What is JOY?

Happiness, joy, contentment, spiritual peace . . . We all want it, we think we should have it, and in fact, we all CAN have it . . . But, how many of us DO have it?

If we ask 100 people about happiness, we might get as many different answers . . . But in fact, happiness/joy is something that we won't find without . . . It isn't a Mercedes or a house on the beach in Maui or receiving a letter saying we've just been accepted into med school at Harvard . . . No, JOY is found deep in our soul . . . JOY comes from the basis of our being, which is our spiritual being . . . The problem is, we tend to lose that JOY after our first few years on the planet . . .

So, in order to find our JOY, we must find our spiritual core . . . But, HOW?

First, we MUST develop a meditation practice, which does NOT mean going into a cave in the Himalayas wearing a safron robe and sitting for hours each day . . . It means sitting down for a few minutes a day, perhaps more than once each day, and simply BEING . . .

There's more . . . It also means good works, such as volunteering one's time and resources . . . It means cultivating loving kindness, exhibiting gratitude, passion, patience, and a willingness to sit and truly listen to others . . . In all of that, JOY begins to grow and thrive in our hearts . . .

JOY must be constantly nurtured and cultivated, encouraged, and defended against those who would steal it . . . More on that later . . .

Please think about it . . .

Until next time . . . Ciao!!