Some say that you are living joyfully when you are living your life's purpose.
The big questions is "How do you know when you're living your purpose?" I know that I used to (and sometimes still) tend to get all concerned and stressed about my life's purpose.
Especially as I am getting older.
What am I here for? What do I need to accomplish? What if I die before I do what I need to do? Imagine my relief when, on my quest to find my life's purpose, I heard from the Dalai Llama that my life's purpose is TO BE HAPPY.
What does that mean? It means that you don't have to look to the future to be happy.
You can be happy right now.
You don't have to be, do, or say anything to deserve to be happy and be living joyfully.
The pain that we feel, the unhappiness, the not joyful state, is what happens when we are waiting for something outside of ourselves to happen in the future that we think will bring us happiness.
Have you heard yourself say, "Once fill in the blank happens then I'll be where I want to be.
Then I'll be happy.
" Things like * when I have x number of dollars in my bank account * when I have perfect health * when I get that great relationship * when the kids are out of the house * when I get that job * when my friends respect me The list can go on and on.
All of these things are things outside of yourself and you have NO CONTROL over them.
These are circumstances that may or may not happen in the future.
If you are always thinking out there, you will never see what is here NOW.
Try this instead.
Look to your present, what is right now and say, "This is exactly where I want to be right now...
and nowhere else.
This moment is perfect.
" And you know what? This moment is right where you want to be simply because this is where you are.
It's that simple.
Joy starts to happen when you accept where you are right now.
This moment is all you have.
Whenever you look outside of your present moment and seek happiness in another time or place, you cannot be in a state of joy because you are looking to the future or to the past.
Joy happens in the NOW.
I really learned this a few years ago, when my daughters and I lived in different states and could not be together at Christmas.
I was living and thinking about all of the past Christmas's that we had together and was really sad.
So sad that I could not see the moment I had decorating our tree with my new husband.
I could not feel joy in the moment because I was living in the past.
When my mind was wanting to be with my kids and feeling sad, I was missing the moment of happiness with my husband.
This does not mean that we can't miss our children and want to be with them.
Of course we do.
The point is that this is where I was living and it was all I could think about.
So I was creating lack and creating sadness.
I couldn't be with them AND I wasn't present with my husband.
There was no joy for me that Christmas, only because my thoughts lingered on what I did not have.
If I had been present to what I did have, I would have created joy and love in my present moment and then I would have had an abundance of love to share with my daughters, which would have helped them also.
Joy Is Our Natural State Joy is truly your natural state of being.
When you are joyful, your life flows with grace and ease.
You will feel light and abundant because you will see the abundance all around you.
When you stop resisting the present moment and looking outside of yourself, you will stop creating problems for yourself.
You will begin to feel joy.
You will be living joyfully and living your life's purpose.