Inspiration: 24 Ways To Follow Our Joy…
“Joy can be real only if people look upon their life as a service, and have a definite object in life outside themselves and their personal happiness.” Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy
Inspiration: 24 Ways To Follow Our Joy... choosing happiness for self and for others
“Joy is not in things; it is in us.” Richard Wagner
What does it mean to follow your/our joy? We often read statements that exhort us to follow our bliss, follow our joy and thrive, embrace our joy and more… But what does it all mean? If we follow our joy, will we ignore our responsibilities? If we follow our joy, will we become complacent and self-absorbed? Yet, the true essence of joy is about caring for others and for ourselves; it requires a spirit of compassion for others and a desire for self-care. If we pay attention to our most joyful moments, we soon notice that our joyful moments include others or become ways we create opportunities and skills that benefit others… In this post, below, I have included 24 ways we can follow our joy and share our gifts of kindness. We follow our joy by:
♥ serving with an open heart and a loving mind
♥ trusting our intuition
♥ listening better; being attentive to the needs of others
♥ writing consciously with an inspirational heart.
♥ listening to and sharing uplifting and fun music.
♥ choosing happiness for self and for others.
♥ being still and observant
♥ maintaining a yoga and meditation practice.
“Who is the happiest of men? He who values the merits of others, and in their pleasure takes joy, even as though t’were his own.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Inspiration: 24 Ways To Follow Our Joy... serve others with joy...
“Joy is the feeling of grinning inside.” Melba Colgrove
When we spend part of our day or week or month in service to others, we find, fairly quickly, that we are also beneficiaries of the goodwill we spread. If the actions we perform, and the duties we honor guide us us to serve with compassion and focus, we will do so readily and happily. When we take time to do the things we enjoy, to spend time with those we love, to help others in need joyfully, to make others smile, and do these things without expectation, we have shared wonderful gifts; the gift of service and the gift of love… As we explore ways we follow our joy, lets pause for a few minutes and meditate on the prompt. We have nothing to lose if we are steeped in the belief that joy is open to all of us. We follow our joy by:
♥ honoring ourselves and others
♥ dancing with like-minded souls
♥ thinking abundance, not being limited
♥ letting go of old conversations and offering forgiveness for old hurts
♥ Offering our prayers to all…
♥ affirming that We Are Enough
♥ being ourselves and not being defined by our titles and things
♥ knowing that the universe blesses us as much as it blesses others
We can find more ways to follow our joy. It all depends on what resonates for us. What would you add to this list? More below. 😉
“I do it for the joy it brings, cause I’m a joyful girl. ‘Cause the world owes us nothing, we owe each other the world.” Ani Difranco
Inspiration: 24 Ways To Follow Our Joy... encourage others...
“Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.” Mother Teresa of Calcutta
When we take time to look at the way joy manifests in our lives, we find that often it is through the simplest things, the nature walk, the gentle smile, the spirit of gratitude, and as we review our lives and the people in it, we know we are right; right on track with living our lives as joyfully as possible. Here are more ways we follow our joy. Add yours to the list… We follow our joy by:
♥ loving our children, our family and friends more
♥ encouraging all to succeed
♥ taking nature walks
♥ being grateful for everything we have
♥ offering everyone a smile
♥ saying yes to life
♥ being creative and productive
♥ enjoying exercising for our body, mind and spirit’s sake and taking time to enjoy a dance…
Stay Inspired! What about you? What are your thoughts? How do you follow your joy? Where do you find joy? What does joy mean to you? Do you seek inspiration in your life? Do share! Thank you. 🙂
This post was inspired by The Happiness Workshop and a prompt from WP Daily Post: How do you know when you’re right?
Positive Motivation Tip: When we joyfully help others, we help ourselves; that is the ultimate way we follow our joy.
Related articles
- Joy in Action (joyofspa.com)
- Reflections: When Are You Happiest…? (eof737.wordpress.com)
- Inspiration: Life Lessons With Oprah… (eof737.wordpress.com)
- Reflections: Facing Our Fears (eof737.wordpress.com)
- Lighten UP! Shift your perspective and learn to experience joy (powerstrengthgrace.wordpress.com)
- Live for joy (reflectionsofaprodigalson.wordpress.com)
PHOTO CREDITS/ATTRIBUTIONS: All Photos Kelly and kids exercise, via Wikipedia. Or friends at sea by Swamibu, US navy mate with kid by US navy, via Flickr
Until Next Time…
Ask. Believe. Receive. ©
Elizabeth Obih-Frank
Mirth and Motivation
Positive Kismet
So true. Joy is such a blessing.
it’s difficult to reach a climax of joy alone – the best experiences are together with others – ♥ dancing with like-minded souls ♥ – or making music♥ , writing♥ , using the beach♥ gathering in café♥ looking into an animal’s eyes♥ …
Writing ourselves and listening to other
people is good for us. It’s so nice to think about happiness. 🙂
I love your list and printed it out to put on my fridge wall. I love them all especially; saying yes to life!
B
Thank you for the pingback! I love your writing! Wonderful resource, and it’s so beautiful to see the synchronicity. 🙂
Embrace all with joy . . . anything can be a gift of gold in disguise. 😀
Such an inspirational post! Thank you. I’m going to work on ♥ thinking abundance, not being limited. I can only think of one more thing that brings joy – the love of a cherished pet. Like FrizzText says ♥ looking into an animal’s eyes.
Love this series of posts, Elizabeth. Very appropriate as I begin this new life and embrace the things that bring me joy.
I look at JOY as Jesus First, Others 2nd and You #3
Joy is a blessing.
So true… Right now, God is teaching me to be more selfless. Your post gave specific actions on how I could actually do it =)
This struck me the most in following our joy, “choosing happiness for self and for others.” I think it’s the first key. We need to choose, find , accept and live happiness on a daily basis. Everyone deserves to be happy and the 24 ways to will bring us joy are a must have. Beautiful post my friend. It brought me so much inspiration today. thank you.
and the 24 ways to bring us joy…
A beautiful list, Elizabeth! I love so many of them . . . thanks for sharing this! 🙂
After a dark night, the sun shines again. What a joy! Life is a gift to be happy about, no matter what. Our greatest joy is to share our joy with others. Thank you for showing us in your blog so many different ways to create joy for ourselves and others.
This post is a wonderful inspiration! As I grow older, I find joy in the smallest of things but thanks for opening my eyes wider.
There is so much joy to be found. 🙂 I usually find it in simple things, like good food, photography, nature and so on. But also in traveling and sharing my experiences. Great post!
I am hoping to have time for joy after graduation in one month. For now, joy came when I was able to take a 2 hour nap today 😀