Counting Joy

By: Jamie Martin

You’ve all heard it before: Count your blessings!

What happens when those blessings are just a reminder of a tough year? You remember the struggles, the hardships, and the things you have gotten through. You feel grateful, but there is a melancholy quality to it. You wonder what the year could have been like, if only.

[Related: How to Stop Feeling Like You’ve Lost Yourself]

It’s time to spend a bit of time counting your joy. Don’t get me wrong: Gratitude is an incredibly strong act! But you may find that counting your joy lifts you in a way that gratitude won’t. It’s a reminder of all the amazing things, big and small, that brought a smile to your face or laughter to your belly.

Joy may simply be a feeling of great pleasure or happiness, but joy is so much more powerful than its definition implies.

It’s a feeling that can bring light to a dark time.

It’s a feeling that can heal our pain.

It’s a feeling that can spread to others.

It’s a feeling that warms us on a cold day.

It’s a feeling that brings a smile to our face and peace to our hearts.

Joy is a powerful emotion when we choose to embrace it.

[Related: The Magic of Facing Your Hidden Fears]

Imagine spending a bit of time each day for the rest of the year counting the joy this year brought to you. Moments like:

• Your mother learning to use Zoom, but having the camera upside down.
• Sleeping in for the first time because you didn’t have to commute.
• Sitting in the sun on your deck as you worked.
• Making coffee the way you love it every day.
• Being able to hug your partner at any point in the day.
• Learning a skill (learning French, playing a guitar, cooking) you never had time for before.

Before you know it, you will see that this year was filled with joyful moments. Moments that make you smile. Moments that make the whole year worthwhile.

Will you take the challenge? Write ten ways joy was brought into your world this year each day for the rest of the year. Maybe you’ll see just how beautiful a year it really was.

[Related: Reframing 2020]

—

Jamie Martin is a life and leadership coach who helps women who have been going and going and going for so long that they feel like they’ve lost themselves. She helps her clients give themselves permission to put themselves first, create a plan, and go after their dreams.

Originally published at https://www.ellevatenetwork.com.