Joy as a Resilience Practice
I’m not sure if you read my previous blog post, about my intentions for 2025? (If not, here it is). Well, since then it feels like the world has only gone further off the rails, and finding and creating joy has been HARD. But it’s right there in my intentions: that I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but that it would be important. So after a few days of roller coastering my way through the news, and meditating to try to regain control of my own brain and nervous system, I’m coming back to this intention.
Joy.
Seems almost like a silly luxury right now, right?
But what if we approach Joy as a resilience practice? An essential strategy to strengthen our mental health, and help those around us..? Perhaps not such a luxury after all.
In a world where we seem to be exposed to a lot of fear-mongering and hate-mongering, I’ve decided to try my hand at Joy-mongering. Am I an expert of some sort? Nope. I’ve done some reading about happiness, and how the brain and nervous system can be triggered and/or trained. I created an experimental immersive installation called The Serenity Experience back in 2018, and had a lot of fun interacting with friends and strangers alike, seeing how the various elements affected people. And I completed a Mindfulness certificate program through the University of Toronto, which opened me up to a whole world of beautiful people studying the mind and it’s connection to the body. I would highly recommend the program.
But for now, let’s keep it simple. 21 fun and easy ways to increase your experience of Joy. One small thing daily for 3 weeks. Ideally, something to be shared with someone, so that we can each create ripples of joy, and help each other out.
A step you can take today to help support your mental health:
create a device-free buffer zone at the beginning and end of your day - even 30 minutes without screen time after waking up and again before going to sleep will help your mind ease into and out of the day, and will create a noticeable difference in your start-of-day mindset and quality of sleep
My next post will include a few easy suggestions of how to approach this 21-day Joy itinerary, and in particular how to share it with those around you. Stay tuned!
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