This is your monthly dose of creative wellbeing. Here at The Gathering, we start each month with creative exercises to help you look after yourself and listen to the needs of your soul as you head down your road less travelled.
This week I shared a Note that took off more than I expected:
A lot of people related to the idea of accepting a level of joylessness in their lives, and recognising that this was seriously impacting their physical and mental wellbeing. This is worrying, but perhaps not surprising in a society that treats us as resources to be used up rather than as individuals to be nurtured. So this is where it ends - from here on out, we’re not going to accept joylessness anymore. We’re going to fight for joy in our own lives, and for joy to be taken seriously in society as a whole. And we’re going to start with some work on pinpointing what joy means to us.
Before the wise words of Dr Taylor set this discussion off, I had planned a workshop on finding your sense of purpose. Feeling purposeful and having a clear idea of what you want your purpose to be in the world certainly contributes to an experience of joy, and helps you to find joy in your work and day-to-day activities, so we’ll come back to that next month. But for now, let’s focus on some small steps to find joy in the everyday.
In this session we will work on:
Identifying what “joy” means to you
Looking for joy in the day-to-day mundanities of life
Engaging your senses to support mindful experience
Reminding yourself of joyful moments and keeping these memories close
Your needs and goals for cultivating joy
Putting joy out into the world.
Exercise 1: What does joy mean to you?
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