Where is the JOY?

Greetings!

Our angels are not addressing our subject this evening, but they have posed a question: Where is the JOY?

Of course, it's a good season to ask the question, and I have to say first that I do know a few people whose joy is so obvious that this question is not about them.  If you are one of those fortunate folks, you'll be teaching the rest of us by your example.

I'm a happy person most of the time.  I'm grateful for my life, find joy in lovely moments and find my family, friends and clients a source of loving delight.  And I realized some time ago that my true joy is often hidden under disguised grief and anger.

Perhaps you have a complex history, too, with a similar experience - a happy person without sustained joy.  This means, for me, doing my homework.  I have done a good deal of it, including raging in private.  Also, I bolster the joy with singing, engaging with loved ones, etc., but when the angels ask me/us this question I have to admit that I have more to do. 

I need to be more actively engaged in emotional expression.
To unearth more joy I need to pay attention to my emotional symptoms and treat them with the same attention and respect as I would the symptoms of a cold or an injury.  My emotional body deserves the same attention I would give a raging or grieving small child.

We all deserve to live a joy-filled life.  It is our right by birth, yet as we grow we file away many complex feelings, and most parents are not skilled at teaching emotional tools to address the layers as they accumulate.  It is up to us now to parent ourselves.

I have a new impetus and a newly kindled desire to nuture myself.  Some wise person recently suggested that we write on a piece of paper each good thing that happens as the year passes, stuffing them into a big jar, then at the new year taking them all out to read them.  I love this self-therapy and even more stimulus to express gratitude.

I am grateful to know that breath is the key to this internal journey.  And I am grateful to our angels for posing the question, Where is the JOY?   

Happily, and breathing deeply,
Phyl-EL