The many ways to joy?

The way is not a single path, it is the manner in which you make your journey through life, a guide rather than a map. We each have a different route to travel as we all face a changing world shaped by our shared historical landscape, our own personal life circumstances and characteristics will be unique, what the way assists us with is our navigation of this terrain, it is how we hold ourselves as we travel through the world. There are no right answers but there are plenty of poor choices, dead ends, swamps and signs towards dragons, we might be fighting a losing battle but how we retreat, how we counter attack and hold our ground is the defining quality of whether we have lived a good life, acting well when it is understandable that we would act poorly is what living a higher moral purpose looks like in the real world. You have to decide what is important to you and that you are going to find your way there no matter the cost and there is always a cost, and then pursuit it with grace, ease and joy, through elegant, compassionate and skilful actions backed up with solid determination.

The only question is what is worth that pursuit, what drives your passions, what is it that you want? These questions should be liberating and being in the position to ask it in the first place is a privilege that not many people have especially when set against a history of just surviving in a deeply unfair world of the survival of the fittest where power structures gave virtual no one the freedom to do as they pleased, this is a new question that we do not have clear guidance as to what tools we have to deal with them. Having gratitude for a problem does not mean it is any less of a problem, however we do have the wisdom of those who fought for any degree of freedom in the old world. To surrender this privilege, to ask for it to be taken away from us and others is giving up on solving the problem, though it does take personal responsibility to face it without fear or a wish for the return of simplicity of being told what to do.

The old wisdom was about accepting the restrictions you face and making the best out of it, by finding joy in the little things like the company of friends, good food and drink, it made the battle about the things that you do control like your reactions, attitude and emotions. These were all good things, increasing control feels wonderful, being able to face hard times and thoughts are worthwhile and builds strong characters, but these are not enough, you have to go further, being a good soldier is not the same as being a great general, and that is the position we find ourselves in. we no longer have to do all the hard work, we do not need to be farmers to feed ourselves, build our own homes, carry the firewood, bake the bread. All the jobs that the soldiers use to have to do, we now get to sub-contract out, there is a service for it, there will soon be robots and artificial intelligence that does more for us than even a Roman citizen with a hundred slaves could have imagined.

We are rapidly approaching the point where we are all kings with an army of helpers to provide everything we need, but the kings were never happy, they were fearful of losing everything, all the time, they coveted power and strength, and we are about to unleash millions of untrained kings in to the world and they are going to fight or self-destruct. We need to become the generals of our lives, we are no longer the soldier, rather we have the resources to do what we want, whatever that might be, the problem become one of resource management, the most important of which is time and how we use it.

That use of time is frightening, to waste it becomes a crime against ourselves, a moral outrage which drives our fear and fear is not a good position from which to make decisions, which returns us to the old wisdom of making the most of the position we find ourselves in even when that is position of privilege, it is still a straight jacket no matter how silk lined it is. Total self-responsibility is overwhelming take it in small mouthfuls, find the small controllable things and take responsibility for those first, treat yourself like a soldier, give yourself rules and regulations, small actions change you, just because you have time does not mean that things do not take time. Plan your day to make it better than yesterday, and the simplest plan is the best, that means plan one action and do it, long term that repeated act should move you closer to your long term plans or make your life better today, by starting on the second you give yourself time and distance to figure out the first. It might arise naturally from taking small actions though as your confidence builds you can take progressively bigger actions, instead of just eating well, you start to move well too, then you sleep well to support the first two and before you know it, you a happy and healthy person in body which leads to the mental game of shadow work dealing with feeling in the moment, letting memories back in and then letting them move through you, letting them be as they are.

You have to know who you are before you can really know what you want, that is the way, to start growing as a being consciousness, to become a better version of yourself with greater wisdom and experience, to know yourself is the act of living with self-awareness of what is going on in your consciousness and act with self-respect and honouring who you are. That is when you start to act in alignment with who you are and your greater purpose that is where the way is pointing, the way is the journey to yourself and what actions you wish to take once you know who you are. However those actions that you have taken on the way to find out who you are will define who you are, that is why the small actions at the start of the journey matter, you get to keep on trying to take good small actions with yourself and others.

How you measure the quality of your action is by observing the effects of those actions on yourself and others, act and watch, do then see what happens. This sounds simple and yet so few people actually do it, they repeat the same action or inaction which has the same effect and the same regrets, breaking this circle is simple, you take a new action and see what happens, and make it as low stakes as possible by adopting the mindset of experimenting. This takes the pressure off what you are doing, experimenting is playing, you are not changing everything about yourself, you are not committing to something for the rest of your life, you are doing a simple new action and observing what happens, and it is a game that never stops, it is fun and brings you joy today, and that is a good start to a journey, especially if you are trying to find your way to joy.

There is not a single path to joy or through life, that would be boring and life is a lot more exciting than that, when we travel through a maze, it is the dead ends, misdirection that brings us joy, it is getting lost and finding ourselves again. The way that we travel through life is what matters, when life is an experiment we bring a depth to the experience that is joy, being able to appreciate the dark and light, to find joy in the contrast and being present with it when it arises is a skill that must be practised to be perfected. It only by experimenting that we find out what brings us joy and others around us, how to act in a way that increases joy and love for everyone and how often what is good for you is also good for others, and vice-versa, how much more joy you get from the joy of others. That is the beauty of experimenting we get to find universal truths, things that are repeatedly true, the most important of which is joy loves the company of joy, joy is out there you just have to find your way to it.