Life Is Full Of Joy
By: Supriya Sirbi
Tags: Personal Development, Life Lessons, Personal Growth, Happiness, Beyourself

Life Is Full Of Joy

I often hear people saying that Life is like an ice cream Enjoy it, Live life to the fullest, Be happy Live happy etc. As a young woman growing up in early 20’s, I questioned every time I saw those quotes. How could one stay happy everyday? Aren’t humans bogged down by everyday stress and failures? Is it even possible to stay happy forever in one’s life?

As a free spirited and independent woman trying to juggle career, relationships and an inner battle to find out the true meaning of happiness, I chose to find answers by myself. So here’s what I found out towards my journey of finding the answer to the question “Is Life Full of Joy?”

Love Yourself

This was the first step I took towards my journey. Let’s all agree that we all do have our flaws and are not at all perfect. We are bad at time management or lazy at times, get bogged down by small failures and the list goes on… But rather than looking at the negatives, I started looking at the good within me. I started writing 3 good things about me everyday and this helped me to love myself. I started to think why was I so negative all the time rather than being proud of what I am today. I accepted that I can’t be perfect all the time and loving my imperfections is the first key towards finding joy.

2. Stop Comparing your Life

This was my second step towards finding joy. Whenever i saw my friend’s post on marriage, kids or exotic vacation trips, I thought to myself why I am not the lucky one? But then I looked my fingers and thought, “Are all the fingers alike?”. No. Then how can my life be alike someone else? I have my own unique journey towards life and I must learn to enjoy what’s given to me. So rather than comparing my life, I started to enjoy my journey of life everyday.

3. Be grateful to what you have

This step was an after effect to the above step. When I stopped comparing my life, I started looking at the wonderful things I already have. I had a wonderful family, a challenging career, a good boss and nice friends to lean onto. There are so many people in this world who don’t have the luxuries in life that I enjoy. So rather than complaining or craving for things I didn’t have, I learnt to be grateful for things I already had. I thanked God everyday for his blessings upon me and this made me happier.

4. Learn something new everyday

Since my childhood I was always curious about how things worked and wanted to learn new things. But with time, I had changed a lot. I got lost into everyday tasks and had stopped learning. I did my everyday job but felt I was missing something in my life. The once so curious kid had changed into this new one. I knew “change” was needed. So I started learning new everyday. I would read new blogs, solve few puzzles, learn about the new technology and this helped me go back to the curious kid once again.

5. Try a next new version of yourself

Once I started learning new everyday, I noticed that my happiness quotient increased. Whenever I read new blogs, I would experiment writing a small one. Whenever I saw a cooking video, I would try cooking the same at home. Thus from being a software developer, I noticed I had so many unknown smaller versions of me being a painter, cook and blogger. I would have never known these versions of me if I had not started on my journey towards finding joy.

6. Nature as the best healer

So yes the above things kept me happy for few days. But there were times when I couldn't control being angry, sad, depressed or unhappy. During those times I read a wonderful article which explained the power of nature. It went on to prove that nature can heal you of any pain and can make you happy. I wanted to try this new found method. I started going for long walks in parks, enjoying the beautiful nature and flowers around me and also started planting new trees. The magic did work when i was really sad. I felt that nature did have the power to heal you of any pain and being close to nature makes every human being happy.

7. Find a new reason to smile everyday

As a part of my journey, I started to find a new reason to smile everyday. I would joke about myself and watch few funny videos. This helped me to stop taking myself seriously. We all have one life, why waste it in ego clashes and being dead serious about life. I remembered the lines “ Don’t be dead now. A time will come. Its time to be alive”. I started finding humor when I was talking with people and this made me to spread joy to others as well.

8. Work towards your big dream everyday

We all have big dreams to work at finest places, make good money, start your own business etc. But are we ready to take risks and sacrifice to achieve our big goals in life? The answer I have heard from many is “I don’t know”. If you have big dreams in life, if you are not sure if you want to take the much needed risk to achieve that goal, then start small. Spend sometime everyday thinking about the goal and practicing it. It maybe just one hour everyday, but do it religiously. I wanted to be the best software developer but that was just a thought. I started solving few challenging problems everyday to become one.

9. Find your higher purpose above money

We all work to gain good money. But I believe that we all have a responsibility towards our society. This purpose is much beyond money and can give you the much needed satisfaction in life. I don’t know your higher purpose, it can be anything for example helping old people, contributing towards charity, making our surrounding cleaner and greener etc. These purposes make your life meaningful and help you find joy. When i started teaching kids for free, I noticed that I was happier than before. Thus my journey towards finding joy became more meaningful with this new step.

These steps are something that worked out for me :) Today I am a much happier person than I ever was. The path to finding joy made me explore the unknown boundaries and find a new happy person which was lost within me.

I am sure you will find your happy person some day :)