Category: Happiness and Joy

Envy not the person who has what you don’t have or who has gone where you haven’t gone…

Envy the person who thinks not of what they don’t have or where they haven’t gone…

…And instead focuses solely on what’s here, what’s now, and where they have arrived.

For joy and gratitude in the current step is an excellent strategy for evoking more of the same in the next step. And the step after that.

And so too for the person who steps with envy. It only evokes more of the same. No matter how much you acquire or how many places you’ve gone.

One of the reasons my work office got so cluttered and messy was because there were so many things that didn’t have a “home.”

I would be given beautiful cards, thoughtful gifts, art pieces, timeless pictures, and sentimental trinkets… and I would have to shove them into one of the limited places I had any open space at all.

And having worked in the same martial arts school for 20+ years… you can only imagine the amount of stuff I had crammed around.

One of my major goals this past weekend, when renovating and redesigning my work office was to give everything an intentional space—both for the things I was already given, and the things that would come.

I spent hours and hours going through it all, organizing it, imagining the appropriate space for it, shopping for the right pieces, and building/designing it—with my sister’s help, of course.

And it turned out beautifully. I’m very proud of the space and feel not only lighter from having removed all of the clutter and mess, but more joyful because so much of what was buried in a tiny drawer is now being featured on the walls and has space to breathe.

A bunch of a good thing shoved into a tiny drawer doesn’t do you or anybody else any good. And sometimes, that’s what’s making us feel bad—whether consciously or not. And all we have to do is give all of the amazingly good things we’ve already been given a home where we can see it, feel it, and experience it on a regular basis—rather than just always wishing for more and more.

I might say… spontaneous joy being expressed by the body.

…Which isn’t the only way to express spontaneous joy.

But if you want to dance and you don’t… for whatever reason… does the spontaneous joy ever get expressed?

Sitting around, knowing you’re entitled to the pursuit of happiness isn’t going to do much for you.

But understand that there is a real happiness that comes from pursuit.

When your eyes and mind are fixed on a goal and you’re problem solving, critically thinking, collaborating, exploring, trial-and-error-ing, iterating, building, growing…

You unlock a type of whole being happiness… one that isn’t in vain like a temporary pleasure… but one that activates almost every part of you—mind, body, spirit—and renews itself again and again and again…

Just don’t get so caught up in pursuit that you never give yourself any time to feel the happiness that’s present at each step along the way.

I went to, what I estimated to be, a multi-million dollar nighttime light display event at my local zoo today.

…And what did the other person, child, and I spend the sweeping majority of our time interacting with the most?

…A puddle of water, a light up floor, and a swing.

Sure, the multi-million dollar event itself made for an incredible experience, offered awesome scenery, and gave all of us plenty to talk about.

…But, don’t think that the multi-million dollar budget was (or ever is) necessary for fun and entertainment.

A little imagination, or maybe more appropriately said—zoo-magination—is (and always will be) all that’s ever truly necessary.

I saw a kid today, maybe 10 years old, sliding down high school bleacher gym stairs, on his butt (hear: thump, thump, thump…), with his martial arts uniform wide open exposing his chest and tummy, laughing hysterically, giving zero cares to any of the other hundred or so people in the gym, concluding planted on the gym floor, laying on his back, giggling like it was the best thing he had done in his entire life.

…I hope one day I can unlearn my way back to a place where I can un-self-consciously do things like that at such a high level.

It’s amazing how far away from presence, joy, and healthy carelessness we’re taught to be—in the form of “Grow up” “Be cool” “Fit in” “Don’t act like such a child” “Don’t be so immature” “Don’t be such a loser…” When in reality… it’s the younger version of ourselves that—in so many ways—had it right all the way from the start.