How to Create More Joy in Your Life

The never-ending pursuit of joy is something we all work towards on a daily basis.

Joy can be found in the big things and the small things in life, joy doesn’t have to only come from big events like weddings or birthdays but can be found in the tiniest of places — the first opening of a flower bud in Spring, the smile on the face of your child at Christmas, the perfectly positioned pillows as you lie down from a busy day at work.

Finding more joy in your life is something that should be fun, it’s all about reconnecting to that child-like innocence and simplicity, and stripping back the busy, sometimes frantic lives we all lead, in order to uncover hidden gems that are sitting and waiting for us to find.

You can inject joy into your life every day and in this article, I’m going to take you through how to do this so that you can start reconnecting to joy and living a life that brings you happiness each and every day.

The words joy and happiness are, actually, not interchangeable, although will be used as such throughout this article.

Happiness tends to be a more fleeting, circumstance-based feeling, whereas pure joy is more of a lasting emotional state that brings about feelings of contentment and peace, as well as a sense of inner joy.

Happiness can be brought upon by receiving a gift or having your first warming sip of coffee in the morning, but joy, on the other hand, is a deeper sense of wellbeing.

To live a joyful life there are 3 main components:

To find more joy in your life, to be joyful, you must accept what you can and cannot change. Accepting that life comes with ups and downs will lead you to live your life in flow, able to let things come and go while understanding that everybody is living their own life, dealing with their own issues and trying to find their own joy.

This is not so. Joy does not come from the perfect, it comes from the imperfect. To find joy in your life comes from spontaneity, inspiration and love. To wait for perfection means to wait for joy, and you’ll be waiting a lifetime, so accept that a life of perfection does not exist, but that it is up to you to make the very best out of the one you have.

Having a knowledge of who you are at your core and an understanding of your values and morals will help to guide you to a life of joy that is in full alignment, therefore leading to a feeling of joyfulness. When we are out of alignment with our values and true self we will tend to feel unhappy, off-kilter and in a state of stress or fear. This state of mind is not conducive to find joy in your life.

It’s really important to spend some time, if you don’t know them already, thinking about what your values are. What are your non-negotiables in life — is it friendship, love, working hard, knowledge, compassion, helping others, success? Your values should be the framework for your life, influencing what you do and how you do it, and guiding you towards the things that bring you inner peace and joy.

To find more joy in your life, to live joyfully, you must intend to live joyfully. As beautiful as it would be to live joyfully without trying, unfortunately, this isn’t always possible. The many trials and tribulations that life throws at us can quickly wear us down and if we’re not careful, can result in us feeling weary, disheartened and sometimes depressed.

Putting effort into creating a joyful mindset and life will help you to have purpose with your journey and to more consciously look at ways to find more joy, rather than waiting for it to come to you.

You must start small. In particular, if you’re struggling mentally and finding it difficult to find joy. It’s important to focus on the little things that can bring this feeling to you, because joy really can be found anywhere you look, as long as you look hard enough.

Instead of trying to hold out for milestone moments, narrow the focus to your daily life and focus on what makes you happy. Once you can pinpoint the things you already have that bring you a sense of joy, you can start to expand this out and look to other places to increase and cement this feeling within you.

Release the pressure to be happy and joyful. While this article is all about how to help you find more joy in your life, sometimes, admitting and accepting that you are not feeling joyful, and releasing the pressure to force yourself to be so, is the best thing you can do.

When we put too much pressure on ourselves to be happy or joyful, it often eludes us, so relax, embrace what you are feeling and trust that the joy will find you again. Again, this comes back to acceptance.

Limiting your screen time is another way to find more joy. We live our lives on our phones nowadays and, in doing so, miss out on so much joy that exists in the world around us. When we’re walking, shopping or even just sitting at home, many of us are glued to our screens, living our life scrolling, commenting, liking.

The momentary blip of happiness that comes from the dopamine released when we get a like on our social media post is nothing compared to the joy that can be found in the sunset you’re missing outside your window, or the bird sitting on the tree in your garden.

Take notice of how much time you’re spending on your phone or engrossed in your laptop and try to reduce this, in order to be more present. Joy is found in the present moment, so make sure you’re here for it.

Spending time in nature, although a somewhat obvious tip for finding more joy in your life, really is an important part of doing so.

When we spend too much time indoors we can become complacent about the magical world that exists beyond our front doorstep.

Nature truly has the most magnificent way of helping us to feel happier, lighter and freer, and taking steps to spend more time at one with it will help you to feel a deeper sense of joy.

There are hundreds of tips out there on how to find more joy in your life, but these 3 components of joy and tips on how to find more of it are cornerstones of helping you to feel more joyful.

The important thing to remember is it’s a lifelong journey, not a race to suddenly feel joy. It’s a slow, intentional and beautiful stroll through life to find what works for you and what doesn’t and to spend your time consciously creating pockets of joy with love.

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