To rest in joy during a pandemic or any difficult time may not seem like the logical thing to do. But during a pandemic or any difficult time, we have the opportunity to do something different. To rest in joy opens us up to new possibilities.
Rest In Joy
To rest in joy is to do two things at once. To rest, allows us to put away whatever is distracting us at the moment. As we rest, we make room for joy to flow through us. So, resting in joy simply means that we take the time to allow the joy that is always around us to flow through us. When we connect to joy, we do not have time or energy for blame or judgement. Connecting to joy cleans up our soul. In cleaning up our soul we free ourselves to consider new possibilities because we get out of our normal cycle of thinking.
Our brains are hard wired to discover and solve problems. That doesn’t always work to our advantage and sometimes that leads to circular thinking. Resting in joy helps us to get out of the cycle of circular thinking which often produces anxious and fear based thoughts. Getting caught in fear and anxiety takes away our creativity. And creativity, is essential when addressing new and frequent challenges such as a pandemic.
Ponder
When you feel anxious or afraid, especially during rapidly changing times like a pandemic, it might seem logical to research, plan, develop, evaluate and all the other logical things we are taught to do in order to solve a problem. However, there are risks to jumping into problem solving too soon. That risk is that we will only be working on the symptom and not the problem. If we are able to rest in joy, we give ourselves the opportunity to move past the symptom and discover the real problem. Also, resting in joy helps us to be more creative in solving that problem because it moves us out of our normal, cyclical, anxious thought patterns.
Take some time to rest in joy this week and let me know how it goes. If you do not have a regular spiritual practice which connects you to joy and provides for some soul rest let me know.
