Ten Daily Practices to Bring You Joy

 

I've been doing these almost daily posts on my Encouraging Deep Roots page on Facebook this month. It's the month of Thanksgiving and I was reflecting on how to create joy in one's life. The first way to do this is to cultivate a heart that actually finds things to be thankful for in your life. Look around you each day and find one thing, no matter how small or how large, and thank the Lord for it. Start a list or write it on a piece of paper and put it in a jar. Pull out them out from time to time or on New Year's eve and thank the Lord for His many blessings in your life all year long. 

Is your spouse or family not interested in this? It's okay. This is not about them; it's about cultivating a heart of thankfulness in YOU! You may find it's contagious and it will definitely change your attitude.

I'm developing the list of ways to do this as I go, but thought I'd share what I have so far here.

1. Reflect on God's forgiveness. 

Psalm 32:1-2 says, 

"How joyful is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! How joyful is the man the Lord does not charge with sin and in whose spirit is no deceit!

We've been forgiven much and I'm not sure we always reflect on that fact. It is something we need to remember as we also seek to forgive others when they hurt us. It's hard to forgive others if we don't recognize how sinful we are in God's eyes, and it's hard to receive forgiveness from God if we hold onto bitterness towards another person. One flows from the other. 

Matthew 6:14-15 ~  “For if you forgive people their wrongdoing, your heavenly Father will forgive you as well. But if you don’t forgive people, your Father will not forgive your wrongdoing."

A heart that has been forgiven and also is able to forgive others is a heart of joy. Thank the Lord for how He has forgiven you and ask Him to show you where you need to forgive another person.

2. Look up at the Beauty of the Sky.  Look away from your screen and go outside every day and soak in the beauty of the skies. Spend at least 10-15 minutes just appreciating an amazing sunrise or sunset or the beauty of cloud formations. Breathe in the fresh air. It's amazing how that simple exercise each day can give us a fresh perspective and bring us joy. We can see the fingerprints of God in all of His creation.

Psalm 19:1-4 ~

"The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky proclaims the work of His hands. Day after day they pour out speech; night after night they communicate knowledge. There is no speech; there are no words; their voice is not heard. Their message has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens He has pitched a tent for the sun.  

3. Move your Body at Least 30 Minutes Each Day. God has designed in such a way that our mind, body and spirit all function together. Do you want more joy in your life? Then it's important to move your body each day.

Exercising so that your heart rate goes up causes endorphins to flood your body. Endorphins are natural mood elevators. In other words, moving helps you feel more joyful.

4. Practice Acts of Kindness Each Day. Do you want more joy in your life? Then look around and see how you can practice kindness on a daily basis. Maybe it's paying for a stranger's coffee, holding a door open for someone, letting someone go ahead of you in line, visiting an elderly neighbor, driving someone to a doctor's appointment, etc. Those small random acts of kindness take our eyes off our own problems and as we help others it brings joy. 

Galatians 6:10 ~ Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

5. Worship the Lord with Music. Nothing brings more joy to my heart that beautiful music. 

“We get nearer to the Lord through music than perhaps through any other thing except prayer.” —J. Reuben Clark Jr.

Make a point to play, listen to or sing worship music each day. It is hard to stay stressed and anxious when we worship.

6. Schedule Your Hobby into Your Daily Rhythm.  As we talk about daily practices to bring us joy it's not always just spiritual activities. 

Do you have a hobby you love which brings you joy, but you think you don't have time to do it? Often we think we must have large chunks of time to work on our hobbies. However, for most of them, it just requires having a bit of scheduled time each day. 

I love to sew, but if I have to drag out my sewing machine each time, I know it won't happen. So I keep my machine up and ready to go and spend anywhere from 15 minutes to 30 minutes each day working on a sewing project. 

Deliberately schedule a set amount of time on your hobby. It will bring you joy.

7. Work within Your Spiritual Gifting. The Holy Spirit gives us each spiritual gifts. I know that nothing brings me more joy than when I'm working within the spiritual gifts that God has given me. 

We all have to do things from time to time that aren't necessarily working within our spiritual gifts, but the majority of our ministry should be working with whatever gift God has given you. Do you have the gift of teaching? Teach. Do you have the spiritual gift of giving? Give. Is serving your spiritual gift, than find someplace to serve. I guarantee you will find joy when you are doing what you love and operating within your spiritual gifts.

8. Get more sunlight into your life. I struggle in the winter months with the lack of sunshine. One thing I find helpful is that no matter how cold it is or how cloudy, I try and get outside even if it's just for 15 minutes and soak in what little vitamin D there may be. Sitting in a dark house does nothing to help my mood. 

You can combine this with number 3. Get outside and soak in the sunshine even if it's not very strong.

9. Shut off the news. I'm not talking about burying your head in the sand and not being informed. But listening to the news channel for hours each day is not ever going to be good for your mental health. 

I watch a half hour of local news and a half hour of world news each night (and not even every night). And that is enough. We live in an age where you can literally listen to it 24/7. Take it in very small doses. Watch something uplifting instead or better yet, read a book!

10. Learn to Appreciate the Small Things in Life. Many people keep looking for the big exciting events to happen in order to experience joy. They are looking for the big promotion, the birth of a child or grandchild, a move to a new home or some other big thing. Joy happens when we can learn to appreciate the small every day happenings. 

Joy can come when you see the beauty of flowers or appreciate the unique personalities of people in your life. Joy can come when you learn a new skill or take the time to do something well. 

Learn to appreciate the small things and joy will begin to develop in your life. 

These are the practices I've come up with so far and think there are many more. Joy is implemented through daily practical steps. For most of us it does not come naturally and so we need to work on creating more of it in our lives.