Joy Series - 10 WAYS TO HOLD ON TO YOUR JOY
Life may be full of difficulties, disappointments, and uncertainties but there are some positive things you can enjoy and keep looking forward to despite life’s hardships. One of the greatest gifts given to humanity is the gift of joy. Inner joy can get you through a tough day, it can bring you peace in your life, it can give you the strength to go on and keep you believing in yourself.
However, holding on to your joy is not as easy as you may want it to be. There are certain things or happenings that have the power to steal your joy with minimum effort. Hence you have to make a choice to hold on to your joy against all odds. You have to master the best ways of remaining happy at all costs if you are to continue enjoying your everyday life and begin turning your dreams into reality.
1. Avoid trying to please everyone.
Nothing good can ever come out of constantly trying to please everyone you meet or everyone around you. Begin retaining your joy by being yourself instead of pretending to be someone you are not just so you can please your friends, your co-workers, or your family.
2. Take care of yourself.
Taking care of yourself and loving the way you are will give you the peace you need to get through any hardships you face in life. If you begin looking after yourself by watching what you eat, exercising, and doing more of what you enjoy, choosing joy over anything else will be easy.
3. Forget your past and start living in the present.
Constantly reflecting on your unpleasant past will cause you to neglect what you have. So, let go of what happened in the past and start living in the present. You will begin to experience positive changes in your relationships, your work, and your life in general. The kind of happiness that no one can take away from you.
4. Forgive more and refuse to hold grudges.
Forgiving someone who has wronged you is not easy more so when that person refuses to apologize but you have to forgive them anyway. Why? Because it is all about you and never about the offender. It is about finding peace in your life and avoiding anything that will harm your health. The spirit of forgiving is the only thing that will give you peace and joy after you have been wronged.
5. Invest in yourself.
Doing good for others is great but failing to invest in yourself in the process is the worst form of injustice you can give yourself. Start investing in yourself if you are to continue experiencing the joy you have found in life.
6. Get rid of energy-sapping activities that have no reward.
Holding on to the things you hate or things that leave you feeling frustrated has the power to steal your joy. It is the main reason you feel grumpy all the time. All manner of work is dignified and should leave you in a better state than you were before you began. Hence, begin getting rid of tasks that demand too much of your attention but offer no reward.
7. Do good for someone else.
Concentrating on putting a smile on someone’s face goes a long way towards holding onto your joy. Try doing something good for someone else as often as you can afford to. It will help you realize how much you matter. It is one way of keeping your happiness by realizing how much you can make a difference in the world.
8. Spend time alone.
Taking some time off to reflect on who you are, how far you have come, what you have accomplished, and what you intend to accomplish is a brilliant way of maximizing on things that bring you bliss.
9. Do one thing you have always wanted.
At some point in life, you may have thought of taking a long trip. Away from everything else but somewhere along the line, you decided it was a waste of resources or time. I advise you to go ahead and fulfill your wish. Go on that trip because you deserve it. Do the one thing you have always wanted to do and refuse to feel guilty about it because half the time people fail to do what they want to do because they are afraid of how they might be judged. When they decide to go ahead with what they have planned, they spend half the time worrying about whether or not it was the smartest thing to do.
Forget about that for a while and go ahead and do what you have always wanted to do. As long as it is something good and not harmful.
10. Spend more time working towards your set goals.
The best way of holding onto your joy is by spending more time working towards your goals as well as becoming better and less time listening to negative opinions. Working on your goals is a brilliant way of blocking negative emotions or the need to entertain them.