How to be joyful.

What does it mean to be in your joy?

Contrary to popular belief, joy has nothing to do with an emotional expression.

It’s not unrelenting enthusiasm.
It’s not happiness.
It’s not optimism.
It’s not happy-go-lucky.
A smile is not necessarily evidence of joy.

It also doesn’t mean that it’s not those things, either.

Joy is the radiance of being totally present to — and undisturbed by — life.

Undisturbed is not the same thing as unimpacted. We are all impacted by life. But we do not need to be _disturbed_ by it. If we think we should be unimpacted we inadvertently shield ourselves from it. That’s when life feels a little dull and flat and lonely; a little _unjoyful_ as it were.

We can be in our joy AND be enthusiastic, optimistic, happy, and also sad, grieving, reluctant, anticipatory. Joy is not at odds with the human experience. It is a partner to living the human experience in totality.

It’s a key. A code. A direction for how to be in the world. It tells you about the orientation in which to live: radiating from the inside-out (rather than inundated by the outside-in).