What's Holding You Back From Experiencing Joy
- Jeanice Sherai
- Aug 16, 2023
- 3 min read
Recently, I've taken the time to write down moments of joy and fulfillment intentionally. I decided I needed to document these moments so that when the enemy tries to fill my mind with thoughts that are not true about this beautiful life I am living, I can refer back to these moments and know he is a liar.
Three Things Keeping You From Experiencing Joy:
Unawareness of Our Thought Patterns During Idle Time
Idle time leaves you feeling unsatisfied and unappreciated. When I sit with nothing, my thoughts begin to run rampant concerning what I'm missing, not fulfilling, and lacking. I recently realized how much those thoughts were a lie in an office setting. I had become bored, and my mind ran rampant.
"Was it time for something different? Am I satisfied here? Did I need a change?"
These thoughts began to fill my mind as I sat idle.
These thoughts, however, began to disseminate as I worked diligently on a current project and was no longer sitting bored and idle.
I realized I must do two things to combat these thoughts in the future.
First, I must silence them with the truth.
Second, I must appreciate downtime but never let downtime dictate my life and day.
My fulfillment comes from work and service. God created human beings to work, and when our hands are not involved in the service of this world, our thoughts will become highly active. That activity can produce creativity, but in the wrong setting, it can also make us feel like we are not valued and worthless.
Allowing Our Feelings to Dictate Our Life.
Our feelings indicate where we are but should not determine what we need to move through that place.
Should we pay attention to how we feel in situations? Absolutely.
Should we allow our emotions to dictate our actions in situations? No.
Yes, we do need to listen to our feelings and emotions and respond appropriately. Yet, if our actions are based on feelings, fear may keep us from living, and the sense of offense may keep us from socializing. Two things that are imperative when allowing joy and fulfillment into our life.
I've realized that my feelings often would not produce what I genuinely needed in a situation because what I felt 90% of the time resulted from a cycle of ongoing negative thoughts. Thoughts cycling around in my mind focused on past hurts, fear, worry, what-ifs, and situations that have not happened and will likely, not occur. As an introvert, it's not easy for me to be social. Yet, getting out and about and enjoying my family and community brings me alive. How I feel about socializing could easily keep me home. Still, I've realized that no matter how I think/feel, I need to go because my research proves that being involved in the community and outside in the sunshine will always cause me to experience joy.
Not Realizing the Power In Choice When It Comes To Our Thoughts
We have a choice of what we feed our minds.
I can allow myself to feed my mind things I know will cause me anxiety, worry, and depression, or I can feed my mind things that bring it light, joy, and happiness.
Mental wellness is not a natural product of our life.
It's an intentional and ongoing work. We must choose to think and speak life. We must choose who we entertain and what we allow to fill our minds. How we strengthen our minds will directly connect to the life we experience. It will directly connect to the joy we experience. Experiencing joy is possible, but it will require the intention to understand what things truly brings us joy.
Our life is beautiful, but it does take the right eyes to see it.
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