When Was the Last Time You Experienced Joy?

Most of us have moments where we feel happy. We look at our children and their laughs make us smile. We go and enjoy a holiday in exotic parts of the world with friends and family. Maybe we read a good book and enjoy a picnic with our spouse. However, when was the last time you experienced pure joy?

Pure joy is that feeling your felt as a child when you were anticipating opening the presents under the Christmas tree as you woke up on Christmas Morning. It is the feeling you felt as a child when you were faced with what seemed to be the biggest ice cream you had ever seen. Do you remember feeling excitement as you waited for the gates to open at a favorite theme park?

As we grow older, we lose the sense of pure joy that captivates a child’s mind. We rarely let ourselves enjoy our activities with the reckless abandon we did as children. Perhaps the closest we come to that joy is the moment we gaze in awe at our newly born baby or look at the glowing face of our child on their wedding day.

In your journal write down 5 child hood memories that you remember gave you feelings of deep joy and excitement, both as you anticipated them, and later as you experienced them. . If for example, eating an ice cream on the beach was a special child hood memory that made you skip with joy and anticipation, then take your family or your friends and enjoy ice creams on the beach with them. If you enjoyed going on family caravan holidays, then hire a caravan and in abandonment of the pressures of life, take time to go and explore and relive the adventures with your own family.

As adults the responsibilities of our lives, rob us of simple pleasures that give us joy. No journey of self-discovery is complete without looking at the person we were as a child and comparing the person we are now as an adult. The experiences that shaped our personalities have their roots in our childhood and spending time reflecting on them is an excellent way to guide our thinking as we try to rediscover the inner self.

These experiences are not only important for self-discovery, but equally as a means of self re-discovery.