BLOG 188—The Wisdom of Joy and Play

With my words, I hope to throw some oblique light upon your life.
I want to inspire you to see life in a different and/or better way.

*** Remember, to read past blog posts, go to >> kitsummers.com/blog/
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*** Thank you, my wife, Beth, for editing and adding to each weekly blog.
*** I was hit by two different trucks, one involving a 37-day coma.
*** The happiness I am experiencing in my life is a marvelous thing!
*** I will have places to show you and tales to tell.
*** Secrets to unfold and good news!

BE TAKEN AWAY WITH ME
ON WONDERFUL ADVENTURES!
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INTRO TO THIS WEEK
In recent blogs, I covered subjects such as death and God. I want my blogs to be here to inspire and help you bring on a better life.

A constant choice for each of us – to see the joy in life – or pain and difficulty. Look for and find the pleasure, joy, and happiness that is right there in from of you.

A few ways to bring yourself the happiness you are looking for >>

1 – Stop waiting to be happy.
There are always new opportunities to find happiness. Imagine life is like a train station. You have happy times that arrive around the clock. Chances are the opportunity to be happy has already arrived. Sometimes it’s right in front of you; keep looking.

No matter what is happening around you, you can feel happier, be more productive, attract success and enjoy yourself during the process. When you shift your focus and the way you think – your perspective changes. When shift happens, your life changes. So get your shift together.

2 – Make your self-care part of your daily routine.
Being able to take a moment for yourself to make changes is something we all need to do now and then. Taking a timeout to give yourself a moment of relief or relaxation is only part of the battle. We carve out time for happy hour, but it ends up being less than happy because you are thinking about the last couple of emails you didn’t get to be there.

Learn to shine and make sure you’re not stressing about miscellaneous, small to-do’s while you’re trying to get them done. Get yourself sorted so that your “me time” can be as effective and joyful as possible.

3—Stay in a joyful state of mind.
An overjoyed life is the best existence we can hope to achieve. It’s the kind of life that produces positive and feel-good energy, and it encourages us to look to the future with great dreams. True joy might seem like a fleeting emotion, even if you only feel it for a moment at a time, but you can hold onto it.

4—Stop worrying.
Happiness can be much like love, it can have mysterious ways. However, science and psychology tell us that brain chemistry alters emotion. But in order to activate those chemicals, we have to talk about habits first.

There is a happiness formula that lies in changing thought patterns. Your thought patterns—what you do and think and say every day—determine how happy you stay. It’s got nothing to do with what’s around you, but everything to do with your thinking—your inner voice.

5—Appreciate the small things.
We all have them; those small moments that go unnoticed. What if we made it a habit to embrace and celebrate the little things? Real life is happening all around us while we’re waiting for the big thing we hope is going to give us some sort of inner peace, contentment or joy. Remember that all the little things add up to great things.

6—Stay around positive people.
You must realize that happiness is an individual choice. And every choice is influenced by other people in our lives. If you change your life power for the better, you can dramatically increase your chances for happiness and success.

I’ve found that positive social connection is the greatest predictor of long-term happiness and success. Welcoming a positive new influence into your world can be one of the most important choices for happiness you share.

7—Laugh bigger and more often.
As you would know, laughing makes you feel good. Try to think about the last time you really laughed. Bemused with all of our grownup responsibilities, we adults just don’t express mirth as often as we did when we were kids.

Laughing can reduce stress, enhance immunity, improve blood flow and strengthen relationships. Bring laughter back into your life, if you don’t often enough. This will add so much to your life.

8—Love more often with more people.
A few Ideas about love >>

Use words of affirmation.
When words of affirmation are your love language, words build you up. Helping others is the way. You thrive on spoken affection, praise, encouragement, and compliments. Harsh words and criticism can bother you for a long time.

Helping others.
Anything that others do willingly to ease your workload is a sign of love to you. You feel cared for when your friend vacuums before you get to it or makes you breakfast as a surprise.

Giving and receiving gifts.
When you speak this love language, a thoughtful gift shows others that you are special. In contrast, generic gifts and forgotten special events have the opposite effect. This love language isn’t necessarily materialistic – it could be as simple as receiving your favorite snack after a bad day. Just care about others.

Quality time
Nothing says you’re loved like undivided attention from another person. When this person is truly present (and not looking at their phone), it makes you feel important. Failure to actively listen or long periods without one-on-one time can make you feel unloved.

Physical touch
Holding hands, kisses, hugs, and other touches are your preferred way to show and receive love. Appropriate touches convey warmth and safety, while physical neglect can drive a wedge between you and your partner.

9—Find joy.
See the world through a different lens. It’s the feeling of feeling completely in the moment. It’s being alive. As you can, enhance your overall well-being.

You see, happiness has two factors. The first factor is life satisfaction, which is the sense that your life is going well (you are the one in charge of that.) The second is the experience of frequent positive emotions, which include pride, curiosity, enthusiasm, tranquility, and joy.

10—Plan your happiness.
We put money away.
We take vitamins.
We exercise.
We hope these precautions will protect us as we age.
But as we safeguard our money, bones, and blood pressure, we forget to safeguard the one thing that can make a difference in the quality of our lives as we get older: our happiness. Keep your joy and keep it growing throughout your whole life.

LIFE IS HAPPENING ALL THE TIME – ARE YOU KEEPING UP?
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WORDS TO INSPIRE YOU! >>
Inspirational quotes and motivational sayings have an amazing ability to change the way we feel about life and can change our thinking.

I find them so interesting, challenging, and important on our path to joy and happiness and finding ways to inspire ourselves and others.

Inspirational quotes and ideas give us a quick and timely burst of wisdom to get our focus back, offering the inspiration needed for the day or occasion.

I hope to inspire you with my words. Words have power.

Are you accomplishing what you want before your eventual death?
At any age, you can (and should) make changes to make your life better.

How you think and feel about yourself, including your beliefs and expectations about what is possible for you, determines everything that happens in your life. It all derives from your quality of thinking.

When you improve the quality of your thinking,
you change the quality of your life—sometimes instantly!

Just as positive words can make someone smile, and/or a well-timed amusing quote can make someone laugh, your thoughts react to the world in real-time. You have this control!

You have complete control over only one thing in the universe — Your Thinking — and that’s where motivational quotes come in!

To keep your motivation, you have to use each day as an opportunity for improvement, to be better, and to get a little bit closer to your goals. It might sound like a lot of work—and with your busy schedule—next to impossible. But you can do it!

Self-talk is so important—THINK RIGHT!
Motivational words, yes, they’re just words.
But they’re positive words; they will keep you on track.

Remember, you are only as young as the last time you changed your mind.

Keep your thoughts and self-talk fun and productive, and always reach for more advancement.

REMEMBER – Even if you start late, are uncertain, and/or different – YOU CAN STILL FIND SUCCESS!
VERY LITTLE IS NEEDED TO MAKE A GREAT LIFE.
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I HOPE THE FOLLOWING WORDS ABOUT JOY INSPIRE YOU >>

1. “Find ecstasy in life: the mere sense of living is joy enough.” Emily Dickinson

2. “Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day. Henri Nouwen”

3. “Go find your joy. Whatever that is, go find your joy. Are you going to have a good day or are you going to have a great day? Because it’s completely up to you.” Sandra Bullock

4. “Life doesn’t have to be perfect to be filled with joy.” Anonymous

5. “If you carry joy in your heart, you can heal any moment.” Carlos Santana

6. “To have joy in your heart, one must know how to appreciate the small things in life.” Anonymous

7. “Let your joy spring forth from within.” ATGW

8. “Find joy in the journey.” Anonymous

9. “Find out what gives you joy and do it.” Anonymous

10. “Find a place inside where there’s joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.” Joseph Campbell

11. “Joy is not in things; it is in us.” Richard Wagner

12. “Find joy in everything you choose to do. Every job, relationship, home. It’s your responsibility to love it, or change it.” Chuck Palahniuk

13. “When we are centered in joy, we attain our wisdom.” Marianne Williamson

14. “Joy is untouched by circumstance.” Anonymous

15. “Find joy in the ordinary.” Anonymous

16. “Joy; the kind of happiness that doesn’t depend on what happens.” David Steindl-Rast

17. “Spread joy. Chase your wildest dreams.” Patch Adams

18. “Learning to love yourself first brings more joy and peace than trying to love someone else.” Anonymous

19. “The healthiest response to life is joy.” Mark Twain

20. “Where there is love, there is joy.” Mother Teresa

21. “It is not joy that makes us grateful. It is gratitude that makes us joyful.” Anonymous

22. “Be committed to living in constant joy.” Pam Brout

23. “She found joy and wonder in every little thing. And joy and wonder always found her.” Katrina Mayer

24. “Comparison is the thief of joy.” Theodore Roosevelt

25. “We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think.
When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.” Buddha

26. “Innovation comes from people who take joy in their work.” W. Edwards Deming

27. “We can choose to live in joy.” Joseph Campbell

28. “A joy that’s shared is a joy made double.” Proverb

29. “When work is a pleasure, life is a joy. When work is a duty, life is a slavery.” Maxim Gorky

30. “Love. Joy. Peace. Patience. Kindness. Goodness. Faithfulness. Gentleness, and self-control. To these, I commit my day.” Anonymous

31. “A joyful life is made up of joyful moments gracefully strung together.” Brene Brown

32. “Whether you know or not, you are the infinite potential of love, peace, and joy.” Annie Ray

33. “If you can’t find joy in the path you are on and what you are working toward now, how do you expect to find joy once you get there?” Anonymous

34. “When you recover or discover something that nourishes your soul and brings joy, care enough about yourself to make room for it in your life.” Jean Shinoda Bolen

35. “The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives.” Russel M. Nelson

STOP MAKING EXCUSES—YOU’RE THE ONLY ONE STOPPING YOU!
COMPOSE A NOBLE BOOK AND WRITE A BEST-SELLER.
YOU ARE AMAZING—PLAY YOUR PART!
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MY DAILY JOTTINGS >>
9/10—A Saturday. What a distinctive find—we came upon an Arrowhead Orbweaver spider. It was magnificent, as you see from the photo.

9/11—Did not go to church again. Beth likes to relax on this day of the week, so I allowed her to do just that.

9/12—Today, I put up my 100-gallon rainwater collector. I was surprised at how quickly this did save water. I also built a filter, and we drank to our heart’s delight.
 
9/13—Off we went to get our wilderness fix. This much be accomplished at least once a week. Dorn Creek was our destination. Jemma did like this outing, much.
 
9/14—Beth and I are a three-car family (actually, two vans and a car.) We saw that we did not really need the car, so I gave it a good cleaning and fixed it up.

I guess I could have improved the car while we still had it. Strange to me that so many people will fix up a car or their house spectacularly when they are going to sell it. Why did they not do this for themselves when they lived in that abode?

That is something that Beth and I do continuously, fix up and improve the home we live in. Do you do the same?

9/15—A duck without a home, how terrible. We connected the person who was getting rid of the small duckling with the new home. We gave this little ducky friend a limo ride to his new home. Now all are happy.

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YOUR CHALLENGE FOR THE WEEK >>
Send Beth a birthday present.
It occurs on September twenty-five.
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NEXT BLOG >>
We are getting new windows next week.
You will learn more . . .
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THIS WEEK,
MAKE YOUR LIFE
SOMETHING
THAT YOU CAN
WRITE ABOUT!