Evolving Joy
- Bill Moyer
- Jan 3, 2021
- 3 min read
What we are all involved in day after day is evolution. We are always in the act of creating and recreating ourselves and are evolving (or devolving sometimes) constantly from year to year, month to month, week to week, day to day, hour to hour and even moment by moment. The trick is that many people do so unconsciously; They are in a reactionary state.
As someone who strives to be more conscious about my own personal development (or evolution,) I decided that this month I am going to make changes to facilitate more Joy in my own life. Part of the reason that I chose Joy Life Coaching as the name of my personal development company is that it is something that I feel we are all looking for more of in our lives, especially after a particularly difficult 2020 and a cautiously optimistic start to 2021.
Speaking for myself, I am feeling hopeful about the opportunity for change that exists in the new year. I believe that out of some of the worst struggles in our collective and personal histories we have often affected the biggest changes into a new paradigm. Wars, as terrible as they are, have often brought about revolutionary advances in engineering and production. Disasters, both natural and accidental have many times forced us to make improvements on safety and regulation. Even the loss of a loved one can bring about positive change such as remembering the importance of friends, family, and community.
That brings me to my New Years journey that started today. I began working on my own evolution this year with deciding to focus on 3 main words or phrases each week. For this week, my 3 words were Optimism, Focus, and Joy. Today, I particularly focused on Joy and I soon discovered something profound. JOY IS ONLY POSSIBLE WITH GRATITUDE!
I usually start my day by doing some Energization exercises, followed by yoga and then find a good, guided meditation on YouTube. The one that I found for today on Joy was a Jack Canfield meditation technique that has at its foundation the concept of being grateful for what you currently have as a pathway for experiencing greater joy and allowing more good into your life.
The video wasn’t what I was expecting, but I know better than to dismiss something just because it wasn’t what I thought that I wanted. It turns out that he was right! As I went through my day grateful for every moment, every kind gesture made towards me and every challenge, I kept having better and better things happen for me! I was happier overall and was more productive than usual.
You can click on the video here, in case you want to check it out: https://youtu.be/yl0OpsGZ9sg
Now, evolution rarely occurs in one jump. I want everyone to understand that my day wasn’t perfect. I still found myself annoyed at bad drivers. I allowed myself to slip out of gratitude and joy a few times when I got too lost in the busyness of the day. I did not achieve nirvana today. However, I made a pretty big hop in the right direction. So began my first day consciously evolving Joy. I would love to hear your stories as you continue (or perhaps begin for the first time,) to deliberately make positive change.
A big help along the way is having a coach on your side to help you navigate these shifts of consciousness. I want you all to know that I am working on my r-evolution as well and that I am here to support you and offer encouragement. As a coach, I believe that if YOU believe that you can make changes and if you make the commitments and follow through with them (all things that a coach will help you do,) you can make a r-evolutionary shift….one day at a time.