Embracing Joy

You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might also pray in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance. 

Khalil Gibran

How easy it is to overlook joy. We chalk up good feelings to chance or luck, certain that they will pass as quickly as they seemingly came. Moments of bliss get minimized while we anxiously imagine the dread that will follow. Our conviction that sorrow and distress are always looming creates a desire to take the other shoe off instead of waiting for it to drop. We offer up prayers, light candles, set intentions, cross our fingers and hold our breath hoping that our discomfort will pass quickly. Then when it does and we are once again enveloped by happiness and peace, we dismiss it. We barely catch our breath before we're holding it again. 

What would it be like to fully embrace our joy? What would it be like to count our blessings as we're experiencing them instead of in the midst of a crisis? How would life be different if we existed in abundance rather than deprivation? 

I tell clients that this is what being recovered means. It is gratitude for what is rather than concentration on what isn't. It is accepting that we deserve goodness rather than certainty of everlasting punishment. Being recovered is being fully alive, fully experiencing both our good fortune and our bad. Today, I will practice this. I will give thanks for the bountiful goodness in my life. I will prioritize joy and place value on grace.

Comments

[Kym]

Thank you so much for this blog! Over the past few months I've been working really hard to stay out of what I call my "misery mind." My Misery mind is where I see the negative side of things, don't believe I can do anything, that bad things will come, etc. It has made a big difference to stop and purposely look at things from my "wise" mind which is much more realistic My motto (wish I could remember who the author was) is "Misery is not on my list of options for today."

[nicola]

wow this was amazing and really gave me a new perspective thank you

[Cindy B.]

Wonderful. Thank you so much.

[Cindy B.]

I really want this for myself. To get away from the "Our conviction that sorrow and distress are always looming..." It seems such a natural state for me, to yo-yo in and out of states of happiness and fear. I used to think that's how it was in recovery, but I'm learning that's not the case.

I had no idea all this stuff was hidden under ED, but I am so grateful that I can see it today and make strides toward change.

So I tried embracing joy last night when I went out w/ some friends. I made a conscious effort to be present and not feel 'guilty' for being out or attaching some projected nonsense on to it. I had a good time and even laughed.

Maybe that is 'fully embracing joy.' I don't know, I probably have a perfectionist expectation or definition of what joy is supposed to be or feel like that I need to let go of.

What I gather here is joy is at my finger tips and I don't earn it, it's already here.

Any how I really loved this post.
Thank you.