3 Ways To Welcome In More JOY

Photo Credit: Ewa Badek

Our journeys to finding joy are personal

My journey to find that deep sense of joy, purpose and fulfilment happened quite organically - through reconnecting to everything and anything that brought me joy. From deepening my love of nature, cooking and writing that I had loved as a kid, to enjoying food with all of my senses, to creating self care rituals that celebrated my hard work and truly relaxed me. 

Inspired by my journey, I have created a method to help clients who have lost their mojo, are feeling quite uninspired and like the joy has been sucked out of life. There is no one size fits all, and this is about creating a joyful state that is authentic to each of us. 

Here are 3 ways that you can get started in your joyful journey. 

Re:Connect to that which brings you joy

In our busy lives, it’s easy to rush through life, completely distracted for experiences, activities, sights, sounds, tastes, and moments with people, animals, plants, objects or colours that bring us joy. 

Identify moments in each day that uplift your mood - even in a very subtle way. It could be walking through the front door in the evening, sitting in your favourite spot in your house, a wall painted your favourite colour, that first sip of a hot drink in the morning, wearing a jumper in your favourite colour, catching the sunrise or sunset on your travels, your favourite movie or song - anything! 

Try to bring more consciousness to them, even if just for a few seconds - be fully present and put down any distractions. For example, put that phone away, close your eyes as you take that first bite or sip, or stop for a few seconds to look closer at something beautiful on your walk. 

Zoom in on the teeny tiny details

I’ve found a beautiful practise in becoming consciously aware of my surroundings - and finding deep enjoyment and awe of all of the small details within them. 

For many years when I worked in corporate I was always in such a rush, so distracted, stressed out, and so my surroundings were mostly a wallpaper that I didn’t look twice at. The one exception for this was when I was surrounded by nature - where my natural curiosity and awe for mother nature’s intricate beauty always made me look a little closer. 

Inspired by this, I started a practise of consciously connecting to my surroundings wherever I went. On my journeys through the same, grey, city streets where I walked each day, I started to look closely at the beauty of the trees lining grey city streets as they slowly morphed through the seasons, stopping to zoom in on the beautiful buds, blossoms, leaves. I started to notice, plants growing through cracks in the pavement and in drains, or moss clinging to walls. There was so much life and nature on the city streets that I had never been aware of. 

The name for my business is actually inspired by just this - the green that I observed in the grey city. My whole brand’s creative inspired by zooming in on the beauty of resilient, inner city plants. 

Joy Journaling

I have found the practise of joy journaling before bed to be particularly powerful in my transformation to a life of greater fulfilment and purpose. 

It’s a very close relative of gratitude journaling, which has been scientifically proven to be beneficial for your health in many ways, including helping you to sleep better and reducing stress.

In joy journaling, we capture all everything that brought us joy each day, uplifting our mood - including those teeny tiny ‘zoom in’ moments. I have created a Joy Journal prompts free download to help get you started, as a gift for anyone who signs up to my mailing list.