What will be your next moment of  joy?

I’ve been thinking a lot about joy lately.  Not happiness, but joy, that childlike feeling where you’re so happy in the moment you’re actually giddy and giggling.  Over the last couple of years I’ve experienced a lot of happiness.  Some amazing travel experiences in Scotland, Morocco and Oaxaca.  I landed a good job, have come to a place of acceptance on some personal issues.  Most recently I had the opportunity to trick or treat with my little nephews and meet their four month old little sister.  Holding her for the first time and having her laugh and smile at me in my arms was amazingly special.  But as incredibly special that was, it was not that feeling of joy.  There’s a component of excitement when a situation comes to joy that just isn’t present in the quiet special moments.

I can remember vividly my last moment of pure joy.  It was two years ago in December while traveling in Jordan.  It was my first time ever swimming in the Dead Sea.  I had wanted to do that since I was a young child, and even as a trained scientist and completely understanding the science behind it all, I was amazed.  When I jumped into deeper water and started bobbing around like a cork, I was giddy.  A fifty year-old man giggling like a toddler.  The experience was incredible I was so amazingly happy.  I had expected it to be fun but not like it was, pure joy.

That’s the thing about joy, it can’t wholly be planned for, but what you can do, is put yourself into situations where you might experience it.  As for every post on the Ministry of Happiness, I scanned the web for articles on creating joy.  Unlike most topics however, I was pretty disappointed on how little there is out there that provided good advice about creating joy in your life, so this set me to thinking on how you might do it.

While I don’t think there is anyway to guarantee you will create a moment of joy for yourself, I think there are certainly some factors that can help to lead to moments of joy:

Something new – a new situation, a new place, a new activity the ability to go from not knowing but thinking you like something to having the experience can often be a nice platform to create some joy.  Joy often comes off a moment of surprise.

Something simple – moments of joy often happen in really simple situations, tasting a new food or drink, experiencing a new place, even just jumping  into the Dead Sea.

Having children involve –  children, with their lack of experience in life, experience joy at a much higher level than adults.  So having children around and seeing things through their eyes or even just experiencing their joy with them can often get you there as well.

Low stress environment – you’re highly unlikely to experience joy if you are stressed, traveling under a deadline or are having to be highly structured.

So what will be your next moment of joy my friends?  Or how will you create one for someone else?  I’m in search of my own and trying to build one before the holidays are over.  I’ll keep you posted, drop a comment and let everyone know about yours and as always, have a happy day my friends. ~ Rev Kane