Joy in Health and Happiness

Book excerpt: This book is for everyone from adolescent and on. It is a guide using a balanced approach to achieve joyful life. It outlines ways to achieve joy in forms of examples, quizzes and suggestions. In a way, it is like a recipe book where you can develop the recipe to suit your own individuality. However, all of the fundamentals discussed here lead to living a joyful life. Life is never without problems or issues, but problems and issues can be put in perspective and help minimized. It's easy to use and is meant for us to take notes, make evaluations of our progress, share with others, and really break each section down so we can learn how to apply it to our life and develop good habits. The concepts use a balanced approach and range from using common techniques such as breathing and yoga to steps we can use to boost self esteem and create positive relationships. Introduction To understand the meaning of joy, look at a little child who is playing with a toy. Children have an amazing ability to create a world with whatever is on hand. We see children give whatever they choose to play with their full and undivided attention. Children on a beach are a case in point; the only thing to play with is sand. However, they will create something, give it a name, put it in a context, and continue to build on that, completely oblivious to the weather, to the surroundings, and to people around them. When they are tired and want to go to bed, they'll quietly get up and go lie down. If we look at their face and study their body language, we see that they are utterly at peace with themselves. Maybe they are smiling, or humming, or even talking to themselves. They are relaxed. In a word, they are happy. This is real joy. If we are to apply this to ourselves, we will see that it is precisely the times when we were concentrating on some task we enjoy that we experience a sense of deep inner peace, bliss and contentment. As young adults, we are often confused about the meaning of joy. There is a tendency to link this feeling with externals: a shopping spree, hanging out, bumming it, rebelling against our parents or anyone in authority, and other such activities. Even as older people, we gravitate towards externals to afford us a sense of joy. What comes as a shock, sooner or later, is that in all of these circumstances, neither the young adult, nor the older person really experiences a feeling of joy: which, simply put, means that external things do not bring happiness. So, what is it that we are looking for? A thesaurus would give us many synonyms: delight, satisfaction, fullness of heart, elation, contentment. Take your pick. All of these are deep inner feelings. Therefore, they are directly connected to our minds, to what we think, and how we think. Joy is an inner peace, it is a sense of well-being. Where does it come from? It comes from deep within us. It comes from waking up to a brand new day and appreciating that fact; it comes from being aware of all the gifts that life has given us; it comes when we do right by ourselves and others; it is knowing and accepting that good and bad are part of life and that our calm sense of well-being and serenity will help us through all the rough spots, just as it will help us savor and relish the good spots.