Joy

 "Joy" by Bill Hornback

 Happiness occasionally visits its home in the mind, where it is free to come and go with the whim of a thought. Joy, on the other hand, is always home, even though we aren’t always aware of its presence. Joy resides within our deeper true self, which I call "Being." When we disconnect from the stream of mind-thought, we are free to feel, in those fleeting moments, the deeper meaning of our true "self" and we may notice the feelings of joy, peace and love which are always in residence within.

 The joy we experience in those moments is the joy of Being. Its just us, not requiring anything from outside our self, needing no outside input. “Being” includes being joyful. As long as we “Be,” we are joyful, regardless of what's going on around us. When we’re not “Being” we’re merely alive, drifting in the stream of mind-thought, and the connection to Joy may be lost.

 To Be is to accept oneself, wholly and completely, warts and all. Part of “Being” is Joy, and it comes from the instinctive understanding that, not only are we whole and complete and work perfectly, but also from understanding we are connected to other Beings simply by our Being. We are not alone in this world, but are part of the bigger whole, part of the greater cosmic purpose. Accepting this truth, some of us call this spirituality.

  Unless we are truly enlightened, we don’t always feel the Joy. The Sun may be hidden by the clouds, but the Sun is still there. Most of us are often disconnected from Being, thus disconnected from Joy, yet neither Being nor Joy is gone. They may be obscured by the stream of mind-thought, yet our Being still exists, even when not used, and Joy is still there, always residing within us, and ready to be with us when we are ready to be with it.

 My massage therapist, who is also a spiritual healer, and one of the most enlightened Beings I know, casually mentioned the other day that "Joy has no opposite." [Lindsay Sharp] This concept is stunning. If you accept Joy as part of Being, there is no opposite. You either feel Joy or not, but Joy is always there.

 I was challenged one time with the proposal that grief is the opposite of Joy. I don’t think that is true. We can remain joyful while at the same time capable of feeling a sense of loss, such as grief at the passing of a friend. I believe the sense of loss that may appear as grief comes from a diminution of Joy, the loss of a connection with one of our fellow Beings. Neither this sense of loss, nor feelings of grief, would exist without Joy and its sense of connectedness. It is the Joy of Being, with the innate sense of connection with others, that empowers empathy, enabling us to feel grief. One flows from the other, not as opposites. If we lose contact with our Being, with Joy, and feel grief, then the grief may feel like the opposite of Joy. But if we do not lose contact with our Being, or Joy, then both Joy and grief may be present at the same time.

 The Joy that comes with Being is inside all of us, all the time. If we don’t feel Joyful, its because we’ve made a choice to feel something else.

Bill is a Systems Consultant, Coach, NLP Master, Facilitator and Lawyer.  He and I became friends on Facebook, and he challenges my thinking often.   Learn more about Bill and how he can assist you or your business at www.mentalfloss.biz

Comments

[Jenny Daley]

Great thoughts to ponder, Bill. One of my favorite quotes is "life is 10% of what's handed you and 90% of how you handle it".

An event is, just that; an event. Whether we choose to respond joyfully or not is entirely up to us. Choosing grief or anger (as an example) over joy doesn't diminish our ability to feel joy. It all comes down to choice.

[Charlie Garcia]

Love the blog Bill.
I believe your statement; "Joy is still there, always residing within us, and ready to be with us when we are ready to be with it", and has always been with us since birth. Ever notice the sheer uninhibited innocent joy of a child? As we grow older, we add filters along the way which at times makes it more difficult for us to see the sunlight of our Spirit/Being, pulling us away from our inner joy. So I suppose one could say that we manifest happiness and that joy lives within each one of us.