Joyful Living

We are more pleasing to the Lord when we are fully alive to all that is beautiful around us. Joy is the highest expression of a soul filled with God's love.

A grateful heart is full of joy. A resentful spirit is full of anger and frustration. Envy is defined as sadness over the good fortune of another. Reject envy and dismiss sadness if you want to live a joyful life. Joy is a choice.

A successful athlete has a winning attitude. He or she gets in the flow of the game confidently playing to win. The fearful player thinks defensively, trying to keep from losing. The fear of losing inhibits the athlete's skills.

A game can be lost by timidity.

A happy pianist delights in the sounds he creates for his audience; whereas a tense one pounds away at the piano worrying about what the critics might say if he makes a mistake.

A happy physician exudes confidence in his or her skills, giving much needed assurance and comfort. A greedy physician sees only the dollar signs. The patients are merely units of income.

A confidant teacher enjoys the children. She loves their active, engaging curiosity. A bored, disinterested teacher is more concerned with disciplinary problems. The confident teacher is happy and effective; the bored one is uninspired and dull.

Joy is the motivation that makes all the difference. Love and joy lead to freedom and spontaneity.

You sabotage yourself when you do not strive to create an atmosphere of emotional comfort all around you. To achieve this goal you deliberately have to choose joy. Decide that you want to be a healer, not a victim. Reject the role of victim. If you are going enjoy your precious life, you must strive to project a joyful presence.

A joyful, healer does not absorb the emotions of others. No one can be of help to another by becoming miserable with him or her. If you do that, soon there will be two miserable people instead of one. You can love the person best by caring in an emotionally detached way. This is a skill that must be learned. You can be sincere, but detached. Like a good nurse, you can stay ready to help the next person who needs you, without being drained by the last one. Easier said than done, I admit.

If someone is outraged, even if it is justified anger, don't absorb that anger. You can show your concern in other ways. Do not adapt yourself to the mood of the person you are helping by becoming angry. Rather, acknowledge their right to be angry, and secretly hold on to your joy. By your willingness to listen, you are helping them.

Remain self-possessed as you help them move through their pain. Do not make yourself part of the problem. You can do this by asking questions. Distract them from their misery by getting them to think about their feelings. Reduce the heat by calmly asking questions: "Why does that make you so mad?" Do you feel any calmer by talking about it?

Let them ventilate. Let them own their feelings. Keep asking them to explain what they mean when they make assertions. Remember that you don't have to solve the problem. Just present a caring presence, and be willing to listen. In the process, hold on to your joy.