Connecting to Joy

It's full summer, my work is going well, websites are taking on "personalities" of their own, my sculpture pieces are moving along, and my urban sketching is still great fun. I'm living in a wonderful place close to nature, next to a vineyard. Birds, animals, wildflowers, and trees surround me. It's a time of creative energies, comfort, and joy.
A big revelation that I am on this summer is that all these "venues" that I create can express these things. I can share the good things with others. Somehow, everything that I do is flowing together and all I have to do is flow with it in joy, contentment, and happiness. It's a journey and more and more I want to share it with others and bring you along with me. Sometimes, especially on my websites, I follow traditional advice and try to sound "professional," which means writing in a manner of professional detachment, avoiding overly emotive sentiments. That is wrong. The internet is a new concept in the world, and I want to approach it in new ways. This is a heads-up to you my readers to tell you that I will be modifying some of my writings and approaches to websites and blog. That's all I have to say. Except this—Follow Your Joy. 

Stress and Joy

Stress and joy are opposite sides of the same coin. We all have moments when we feel stress. And, hopefully, we all have moments when we feel great joy. When asked, most of my friends have said that they believe the opposite of joy to be sadness. But I believe it is stress. My reasoning is this: Both stress and joy are internally driven conditions.

The looming deadline or the overbearing boss may be part of your work experience. But stress is something you create inside you. You could potentially face all those same conditions without a feeling of stress. We use stress as a way of getting through rough or threatening conditions. It's possible to find numerous ways to Reduce Your Stress. But just imagine for a moment, what it would take to deal with that deadline without stress being a part of the equation. Perhaps you could face it by laying out step-by-step actions, or even by ignoring the "deadline" and just taking the project at your own pace, quick but not stressful.

Joy, on the other hand, should bring you happiness. People often ask, How do you find happiness? Often their answers involve something akin to winning the lottery so that they have money for everything they might want. However, studies of lottery winners show that they are no more happy after they win the lottery than before, and often it is the opposite. Winning makes them less happy, and lottery winners have a higher rate of suicide than non-winners.

Joy and happiness are internally created emotions. They are not based on things that happen around us. They can be created inside you at any moment, even in bad times. We see that time and time again in people who have faced disasters or personal destruction. The happy factor returns quickly to some people, while others dwell on the negative. I truly believe that joy is something you can build inside yourself and keep with you most of the time, if not always. It has taken me a lifetime, but I feel that joy and happiness are mine to own and create at will.

Tai Chi Travel Adventures

Tai Chi, on a Beach

When I took my first tai chi classes, almost 25 years ago, I immediately discovered the joy in practicing out of doors, in nature. At first, I just went to my local woodsy hiking place, Middlesex Fells in Massachusetts. I would walk the trail into the woods and then cut in off the trail, some place where no one would see. I'd find a flat clearing or sometimes a large flat boulder. Only need about 4 square feet to do the short form.  Face the north and begin.
I loved doing it outdoors! I have done tai chi on the beach at Wingaersheek (sp?) much like what you see in this photo by By Mike H from Seattle, USA (Tai chi) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. And so whenever I traveled to a new and interesting place, I started doing a bit of tai chi at exotic spots. On Cape Cod, I went out to the end of a rock jetty on Nantucket sound and did it on a flat rock while the waves crashed in. I practiced it somewhere near San Diego on a wooden pier out over the Pacific, again with the lovely sound of waves. I did it in Japan, though inside, in my Riokan traditional Japanese inn room, bare with only tatami mats and a lovely nook with scroll and blossoms. I tried to do it in India, on the balcony overlooking the Dalai Lama's residence and monastery in Dharmsala, but I found it hard to concentrate (!!) and then the monkeys came. I practiced it early one morning in Burma in a lovely garden outside our room. And I did a few movements on a balcony over the MeKong River looking into Laos on the other side, with a full shiny moon above. I am NOT an expert in Tai Chi and I can't even say that I study it. I just do it. With joy.