“No Joy?” Blog #184

Where do my Daily Habits take me throughout this day?

Am I thinking or am I praying in my last moments before sleep?

How have I reacted to challenges given me these past 24 hours?

Every day, whether I want to admit it or not, there is a curve ball waiting for me.

Sometimes it is a health situation. Sometimes it is the way someone treats me, when out

of the blue, a dagger comes my way. Oftentimes, it is in “my mood of the moment”. A

myriad of moods can take me down a darker path if I am not prepared to face it.

The tools I have in place for leading my life today are critical.

Where do I find these tools and what exactly are the most important ones?

First is my Faith. I find my faith growing stronger with my prayer increasing daily. I cannot

heal any part of my body without admitting it takes my work! IT TAKES my DISCIPLINE.

I already know what I know, what needs to be done. So I put in place: Discipline.

Before I realized how important disciple was to my life, I have to admit, my own life was

filled with random friends and random activities. Yes I was doing my job each day. Yet, at

the end of the day, I felt I could “do whatever I wanted to just because…”. This is very

dangerous thinking. Darkness is always waiting to seep in. I ignored the fact people

influence people. So, that being said, WHO were the people in my life surrounding and

influencing my thinking? All kinds of people were in my life. What kind of friends was I

attracting and why? Who challenged me in a good way? Above all - where was the joy

in my life?

It’s important to “search internally for oneself’. Keep the understanding, it is better to be

alone then to settle for “just anyone”. I needed to accept how much I was being

influenced by the wrong individuals. I needed to accept “that just anyone” could be a

person who likes living with dark thinking. Because we are all given free will, many of us

choose to go through our entire life having no problem wallowing in depression every day!

Many individuals don’t mind being “STUCK IN DARKNESS”. It has become a comfort zone.

Living day to day with band-aids on and hiding behind drugs, alcohol and pills. So

listening to this platitude helps define what I am talking about.

Albert Einstein states, “the definition of Insanity is doing the SAME thing over and over

and expecting different results”. I must be learning more about myself every single

day. Pray, read, exercise.

Now what? Here is where the big guns have to come out. Here is where the next tool must

immediately go into place: COURAGE. When I put courage into place I have the mental

and the moral strength to want to do the right thing for myself now. This allows me to

persevere without the fear of difficulty in what I must face. I look at people around me with

new found integrity. So now I choose people to be in my inner circle carefully. I want to be

around people who are honest, spiritual and joyful. Against the darkness of being silent,

when it is wrong to stay silent, this is the time I have courage to do the right thing, or ELSE

my own life will suffer greatly.

Using her own voice to push through dark and fear, a courageous young girl defied the

Taliban. Malala Yousafzai is the youngest woman ever to have received the Nobel Peace

Prize. She is a young Pakistani girl who just wanted to learn and go to school. However,

the Taliban banned her from attending any classes just because she was a girl! This did

not stop her and Malala continued to speak. Then the Taliban shot her in the head and

miraculously she survived! Malala has gone on to be a global force for girls education

and above all she fought the fight against extremism. She was not afraid even after being

shot in the head and almost dying! Her courageous example demonstrates how

important ONE PERSONS COURAGE can be. Now Malala has her degree from Oxford

University and has written three books about her horrific struggle to bring freedom to the

girls wanting an education in Pakistan..

Malala says something powerful and I repeat it here:

“to anyone setting off in life on any adventure, the most important part of life is to keep

going, keep discovering YOU, for that’s the most important education of all”.

Each of us have this same courage inside. I know when I make the right, healthy,

deliberate decision for myself, this feels internally correct. I can embrace my own truth. I

might be afraid right this moment, still I PRAY for strength to do the right thing today and

every day. I believe it takes courage to do it.

Courage appears instantly. Healing in my life takes work, courage and discipline daily.

Having the courage to do what I need to do for myself, EVEN THOUGH I AM AFRAID, I do it.

This is where I bring joy into my life. I can find my faith and let go of all my fear.

Sometimes it takes an uncomfortable conversation with someone who is bringing me

down. I can do this. I am no longer afraid. I define FEAR - False Events Appearing Real.

Little by little, I am now growing internally with the new found joy for who I am. Who am I?

I am the Temple of God. I am Faith. I am Discipline. I am Courage.

Can I start now to find Joy in my life today?

NOW LISTEN TO SONG FOR TODAY - CLICK PLAY BUTTON IN VIDEO BELOW