If you were told you could have a life free of emotional struggle and hardship, would you believe it was possible?
I love this idea! And the eternal part of me believes this is totally possible.
I also believe this will be the natural state of a Zion people.
But do we have to wait till that time?
As I’ve pondered these questions, I have found pieces to my answers from several sources; each one giving me a little different perspective.
I have come to the conclusion that struggle and hardship are part of our human experience, HOWEVER…
“Suffering is optional.” –Byron Katie
(I’m talking about emotional suffering, not physical suffering)
Usually we equate struggle and hardship with negative emotions, but what if we just thought of them as circumstances (remember circumstances are neutral).
The suffering we experience comes because of our un-useful thoughts, feelings, and actions in these circumstances…
And… we have a choice over what we want to think, feel and do… so we can CHOOSE to not suffer.
This month, I want to explore “embracing what is…with joy” and explore this topic with you.
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“The human brain excels at noticing what it doesn’t like.” –Jody Moore
It seems to always be scanning for “things that aren’t right” or “what’s wrong in the world.”
It notices the garbage that is piled high that should have been taken out two days ago.
It notices your kids are whiny and complaining about doing their chores or homework.
It notices the news and all the ‘bad’ things that are happening.
All of this proof adds up…
And we start to feel inadequate, overwhelmed, frustrated, resentful and even afraid.
We have all these thoughts like…
“Life wasn’t supposed to look like this.”
“My relationships were supposed to be so much better.”
“I thought it would be different.”
These are not fun thoughts and it’s exhausting to live this way, constantly.
We allow our brain to notice these things and think these thoughts, because it’s easier…
Easier? Easier than what?
It’s easier to feel these FAMILIER feelings, than it is to override this default system in our brain and CHOOSE to focus on things that bring us gratitude and joy.
It’s our habit to allow these thoughts to run our life.
If we want to begin building Zion, maybe we should practice bringing our thoughts back to gratitude and joy, even as we scroll through FB looking for the next “what’s wrong now” in our world.
Here are some questions and statements to help point our brains back to joy:
What good could come of this?
I wonder if this was always mean to be this way and nothing is actually wrong (even though I don’t like what I see).
Maybe there is a bigger plan and picture I don’t understand going on here.
Maybe this is our path to growth in Christ.
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“It is our God-given NATURAL state to be in a high vibration of joy, but for humans it is not our FAMILIAR state.” – Carol Tuttle
‘Natural’ means we experience things effortlessly and spontaneously.
We were meant to experience love, joy, and happiness effortlessly—like a little child laughing at a puppy just because it’s cute.
‘Familiar’ means its common-place or habitual.
As we grow, we create patterns of thinking and a ‘way of being’ that becomes familiar to us, even if it’s not joyful or happy.
That cute little puppy starts to look like a burden because we have to walk it, feed it, pick up after it, etc.
Over time we suppress our child-like sense of easy joy and become more familiar with stress and uncertainty.
We create patterns of thinking that help us cope with these new stresses, and the easy joy we once felt fades.
It becomes challenging to even remember what JOY felt like.
But it doesn’t have to stay this way…
You can practice seeing the joy in the moments around you and take time to express gratitude more often. You can practice choosing joy, even in the stress and uncertainty.
Instead of being burdened by that puppy, you can be grateful that you have the opportunity to take care of it and love it; and you can allow it’s cuteness to fill you with joy.
It’s helpful to remember that your ‘natural’ state IS to feel joy…
But we must CHOOSE joy, and make joy more familiar than suffering, even as we experience hardships.
–If you are struggling to find gratitude, write down 10 things that happened today that you are grateful for. This will stretch your brain to “see” gratitude in your daily life. Do this for 3 months or more (you can take the weekends off). Yes, that’s a long time, but if you’ll try it, you’ll see a big difference in how you view the world (even though the world hasn’t changed).
