More joy than we realise!

I recently watched a film called 'Hector and the Search for Happiness' (as recommended by my amazing Mum and made possible by the fact that my boyfriend left his Netflix account logged in on my laptop!) In the film, Hector travels the world asking people whether they're happy and recording his findings about how people can be happy. He discovers things like 

'Happiness is feeling truly alive' 

'Making comparisons can spoil your happiness'

'Happiness is being loved for who you are'.

'Sweet potato stew!' 

Happiness and joy have been things I've been thinking about a lot lately. There seem to be so many people in the world, and even just among the group of people I spend time with, who seem to struggle to find it. Hey, I I think we all do sometimes, and that's okay! But read on...

Another of Hector's observations was;

'Avoiding unhappiness is not the road to happiness.'

I really think our friend Hector might be on to something here. When I think about times I've been most happy, it hasn't been when I've set out to be happy, or to avoid being sad - it's just been a natural product of whatever situation I've been in. Times when I go out to spend time with a friend and we end up creasing up at stories we share, or I set out to help someone out and then enjoy a brilliant conversation with them, or I set my mind to achieving something new and as a result I find joy in the things I learn and the sense of accomplishment. These things might also bring us struggles, disappointments and trouble, but they are also much more likely to bring us joy than simply setting out to 'be happy' and I think we need to appreciate that more! Authentic joy can't be planned and created... but it can be experienced. 

A friend of mine recently gave me a Christian Aid Collective booklet, and in the front page it has this quote...

'All around you, people will be tiptoeing through life, just to arrive at death safely. But dear children, do not tiptoe. Run, hop, skip or dance, just don't tiptoe.'

Shane Claiborne

What if we stopped worrying so much about things that might be difficult and instead started to look around us and appreciate the things that bring us joy and make us happy right now? There will always be struggles in life, but if we focus on them, we'll miss the joy! What if we spent more time talking about and appreciating the things that make us happy than the things that make us sad? I expect there might just be more joy in life than we realise :)