joy.

welcome to a joyful commotion.

websters dictionary defines joy as: 1) an emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires 2) a state of happiness or felicity 3) a source or cause of delight

joy is most commonly recognized as happiness, however the two are very different.[ joy is cultivated internally and consistently whereas happiness is superficially produced based on other people, thoughts or events.] (Psychologies 2015).

right now, i want you to focus on the first part of the first definition for joy; an emotion evoked by well-being.
what is well-being?

when i hear the word well-being, i think of a larger scale of life essential needing to be met over just a simple current state of emotion. well-being to me seems to cover every capacity in our lives from mental health, emotional health, relationships, self-worth, faith, goals and dreams.

how often do we think of joy as an encompassing emotion for our ENTIRE existence? truthfully, probably not very often. we’re often given these daily doses of what i call “joy juice” where we feel joy in little instants like in a smile from a friend or from our favorite song on the radio. or when our children play kindly with each other or our spouse gives us an unexpected compliment. these “joy juice” moments, although genuine and blissful, are sadly only temporary moments in an otherwise stressful, hard, crappy and exhausting life.

wouldn’t it be nice to not have to be searching for joy everyday? what if it was just always there?
what if we could live a life that when even in the hardest, toughest and most challenging times, we are able to feel true joy and peace. what if those smiles from a friend were because you were already smiling and they finally smiled back. what if children playing kindly together became a more normal scenario in your home than you screaming at them to get along? what if your spouse told you every single day how much they appreciated you and together you had meaningful and passionate interactions daily.
imagine a life where you have complete control over your thoughts and have the tools you need to manage the times when crap happens, because lets be honest, crap happens to.every.single.one.of.us. none of us is exempt from hardships, suffering, heartache, loss and pain.

imagine a world where we are all feeling more joy. a world where we are more mindfully and intentionally creating routine habits of joyfulness. a world where we can quickly pull ourselves out of the dark moments that unquestionably will come and in turn are able to bring others joy.

well, that world starts today.
it starts with you and me.
it starts right here on this blog that you’ve come to either because you know me personally and I told you to come read it or because you typed in “joy” or “happiness” in that google search bar. it starts with a community that we are going to build together as i share experiences on living a more intentional life to create joy in everything i do, feel and see.
i’ll share practices and advice on how you can create daily habits of joyfulness.
i’ll share stories of how i’ve taken steps to overcome trials and how those trials led to intentional joy.
i’ll share your stories. real stories from others just like you and their journeys to find consistent joy in their lives.

during your time on this blog, you can expect a plethora of stories, advice, statistics, quotes and photos, but you can also expect a lot of interaction on your part.
that’s right, don’t just think you’re going to get to come here, read all these genius thoughts i’m sprinkling the internet with, and only take it with you to “think about later” or “maybe apply” when its convenient for you.
oh no! i’ll be inspiring you to do weekly joyful challenges. i’ll share joyful practices and joyful habits for you to incorporate into your day or week, and also have some calls to actions to hold you accountable for actual change in your life.

so, are you ready?
ok, lets go!