Cultivate Gratitude and Joy April 5, 22

 Gratitude and Joy

Daily Affirmation: I am not less for making mistakes. I am more because I am learning.

Guidepost 4: Cultivating Gratitude and Joy, Letting go of Scarcity and Fear of the Dark

Imagine you’re watching a movie. The opening scene is a beautiful, sunlight day in the mountains. There’s a young family driving along the mountain road. They’re laughing, and smiling together. The camera cuts from scene to scene, showing their joy, and watching them as they drive together.

…What do you think happens next?

If you’re like most people, you had a thought like:

• “They get hit by a truck.”
• “They drive off a cliff.”
• “The dad has a heart-attack.”

This is what Brown refers to as “Foreboding Joy.” It’s the fear that the other shoe is going to drop when good things happen to us in life.

Many people carry an unconscious belief that says “I can’t have too much of a good thing…”

This belief comes from a place of scarcity. It says “I won’t let myself feel this joy, because it won’t last forever.”

Gratitude provides a clear pathway to experiencing more of this joy. By practicing gratitude for the opportunities you have to experience joy, you can be with it fully, even though it’s impermanent. And when the experience ends, you can be grateful that it happened at all!

The quickest way to eliminate joyful experiences from your life is to hold yourself back from feeling joy in the first place.

Start practicing:

1. Reframe your expectations about the level of joy you’re capable of experiencing in life. What if you expected to bring joy into each day?
2. Make noticing what you’re grateful for a part of your daily life. (Like keeping a gratitude journal.) There’s always something you can be grateful for. And therefore, always a reason to feel joy.
3. When you feel fear or scarcity, use it as an opportunity to practice gratitude. For example, if you fear losing something, connect with the reasons you’re grateful to have that thing/person/opportunity in your life in this moment. 

From the summary of the 10 Guideposts for Wholehearted Living, by Mindful Ambition (Based on Gifts of Imperfection by Brene' Brown)