I’m worried about you. On my Facebook and twitter feeds, I see a lot of you are in distress. Yes, we’ve more than a few challenges this year. For some of you, those challenges are down right catastrophes. But for a lot of you, you’re taking on those catastrophes as your own. You’ve lost your joy. And that is a catastrophe. The challenge of 2020 is to find your joy. Without a little joy each day, you’re allowing the world and events you cannot control to control you and how you feel. Perhaps you’ll find a little joy in one of these quotes.
Joy While Having a Bad Day
Those who prepared for all the emergencies of life beforehand may equip themselves at the expense of joy.
E. M. Forster
I discovered that joy is not the negation of pain, but rather acknowledging the presence of pain and feeling happiness in spite of it.
Lupita Nyong’o
We can feel joy even while having a bad day, a bad week, or even a bad year!
Russell M. Nelson
We cannot cure the world of sorrows, but we can choose to live in joy.
Joseph Campbell
We have to embrace obstacles to reach the next stage of joy.
Goldie Hawn
If you carry joy in your heart, you can heal any moment.
Carlos Santana
Where to Look
Joy is the simplest form of gratitude.
Karl Barth
The secret to life is finding joy in ordinary things.
Ruth Reichl
Let your joy be in your journey—not in some distant goal.
Tim Cook
Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.
Nhat Hanh
Ways to Think
I’m grounded in joy; I’m not grounded in the trauma anymore.
Tarana Burke
Joy lies in the fight, in the attempt, in the suffering involved, not in the victory itself.
Mahatma Gandhi
Find joy in everything you choose to do. Every job, relationship, home… it’s your responsibility to love it, or change it.
Chuck Palahniuk
The soul’s joy lies in doing.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Gratitude helps you to grow and expand; gratitude brings joy and laughter into your life and into the lives of all those around you.
Eileen Caddy
Just follow your joy. Always. I think that if you do that, life will take you on the course that it’s meant to take you.
Jonathan Groff
There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.
Khalil Gibran
Remember
We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.
Buddha
Joy is increased by spreading it to others.
Robert Murray McCheyne
Let a joy keep you. Reach out your hands and take it when it runs by.
Carl Sandburg
Let there be more joy and laughter in your living.
Eileen Caddy
The challenge of 2020
In times of joy, all of us wished we possessed a tail we could wag.
W. H. Auden
Life is hard. The pandemic has made it harder, scarier. Add on politics, social injustices, fires, hurricanes, and all the usual life tragedies and you are surrounded with catastrophes.
If the quotes aren’t helping, look at these 10 ways to find joy. Or perhaps you’ll find answers in Lifehack’s article or Oprah’s article.
Take a moment to evaluate your stress levels. And remember, life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. The challenge of 2020 is to find your joy. For all of us to find some joy. In the comments below, share the joy you’ve found. I hope it’s a joy that makes you wish for a tail to wag.