The Practice of Finding Joy When Things Aren’t Good

Laurie Marks Life Musings, Uncategorized Leave a Comment

It often takes a shakeup – or several of them – to wake us up. Medically unexplained physical pain had already started to wake me up but it’s when my mom died in 2007 that I really started to question things. Things like my purpose, how short life is, and what I could do that would really make a difference. So I decided to leave a good-paying job with great benefits and start to explore. First with travel for several months then with different professional roles. Non-profits, a start-up, and after Eureka moment, my pursuit of becoming a certified Yoga Therapist. It took six years of training. Then you start doing the work you’ve trained for only to find out it’s not what you thought. You love the work but working by yourself, marketing yourself, worrying about health care benefits keeps you up at night. It literally causes you pain. The world seems hostile even as “nothing seems to be working out.”

This is what your ego tells you anyway. But I’m here to tell us both that there is a time for everything. That I’ve come to see my practice now is not my private Yoga Therapy practice or even my job-seeking practice; but rather, finding joy. I don’t want disappointment, frustration, fear, and negativity to carry over into my next professional move. Because whatever the quality of my consciousness is during this period of re-aligning my inner purpose with my outer purpose will be reflected in what I choose to do and for that matter, whether I even see the opportunities that are being presented to me. The means and the end are one and the same. Negative energy will only beget more negative energy and misalignment.

So I’ve decided to seek joy. This takes diligent observation of my mind because there are some pretty well-established tracks there, tracks that tell me I’m a mess, fear tracks about what’s next, and lots of other bad stuff. So each night I write down what brought me joy that day whether from hearing more bird song as the hold of winter loosens its grip, seeing the last of the evening light on the mountains in the valley, or being with animals. Seeking joy brings me into the present which keeps worry about the future at bay. It is the wellspring of gratitude, abundance, kindness, compassion, love, and more joy!

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