Ripples #1018: Finding & Unfurling Joy!
Nov 26, 2018
PEBBLE
Joy comes to us in ordinary moments. We risk missing out on joy when we get too busy chasing down the extraordinary.
-Brené Brown, shared by Rachel in Rochester, MI
BOULDER
Happiness is a form of power–it’s carbonated consciousness that wants to spill out and be articulated. So if we downplay our joy we confuse our nervous system. Our brain is trying to fire happy neurons but our cool or too quiet behavior is short dousing the positive chemicals. Repeated happiness-muffling numbs our senses. And if you keep your joy under the surface too long, it might stay there. If you’re happy and you know it…show it.
-Danielle LaPorte, via her website
http://www.daniellelaporte.com/truthbomb/truthbomb-1248
shared by one of our original Ripplers!
PONDER
There are two aspects of joy I’ve been pondering lately: its availability, and its source.
I love the big delightful versions of joy that show up around the holidays and other special occasions: monumental moments of spectacular awe that can light up a room and light up our lives. Since those big joys can be relatively few and far between, it’s good to keep in mind that joy can also be found in the ordinary days that make up most of our existence. Small delights like a string of traffic lights turning green, an unexpected discount on one of our favorite grocery items, or finding a crumpled up $5 bill while doing laundry (ok, so that just happened to me a few days ago and it was joyous, indeed!).
The other thing I like about joy is that I don’t have to wait for it to show up in order for me to experience it. I’ve come to rely on the premise that there are tiny pockets of joy stored in my consciousness waiting to be noticed and unleashed. At times they get activated by an external trigger: a friend will call or a song will pop up on Pandora and Joy starts dancing. But it’s also been my experience that I can consciously elicit joy when the need arises. Maybe that means picking up the phone instead of waiting for it to ring, pressing play on some of the playlists I’ve purposely curated as joyful, or playing a game of “set the timer for 20 minutes to earn 20 minutes of game time.”
Assembling this issue of Ripples has me eager to experiment with finding and unfurling joy…perhaps you’ll join me in this experiment?
Peace,
Paul
The Ripples Guy
