When is the last time you had a moment of joy that gave you such pleasure that it still makes you smile when you think of it?
Last month I was at Sauder Village Rug Week and was going from dinner at The Barn to a gallery talk and the heavens opened up. It had been a hot and humid day and we were having our nightly rain event. I took off my sandals and walked on the pavement in my bare feet.
Here is what I wrote in my journal. “It was such a delightful feeling of freedom, a moment of childlike bliss to enjoy the rain, the feel of my feet on the pavement, of the warm rain water washing over my feet. It felt great to take my time, to splash and to turn my face to the sky, sandals in hand.”
I call this a moment of joy.
Practical exercise
A practical exercise from One Loop at a Time, The Creativity Workbook:
A practice that I share in my Hook a Healing Mat workshops is to look for moments of joy in the everyday. When I was having daily radiation treatments, I looked for five moments of joy on my way to the hospital. These moments might be a child’s smile, the colour of a blooming rose, the way a bird soars over the harbour, and so on.
The second part of this exercise is to notice how your body feels when you are feeling joy. Where do you feel it – in your heart, in your arms, in your gut? By connecting with the body feeling, I believe we are training our brains to look for and recognize joy.
Noticing the world around you as you travel through your day can help you be grounded. It also helps us to form a habit of looking for beauty instead of focusing on the negative. It is hard to have a dark thought while you are opening to a moment of joy.”
Of course I am busy designing a new Wild Woman mat – you guessed it – Wild Woman Dancing in the Rain. Please share your moments of joy in the comments! Wishing you many moments of joy.
