Let Your Joy Prevail

Contrary to popular belief, we all have the key to our own happiness.

Google states that happiness is “the state of being happy”. A broad definition, but it makes sense. The abstract concept of happiness is entirely subjective. Meaning nobody other than you, can decide what that looks like for you. The vague definition is an exact reflection of the concept because you can start anywhere. There’s no right or wrong way to define your happiness, and there’s no specific guideline to it either.

Very typical of me, but I want to dip a toe into childhood. As children, we had no other intention than to do the things we enjoyed. We sought after fun experiences, and if there was no joy, we moved onto something that’s better. It’s one of my favourite things about children. They don’t stay in places that don’t harvest happiness. They are also in touch with their own feelings, being able to decipher where they think they can find fun. I remember being small, and the one thing I wanted to do was be outside. I was lucky enough to have a best friend who lived on my street, so I’d be knocking on her door every day. We’d take walks, ride bikes, play games and just have fun. As young adults now, we often find ourselves searching for imitations of that childlike happiness. The gag is, we didn’t get too old to do the things we’ve always loved.

It’s natural for us to want to further explore and figure out new sources of external joy. The thing I’m learning now, is that it becomes difficult to find new when you don’t give ode to the past. What you loved to do before is usually where you’ll find the blueprint for a lot of activities you will potentially like even more. For me, it was quite literally the outdoors. I spent some time trying to figure out if I’d like to frequent coffee shops or sit in cinemas. What I found, was that I simply find joy in existing out in the nature. Instead of discarding what activities I did as a kid, I figured out how to let the joy mature with me. I merged my current interests with the things I know I loved, which brought me to reading in the park. So simple, yet to me, it brings me so much happiness. It’s me honouring both my inner child and the current me.

Have you ever been doing something social, and suddenly realised it was killing your vibe? Not necessarily the people, but the activity in itself. That’s your intuition telling you that this thing is not what will bring you joy. When you end up there, you start to hyper focus on the things you don’t like to do, instead of bringing attention to what you know you liked. Unfortunately, that’s how we end up subconsciously inviting in more experiences that we don’t typically find joy in. It’s as simple as acknowledging how you felt when doing things that gave happiness.

When trying to access happiness, we look to how others are living their life. Big mistake! We can relate to others on similar interests, but what floats their boat might not necessarily do it for you. You have to sit with yourself and learn what your personal state of happiness feels like. Venture out on things that have a familiar feel of joy yet feel so new. It’s not a crime to build on your happiness. But it is a crime to completely discard things you love on the basis of “growing up”. It’s why I began with saying we all have the key to our own happiness. We just get caught up in trying to unlock someone else’s joy.

As summer is around the corner, make a list of everything that you have enjoyed. It can be as small as a cold glass of water, to taking train rides. Whatever it is, acknowledge it, and then allow it to grow. This is how your summer will feel like summer of 2016. You’ll be carefree and overflowing with joy when you figure out that you knew how to get there all along. You just had to honour your feelings in every stage and every age. We may be growing too, but the joy grows with us. Always.