5 Things To Help You Feel More Joyful
And 3 Joy-kills, or things that hinder your joyfulness
As children, joyfulness comes easily. We play, we laugh, we have fun, and most of all, and we have more freedom of time. When we grow older and become adults, we sometimes forget about being joyful. We might feel we have no time to enjoy, or we feel grown-ups have to be—yes—adults who have to be strict and don’t allow as much joy into our lives.
Then a time comes when we miss being playful, when we realise we don’t feel so much joy anymore. We are buried in our careers and household chores, and in the every-day routine. Even spending time with family might not be joyful anymore because we forgot how to do fun things with our kids.
I know. I have been there. I was so strict with my children and myself. I realized I was suffocating their joy, too. I missed the fun, the ease, the playfulness. I felt like an old woman who had forgotten how to enjoy life.
Why can’t adults relax, enjoy a bit of fun, and be playful?
Are you ready to bring more joy to your life?
I’d love to share five tips with you that will help you to rekindle your relationship with joy.
Fun
When was the last time you really laughed out loud, with true belly laughs, maybe even crying because you were laughing so hard?
Fun comes from laughing, and laughing comes from fun.
Take time to watch funny movies (Laurel and Hardy and Hidden Camera, are just a couple of ideas). Choose a comedy that feels good for you. There are so many fun-filled movies out there, and even funny scenes in almost all movies.
Allow yourself to laugh, too! Don’t hide it. Don’t feel silly. Laughter is fun; it lightens your energy.
Or you can meet with friends who make you laugh, spending more time with fun people than people who make you feel drained.
Bonus Tip: Learn to laugh at yourself, too.
Playfulness
What did you love to do as a child? Do you still integrate some of those pastimes into your days.
Dancing is being fun and playful, too. You might just dance to a song playing on the radio, or dance wildly with your children in the living room or garden. Have fun with it!
Reconnect with your inner child when you dance.
Think about how you can allow your inner child to come forward and play with you. What does play mean to you?
Explore these ideas. Maybe journal about your thoughts or sit in meditation and let yourself be guided to your answers.
I have created a short meditation to help you connect with your inner joyfulness. You can watch it here:
Can you allow more playfulness into your life? You know you’ll feel happier when you do.
Look Up
Stand with your feet hip apart. Now tilt your head to the back. Look up at the ceiling or at the sky.
Now try and frown or make a sad face.
Did you notice that you simply smile when you look up?
Take time each day to simply look up and smile, connecting to your inner happiness.
Nature
Nature is our greatest healer. When was the last time you spent time in nature?
Walking in nature clears your energy, connects you to your inner wisdom, and allows you to feel more joyful.
Take time to be in nature. You can simply walk barefoot on the grass in your garden or in a park. You can hug a tree and breathe in its wisdom. Or you can go for a walk in the forest, near a stream or lake, or at the beach.
Breathe in the fresh air and let all your cares, worries, and concerns all go.
Pets
Do you have pets? Do you feel calmer when you are with them or when you pet them?
Animals have healing energy for us. They bring us back to our inner calm. When we play with our pets, they help us feel more joyful.
Playing with your pet out in the garden, laughing, having a good time—maybe even looking up at the sky from time to time—is being joyful at its best.
If you don’t have a pet, you might be able to go and play with a neighbour’s dog, pet a friend’s cat, or visit an animal shelter and connect to the animals there.
Those were five things to help you be more joyful. Try practicing them every day and see what happens!
Of course, you can feel more joyful after you’ve had a good night’s sleep. Otherwise, you are more likely to be grumpy, annoyed, and only thinking about going back to bed, which is quite the opposite of joyfulness.
To help you have a wonderful restorative sleep, I’d love to share my Healthy Bedtime Routine from my Healing Shop with you. Please enter the discount code ‘Wellbeing’ at checkout so you receive it as a gift from my heart to yours.
https://wellnessmassagenfreienbach.ch/product/healthy-bedtime-routine/
I’d also love to share three things that keep you from being joyful,
the so-called Joy-kills.
Learn to release the Joy-kills gently. Try to do more of the joy-bringers listed above, and less of the following three, so you experience more happiness in your life.
Comparison
How easily do you compare yourself with others, looking left or right, and checking what others are doing? Do you say things to yourself like, ‘Oh, she does it better than me,’ or ‘She is more active than I am, ‘?
Theodore Roosevelt said, ‘Comparison is the thief of joy,’ and he was right.
Do you feel you should be doing things more like this person, or that one over there?
The grass is always greener on the other side they say, and often we compare our own lows with the highs of others—our oranges with other people’s apples.
Instead of comparing yourself, please start accepting yourself just the way you are and reconnect with your own kind of joyfulness. We are all unique and we should honor that.
Observe yourself and take note when you are comparing. Then come back to yourself, making a point to be more gentle and compassionate with yourself.
Perfectionism
We all want to do our job well, right? However, we can lose ourselves in the nitty-gritty of things, forgetting the bigger picture. We can clean the house for 10 hours and think that it still isn’t perfect. What if we could let go a bit, getting the house cleaned, and having a little extra time for play and fun?
Trying to have everything done perfectly also causes us a lot of grief. We complain to others, asking why they didn’t do their job to our high standards.
We are always doing more—pushing ourselves further—until we collapse. Why do we need to be perfect when we can be perfectly imperfect?
Take some time to go within and ask yourself where you could loosen up a bit, so you can have more joy in your life.
Next time you feel like you need just a little more of this one thing, or like that is not good enough yet, take a deep breath and ask yourself if you really need to be so damn perfect. When you realise perfection isn’t so important, you can smile and come back to joy.
Overthinking
Are you one of those people who always thinks things like, ‘What if this goes wrong’? Or do you keep pondering all of the possible outcomes, allowing worry and fear to be constant companions?
Are you more of a head person—more of a mind-based person—than a heart-centered or feeling person?
We sometimes have the tendency to think too much. We forget to just allow ourselves to be. We are always planning far ahead, or still mulling over the past; however, we are hardly ever here in the present moment.
Joy happens here and now, in our bodies, in our hearts, and in our feelings. Allow yourself to come out of your head and back into your heart, and get into the here and now.
Take time to do something spontaneous, something fun, something playful, every now and then.
Do you sleep well?
Do you often feel grumpy and short-tempered? Could it be that you don’t sleep so well because you are over-thinking things or not feeling relaxed enough at bedtime?
When you don’t get enough sleep, it is really hard to center in joy and feel relaxed.
I have a gift that can help you.
Download my Healthy Bedtime Routine from my shop now. It will help you enjoy more restorative sleep and feel more energized so you are happier and ready to add more joy to your life. Please use the coupon code, ‘Wellbeing’, at checkout so you receive my healthy bedtime routine as a free gift from my heart to yours.
https://wellnessmassagenfreienbach.ch/product/healthy-bedtime-routine/
I am sending you so much love!
Enjoy bringing more joy into your life.
Warm hugs,
