I love to play with making up words to my favorite songs or tunes. Little kids learn so much from singing. Years later, we can still remember the lyrics to songs we heard over and over as children.

Take the song, Ninety-nine Bottles of Beer on the Wall. One day I heard this tune in my head with the words One Hundred Joyful Thoughts in My Heart. The new song goes like this…One hundred joyful thoughts in my heart. One hundred joyful thoughts. Take one down pass it around, one thousand joyful thoughts in my heart. One thousand joyful thoughts in my heart. One thousand joyful thoughts. Take one down pass it around, ten thousand joyful thoughts in my heart. I think you get the idea. What you send out comes back to you multiplied.

It made me realize how much fun it is to Joyfully Explore things from a different perspective. The banner I added to my blog site is a photo I took from Moore Cove Falls in Pisgah National Forest – from behind the falls. A view we don’t often get to see when viewing waterfalls. Have you ever stood in the rain, looking up into the drops as they fell from the sky?

Here in The Land of Waterfalls, we also have beautiful wildflowers popping up in the forests at different times of the year. The May Apple has a very distinctive leaf, so it’s an easy plant to spot. The JOY comes when you get down below the leaf to see the beautiful bloom. There are trilliums like this, too. The leaf shape gives them away and many varieties have their flower on top of the leaves. But for a few, I’ve noticed, you need to get low to the ground to find the flower.

This week, do something a bit different from your normal routine. Joyfully Explore a new perspective. Make up words to a song. Stop in the middle of your yoga or stretching routine and look around from the floor or from upside down. Imagine what your child sees from one or two or three feet off the floor, rather than the five-foot plus perspective you have.

I love that I set the intention to find something to write about and all these little synchronicities showed up for me to explore…

I recently read a book about feng shui and, after calculating my Kua number, decided to change my sleeping position to a different direction. It’s simply amazing what you notice when you look at things with fresh eyes, not to mention the benefits of sleeping with your head facing the “right” direction.

My Kindle broke last week, so that I can no longer read in portrait view. I really don’t like reading a book in landscape format. I think it’s why I’m not crazy about reading on my computer, yet it made me appreciate how easily I can change the dimensions of my software program or browsing window to make it portrait size. When I opened my Kindle after this awareness, a notice about the big sale on Kindles showed up! Yay! Thank you Universe. And thank you, Me, for being open enough to receive.

We all view the world through the veils of our experiences and beliefs. How would it feel to remove one or two of those patterns and Joyfully Explore a new world? Does playing with this bring you a new appreciation for anything in your life? Any new awarenesses? Have fun!

Joyfully Yours, Beth

Remember last time, we Joyfully Explored one of our hands – or possibly another body part. Were you aware of your sense of smell as you visually explored your hand? Today we Joyfully Explore our sense of smell. Let’s use our hand again. Maybe you just cut a lemon or an onion. Did you apply a lotion or oil to your skin? Or perfume? How does the smell make you feel? What do you smell in the atmosphere? Are you aware of the smells in your home? The cleaners you use.

Or scented soaps. Perhaps you have an ozone machine or an ionizer. Do you have plants in your home that give off a scent? Maybe you have a vase of fresh flowers. Jut take a deep breath through your nose and notice what you smell. Can you describe it? Do you have a lost or diminished sense of smell? It does seem to fade as we age and you may need to find something very strong. Maybe it’s just so commonplace and familiar that you can’t even describe it. That’s alright, too. Just notice.

If you are not aware of any particular smell, go find a smell in your home, whether it’s a fragrance, an essential oil, a body lotion or cleaning product, something from the refrigerator. Are you aware of how aware you are of your sense of smell? What did you choose?

 

How does the smell make you feel? Does it bring up any memories? 

If you’re really at a loss, use your imagination. Go to a memory or dream that involves a smell. Your mother’s perfume or cooking dinner. The first time you changed your baby’s diaper. Your father’s cologne or the smell of freshly mown grass. Who does the smell remind you of? If you are really willing to go deep….why did you choose the fragrance you chose, what do you need to know about the person the smell reminds you of. Spend 5 minutes or more, joyfully exploring your sense of smell.

Let’s continue Joyfully Exploring the hand. Feel one hand with your other hand. Is it hot or cold or somewhere in between. Do you experience pain in your hand? If not, are you grateful that you do not feel pain? Or is a pain in some other part of your body distracting you so much that you are finding it difficult to focus on your hand.

Just observe without judging. Is your skin soft or rough? See if it’s possible to just feel without naming the sensation. Have fun with this! Use your hand to gently caress your face. Put your awareness first on your hand, then on your face. Feel the difference between giving and receiving – your hand giving the caress, your face receiving. Move each finger, bending, circling, stretching, making a fist.  Massage your fingers and hand with your opposite hand. Which hand was the receiver and which the giver? Which is your dominant hand? Did you go get your favorite lotion or oil or just feel what it was like to touch your bare skin?

Did the 5 minutes go fast and you felt you were just getting into it or were you bored, wondering when the heck the 5 minutes would be up?  How do you feel at the end of 5 minutes? Do you want to continue – it’s ok, take as long as you like! Do you feel a greater appreciation for your hands and your fingers?  Does your other hand feel neglected? Or did your other hand have more fun doing the exploring than the hand receiving all the attention?

Switch hands. Which hand feels better as the giver and which as the receiver? Or are they the same?

Most of us have 5 physical senses with which to explore our worlds. Touch, sight, taste, smell, hearing. Are you grateful that you have all 5!  Or if one sense is limited or missing, are you grateful for the amazing ability of the other senses to take over? Have you ever played with imagining you do not have one of your senses? Perhaps tied on a blindfold to experience what a sightless person might experience? Do you see how Joyfully Exploring our own hand has turned into an exploration of so many other things!

 

 

Today, I am choosing to focus on something we have lived with all our lives, but may not have paid much attention to. Have you ever watched the wonder of a baby exploring it’s body? When was the last time you explored your body with such rapt attention and awe. Today, I encourage you to explore your hand with your sen of sight. If you are an amputee, you may choose to joyfully explore your amputated limb or your artificial limb. If you are paralyzed, do this in your mind.

Do you feel more gratitude for your hand, now that I brought into your awareness that some people are missing a limb?

Spend a full 5 minutes exploring the lines and wrinkles, freckles or spots. Start by looking at your hand. Let’s start with the back of your hand. Observe your skin – it’s tone and all the bumps and valleys, the blood vessels. Check out the wrinkles in your knuckles. Your fingernails. Do you see the little half moon. What do you pay attention to? Shapes, colors or do are you more aware of a different sense? Now flip your hand over and really look at the palm of your hand. All those lines mean something to someone who studies or practices palmistry. Are you judging your hand? It’s so old and wrinkled. My veins are so blue. I need a manicure. My fingers are fat.

 Or are you simply observing. There is no right way to do this. Just pay attention to what your thoughts are. After spending even one minute looking at your hand, do you have a greater appreciation for your hand? Maybe you do and maybe not. Just pay attention to your thoughts about your hand and about your sense of sight. Did you need to put on reading glasses to see the details. If so, what would it be like to experience your hand without using your glasses or if you were blind? Did it seem like this took forever? Or are you surprised that 5 minutes passed so quickly?

Feel free to share your thoughts and insights.

I envision Joyful Explorers as a platform for exploring myriad ways to manifest Joy in your life through the simple act of self-awareness.

I challenge you to begin your day with a practice of Joyfully Exploring something in your world that will make you smile. Anything that will lift your heart, raise your vibration, bring a tingle to your cells.

Joy is a choice. Our thoughts are a choice. We get to choose, in every moment, what we will focus on. I’ve decided to view the world through the lens of JOY. Well…as often as possible. As with everything worthwhile…Joy takes practice.

Today, I celebrate with my family, the wedding of my nephew, Gabe to his new bride Hilary. I imagine we will all be Joyfully Exploring loving relationships and friendships, new and old,  throughout the weekend and for years to come as we remember this day.

I’m sure you know what Joy feels like. Maybe not in this moment, but sometime in your life you have felt pure, radiant Joy. Think of that time. Remember it with every fiber of your being. What does it feel like? Is it a sight, a taste, a smell, a sound?

When you have that moment of pure Joy in your awareness, spend some time with it. Get to know it so well that you can recall it – not the memory of the event, but the memory of the sensation – in an instant. Then, practice that feeling at least once a day for a few minutes.

I have found that it feels so good to live from that space of JOY, that I want to practice it often, throughout the day. And the more I practice Joy, the easier it becomes to feel Joy, to BE Joy. It sneaks up on me when I least expect it these days. Pulling me out of a potential unjoyful moment, Joy floods my bodymind, washing out negativity, criticism, and judgement, shining its healing light throughout my life.

Try it now. In this moment, choose Joy. Can you describe what JOY feels like in your body? Is it easier to see an event that caused you great Joy? Or do you hear music or a poem or a child’s laughter that evokes Joy? Do you remember a taste or a smell that brings Joy most easily into your awareness?

Welcome to my first blog. I should let you know that this is NOT a self-help blog. That would imply that there’s something wrong with you and, whether or not you believe it yet, you are perfect the way you are. What I intend to do is to remind you to choose Joy in your life every single day, as often as possible.

In posts to come, I will offer prompts to Joyfully Explore some aspect of your Self or your environment. Let’s start a dialogue about what Joy means to you and how increasing the Joy in our own lives amplifies the Joy we experience all around us. The world is our mirror. Look into it with Joy and Joy will be reflected back to you.

Try it for a day…then another day…maybe for a week? When you first awaken, lie still for a few moments, choosing Joy. Share your thoughts here with our community of Joyful Explorers.