Seek joy first

[OneGrassRoot]

"Seek joy first, and all of the growth that you could ever imagine will come joyously and abundantly unto you."

~ Abraham


I wonder about this. Many of us are empaths, and we're all concerned about Humanity and the Earth...all of Life.

I think because we are aware and so concerned, we may come to believe that seeking joy while so many suffer is frivolous. Sure, we allow ourselves times to not take on the worries of the world and indulge in whatever our guilty pleasure may be, but I have a feeling we often feel guilty doing that -- and we may even keep those times to ourselves.

I think about people I perceive as carefree and HAPPY. Their biggest concern is where their next vacation shall be, what the next "Housewives" spin-off shall be, where they're going shopping for shoes and purses, etc.

Of course, being judgmental as I am, I also view them as extraordinarily shallow.

Can we do -- BE -- both? I know we all have moments of being shallow and carefree and frivolous (and we deserve it!), but -- in general -- aren't many of us weighed down by the worries of the world (or simply our own little corner of it)?

I personally struggle with this A LOT. I desperately long to experience and create joy. I try to focus on what brings me joy; I try really hard. But then the extraordinary suffering of others gets in the way, and I feel I must work to help alleviate that suffering and THEN create joy. Of course, I'm also always trying to figure out how to do BOTH SIMULTANEOUSLY.

Because I believe in vibration, I do believe there is much truth to this Abraham quote.

I can become very imbalanced in this regard, so I'm going to really be mindful of this.

Being empaths, I believe many here can, so I thought this may ring true for others and be a nice reminder to SEEK (and allow) JOY.

:grouphug:

[MorningGlow]

1. Don't forget

empaths can also empathically feel others' joy. ;)

IMO, I don't think it's an either/or proposition. Sure, being shallow enough not to care what happens to others in this world isn't exactly admirable, but feeling joy once in a while isn't the same thing. On the flip side, it's not healthy to continually wear a hair shirt and scourge oneself because of feeling a little joy just because, somewhere, others are experiencing pain. There is always both joy and pain going on at all times in the world. It's not healthy to deny either one or the other--then there's no balance.

OGR, you said "I personally struggle with this A LOT. I desperately long to experience and create joy. I try to focus on what brings me joy; I try really hard. But then the extraordinary suffering of others gets in the way, and I feel I must work to help alleviate that suffering and THEN create joy. Of course, I'm also always trying to figure out how to do BOTH SIMULTANEOUSLY."

Don't we have to FEEL joy ourselves before we can bestow it on others? Isn't joy given to others, not by seriously working on it, but simply by sharing what we feel inside?

Joy shouldn't have to be "worked at". Don't be so hard on yourself--let go of the guilt. It's not your job to fix ALL the pain in the world. You're doing wonderfuly and you definitely deserve to be happy whenever you like. :hug:

[OneGrassRoot]

3. Absolutely :)

"Don't we have to FEEL joy ourselves before we can bestow it on others? Isn't joy given to others, not by seriously working on it, but simply by sharing what we feel inside?"

Yes, I agree, and it's why I said I desperately long to experience it....and then, hopefully, create more of it, and allow it to radiate.

But I need to experience it first before that can happen. On a more regular basis, that is. ;)

I also agree it shouldn't have to be worked at but, for some of us, we must work at it. It's like a muscle that isn't used often and we have to "flex" it and remember to use it more frequently. I don't like being a Debbie Downer, or perceived as such. That's not what I want to radiate.

I must allow it more frequently, not because I should but because it's what I truly desire. It's not an emotion I'm well acquainted with, to be honest. And you're also absolutely correct in that empaths can feel others' joy, as well as pain. In keeping with that "like attracts like" philosophy, I tend to either attract, or focus on, others' pain more than their joy.

I'm focusing on seeking joy now. Experiencing it and creating it.


:hug:

[WhiteTara]

2. Good questions.

I think that there is a real difference between joy, pleasure, happiness. Pleasure is the vacations, happiness comes from a good outcome. Joy is an inner resource that is accessed only in the present moment by being totally aware. I'm thinking of those moments where I feel that complete oneness with ALL and feel no separation.

I don't think that we must live only with the suffering of others (although how can we be anything by mindful of it?), but that we are creatures here for our own lessons/life and are therefore required to live our own experience and that in itself allows joy to permeate life.

Okay, now to live it. :hug::hug::hug: Thanks for the discussion.

[OneGrassRoot]

4. Thanks for your thoughts, WhiteTara...

I think the Dalai Lama has a lot to teach me about this particular subject. What a joyful, delightful soul, he is! Yet also lives compassion and mindfulness.

Balance, balance.....

:hug:

[WhiteTara]

5. I keep reminding myself

that I am in the hands of the God/dess and can not fall. Comfort and joy.

[Melissa G]

6. We can't give what we don't have...

People can experience the infinite through us. I'm working on that. I'm also working on practicing contentment. I am an ecstatic, so joy is not hard for me, but then again neither is obsessive worry. :evilgrin: :grouphug: :hug:

[OneGrassRoot]

7. Understood

I absolutely, positively agree that we must allow ourselves to experience joy (or anything) first before we can share/offer/radiate it to another. Didn't mean to imply otherwise.

How awesome to be "an ecstatic." That makes me :bounce:

Personally, I'm focusing on peaceful joy...perhaps that what contentment is? I'm looking for a nice, fluid place of being quietly full of joy.


;)

:hi:

:hug:

[Melissa G]

8. Contentment was kind of a blind spot for me.

My people were always striving for justice types. It was strange to start practicing contentment.
I'm currently interpreting contentment to mean that God is doing whatever is happening, so since that is the song that is being played, I get to dance to that music. When I want to complain, I just tell myself to shut up and dance.

I believe God is all that is and isn't. We are all a bit of God. God does everything, so deal with it, Melissa. That is pretty much what I tell myself. It's not the most comfortable place for me, but it seems to be working. :hug:

[Kind of Blue]

9. I think - and I'm not trying to be harsh because

you know what I was going through at the beginning of this year, and still undergoing - is that a lack of joy is movement away from grace. Or as we like to say, out of alignment with Source.

I read a powerful, to me, sermon by Unitarian Rev. Dr. James Walters on grace. As he puts it, "We, you and I, are part of the living Cosmos’ way of tending to itself,nourishing itself, growing itself, healing itself, learning about itself, enjoying itself. Grace is what the Universe creates for that growing and healing and learning and enjoying. Each of us is the life-giving Cosmos’ way of delivering those graces to itself – that is, to ourselves and each other. Each of us is a grace that carries a grace. Each of us is a gift and the bearer of the gift." http://www.uurestoration.us/sermons/sermon_reflections_on_grace.pdf (the bold is mine)

But Dr. Walters has a twist on my thought about being unaligned. In his sermon, this is still a state of grace because at this point - in speaking of a particular lady - "she could either sink into depression or become something more than she ever had been or was expecting -- or maybe even wanting – to be. That’s what grace does. That’s what moments of grace have to offer...This is what philosophers call the mysterium tremendum et fascinans: we desire it and yet we fear it; we approach, only then to retreat. This is the truth-basis of the Buddhist maxim that one’s true path is toward your deep fear and uncertainty."

But there are two parts of delivering that grace and one of them is to self. I think that you are delivering to others but not to self. The Reverend Kathryn Ellis writes in "Letting Go and Becoming" that Spiritual practice is....about living with joy.

How to go about getting there? Well, she recommends our good old friend, Meditation. If you're interested, more on her thoughts about letting go and becoming at http://www.uurestoration.us/sermons/2011-01-09.pdf

I know that it can be a difficult process of just sitting there. But I found that I was already doing it when deeply immersed in drawing or painting, with no thoughts or feelings and time seem to stand still. I got it!!! And it was easier to move towards the more traditional ways. So I think, if this is what you choose, finding the thing that you love doing is the start of delivering grace onto self. And that means growing, healing, learning and enjoying. Hope that makes sense :eyes:
:hug: :hug: :hug:

[Melissa G]

10. Lovely, thoughtful post, Blue.

My group of friends has been talking about the highest prayer (and in some ways the only prayer) is to deliver our true selves- that which we came here to be. :grouphug:

[Kind of Blue]

11. Thanks, Melissa G. I was just about

to look up being an ecstatic. That resonates in me so much. And I whole heartily agree with starting with contentment. I think that lesson rang true and has remained with me since reading Ken Keyes' "Handbook to Higher Consciousness."

A couple of my favorite quotes, "I always remember that I have everything I need to enjoy my here and now, unless I am letting my consciousness be dominated by demands and expectations based on the dead past or the imagined future."

"To be upset over what you don't have is to waste what you do have."

"Love everyone unconditionally -- including yourself."

"...you can never get enough to enjoy your life continuously when you are using the security, sensation, and power filters to interpret the here and now in your life. You
can use these filters to make limited improvements in your life. But out of the billions of people who have lived on earth, no one has experienced enough
security, enough delightful sensations, and enough power to be continuously happy and fulfilled. The experience of enoughness only starts as you begin to
generate your consciousness more and more from the Fourth Center -- the Love Center."

:) :hug: :hug: :hug:

[Celebration]

12. these certainly ring true!

I feel that the root of being joyful is living without judgment. That is what we ultimately do when we are in a state of bliss......where we are all one. Those moments are fleeting for me but at least I know it intellectually. I'm both a huge believer in meditation and an infrequent practitioner. Thus I rely on technologies such as binaural beats when I do meditate. Like you, I can get immersed in things like photography, or even making slideshows, where my actions are totally aligned with ME. I am in a somewhat joyful, non judgmental state then.

Thanks OGR for the discussion. :hi:

[Kind of Blue]

18. "...my actions are totally aligned with ME."

That sums it up for me as where Joy is, from work to play. And I thank you for being the Grace that has brought binaural beats to us - Joy in action helping to heal, to grow, to learn from and to enjoy. I can testify to that! Thank you, Celebration. :hug: :hug: :hug:

And, indeed, Thank You OGR for once again being the Grace for growth and understanding without even trying to be. :hug: :hug: :hug:

Hey, I'm going to start calling everybody Grace :) because that's what we are!

[Melissa G]

13. Handbook to Higher Conciousness

What an excellent book to re read! I read that back with Sanaya Roman's Living With Joy. Good tie back to OGR"s Op. Read both back in my mid twenties in the mid eighties- Good times, but with much more internal drama! :rofl: Here's hoping I have more wisdom along with all this gray hair! ;) :hug:

[OneGrassRoot]

14. Ah, yes, I was in my mid-20's in the mid-80's and read the same!

In hindsight, that was a WONDERFUL time. Absorbing, experimenting, putting things into practice (including becoming vegetarian, more environmentally conscious, etc.).

We DO have more wisdom...I have no doubt. It's whether we put it into practice that is the question (speaking for myself, at least). ;)

:loveya:

[Kind of Blue]

20. That's what I love about it, too.

It's like, give me something to work with and what a practicum!

[Kind of Blue]

19. Ha! Gray hairs appearing all over my head!

That's a good idea though. Whenever a new one pops up, I'm going think, okay, must be new or deepening wisdom. I can't think of a better way of approaching my crone years - and I mean the original meaning of the word. Thanks, Melissa G!
Yeah, interesting how we coincidentally get that book when the drama was intense. I've bought and given away 4 copies and am tempted to get another - but I Know there is a pattern here :eyes:

[Melissa G]

15. Grace - from the sermon.

Each of us is a gift and the bearer of the gift. This is what Rumi, the
mystic Sufi poet, meant when he wrote:
We are the mirror as well as the face in it.
We are tasting the taste this minute of eternity.
We are the pain and what cures the pain.
We are the sweet cold water and the jar that pours

And the bonus is that, as we serve that purpose, we get to enjoy those gifts for
ourselves and each other, too. This is exactly why prayers or invocations of
intention often end with the words “for my good and the highest good of all.”

snip
Remember the deep root of your being …. (Don’t waste) your valuable
keenness … foolishly ignoring your dignity and your purpose.
Keeping that truth in mind, if we reflect on our own lives, how many moments of
grace – the Universe calling – have we felt intuitively – in our hearts – only to
have them overruled by our fears in rational-robes or our self-absorption?

[Kind of Blue]

21. Fantastic. Thanks for posting it, Melissa G!

It really puts me right there in the feel of it and to remember we are never without it, no matter what we're going through. :hug: :hug: :hug:

[OneGrassRoot]

24. ....

:cry:

That's so beautiful.

:grouphug:

[OneGrassRoot]

16. Not harsh at all KOB!

:hug:

As always, so many nuggets of wisdom and fabulous resources contained within your posts. Thanks for that.

:yourock:


I've never been good at meditating, but I agree with you guys that doing whatever it is that absorbs us completely and stills the mind -- whether it's gardening, painting, writing, cooking -- THAT is a form of meditation.

I've come to realize that what brings me joy is to create. Simply to create. I can't narrow it down to writing or art or anything specific, but when my heart fills at thought of something, creating and manifesting it in some way -- however small -- fills me with joy and I lose myself. In a wonderful, blissful way.

That's why I'm pursuing a joyful creation - Wishables - simultaneously balancing that with Wishadoo, which seeks to alleviate suffering and let people know they're not alone, but also to inject joy. I experience my joy by focusing on Wishables, which hopefully pulls it into other things I work on.

I just experienced another joyful creation, which I'll post in the "cleansing thread"! :)

:grouphug:

[Kind of Blue]

22. No, you!

:yourock:

Excellent news about Wishables! And that you Know where your Joy lies.
Might I add a twist to the title of the OP? Seek Joy and Pursue It
Heeheeheeheehee - I know, I know, the original is Seek Peace and Pursue It.

[FirstLight]

17. Being awake is a bitch sometimes ;)

I know what you mean, but I also know I am not one of those who can walk around being in bliss all the time. I know the difference between the happiness of the one who is still asleep and not bothered by things, and the one wh0o is so dedicated to creating only good, they are just disconnected from the very planet they are here to love into health...

does that make sense?
sometimes feeling and living this transition feels like crap, it is a fact, we can also take on stuff that isn't our all too easily,
partly because there are alot of folks in denial right now, but also cuz the planet is overloaded with huge waves of grief and anxiety and pain and suffering right now, there is no way around that.

while I have days that I wallow in the humanity of it all, and the hopelessness, i still get up and keep on keeping on, hoping for understanding and integration to catch up to me.
and there's days like yesterday and the day before that I am just SO in the zone and forgiveness comes easy and manifesting never felt so free...

but we will be swaying both directions on that hammock between grief and joy all summer, i am afraid.
all we can do is try to remember the days when we are connected and hope the connection starts sticking a bit more each time...

:hug: :loveya:

[OneGrassRoot]

23. Every word made sense....

a lot of sense, and I feel the same way, FL.

My personality is such that I prefer to stay silent when I'm "wallowing in the Humanity of it all, and the hopelessness" -- 'cause girl, I do -- though I stay silent mainly because I don't want to give it energy, ya know? But I respect that others need to vent and release it that way.

But I feel it and keep going, as do you.

It still feels as though we really must take life minute by minute. It all changes so quickly.

:loveya:

[Kind of Blue]

25. Funny, Carolyn Myss kept popping up

in my thoughts and I figured it must be about Joy, so I better pursue it :D Just found this that I think reflects on Joy, The Sermon, Grace and Meditation.
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheOmegaInstitute#p/u/154/7Gqr2s_6A8w

[OneGrassRoot]

27. "Create a field of grace...."

"Create a field of grace. Just be still, and let me work through you."

I told you you always find awesome links. ;)

:thumbsup:

:loveya:

[Kind of Blue]

30. I honestly thought Myss was

talking about you. Her characterization of the mystic fits you to a T, in that having truth reshape you without boundaries, squeezing back into an illusory form and saying, "Oh Dear God, the pain I carry," and calling forth allies on Earth. Just beautiful :cry:

[OneGrassRoot]

31. ...

:cry:

You see me so differently than I see myself! When you say such things, I think, "Who on Earth is she talking about?"

:shrug:

Seriously, though, I'm truly honored.

Bless you, Kind of Blue....:loveya:

[NuttyFluffers]

26. I just watched Pollyanna on Hallmark, which I found apropos here.

there were no villains in Pollyanna, just a lot of good people trying to do good but getting in each other's way and becoming bitter because of it. took a sweet little girl to remind them to be present and have gratitude to awaken them from their fugue. not a bad movie, and with a message that still resonates wisdom today.

like knows kind, and attracts toward itself. so yeah, seeking joy first sounds like a wise idea! :7

:hi:

[OneGrassRoot]

28. You know what?

I don't think I've ever watched any version of Pollyanna nor read the story. I know the gist of it, of course, but I just realized I don't know the FULL Pollyanna story. I need to fix that. ;)

"Be present and have gratitude."

Indeed.

:loveya:

[OneGrassRoot]

29. I just "stumbled" upon a most profound quote...

as I was researching Montessori contacts.

"If we just worry about the big picture, we are powerless. So my secret is to start right away doing whatever little work I can do. I try to give joy to one person in the morning, and remove the suffering of one person in the afternoon. If you and your friends do not despise the small work, a million people will remove a lot of suffering."

Sister Chan Khong (Buddhist nun)



Ahhhhhhh........love this.

:grouphug: