The Search For Joy In The Darkest Conditions

Enjoying routine daily experiences contributes to improving your lifestyle, and strengthening your psychological health, and while many are overwhelmed by the huge amount of information — often negative — from news and social media, preoccupied with financial instability, political and civil unrest, finding inner and outer peace has become difficult.

“Do your best, and be a little better than you are.”

― Gordon B. Hinckley

In addition, the added stress of many adults working from home goes hand in hand with fulfilling their other renewed roles and responsibilities, and meeting the academic needs of their children, so how can we as individuals and groups find the joy to lift our spirits and get through difficult times

Strategies for finding joy in your life:

Here are some inspiring ideas that will change your life:

1. Listening to music:

Listening to the songs you love and closest to your heart will help you relive positive moments and memories, and provide an outlet from strenuous daily challenges. reviving these memories by listening to music is an easy and effective way to improve your mood while working or doing tasks at home.

Research has shown that listening to favorite music tracks, reduces the feeling of anxiety, lowers blood pressure, improves sleep quality, and also enhances mood.

2. Practice gratitude daily:

Not only do you have to be grateful for big gifts, but it is enough to show your gratitude for ordinary simple blessings such as: “I am grateful to be in a roofed house”, “I am grateful that the sun’s rays reflected on my body every morning without any harm”, “I am grateful for the delicious meal I had today”, write a note at the end of each day, or say gratitude phrases out loud easily.

Gratitude will help you to correctly assess bad circumstances when going through difficult or painful times, will cheer you up with the smallest and easiest details in an indirect way, and keeps you away from exhausting self-exaggerations.

3. Devote time to imagining future desires and dreams:

Close your eyes and focus on the places, people, or things that are dear to you, or even imagine a place for a vacation.

Breathe at that moment, visualize yourself in that vast space or desired position, imagine colors, tastes, and conversations, spend five minutes living this dream with all your being, breathe slowly and relax your body, some of us may prefer to enhance the relaxing experience by lying down with a pillow or blanket on top of the body, or by sitting on a chair with a pillow behind the back and under the feet.

Meditating regularly in this way reminds you that any difficult situation you are dealing with — such as isolation, sadness, or despair — is temporary, and you will reach the same result again, a positive experience that will bring joy to you, and short effective meditation practices will prompt you to repeat it.

4. Find a delightful moment of amazement every day:

“Surprise “is a concept that describes a state of feeling when going through an amazingly wonderful experience, the idea of surprise may usually evoke the image of something great happening, such as diving in the” Great Barrier Reef “(Great Barrier Reef) or seeing the” Eiffel Tower “(Eiffel Tower) in Paris, but scientists ‘ research has found that observing simple and pleasant moments every day will bring the same result.

You can experience “pleasant amazement” by observing the first moments of sunrise, watching the ants walk, reading beautiful verses of poetry, hiking a new route, and seeing interesting rocks or flowers.

Take the time to notice the details of the things around you, which you used to see before, by enjoying them, you realize the hidden meanings of your life, feel a strong connection with the world as a whole, and experience more joy and everyday delight.

Tips for helping others to feel cheerful:

The following ideas can help others experience joy, and because helping others is one of the best ways to feel happier and healthier, you will feel joy when they feel it.

Send kind messages, poems, or inspirational drawings to others; repeating this activity will convey feelings of comfort, joy, and self-satisfaction to the happiness of others, in addition, it will distract you from everyday conflicts and negative emotions.

Start by collecting excess change, or any small amount of money every day, to donate to a charity of your choice, and write a letter to the charity at the end of a specific period — from one to three months to let them know what you have done and the goal of donating; saving money and seeing the fruits of your effort will spread joy by achieving the desired goal.

In addition, the letter-writing step will provide an opportunity to demonstrate goodwill, which is often a golden opportunity to feel overwhelming happiness after showing our positive side to others instead of hiding it.

Helping others with any simple matter will reduce the percentage of stress, and joy will fill your heart from their expressions of thanks and gratitude, and they will also rejoice at the beautiful deed you have done.

In conclusion:

As you can see, achieving the experience of joy with all the difficulties we finally face on a personal and collective level, is easy by making some simple adjustments to our daily activities.