, He will not allow the cutting short some of the brief experiences we are having here. To do so would be to deprive us of everlasting experiences and great joy there. What else would an omniscient and loving Father do, even if we plead otherwise? He must at times say no. Furthermore, since there was no exemption from suffering for Christ, how can there be one for us? Do we really want immunity from adversity? Especially when certain kinds of suffering can aid our growth in this life? To deprive ourselves of those experiences, much as we might momentarily like to, would be to deprive ourselves of the outcomes over which we shouted with anticipated joy when this life's experiences were explained to us so long ago, in the world before we came here.
President Russell M. Nelson taught that “Saints can be happy under every circumstance. … When the focus of our lives is on God’s plan of salvation … and Jesus Christ and His gospel, we can feel joy regardless of what is happening—or not happening—in our lives. Joy comes from and because of Him. He is the source of all joy”
He will not abandon His children who trust in Him. In the night of death His presence will be "better than a light and safer than a known way."
John Calvin, prematurely aged by sickness and by the incessant labors he had undertaken, summed up his personal philosophy with this statement: "All our wisdom comprises basically two things . . . the knowledge of God and the knowledge of ourselves."
When we dance we touch the essence of who we are and experience the unity between spirit and matter.
Joy in Ordinary Moments Joy comes to us in ordinary moments. We risk missing out when we get too busy chasing down the extraordinary.
An old Cherokee chief was teaching his grandson about life... ""A fight is going on inside me,"" he said to the boy. ""It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. ""One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, self-doubt, and ego. ""The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. ""This same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."" The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, ""Which wolf will win?"" The old chief simply replied, ""The one you feed.""
The root of joy is gratefulness...It is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful.
Every day we have the opportunity to create, and re-create our lives. This is the power we yield. No dark fate determines our future.
Joy is the reward of seeking to give joy to others. When you are caring, compassionate, more concerned about the welfare of others than of your own, you suddenly feel a warm glow in your heart because you have in fact wiped the tears from the eyes of another.
""Joy subsumes happiness. From The Book of Joy “Joy subsumes happiness. Joy is a far greater thing. Think of a mother who is giving birth. Almost all of us want to escape pain. And others know that they are going to have pain, the great pain of giving birth. But they accept it. And even after the most painful labor, once the baby is out, you can’t measure the mother’s joy. It is one of those incredible things that joy can come so quickly from suffering.â€""
From Mission Joy There's a concept that we have in South Africa, the concept of ubuntu. It says, a person is a person through other persons. I mean I could not speak as I am speaking without having learned it from other human beings. I could not think as a human being except through learning it from other human beings.
Joy is much bigger than happiness. While happiness is often seen as being dependent on external circumstances, joy is not.
Joy does not arrive with a fanfare, on a red carpet strewn with the flowers of a perfect life. Joy sneaks in, as you pour a cup of coffee, watching the sun hit your favourite tree, just right. And you usher joy away, because you are not ready for it. Your house is not as it must be, for such a distinguished guest. But joy cares nothing for your messy home, or your bank-balance, or your waistline, you see. Joy is supposed to slither through the cracks of your imperfect life, that's how joy works. You cannot invite her, you can only be ready when she appears. And hug her with meaning, because in this very moment, joy chose you.
I sometimes forget that I was created for Joy. My mind is too busy. My Heart is too heavy for me to remember that I have been called to dance the sacred dance of life. I was created to smile to love to be lifted up and to lift others up. O’ Sacred One untangle my feet from all that ensnares. Free my soul. That we might dance and that our dancing might be contagious.
Every Child Has known God, Not the God of names, Not the God of Don'ts Not the God who ever does anything weird But the God who only knows four words And keeps repeating them, saying: ""Come dance with Me"" Come Dance
"While I dance I cannot judge, I cannot hate, I cannot separate myself from life. I can only be joyful and whole. That is why I dance. " ~ Hans Bos
Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day.
Let yourself sit quietly and at ease. Allow your body to be relaxed and open, your breath natural, your heart easy. Begin the practice of gratitude by feeling how year after year you have cared for your own life. Now let yourself begin to acknowledge all that has supported you in this care: With gratitude I remember the people, animals, plants, insects, creatures of the sky and sea, air and water, fire and earth, all whose joyful exertion blesses my life every day.With gratitude I remember the care and labor of a thousand generations of elders and ancestors who came before me.I offer my gratitude for the blessing of this earth I have been given.I offer my gratitude for the measure of health I have been given.I offer my gratitude for the family and friends I have been given.I offer my gratitude for the community I have been given.I offer my gratitude for the teachings and lessons I have been given.I offer my gratitude for the life I have been given.Now shift your practice to the cultivation of joy. Continue to breathe gently. Bring to mind someone you care about, someone it is easy to rejoice for. Picture them and feel the natural joy you have for their well-being, happiness, and success. With each breath, offer them your grateful, heartfelt wishes: May you be joyful.May your happiness increase.May you not be separated from great happiness.May your good fortune and the causes for your joy and happiness increase. Sense the sympathetic joy and caring in each phrase. When you feel some degree of natural gratitude for the happiness of this loved one, extend this practice to another person you care about. Recite the same simple phrases that express your heart’s intention. Then gradually open the meditation to other loved ones and benefactors. After the joy for them grows strong, turn back to include yourself. Let the feelings of joy more fully fill your body and mind. Continue repeating the intentions of joy over and over, through whatever resistances and difficulties arise, until you feel stabilized in joy. Next begin to systematically include the categories of neutral people, then difficult people and even enemies until you extend sympathetic joy to all beings everywhere, young and old, near and far. Practice dwelling in joy until the deliberate effort of practice drops away and the intentions of joy blend into the natural joy of your own wise heart. Excerpt: The Wise Heart
If we cannot be happy in spite of our difficulties, what good is our spiritual practice? Gratitude is a gracious acknowledgment of all that sustains us, a bow to our blessings, great and small. Buddhist monks begin each day with chants of gratitude for the gifts of food and shelter, of friendship and for the teachings that benefit all. In the same way, Native American elders begin each ceremony with grateful prayers to Mother Earth and Father Sky, to the four directions, to the animal, plant, and mineral brothers and sisters who share our earth and support our life. Gratitude is the confidence in life itself. In it, we feel how the same force that pushes grass through cracks in the sidewalk invigorates our own life. In Tibet, the monks and nuns even offer prayers of gratitude for the suffering they have been given: “Grant that I might have enough suffering to awaken in me the deepest possible compassion and wisdom.†Gratitude does not envy or compare. Gratitude is not dependent on what you have. It depends on your heart. You can even find gratitude for your measure of sorrows, the hand you’ve been dealt. There is mystery surrounding even your difficulties and suffering. Sometimes it’s through the hardest things that your heart learns its most important lessons. As gratitude grows it gives rise to joy. We experience the courage to rejoice in our own blessings and in the good fortune of others. In joy, we are not afraid of pleasure. We do not mistakenly believe it is disloyal to the suffering of the world to honor the measure of happiness we have been given. Joy gladdens the heart. We can be joyful for people we love, for moments of goodness, for sunlight and trees, and for the very breath within our lungs. Like an innocent child, we can rejoice in life itself, in being alive. Encounter every new moment with wonder and gratitude, and you’ll experience that it’s never too late to open your mind and your heart. As Bob Dylan sings, “He not busy being born is busy dying.†Give birth to a grateful spirit and you will discover how to live fully and freely.
Let your body rest and be relaxed. Let your heart be soft. Begin to let go of any plans or preoccupations. May you be at ease. May you be well. May you be healed. May you be happy. As you offer this lovingkindness to yourself, imagine you can fill yourself with the light of your loving awareness.
May the beauty of your life become more visible to you, that you may glimpse your wild divinity. May the wonders of the earth call you forth from all your small, secret prisons and set your feet free in the pastures of possibilities. May the light of dawn anoint your eyes that you may behold what a miracle a day is. May the liturgy of twilight shelter all your fears and darkness within the circle of ease. May the angel of memory surprise you in bleak times with new gifts from the harvest of your vanished days. May you allow no dark hand to quench the candle of hope in your heart. May you discover a new generosity towards yourself, and encourage yourself to engage your life as a great adventure. May the outside voices of fear and despair find no echo in you. May you always trust the urgency and wisdom of your own spirit. May the shelter and nourishment of all the good you have done, the love you have shown, the suffering you have carried, awaken around you to bless your life a thousand times. And when love hides the path to your door may you open like the earth to the dawn, and trust your every hidden color towards its nourishment of light. May you find enough stillness and silence to savor the kiss of God on your soul and delight in the eternity that shaped you, that holds you and calls you. And may you come to see your life as a quiet sacrament of service, which awakens around you a rhythm where doubt gives way to the grace of wonder, where what is awkward and strained can find elegance, and where crippled hope can find wings, and torment enter at last unto the grace of serenity. May Divine Beauty bless you.
May you awaken to the mystery of being here and enter the quiet immensity of your own presence. May you have joy and peace in the temple of your senses. May you receive great encouragement when new frontiers beckon. May you respond to the call of your gift and find the courage to follow its path. May the flame of anger free you from falsity. May warmth of heart keep your presence aflame and may anxiety never linger about you. May your outer dignity mirror an inner dignity of soul. May you take time to celebrate the quiet miracles that seek no attention. May you be consoled in the secret symmetry of your soul. May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder.
May the nourishment of the earth be yours, may the clarity of light be yours, may the fluency of the ocean be yours, may the protection of the ancestors be yours. And so may a slow wind work these words of love around you, an invisible cloak to mind your life.
We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.
I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
Think of JOY as a more meaningful type of happiness. ’Hedonistic happiness’ is fleeting, and only includes emotions we tend to think of as positive. ’Eudaimonic happiness’ includes meaning, growth, and acceptance. Even of emotions we may call negative.
The twelfth century Buddhist lojong texts about mind training state that, “Joy is our essential nature, something everyone can realize. We could say that our desire for happiness is in a way, an attempt to rediscover our original state of mind.†According to The Dalai Lama, “The suffering from a natural disaster we cannot control, but the suffering from our daily disasters we can. We create most of our suffering, so it should be logical that we also have the ability to create more joy. It simply depends on the attitudes, the perspectives, and the reactions we bring to situations and to our relationships with other people.†He also reminds us of the adage, “Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.†Psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky that shows only 50% of our happiness is determine by set factors like our genes or temperament. The other half is determined by our attitudes and actions, which we can control.According to Lyubomirsky, the three factors that seem to have the greatest influence on our happiness are: 1. Our ability to reframe the situation more positively, 2. Our ability to experience gratitude, and 3. Our choice to be kind and generous.
May all places be held sacred. May all beings be cherished. May all injustices of oppression and devaluation be fully righted, remedied and healed. May all who are captured by hatred be freed to the love that is our birthright. May all who are bound by fear discover the safety of understanding. May all who are weighed down by grief be given over to the joy of being. May all who are lost in delusion find a home on the path of wisdom. May all wounds to forests, rivers, deserts, oceans, all wounds to Mother Earth be lovingly restored to bountiful health. May all beings everywhere delight in whale song, birdsong, and blue sky. May all beings abide in peace and well-being, awaken and be free.
During any dance to which we surrender with joy, the brain loses its controlling power, and the heart takes up the reins of the body.
Feel the feelings and drop the story.
As Pema Chodron writes in http://amzn.to/2sg65eR: Rejoicing in ordinary things is not sentimental or trite. It actually takes guts. Each time we drop our complaints and allow everyday good fortune to inspire us, we enter the warrior’s world. We can do this even at the most difficult moments. Everything we see, hear, taste, and smell has the power to strengthen and uplift us. From this point of view, it becomes possible to open your heart to what can feel, at first, like a vulnerability. To let your natural capacity for empathy connect you to both the pain and joy of others, and to trust that this capacity is a blessing, not a liability.
Rejoicing in ordinary things is not sentimental or trite. It actually takes guts. Each time we drop our complaints and allow everyday good fortune to inspire us, we enter the warrior's world.
Allow yourself to trust joy and embrace it. You will find you dance with everything.
There is a brokenness out of which comes the unbroken, a shatteredness out of which blooms the unshatterable. There is a sorrow beyond all grief which leads to joy and a fragilityout of whose depths emerges strength. There is a hollow space too vast for words through which we pass with each loss, out of whose darkness we are sanctioned into being. There is a cry deeper than all sound whose serrated edges cut the heart as we break open to the place inside which is unbreakable and whole, while learning to sing.
Dance, when you are broken open. Dance, if you've torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance, when you are perfectly free. Struck, the dancers hear the tambourine inside them, as a wave turns the foam on its very top, begin. Maybe you don't hear that tambourine, all the tree leaves clapping time. Close the ears on your head that listen mostly to lies and cynical jokes. There are other things to hear and see: dance, music and a brilliant city inside the soul.
When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.
This being human is a guest house.
I praise the dance, for it frees people from the heaviness of matter and binds the isolated to community. I praise the dance, which demands everything: health and a clear spirit and a buoyant soul. Dance is a transformation of space, of time, of people, who are in constant danger of becoming all brain, will, or feeling. Dancing demands a whole person, one who is firmly anchored in the center of his life, who is not obsessed by lust for people and things and the demon of isolation in his own ego Dancing demands a freed person, one who vibrates with the equipoise of all his powers. I praise the dance. O man, learn to dance, or else the angels in heaven will not know what to do with you.
All text, no title, no author. Happiness lies not in finding what is missing, but in finding what is present.
When you think everything is someone else's fault, you will suffer a lot. When you realize that everything springs only from yourself, you will learn both peace and joy.
When you have a more compassionate mind and cultivate warm-heartedness, the whole atmosphere around you becomes more positive and friendlier. You see friends everywhere. If you feel fear and distrust, then other people will distance themselves, they will also feel cautious, suspicious, and distrust. Then comes the feeling of loneliness. When someone is warm-hearted, they are always completely relaxed. If you live with fear and consider yourself as something special, then automatically, emotionally, you are distanced from others. You then create the basis for feelings of alienation from others and loneliness. JOY IS AN INSIDE JOB. THIS IS THE BEST NEWS EVER. It means that we don’t have to simply hope that we’ll feel better, someday, maybe. We can take the reins and create more JOY for ourselves.
The goal is not just to create joy for ourselves, but ‘to be a reservoir of joy, an oasis of peace, a pool of serenity, that can ripple out to those around you.’ Joy is in fact quite contagious. As is love, compassion, and generosity.
The 8 Pillars of Joy 1. Perspective 2. Humility 3. Humor 4. Acceptance 5. Forgiveness 6. Gratitude 7. Compassion 8. Generosity
The cosmos is filled with precious gems. I want to offer a handful of them to you this morning. Each moment you are alive is a gem, shining through and containing earth and sky, water and clouds. It needs you to breathe gently for the miracles to be displayed. Suddenly you hear the birds singing, the pines chanting, see the flowers blooming, the blue sky, the white clouds, the smile and the marvelous look of your beloved. You, the richest person on Earth, who have been going around begging for a living, stop being the destitute child. Come back and claim your heritage. We should enjoy our happiness and offer it to everyone. Cherish this very moment. Let go of the stream of distress and embrace life fully in your arms.
Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.
When I understand my suffering, I love myself, and I know how not to keep nourishing the suffering, how to transform the suffering. I get lighter, I become more compassionate, and with that kind of freedom and compassion, I feel liberated.
May the sun bring you new energy by day, may the moon softly restore you by night, may the rain wash away your worries, may the breeze blow new strength into your being. May you walk gently through the world and know its beauty all the days of your life.
Attributes of a good friend: they feel like home they are honest with you they remind you of your power they support you in your healing they have a revitalizing presence they hold a vision of your success they support you in new adventures they lift you up with joy and laughter they bring out the best version of you
Freedom is happening every moment when we are not craving something more.
Self-love is the nourishment that gives us the clarity and strength to love others well.
When she started letting go, her vision became clearer. The present felt more manageable and the future began to look open and full of bright possibilities. As she shed the tense energy of the past, her power and creativity returned. With a revitalized excitement, she focused on building a new life in which joy and freedom were abundant.