I’m all about helping people rekindle their joy. How would you like to start each day with a joy blast?
Joy is a funny word—so over-used, but so under experienced. But I don’t know any other word for the river of delight coursing through your system—that’s what I mean when I say “joy.” I find river imagery a perfect metaphor: which is why my 90-day home study course for rekindling joy is called “The River Thrive!”
A joy blast is allowing joy to course through your system for a brief but intense period. Just like happiness, feeling joy doesn’t require a reason. This is the magic of your morning joy blast—you can choose it rather than waiting for it to happen. You can do it in spite of the normal list of worries and gripes in your monkey-mind.
Step One: Tune in, light the spark
It’s a lot like tuning in to a radio station. Until you find it, you get static, or even the cacophony of two stations at once. It’s a matter of tuning in to the feeling. You will have to experiment to find what helps you most to tune in to that spark. It might be through a mental thought or image: a dream, a hope, or a memory. It might just be prompting the physical sensation of joy in your body.
Step Two: Feed the flame
Once you find the spark, feed it. Again, it might mean more images. Today I just felt the sensation, then opened up inside to encourage more of that feeling. Build it, make it more intense. Turn up the volume to the point that you can’t feel anything but the joy coursing through you. Keep going as long as you can. Even 30 seconds is grand.
You can do this as many times per day as you wish. But even if you can only do it once for 30 seconds or less, it will change the tenor of your day. That’s why I encourage doing it in the morning. It affects everything that follows. In truth, it’s a dose of unconditional love.
Coach’s Challenge: Go for your morning joy blast this week! Tune in, then feed it. Notice what follows. What works for you to prime joy in your system? Let me know—leave me a comment!
