101. Joyful Living, Right Now!
Affirmation: “I am blissed out! I make time for joy every day. I commit to seeking healthy pleasure and reveling in it.”
Sometimes in our culture, pleasure-seeking and joyfulness are associated with being under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Of course, alcohol is actually a depressant, and illegal drugs are obviously unhealthy for you. So how do you find pleasure and joy? How do you get blissed-out in a good way?
You’ve heard the term “high on life.” What if you become one of those people who feel that? What if you work at feeling good? Think about the benefits you’d reap. Instead of feeling like you are stuck in an endless daily grind, you could add some pleasure to your day every day.
And that means some healthy pleasure. What does that rule out for you? And more importantly, what are some of the endless possibilities for healthy pleasure you can think of?
Physical activity really amps up our pleasure principle because it releases two of the main feel good chemicals in our body: serotonin and endorphins. And it doesn’t have to necessarily be vigorous or traditional physical activity. It can be splashing in puddles, taking a gentle walk, or practicing tai chi. At the complete other end of the spectrum, you might try a high-octane dance party, bungee jumping, or a five-mile swim in the ocean. Anything physical is going to wake up your senses and optimize your body chemistry toward pleasure.
Beauty also gives us pleasure. Seeing colors and shapes put together in a pleasing arrangement, creating music, feeling the serene effect of seeing a ballet, or viewing a thrilling piece of art—these things stimulate and enliven us. And experiencing beauty releases dopamine, feel-good chemical extraordinaire.
Feelings of belonging are pleasurable too. Whether we’re cheering for a favorite sports team with other fans or engaging in girl talk with a close group, when we feel like part of the pack, we feel accepted and like we belong. Feeling like we belong, overall confidence, and self-esteem are linked with serotonin, which is one of the key chemicals in our internal happiness cocktail. Serotonin helps us feel like we belong, which in turn makes us happier. A sense of belonging is a basic human need.
Exercise: How to Get Blissed Out
Blissed-out living is living life with the intention of feeling joy and spreading it to others. Some examples are laughing, dancing, and being a free spirit for the day. When you do whatever is “outside the box” for you, then you venture out of your comfort zone. That might be singing karaoke, taking salsa lessons, eating five-alarm peppers, or swimming naked. When you have outrageous fun, you are flooding your body with all kinds of natural happiness chemicals like endorphins, serotonin, and even adrenaline. Those chemicals connect the dots between our mind’s experience of joy, our emotional experience of joy, and our body’s physical reaction to joy. All of this combined is joyful living!
List and date ten joyful-living action steps that you could do in the next week. Write these in your journal and actually do them—all of them! Record how these actions felt and how you felt after doing them. Write about how your life changed as a result of these ten things you enjoyed.
You have the power to choose joyful living
through your thoughts, actions, and choices.
#joyfulliving101