Joy: What Is It Good For?

I’ll be honest, this is not an emotion that I’m seasoned in leaning into. I’ve spent most of my life trying to future forecast and avoid worst-case-scenarios that will never happen. Living in the future has stolen so much time from joy.

But in the last few years, I’ve started feeling safe enough to feel joy and not be afraid of when it leaves. I’m learning that it does indeed come back around.

Leaning into joy may be one of the most vulnerable and brave things you can do.

Leaning into joy is an act of vulnerability. When we sit and soak in joy, we turn off hyper-vigilance and turn down our danger sensors. This feels like risk, but when we really think about it, we can really only do anything about this present moment. If you are physically and emotionally safe in this moment, then why not soak in joy? If that changes, trust that your fight/flight/freeze will click on in a jiffy.

Leaning into joy is an act of bravery.

Since we’ve established why feeling joy feels risky, the bravery is obvious. Doing anything risky involves bravery. The more we practice being in the moment of joy, the easier it will be to revisit that emotion. And the more we will protect that feeling from being stolen from us by fear.

The basic point of mindfulness is to practice being present in this moment. What better way to start this than to start noticing what joy feels like and resting in it for as long as it will stay.

Let’s find something to be joyful in today.

Photo Credit: Photographed by: Makenzie