Joy.
What exactly is it? How do we get it? How do we keep it once we find it?
It seems to me this one word can conjure so many emotions and feelings. One way or another joy, or lack of it, is the reason why clients often come to me.
They'll say they have lost their joy, or their joy is hard to grasp, hard to understand, hard to hang on to and they don't feel worthy of it anyway.
Finding joy can infuse deep satisfaction in your relationships, in your work, your health, and in the things you do to unwind and give yourself a break.
I believe it's an imperative in the workplace too. Companies that have found a way to infuse joy in to their company culture have the upper hand. These are the companies we want to work for, right?
So what really is joy and how can we find it?
The Oxford dictionary defines it as -
"A feeling of great pleasure and happiness"....think "tears of joy".
Ok, so how then do we get some of those feelings for ourselves?
Well I believe it has a lot to do with knowing what our personal values are.
By this I mean those elements you know you must have in your life in order to feel complete.
Values are who we are. They represent our unique and individual essence and our most fulfilling form of expressing and relating. They are the qualities that make us our best self.
Through a lot of soul searching, journalling and challenging life experience I've come to understand my top 10 values in no order are:
authenticity / freedom / connection / integrity / family /
humor / adventure / spirituality / giving back / growth
That's just me. Do you know what yours are?
One of the powerful things about knowing and understanding our values is that it allows us to stand up for them. It means no longer living with the feeling like you have a metaphoric pebble in your shoe that constantly irritates. Sound familiar?
It means living a life that honors them and does not let others trample on them, squash them or diminish them.
It means we set ourselves up for more joy.
In other words, when we do things, take actions, make decisions in full alignment with our values we much more likely to feel good about them. We feel the joy that comes with being authentically ourselves and that's so, so powerful.
Here's a few examples I'm bringing in to my life.. this photo is me in full blown out joy....honoring my sense of adventure and the value I place on freedom - walking trails and getting out in the fresh air.
I've also hired a business coach who shares a deep sense of spirituality in her work - it brings me joy to work with her.
And here's an example of how it's hard to find joy when our values are not being lived out. I endured a toxic work situation for too long and ultimately made a decision to leave it. Not easy to do but this was the decision that helped me step in to my values of integrity and freedom and that's when I started my coaching practice!
See whats happening here?
It's not always easy, but when we are aligned with our true selves and living in integrity with our values, we are much more likely to find joy - that feeling of "great pleasure and happiness' in our lives.
Maybe we can even shed some "tears of joy" now and then.
Who doesn't want that?
As always, if you're intrigued and want to learn how to find your own values, just click on the "BOOK NOW" button up top and set up a time for a complimentary discovery call.
🧡 I'd love that.