9. Day 5: Take Time For Joy

I recently came across a quote by Geneen Roth that said:

“Enough isn’t an amount.  It is a relationship with what you already have.”—Geneen Roth

I believe she was using this in the context of eating, nourishment and awareness of the body but I think it is true in all things.  I am just beginning my month of extending love to the fear of Living Joy.  Joy has always been how I take my temperature.  If I am feeling joy, life is good.  When I do not feel joy, life is flat and charmless.  I used to see joy as something I could find or get or lose.  I could feel joy when all was running along smoothly but could lose my joy easily if someone I love was hurting or I myself felt left out in some way.  My twelvemonth of self love is teaching me another way to see:  to see through whole awareness. In seeing via whole awareness I am allowing everything to be present (really big of me isn’t it?).  I mean, it is already present so why not allow it?  So, this morning when I woke up only slightly worse for wear for a lovely dinner with a dear friend that might have included one too many glasses of the palest of rose pinot grigio I could feel my heavy head (and my pounding heart, dehydrated body and need for breath) and notice my joy too.

This thought leapt into my awareness:  Take Time For Joy.

I asked simply for a little practice to facilitate me taking time for joy.

HS:  1.  Check in with all your senses.  

Christmas Tree Festival, Norwich

Taste (hot golden tea)

Touch (soft fuzzy velour tracksuit)

Hear (silence save for computer keystrokes)

Smell (scent of flowery fabric softener & radiator heat)

Look (morning light through the blinds)

Feel (body feels at rest though tingly and needed a stretch)

2.  Take three long, slow, deep breaths

3.  Give Thanks (thank you for this quiet, the great networking event yesterday, relaxation, time with new colleagues, Christmas Tree Festival in St. Peter Mancroft., tea and mince pies at the Guild Hall, rest, taxi, dinner and our lovely server Beatrice who made us feel cared for)

4.  Notice your peace (ahhhhhhhh………….)

5.  Ask your heart what it wants. (this moment, quiet, gentleness, breath, laughter, reading, a walk)

I am who brings the joy.  By taking time to notice it is here.  When I am not feeling joy, I am not taking the time to notice, breathe, give thanks and ask my heart.  Perhaps this month is more practice of bringing and living joy than seeking joy.  Instead of seeking I am finding.  Instead of fearing I am feeling…….joy.