The Meaning of Joy & 3 Ways to Feel More Joy

I experimented recently, where I took all the issues that my clients had over the years and wanted help with. The highest-rated issue was that they wanted to experience more joy in their lives.

We’re all meant to be experiencing joy. The secret longings and drives in our hearts are there for a reason. They align us with our purpose and our destiny. We will feel joy when we are living our true purpose.

That Small Still Voice

Take time to be still, drop your attention out of your head and down into your body, notice any tension as you scan your body, and let that tension fall out of your body onto the floor. Slow your breath as you do this. Perhaps put some meditative, calming music on which helps you to relax, perhaps light a candle, feel yourself comfortable in your chair, and take your attention inside. Try to listen to that small still voice within you. 

Sometimes God or our higher power speaks to us in dreams, during the day in the natural world, or in prompting us to call someone, read a certain book, or watch a particular movie. God is working in our lives all the time in the spiritual realm and the natural world. So keep your eyes and ears attuned to all the messages you’re receiving. If they are positive they are from God, if they are negative or derogatory they might be coming from your own limiting beliefs and negative words you sometimes say to yourself. Joy is something we can all experience, and we can be living a divinely inspired freedom. 

The Meaning of Joy

A feeling of great pleasure and happiness.” tears of joy” – delight, great pleasure, joyfulness, jubilation, triumph, exultation, rejoicing, happiness, gladness, glee, exhilaration, exuberance, elation, euphoria, bliss, ecstasy, rapture.

Here’s the antonym: misery

I think we would all like to be feeling joy rather than misery. Sadly, many are living lives frustrated that they can’t feel joy. We deserve to be happy, though some of us have never known how that feels. If you’ve never felt joy, it may mean that you need more healing to take place before you can even access the positive aspects of who you are. There might be parts of you crying out to be seen, heard, witnessed, and acknowledged for the pain you went through.

Core Beliefs

For some, the childhood years were so wrought with fear and disappointment that it was never safe to let go and feel joy. Letting your guard down opened you up to being either emotionally or physically wounded. You could have taken on ancestral anxiety and fear even in the womb or negative beliefs that were passed on through the generations. I get it, I do, I experienced it. I found joy in dance and in performing which was repeatedly crushed in me, though never completely, thank goodness as it was so intrinsically a part of me. As I'm not dancing now, I have that same joy in this work I do now, in helping others to heal and experience freedom and joy. It is possible to have hope and experience life with more joy, despite the trauma of the past. That desire, need, and action will lead you to find healing and ways to break free to experience joy.

Are We Always Going to be Feeling Joy?

There are times in life when we are experiencing challenges when we are in a growth process or we feel stuck. We lose our jobs, money isn’t coming in, we are looking after sick relatives, we are in pain, and someone we love dies or leaves. We’ve had disappointment after disappointment. The list seems sometimes endless and we question where is God in all of this.  Even though life has its difficulties and challenges, it is still possible to have joy. And I don’t mean that kick up your heels and sing in the rain type of joy, although that is wonderful. I mean that this joy can also be that you have inner peace, an inner knowing that even though you are going through difficult times, they will pass, things will get better, you are not alone, God is with you, believing in you, loving you and comforting you through it all. 

Law of Gratitude

When going through difficult times, it is easy to plummet into negative thinking. What I've found when that happens is to find things to be grateful for and write them down.  It may be as simple as a pillow to put your head on or a blanket to keep you warm, a friend you can call, or finding ten dollars in your coat pocket. There is such a thing as a law of gratitude, the more you express gratitude, the more things to be grateful for, are attracted to you. The best you can do when things are bad is to find things to be grateful for, it works like a dream. There is scientific research citing the benefits of gratitude including, increased life satisfaction, resiliency to health issues, and better sleep quality, in addition to lower levels of burnout, and reductions in stress, inflammation, and depression.

Here are a few questions to journal about and get you started on your journey of experiencing more joy. Take some time for yourself, maybe block out at least half an hour or so. Put on some calming music and tune your mind into your heart’s space.

 1. Ask Yourself Questions…

Take out your journal and think of a time when you felt some feelings of joy, make a list, and expound on the experience, writing in your journal. (if you can’t think of anything, then I want you to imagine how it would feel if you were in a joyful experience).

What were you doing?

Who were you with?

What about it this event brought you joy?

Who were you when you were doing these things?

How did this experience feel in your body?

Where were these feelings in your body? Describe them (such as warm, exciting, tingly, peaceful, in the zone, confident, and thrilling. The color blue, yellow, etc….

If you could give a metaphor description of who you were at this time, what would it be? (examples could be perhaps an animal, color, a specific character or person, or more "me" etc…)

How would you feel if you could do more of this?

How could those feelings inspire you in your life now? 

2. Trust Your Heart and Your Body

How do you share it with others safely?

How could you be doing more of this in your work, free time, and family time?

Make a vision board where you can either draw, paint, cut out pictures, and paste them of all those things that bring you joy.

Put it up on the wall and look at it every day. Let it inspire you to create more.

Be aware of the feelings doing this evokes in you, either negative or positive.

If all you feel is anxiety or negative feelings do EFT-Tapping to tap those negative feelings down to a zero. If they are overwhelming, I encourage you to see a practitioner whom you feel comfortable with, who can help you discover what may be causing the overwhelm and heal it.

Journal about it and delve into how those feelings can be used for further discovery, either about you or about others.

3. Never Give Up Seeking

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us to, “Ask and it shall be given you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you”. So do all of those things (ask, seek, and knock) and never give up until you find what brings you joy. Keep trying new things and drop them if you don’t enjoy them and keep them and expand them if they do bring you joy.

If you are interested in discovering more of your joy, living the life you dreamed of, and letting go of anything that may be keeping you blocked from experiencing joy, click here to book a 20-minute complimentary consult. You deserve to be free and you deserve to experience joy.

Love,