In Pursuit of Joy

I have started this site to promote the following idea: Every human being grows and develops throughout their entire life span. This growth is essentially a spiritual process. The object is to return to the original divine state--a joyful state. To actively engage this growth process is to be in pursuit of joy. Sometimes people get stuck in this growth process for various reasons. Getting "unstuck" is what personal transformation is all about. I have written a book called "In Pursuit of Joy". Buy it of you wish or not. The idea is the important thing. If enough people join in this pursuit we will transform the world.

Another name for this process is recovery. We usually think of recovery from an addiction or mental illness; so most people think it doesn't apply to them. Most people think they have "a good bead on things". However, according to an article I read today most people will experience at least one episode of depression, crippling anxiety or more serious mental illness in their lifetiime. The techniques I used to recover from alcoholism and depression can help anyone who wants to bring more joy into their life.

The way to start is unconditional acceptance of yourself. The odd thing is that it is impossible to get that without getting acceptance from someone else. To get unconditional acceptance from someone else you have to risk being real with that person. You have to drop your defenses with one person you can trust to accept you with out judging you. That is the most loving thing they can do for you. When you feel that unconditional acceptance from them you are free to change if you wish. I should caution you that acceptance generally doesn't happen all at once. It happens in bits and pieces--some large and some small. Some things are difficult to accept and you have to accept them over and over again. The bottom line is that every human being on the planet has a need for emotional intimacy--the need to have at least some people you trust enough to share sensitive information with and be unconditionally accepted. The best description I have found of this process is in the book "I Ain't Much Baby, but I'm All I Got" by Jess Lair. (see below)

Another important set of tools in the recovery process falls under the umbrella of "mindfulness practices". Mindfulness can be defined as "paying attention on purpose" or "directing your attention to one thing". Mindfulness practice is the repetitive act of directing your attention to one thing--the present moment. There are three basic types of mindfulness practices: Observing, Participating and Describing. An example of an observation mindfulness practice would be observing your breath--observe everything about it as you breathe in and out. When thoughts pop into your mind (and they will) let them go and direct your attention back to your breath. You can make this a participation mindfulness practice by counting your breath. Count one as you breathe in, two as you breathe out, three as you breathe in, and so forth until you get to ten. Then start over again. Additionally, any activity can be a participation mindfulness practice--especially repetitive ones. The difference between sweeping the floor and sweeping the floor as a mindfulness practice is intention. If you are going to sweep the floor as a mindfulness practice you must repeatedly direct your attention to the activity of sweeping the floor.  The mindfulness practice of describing is assigning words to what you have observed. Description can be useful for people who have trouble identifying their emotions. When engaging in the mindfulness practice of description it is important to remember you can't describe what you can't observe--like other people's thoughts.

There are other concepts associated with mindfulness practices: Non-judgmentalness, One-mindfulness, Effectiveness and Wise-mind. Non-judgmentalness is to notice what is without judgmental thoughts. We all have judgmental thoughts. The trick is to recognize them and let them go. One-mindfulness is holding the mind to one thing--this present moment.  Effectiveness is playing by the rules of the universe--using what works. Wise-mind is the integration of the emotional mind and the logical mind.

There is a lot of literature on mindfulness practices. I think the definitive work on living in the present is "The Wisdom of Insecurity" by Alan Watts. (see below)

The whole idea is this: Strive to learn to accept yourself and the universe and your place in it. The way to do this is by offering your real self to others and unconditionally accepting others so that they will be more inclined to unconditionally accept you. Use mindfulness practices to get better at recognizing the true nature of the universe and yourself and directing your attention where it needs to go. I have observed that people that do this become more loving, joyful people.