Embracing Joy

Life has taught me that joy is not something that simply happens to us. We must cultivate joy each day, through intention, mind set, observance, gratitude, and action. Seems like a big project? Well, let’s be honest, with our busy lives, cultivating joy can be a difficult habit to create. But while the habit of embracing joy might be a journey, the people, things, and circumstances that cause true joy are all around us. Marcel Proust captured it perfectly in one of my favorite quotes.

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”

Several years ago, I realized I was rarely able to connect with joy. In January 2018, I began a journey to “embrace joy” on a daily basis. I had been living my life seeking and expecting joy in monumental moments. Today, my highest goal is to feel joy in the absence of monumental moments…to look for and recognize joy in both the ordinary and extraordinary moments I experience each day.

While I’m a Joy Advocate, I certainly don’t claim to be a Joy Expert. I hope each of you use any posts for food for thought on your personal joy journey and share your insights on what brings you joy, because joy, like a smile, is contagious!

Hello Strangers! I’ve been MIA from the JOY BLOG for some time. I’ve been wrestling with big changes. A change in career was causing me to question my identity once more. Which brought me to a fundamental truth…that I have always built my identity on my profession. I am only now learning to build my life around me as a person. I hope each of you are farther down that path than I, but if not, please know you are not alone and I hope you find comfort in knowing there are others who are early on in what is perhaps the most important journey each of us takes in our lives. Each big change—be it planned or not—gives us the opportunity to choose paths that we might never have taken if something significant hadn’t happened to force us to pause, take a deep breath, reflect, and step through a new door.

How about you?

CINDY SPECHT

CINDY SPECHT

Embrace Joy Blog

CINDY SPECHT

Embracing Joy

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