Rushing Through the Joy
Yesterday I caught myself thinking the following, “How
can I get ready faster in the morning so I can get to work
earlier?”
Now, I love my work but, c’mon!
I realized that, yet again, I was focused on the result
instead of the joy of the journey. If we took vacations that
way, we would miss the whole point! And isn’t that what
we do in life? We completely miss the point.
Yesterday, when I realized how ridiculous my thought
was, I was in the shower. Suddenly, I started to pay
attention to how great the shower felt and how fortunate I
am to have this luxury available to me every day.
In that moment, I made a conscious choice to stop rushing
through the joy. Would you care to join me? It’s a very
simple process but difficult, as well, because old habits
sometimes die hard.
Here is how to slowly savor the joys in life:
• The next time anyone smiles at you, allow
yourself to feel the warmth
• Fully experience how good your morning
beverage tastes on your tongue and how it feels as
it slides down your throat and enters your tummy
• When you finish a task or a project, have a little
celebration. Heck, have a big one!
• Feel the sun’s warmth on your face or enjoy the
smell of the rain
• Look around and notice things to appreciate about
your co-workers, your boss, and your customers
• Take the time to notice your own talents and to
enjoy using them
• Think thoughts that cause you to feel good
The Law of Attraction says you attract more of what you
focus on. When we rush through the joy, we are delivering
a message that joy is unimportant to us. Sadly, if life
delivers to us the balance of what we think about (and it
does), then we are constantly receiving more problems,
more reasons to rush, more discontent. And we keep
telling ourselves and anyone who will listen that we really
really want more joy! (Really!)
It has often been said that you never enjoy good health
more than immediately after you’ve been quite ill. How
sad that we have to have such dramatic occurrences in
order to enjoy our many gifts.
Life can be hard. I would never dispute that. In the face of
that fact, I’d like to think that we are smart enough to
enjoy the good things while they are here and savor the
memory of them when they’re not.
We are so hard to please. In the heat of summer, we long
for the cool of winter. In the frigid winter, we long for the
summer. When we have work, we complain about it.
When we don’t have work, we wish fervently that we did.
Sheesshhh! Make up your mind!
I remember taking a workshop years ago that was titled,
“Be Here Now.” What a great statement. Be here now.
My friend Jody suffers from depression. She will often call
me and express her fears. What soothes her is when I ask
her, “Jody, is everything okay right this minute? Do you
have food, clothing and shelter? Do you have some
money? Are you in any physical pain? Are your loved ones
okay?” The vast majority of the time everything is okay.
So where does her fear lie? It lies in the future as she
forecasts all manner of tragedy.
Rushing past all the joys in our life, we hurtle recklessly
toward a future we’ve made up in our heads and, in the
process cause ourselves needless pain. If our worst fears
are realized, we’ve suffered twice. If they never happen,
we’ve suffered needlessly.
Be here now. Savor the joys. You can always rush
tomorrow if you find it’s a better approach.
