The way I know this is that, if it did, I would have finished my taxes and had my rerund by now.

Once again it is snowing. Schools have been closed, travel in the Blue Ridge Mountains, with their penchant for black ice, may be difficult or even dangerous. I am grateful for having the day off to play/create in my home studio.

All of my fiber art is, in some way, spiritual; I began by making labyrinths, then buddha-figures; now I am making purses. What ties them all together is the joy I feel when I am creating; I have come to the conclusion that there is no higher art than this, whether I am creating something in my studio, serving a customer at the fabric store where I work part-time, or making dinner with a friend. Joy is what makes each of these acts holy, whole, and spiritual.

• Make regular play dates with yourself to do one of those things you are always too busy to do but which you really enjoy.

• Do something similar to the things you most enjoyed as a child. (For example: if you liked making up stories, try writing or storytelling. if you liked banging on pots and pans, take a drumming workshop. if you liked playing dress-up, go try on some clothes, just for the fun of it.)

• Imagine every cell in your body as a happy face, giggling.

• Quit listening to/reading your usual news sources. (Try this for 1 week; this includes “women’s magazines.”)

• Check out positive news sites, such as: http://www.positivenews.org.uk/cgi-bin/Positive_News/welcome.cgi.

• When you feel irritated by someone, search for something you appreciate about them instead.

• Remember the “glow” from when you first met your current partner? Come from that space the next time you see them.

• Look for things to smile or laugh about, remembering that the joy comes from within you.

• How often do you smile during the day? (Extra credit: smiling for no apparent reason.)

• When was the last time you laughed out loud? (Extra credit: laughing for no apparent reason—it just pops out of you.)

• Do you have any sacred cows? (Topics which you consider too serious to laugh about—ever?)

• Under what circumstances do you feel most joyful? (Did you ever notice that the common thread in all those circumstances is you?)

• Do you consciously bring your inner joy to your: day? work? relationships? How?

• If you find something (including a thought) upsetting, how often do you choose to turn away from it and focus on something uplifting instead?

• Go back to your earliest memories of yourself as a child:

—What were you most likely to do when playing unsupervised?

—How often do you engage in similar activities as an adult?

• What do you do to actively bring joy to a(ny) relationship after the first glow is gone?

*There are no wrong answers, and none will be provided, but coming soon are suggestions for keeping the glow going in your life.

Check out this picture for a reminder of what joy is like: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mongol/465550988/

I’m sure you’re wondering what that means. One of my “mentors,” Abraham, says you must “make a decision that you’re going to be happy one way or another—no matter what.” But if you are relying on the external world to make this possible, you are coming at it from the wrong direction. The happiness comes from within you, and is then radiated to the world around you. I invite you to take this challenge which I recently gave to a client who was one of the least happy people I had ever met: Each day, come up with one thing that you are happy about. The first few times she really struggled with this, but within a few weeks she was coming into the office enthusiastic and excited to share what she was happy about that day, and each day the list got longer. Now, the things in her life, and in the world, hadn’t changed—she was the one who had changed; at my urging, she had decided to try bringing a different attitude to how she lived her life. Interestingly, as she got more skilled at this, her world DID change; very quickly there was more of what she really wanted in her life, things which hadn’t been there when I first suggested the practice. 

http://www.thingstobehappyabout.com/

I recently attended a concert by one of my favorite singer-songwriters (Peter Mayer) and had a huge smile on my face from beginning to end. I kept the glow with me through the rest of the evening and was still radiating it the next morning, but I allowed it to fade when I went to work. Then, during a challenging interaction, I remembered the concert, and the glow, and brought that forward once again into the current situation. Suddenly I was smiling, and things began flowing more easily. Whenever you get into a funk, recall a time when you felt joyous and bring that feeling forward with you. And check out http://www.petermayer.net for some delightful music.

Judgment can keep us from many moments of unexpected delight. If you go into every experience already knowing what you think, what you expect, what you want, it will be much harder to be surprised by joy. I recently went into a local fast food restaurant, about which I normally have a lot of judgments but, because it had been built in line with the local architecture, I was curious and was able to be delighted by the sight and sound of a player baby grand piano in the corner. Just the memory of it puts a smile on my face.  C. S. Lewis, a rather proper don at Oxford who wrote the book entitled Surprised by Joy, was surprised by a brassy American woman named Joy whom he eventually married. How can you be “surprised by joy” today?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surprised_by_Joy

The Happy Virus

I caught the happy virus last night

When I was out singing beneath the stars.

It is remarkably contagious -

So kiss me.

Hafiz

It seems that happiness is contagious. When I remember to be happy, the people around me seem to be happier, too. If you don’t believe me or  Hafiz, then maybe you’ll believe research by Harvard Medical School. See: http://www.webmd.com/balance/news/20081204/happiness-is-contagious. And for more poetry by Hafiz, see http://www.astrodreamadvisor.com/Hafiz.html.

After several months of change (during which I left behind my back yard labyrinth, and am still pondering how to create a large, portable one), I am returning to my online journal with a new focus: Ignite Delight. In case you’re wondering what that means, one of my “mentors,” Abraham, says you must “make a decision that you’re going to be happy one way or another—no matter what.” But if you are relying on the external world to make this possible, you are coming at it from the wrong direction. The happiness comes from within you, and is then radiated to the world around you. I invite you to take this challenge: each day, come up with one thing that you are happy about. It can be as simple as seeing a butterfly, or as profound as reconnecting with someone whose relationship you thought was lost to you. In the next weeks I’ll be journaling about some of my own delights. Blessings.   http://www.thingstobehappyabout.com/