“How, in these times in these times of chaos and uncertainty, can I create happiness in my family?” one of my clients wondered this week.
Many of us wonder, as she did: Is it even right to cultivate happiness when so many people are suffering? Are happiness and joy selfish or naive?
Such great questions.
Questions big-hearted people have often needed to ask themselves.
Although it may seem to some of us, who have had the privilege of living relatively protected lives, that these times are toughest- all times have been challenging.
On Christmas Eve 1513 Fra Giovanni wrote, “The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind the gloom yet within your reach is reach is joy. Take joy.”
500 years ago there was gloom just as there is now.
Today, as then, we can choose to align with and to cultivate joy.
Cultivating joy does not mean ignoring pain and suffering but choosing- again and again, even in your toughest times - to align with your inner core of joy.
Cultivating joy helps your body be stronger and healthier, more resistant to disease and more youthful.
Cultivating joy rewires your brain to help you become more compassionate, creative, resilient, energized and purposeful.
Cultivating joy strengthens you from deep within so you are far better able to help yourself, your family and the world, no matter what arises.
Cultivating joy can an act of courage, a spiritual practice and a powerful way to become a force of healing in the world.
”Perhaps most important, being in a state of joy is a learned skill, not an innate ability." ~ Donald Altman
