JoY. What is joY, really? Is it when you are having fun with loved ones? When you’re watching a good movie or enjoy reading a book? When you enjoy  a new hobby? Undertake a creative endeavor and succeed? Are able to make someone else happy? Or does joY pop around the corner of life when you observe someone you love master a new ability or when you yourself receive new insight; find yourself creating a new solution?

Take a moment to contemplate the concept of Joy. What does it represent for you?

I’ve done a lot thinking about the word ‘JoY. Even one of my energy counseling quotes says:

The Trick is to EnjoY it.

By that I mean that rather than to complain about or even avoid certain manifestations in life; one can also pick up the glove and regard whatever happens as a way to evolve; to learn, to overcome the muttering and moaning that comes from  sitting in victim-mode.

At the same time however I’ve also questioned myself how I can ‘tell’ people to ‘EnjoY’, when they’ve just gone through a life-shattering experience, lost a loved-one through death, divorce or animosity or have been confronted with their own mortality or loss of physical, mental or spiritual independence. How does one ‘EnjoY’ that?

Perhaps ‘the trick’ – if I may call it that way-  is preceded by something else. Enjoyment doesn’t come falling out of thin air by itself.It has to come from somewhere first. Could the origin of Joy and the ability to EnjoY, come from the precious quality of Gratitude?

Grateful to be alive; grateful to have been with and there for a loved one who passed away.  Grateful for the things one has been able to achieve in a lifetime. We all ‘loose’ someone or something at some point. Everyone is mortal; everything here on earth is temporal.

Some cultures deal with that concept in an entirely different manner than in the western world. Some even celebrate when a person has
passed. Of course they grieve for the departed as well but they are grateful to know their loved one is now in a better place. But also in our western society it is possible. I listened to the precious account once from a mother who was in her eighties when her daughter passed from cancer. She expressed her gratitude to have had the opportunity to be there for her daughter, as a mother, and literally accompany her from the cradle to the grave.

Perhaps generally in the western world the concept of Joy differs from the beliefs of other cultures. Perhaps joY in the western world is regarded as something we  use to sooth our need to own and possesses, rather than the need to be part part of the bigger life-experience.I know this to be true for me. I used to feel the quality of life was my right  to enjoY;  an almost some weird form of entitlement; regarding it as ‘perfectly normal’ to have what comes my way; even when many others are forced to live differently.

It wasn’t until I was tossed out of my golden cage through loss in many different shapes and forms; that I started to really appreciate the things I could EnjoY in life. It was a lesson I needed to be taught. An awareness that needed to be incorporated into my thoughts, feelings and actions. I named it ‘gratitude’ or beter even ‘gratefulness’ in the tradition of ‘mindfulness'; a sentiment so necessary to make the step towards feeling joY.

Explanation of the accompanying card:

In all cards ‘The Page’ always represents the student of the Self; the one learning how to be a knight in one’s own right and defend and stand for the things one finds important in life.

The ‘Challenges’ suit, represents the development of the I-consciousness; the ability to become aware of one’s own thoughts, feelings and actions and give meaning to the concept of life. Often ‘challenges’ are exactly that.

To read more, click the ‘Page Of Challenges’ card

The post The Origin of JoY appeared first on EN Energycounseling.nl.

So…what have y’all been up to over the Easter weekend?  Did you go for a bike ride? Did you have an Easter brunch? Or did you go out to the beach to sit in the sun? Common things you’d say; things we like to do. Things we take for granted at times. Things we may get annoyed about when other happenings block their opportunity. Basically what I am getting at is how many times are you really aware of the blessings you have in your life? Are you consuming what is offered? Or are you cherishing it? In three simple words:

Are You Grateful?

I’ve been working on the gratitude theme lately by writing down at the end of the day, what I have experienced that day to be grateful for.  I find it lightens up my life. I have to admit there are days where nothing is scribbled at the pages. Days where I find it hard to summon up the energy. Days where my joints ache and my muscles refuse to cooperate, while I still wanted to paint that one wall; or needed to get all that shopping. Days where my Spirit is gloomy and wants nothing but binge-watch a series or binge-read books.  But I guess those days make me human; and if I had the stamina I should actually write down in my agenda that I am grateful for those days too; for I sometimes simply need them to regenerate.

My days can be a total mess of deadlines or things I still need to do without actually getting to do them; frustration settling in; fear even to fail at getting where I sóóó want to go. It is then I live in frustration; in failure of  reaching my set goals.

But you know what. It happens. Life can be amazingly unpredictable. When I think about it, I actually never know what my day will bring.I get up in the morning, recall what day it is and what’s in my agenda for the day. I choose my clothing accordingly.  I do my morning exercises when I have the time or think about it. I look at the clock to instruct me when to do what or to go where. And then suddenly something happens that jerks me off my feet, messes up my time table; obstructs ‘all the things I still need to do’ ; raises my blood pressure, changes my mood and changes the expected outcome of my day.

Until I sit down in the evening and review all that has passed and ask myself:

What happened today to be grateful for.

It’s the realization sets it; awareness; moments I missed present themselves and make me think,

Hmmm, maybe this was good day after all.

The card that goes with this is undeniably  ‘Temperance’ ;  card number XIV, the last card of the row of 7 cards that is all about the journey of the soul while on earth. You see it here in it’s new Nan War -Who Am I version as drawn by my talented daughter. (something to be very grateful for).

Temperance teaches us to stay in the present moment; to expect nothing; to have no attachment to outcome;’ to work with what is there and most of all to be present; to realize what you have to be grateful for, rather than to sum up what you lack. Not wait for things to happen or to come through; but to live in the moment in the now.

To read more about the meaning of ‘Temperance'; click the card. You’ll find the old version of this card behind the new one. I have some work to do as yet to get them all organized on my website; but thought I’d enjoY using this card now.

EnjoY your day; stay in the Now as much as you can and remember to be Grateful.

Ingrid Schippers, 23 April 2019

The abridged spoken version of this spoken blog, features as end note on  ‘Dutchbuzz’, the radio hour for Internationals every Tuesday  from 10 to 11 pm on ‘Den Haag FM’ and can be found in the Programme Archive of  the Dutchbuzz podcasts, dated April 23, 2019 or click the link below.

The post Being There, Being Grateful appeared first on EN Energycounseling.nl.

Over the years the theme of gratitude crossed my path in many ways.  I try to remind myself  to count my blessings. Yet like so many of us, I also tend to get drawn into the every day drama of life, often forgetting in that process how much I have to be grateful for.

I could of course claim this to be the inevitable consequence of living in a world  where many things have yet to change for the better.  But when I point at the outside world only, I overlook my own ability to make a contribution in how I experience life. It’s quite simple really. When I only focus on the negativity surrounding me; my view of the world literally becomes a negative one. When I focus on things to be grateful for, it soothes my heart and relaxes the frown between my eyebrows.

To quote an old Buddhist saying:

We suffer not because we live in the world, we suffer because the world lives in us

Or as, American author and personal development counselor Wayne Dyer puts it:

Most people spend the last minutes before falling asleep thinking about the things that went wrong that day; or how they were wronged by others.  By doing so they program their subconscious to marinate negative feelings all night long and wake up next morning with the effects of it.

The first weeks in January are quite notorious for people waking up in the morning feeling off. After the consuming Christmas holidays, life goes back to normal and back to the barricades. While sipping my morning tea last week in one of those early January moods, my eye fell on a social media post suggesting to take a big glass jar and fill it over the year with notes on things to be grateful for. Empty it by next new years eve and you have a year full of goodness to look back on.

I really liked that suggestion and adopted it with a little twist. Every year for Christmas my children give me a big personalized weekly calendar with little notes, thumbnail pictures and previews of highlights for the coming year to look forward to. In fact last year I had already started to record memorable events, adding small notes on the back pages of my weeks.

For this year, 2019, my resolution is  to write down at least one thing I am grateful for with every passed day in my calendar and use it as my mantra before I go to sleep. I’ll be curious to see how this affects my view on on the world and in effect my contentment in life.

The card that goes with this line of thoughts might well be the  Knight of Gifts; the knight who observes the world from within and decides accordingly what to think, rather than allowing the outside to determine the knights way of thinking. As such it is entirely up to the knight how life unravels itself…

Click the card to learn more and/or draw your own card on the right of this blog,

Wishing you a grateful day,

Ingrid

The abridged spoken version of this spoken blog, features as end note on  ‘Dutchbuzz’, the radio hour for Internationals every Tuesday  from 10 to 11 pm on ‘Den Haag FM’ and can be found in the Programme Archive of  the Dutchbuzz podcasts, dated January 15 , 2019 or click the link below

The post 365 days of gratitude appeared first on EN Energycounseling.nl.