I have struggled with writing about ‘joy’. I have not experienced much of it lately, neither do I – I realized – understand the word itself. I understand what ‘hope’ and ‘peace’ means to me. I know how I feel when I am with them. Somehow, I am not sure what ‘joy’ is really like. According to the dictionary, Joy is “a feeling of great pleasure and happiness” or “rejoice”. I find it easy to laugh or to find something funny and smiley at it. But ‘I am not feeling great pleasure’ in the process.
I have set out to investigate the ‘land of Joy’ to see how I could have more of it.
First, I investigated the meaning of the world by looking up synonyms such as amusement, bliss, cheer, comfort, delight, glee, humour, festivity, alleviation, wonder, satisfaction, and even ecstasy and exultation. Wow! Joy seems to have a rather varied and wide scope of meaning!
I decided to chose three meaning that ‘speak’ to me. These are EXULTATION, COMFORT, BLISS.
Interestingly, none of these meaning ever occurred to me when I though of the word ‘joy’. As I was exploring the deeper meaning of these words, I start to understand what I need in order to feel ‘joy’.
According to my observations, we all experience life differently and interpret our experiences rather personally. I am realizing now, that my sense of joy is dependent of how much comfort, bliss and exultation or exuberance I am experiencing. My sense of joy is ‘physical’ rather than ‘emotional’ in a way. I experience ‘joy’ though physical experiences that generate the above qualities inside me.
So, what physical experience generates a sense of comfort, bliss and exultation in me? How can I support myself in generating such experiences so I can enhance my sense of joy? It is getting personal now! 🙂
I am going to spend the week searching for my ‘sense of joy’ by investigating the different experiences that contribute to me feeling comfortable, blissful and exuberant.
