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Daily Question, May 27

How do I find joy when joy feels beyond reach?

  • Christine

    Joy comes for me by saying a rosary every day. What I mean is, that joy comes to me when I experience the answers to all my problems dropping into place so easily, when I keep to this habit. As Our Lady promised, recitation of the rosary does not mean we won’t encounter difficulties but the joy and opportunity for gratitude that I experience when receiving the help I need through her intercession is really something.

  • Nala Ray

    My life has been feeling stagnant because of the people I used to hang around. After dropping their company, I felt so alone but as time progressed, I realised it was for the best because I could see life in a new light.

  • Don Jones

    Covid has been my constant companion this week. I cannot recall another time in my life where I have felt so physically sick and miserable. But through that turbulence, there was a reflection on all that is and that gave hope, comfort and rest. As the storm is abating, looking at everything afresh brings a new warmth.

    • Mike

      I can commiserate as I tested positive Thursday morning. So far I have mild cold symptoms, but am “out of commission” for a time. Here’s to us both for a quick restoration!

    • sunnypatti

      I pray you recover quickly and completely.

    • Hermann-Josef

      My best wishes for your recovery, Don. Take care

  • JD

    I focus on the things that I love in my life. Be it family or friends, or even a funny moment that still makes me laugh.

  • Mica

    I email her 🙂
    Joy is my daughter’s name.
    Happily, we are closer now than we were at some stages of our lives.

  • pkr

    I walk. I take a walk amongst the big trees, Redwoods. I feel the Joy in/of Mother Nature. She sets me right. She gives me hope. She reminds me of the Joy that surrounds me.
    Blessings & Love to All here.❤️✨🙏

  • Hermann-Josef

    Embrace the moment, like a mother embraces her beloved child.

  • BeautyWay

    Your past is not your future unless you live there – and living there prevents you from learning how to find joy in the present. If you’ve lost a loved one, ended a relationship or have been struggling financially, these are certainly valid reasons to feel down. Let yourself feel sad or lonely, but never hopeless. Ask yourself what you can learn about yourself from your experiences and emotions.

  • Hot Sauce

    When joy feels beyond reach, I can find a little bit of joy in remembering that in all difficulty is an opportunity to learn an important life lesson and grow.

  • Charlie T

    By wrapping my heart in darkness, in the belief that I am protecting it from pain and uncertainty, I am also making it unavailable to the joy and love that is always there. I’m trying to keep my heart open to all of it.

  • Yram

    In the light of the American happenings of this week, joy is not the bubbly expression. It is rather a deep down feeling of gratitude for what is.

    • Mica

      Thank you for your answer, Yram – no bubbles of joy at the moment, but the joy is still there inside. I like that. 🙂

  • Nicki

    I don’t always seek joy. What is more important to me than joy is openness and beauty. What is beautiful is not always joyful. But when I stay open and ready to receive whatever the moment has to offer, I am often surprised by some glint of beauty within all that seems broken.

  • Antoinette

    Usually joy happens when I let go of expectations . Joy is available in the present moment when we let go.

  • Barb C

    I don’t find it–it finds me at unexpected moments. I can’t think about the search for joy this week. I know it will come, unasked, because that’s part of being human. The more important part of being a member of the human family for me this week is sitting with the pain of loss for those families in Uvalde, and knowing that other families also grieve loss from gun violence in this most deadly of countries.

    • Hermann-Josef
      Since I was born, constantly there is war, cruelty and murder. Why do we as human beings create weapons, sell it, buy it or use it? I think most of the time it happens because of our mental state of negative emotions. Fear, anger, depression, wanting to have something which I don‘t have. I think we actively have to seek joy within and make others joyful. Positive feelings like joy, love, contentment, thankfulness are the best skills to hinder our mental sickness and use weapons. Or killing tho...

      Since I was born, constantly there is war, cruelty and murder. Why do we as human beings create weapons, sell it, buy it or use it? I think most of the time it happens because of our mental state of negative emotions. Fear, anger, depression, wanting to have something which I don‘t have. I think we actively have to seek joy within and make others joyful. Positive feelings like joy, love, contentment, thankfulness are the best skills to hinder our mental sickness and use weapons. Or killing thousands of animals because I like to eat them because of their taste. Love, compassion, joy on a human level must be active . It is the activity of the soul..

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  • carol

    Today I had the opportunity to learn about this finding of joy.
    I practiced meta in the midst of my irritation and some worry. I had to keep coming back to it. I had to keep choosing. And then surprise, a kind of Joy was waiting there for me.

  • Mary Pat

    Whatever is happening to me, I need to experience it and go through it to find joy. Avoiding what has happened will not bring joy, it will only delay the experience of joy.

  • sunnypatti

    If I can’t reach joy, then there must be something else going on that I need to sit with. We aren’t joyful 100% of the time. I’d like to be, but stuff happens. So I try to sit with my feelings and realize what they are trying to tell me/teach me. Then I can move back into my natural state of joy. Sometimes I need help getting there… from a loved one, meditation, or something like yoga or surfing, but joy is always waiting on the other side.

    • Mica

      Yes, sunnypatti, I think I put too much effort into the idea that my life is really not so bad on a global scale. It’s probably silly to try to minimize my pain. Sadness is probably a better emotion for me at the moment. Many thanks and warm wishes to you – 🙂

  • Cheska

    Honestly, I can’t find the right words to answer this right now. With everything that has happened to me, every waking day is just too overwhelming for me. Joy is something that I wanted to achieve. They say that it should start within me, but it’s just too hard right now. I guess the easiest thing that I can do right now to find joy is to be with my friends, eat good foods, treat myself to a spa, or just watch a movie. Nothing grand.

    • Mica

      Thank you, Cheska – yes, being with what is actually in you is probably a good thing to do much of the time. I took a wonderful yoga class this week, and the instructor said to chant “Ham” in the throat [pronounced ‘humm’] for dealing with some negative emotion such as anger. I can feel that resonating in my belly. She described a turquoise blue color at the throat, but that’s harder for me to see. Warm wishes to you! 🙂

  • Laura

    Sometimes I can’t. The wound or the fear may be too great, blocking all the light. Joy can’t be forced.
    Most of the time, joy finds me in my everyday experiences. That’s the lovely thing about it. I never know where or when it will grab me by the shoulders, look me in the eye with a huge smile on its face and say, “Isn’t this glorious?!”

  • Javier Visionquest

    Maybe joy is not out of reach. Maybe I’m out of touch

    • Mica

      Oh, dear, Dear Javier. Those words sound like they may be sad but true. Warm wishes to you –

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