DAY 591

sigh of relief

Grief is still here,
and sadness and the sense of emptiness.

And the lack of certainties,
and the incredulity, 
and the sorrow. 

And the astonishment,
and the tears.

And even so,
I still can find joy and beauty in the little things.

I am tempted to feel guilty,
I do feel odd.

And even so,
I cherish this ability of mine
because I know it is my anchor
and my lifesaver.

It helps me to keep a sense of fulfillment,
a sense of belonging,
a sense of amazement.

And maybe someday,
not today
nor tomorrow... someday,
this pain will be less sharp,
the wound less deep,
and the living experience, smoother. 

Meanwhile,
I appreciate the allure of this world
when it catches me by surprise.

Meanwhile,
I treasure these tiny moments of unexpected joy,
of unexpected beauty.

Because I know that without them,
I would be lost.

DAY 65

the joyfulness path

The month of joy is almost over. I would like to say that I´ve been feeling fully joyful every single day of it but this wouldn´t be true. December is a complicated month either if you want to celebrate joy, or if you´re not able to do it, because it is surrounded by many expectations about what joy should be. And also because it is a busy, extravagant, nostalgic and wistful month… but maybe due to all the things I´ve mentioned above, it´s also a great month (the best) to deal with joy every day

Staying focused on joy all month long has made me understand that I can decide to react to my own circumstances with a joyful mood, instead of activating my fear, pain or sorrow. Sure enough, I´ve learned this year what every December has been telling me throughout my whole life: I can opt for joy

This month I´ve realized that joy is mainly a state of mind that is deeply related to our viewpoint. We can see miracles everywhere or just simple, ordinary facts that are recurrent, verifiable, and not amazing at all, but if we do so we´ll keep on bobbing in the ocean of discontent. Once again, is up to us

Is it easy? No, I still find hard feeling  nicely amazed when things don´t happen according to my plans

Must I train more? Surely, learning to see the happy side of the unexpected requires great dedication

Will I master someday the art of being authentically joyful? Hope so

Could this mean that I won´t going to be concerned by anything nevermore? ...I don´t think so

If I stay connected to the joy inside me I won´t become unworried or careless, in any case, I´ll be less disappointed if everything doesn´t go as I expect... if life follow its own way. And maybe, I´ll be able to admit its greatness and take delight in what it is

DAY 60

gifts of joy

a feeling of inner peace

the ability to share

a softer gaze at world

appreciation of oneself and others

the gift of going beyond appearances

a state of gratitude and compassion

be good at laugh

a sense of connection to the higher self

the need to be present

clearer perception of beauty

moments of pause


... staying anchored to the life as it is

DAY 53

goals for achieving joy

1º Just for today: I will focus on the positive side of things...  I will look at the flowers, not at the thorns 

2º Just for today: I will make the most of any chance for laughing 

3º Just for today: I will count my blessings 

4º Just for today: I will look for things that awake my passion and the sense of being connected 

5º Just for today: I will celebrate the ordinary miracle of being alive, I won´t disown my current existence. I will just rejoice at it

Today, that´s enough

DAY 44

things that evoke my joy 

If I could choose my definition of joy, it wouldn´t be maybe a great feeling of happiness, it would rather be the sense of being fully lively and cheerful

This sort of joy doesn´t come from great events or achievements, it comes from everyday things, from being deeply present in our lives and not from a very analytic or intricate thought. In a sense, is a feeling that takes us by surprise

Something that happens when we go through an ordinary day and suddenly, after noticing something unique we realize how extraordinary is everything around us

According to this, and according to my own experience, joy is a kind of chain reaction: when something awakes this feeling, we start to sense new reasons to be joyful and so on

However, joy can be also elusive... maybe because it´s easy to lose the sense of connection required, the lack of thought and devotion which are indispensable. When this happens, we tend to see only those things which bother us and we move on to bitterness and resentment.

So we have to train, we have to develop a personal inner practice on daily basis to keep joy.       I´ve been trying to do so for a while now and of course, I´ve attempted different ways to do it. Perfectionist as I am, I´ve started complex practices that were hard to keep and were frustrating, and against what I was looking for. At the end, I´ve discovered that, if we talk about our inner work, it´s better to be constant than overambitious

My inner work regarding to joy is all about noticing simple, beautiful things around me. It can be a shape, a smell, a color... a sound, a taste... and quite often this is only the beginning. This simple, beautiful, thing triggers a new perception of reality which brings me back to a place where my joy freely flows from inside (where it always resides) to outside

DAY 42

the complex simplicity of joy

Many times we think that joy have to come from what we do or what we live. That makes our joy fluctuates depending on what happen and mainly on how can this affect our expectations. So much so that when things are not according those expectations (no matter if they are bad things or even good things), we are not able to get in touch with joy...

As we truly believe that joy must be derived from external events, and in particular from a specific quality of these events, we don´t take any responsibility for it. Indeed, regardless what we say, we don´t feel really concerned by our own joy, we see it as a consequence of our life and not as a main aim which is worth defending

This causes endless frustrations because world can´t bring us joy. In fact, true joy flows into this world from us. It comes from a feeling of inner satisfaction that has to do with serenity, peace, gratitude, compassion and the sense of being deeply connected to our lives

When we become rooted into our lives - into our wonderful, dangerous, painful and amazing lives- and we don´t hanker for other -supposedly perfect- life, we´ll discover that this other life is hidden in our current lives, we will discover the radiant joy of being here… now

DAY 40

december month of joy

We live in a society which is extremely concerned by pleasure. So we live under the influence of many factors which move us to seek it, regardless what is happening in our lives or its consequences. This pleasure has to do mainly with sensual satisfaction and enjoyment as opposite to necessity, work or effort and quite often is mistaken for joy

It seems to be that we must have a carefree life without duties. Even when this could be pleasant, it´s not real and not even desirable because what our world calls pleasure creates most of the times, shallowness, egoism and indifference

This, so called, pleasure is often based on consumerism and individualism so it´s not something we can´t get free... something that in the medium term, give us a sense of emptiness (in the huge meaning of the word) because its effects doesn´t last

Pleasure is not itself bad, in fact it is an important part of the human experience but we must reach that place where pleasure depends on our real perception of world and not on stimulus which indeed are unconnected with us, on needs created by market, ideology or any alien interest

This means that we won´t find joy in the way to pleasure, on the contrary, we will find pleasure in the way to joy. In other words, we must reach a place where pleasure depends on what make us truly happy and not momentarily satiated

When we experiment the most satisfaction in being ourselves and not a context product, and we connect with the depth of our own beingness we can say we have reached this place. Then, joy, a feeling that arises from within, will be invoked and things around us will give us a true, lasting, pleasure

Because joy flows when we recognize who we are, when we permit ourselves to follow our inner guidance and we stay focused on our own life and our own bliss. If we are always reaching for alignment with that, we won´t disappear into the pleasure seeking and we will discover that joy is self-created… it comes from finding ecstasy in living our lives as they are and being ourselves, not anyone else

DAY 38

noticing joy as an awakening method

I´m so interested in the process through which we become the persons we are, about the way we construct our identities. We are the outcome of our experiences and learning but also of how these things interact with our inner self and a complex heredity that are previous

Being conscious of all that, helps us to keep things in perspective. It makes us understand much better ourselves and the role we play in this life and involves a sort of awakening (or many) to the reality of this existence´s nature

We may think this awakening demands a hard work and indeed, going into the different layers that shape our character and personality in depth is not easy but there are many ways to do it:

we can follow in a master´s steps, there are many around us

we can trust our intuition and follow our inner guidance

we can lean on our friends and beloved ones if they are trying to do a similar work

we can look for professional support and advice if we think we need it

we can opt for being an autodidact and build up our own learning path

... and, last but not least, we can do all the previous things at the same time. This has been my "method" and it has worked quite well. Nowadays I understand much better why I´m here and how I´ve turned into the person I am and what is more important, I´m aware of the person I really am, and the person I want to be

However, if I had to give any recipe to achieve a better knowledge of our true essence I would give this one:

pay attention to the things that make you feel connected, inspired, passionate, alive... you will recognize them because they are unequivocally linked to joy


here: me and my camera, which has helped me so much when it comes  to get in touch with joy