Do you know how to find joy? Most people think joy and happiness are the same, but they are distinct. Try these simple ways to add joy to your life.
Best Simple Tips for How to Find Joy
It’s a little-known secret that you can learn how to find joy in your life, even if you think this may be out of the question. You could say that joyful people are the minority, and that most individuals fall on the lower end of the joy spectrum. However, everyone can create joy and bring it into daily life with a few easy-to-use tips.
Start Being Mindful
Since joy is an intention and not accidental, you can increase happiness and joy by being mindful. The benefits of mindfulness become readily apparent when you slow down and pay attention to what you feel in your body, emotions, and thoughts, and what’s going on around you. Psychologists call this monitoring, or deliberate attention directing.
Yet, there’s more to being mindful than directing your attention. The second part is practicing acceptance.
- This means accepting whatever your senses deliver and allowing them to be what they are, including those that are uncomfortable.
- Instead of judging, you see them gently, with openness and kindness. It’s called sitting with them, and when you give them this space, they become less overwhelming and divisive.
Extend Your Joyful Moments
One of my favorite ways to practice mindfulness involves recalling special moments of joy. For some, this may be memories of a family vacation, while others recall delightful experiences with friends, loved ones, accomplishing a challenge, or falling in love for the first time.
By basking in those joyful memories, you extend joy and bring it to the present. This is an easy way of learning how to find joy. It also helps you become calmer and more relaxed.
Make Gratitude a Priority
Nataly Kogan offers some terrific tips on how to cultivate gratitude as a habit. This is so essential for your ability to find joy that it bears repeating: You must practice gratitude consistently to change your life.
However, there are simple ways to improve your gratitude skills, so it’s less about avoiding and more about embracing it. You can also try these methods:
- Begin and end your day expressing your gratitude. Say a prayer of gratitude before you get up and when you go to bed. Make it a ritual, and you’ll start and close your day with grace.
- When you get annoyed, be grateful for the opportunity to think about what gives you joy daily. Besides the chance to smile at the memory, it takes you out of your negativity and makes room for happiness.
- Besides these simple tips, incorporate genuineness when you say thank you. Say it slowly and meaningfully. Others will often respond with a surprised smile because they feel valued and appreciated. I call this reciprocal gratitude, and it works wonders. It’s one of the best ways to express gratitude and benefit.
Do Things That Make You Happy: It’s the Best Tip for How to Find Joy
How often do you do things because you think you must? Alternatively, how often do you do things you honestly enjoy? The key to adding joy to your life is to do more of the latter and less of the former. It is that simple.
For example, in your career, learn how to do what you love. This will bring you sustained joy, especially when you look forward to going to work and feel fulfilled, productive, and accomplished.
Learn to Balance Your Emotions
Joy is a powerful human emotion, one often associated with happiness and contentment. However, where happiness and contentment may be temporary, joy is more long-lasting. Additionally, you experience joy deeply, and it’s closely aligned with your sense of purpose and meaning.
Yet, many people allow their emotions to get off-kilter, falling prey to overstimulation and excitability that can lead to distraction, and putting others off with their exuberance. Furthermore, reaching extreme highs carries the risk of plummeting to equally extreme depths. Therefore, as with all things, moderation is essential.
But Still Be Vulnerable
However, while you practice balancing your emotions, take care also to remain vulnerable. You want to express what you feel freely, and that includes acknowledging your feelings. This requires vulnerability, something that you can gradually incorporate into your interactions with others.
Engage in Meaningful Connections
Life without connection is sterile and dull. Besides, when you isolate yourself from others, you overlook one of the primary sources of joy.
- Look for opportunities to be with people who share your hobbies, recreational activities, educational pursuits, and those who make you laugh.
- When you encounter someone you’d like to get to know better, carefully consider how to approach them. It’s often easier with a personal introduction or by engaging in small talk at one of your group’s activities or job-related functions.
- Additionally, friendships are essential to finding joy. Learn how to find and prize true friends.
How to Find Joy? Spend Time in Nature
One of my favorite ways to experience joy is being outside in nature. Note that I specify nature, not merely being outside. Your surroundings may usually be primarily urban or suburban, but to truly benefit, you must interact with nature. Here are some suggestions to consider:
- Find a nearby park or recreational hiking trail. If you live near a nature preserve, lake, river, or trailhead, add these sites to your list of happy places. Check out some of my 26 best mindful walks in our amazing national parks.
- Additionally, you may want to vacation by visiting a national park or other location offering ways to explore nature. These include rafting, skiing, rock climbing, snorkeling, deep-sea fishing, scuba diving, and parasailing.
- Another way to learn how to find joy in nature is through gardening. You can create your oasis at home with container plants, raised-bed gardens, or in-ground flowers, vegetables, and shrubs.
