10 Tips to Bring Back Your JOY
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This post was updated on February 14, 2021.
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In my last post, I talked about Choosing JOY Every Day, but sometimes, you just don’t feel joyful. So, how do you reclaim your JOY when you’re struggling with a tough day or situation? Today, let’s talk about Choosing Joy When You Don’t Feel Joyful.
We know how great life is when we are feeling joyful, but we all have days when we’re not feeling our best. Start by refusing to let negative thoughts take root in your mind, then choose a better feeling activity. Here are 10 tips to bring back your JOY and crank up your JOY-meter. They can help you with Choosing JOY when you don’t feel joyful.
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Tips to Find Joy When You’re Unhappy, Sad, or Depressed
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First, Gratitude is the shortcut to JOY. Take a few minutes and think of some things that you are grateful for today. Writing your list down in a journal will give you a bonus boost.
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Hug someone. Hugs help to release tension. They can make you feel warm and loved. So grab your spouse, your kids or even a pet and hug away. During my single years, I was even known to hug on a teddy bear.
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Start a JOY Jar. When good things happen, jot them down on a piece of paper and put it in your JOY Jar. Simple and ordinary things that make you smile are perfect examples. When you need a lift, take a few slips of paper from your JOY Jar and relive the warm feelings.
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Take a walk outside. Connecting with nature is an uplifting experience. As you walk, notice the grass, trees, flowers, and birds. Give thanks for all the nature around you. Breathe in the fresh air and listen to the sounds around you.
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Let go. Sometimes we have to just let go of things in order to move forward. Holding on to a grudge, anger or frustration is usually not worth what it does to us emotionally or physically. Forgive yourself or someone else if needed and move forward.
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Find Joy in the Little Things
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Sing, dance, smile, or laugh. These are all great mood busters to get you feeling better quickly. What’s on your music playlist? What’s your favorite comedy TV show? Ask someone to join you for double the fun.
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Find one good thing to focus on. This is one of my favorite tactics. Try to find something good about the person or situation that has upset you. Focus on that one good quality. Or if that doesn’t resonate with you, find something unrelated that feels good and focus on it. Focusing on any one good thought will turn you around quickly. Personally, I have one feel-good thought that I can use anytime.
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Friend therapy is valuable. Having coffee with a friend or even a telephone chat can be the best therapy. Rather than rehashing all the problems of the day, focus the conversation on good things.
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Say a few affirmations. Here are some of my favorites.
-I release all negativity and hold JOY in my heart.
-My life is blessed and full of JOY.
-I welcome JOY in my life.
-I choose to let JOY guide me.
-JOY is my goal.
And I always like to end my affirmations with, All is well.
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The last tip is to Meditate. Concentrating on your breathing and clearing your mind will restore peace to your soul and JOY to your heart. Many people find it difficult to meditate. It does require concentration on your breathing and being able to block out any distractions. Try to start with just a few minutes and gradually increase your time. Once you master meditation, you will be amazed at the benefits you will receive.
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Bonus tip: One other tidbit that I’d like to suggest is journaling. I have written in journals for 20 years or so. It’s a great way to pour out your heart and clarify your thoughts. Here’s a short video I did on journaling that I think will be helpful.
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For further reading, I think you’ll enjoy this article:
4 SIMPLE THINGS TO DO TO BE HAPPIER STARTING TODAY
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I hope these 10 tips have given you some ideas on HOW TO FIND JOY IN YOUR LIFE.
Life doesn’t have to be perfect to be filled with JOY. Even on tough days when you’re struggling, you have the ability to find your own JOY. You just have to make a conscious decision to turn your day around.
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JOY comes in the morning. Psalms 30:5
“JOY is a natural phenomenon. Misery is your creation.” ~Sadhguru
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Related posts on Finding Joy you will enjoy:
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Choosing JOY Every Day
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The Amazing Benefits of Gratitude
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3 Splashes of Inspiration for Encouragement
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Did you know ….. You can have JOY delivered right to your inbox. Just sign up for my monthly newsletter below. Easy peasy!
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89 thoughts on “Choosing JOY when you don’t feel JOYful | Inspiration”
Great tips! Every once in a while I forget saying what I’m grateful for and when I start to get all negative I snap myself out of it so I don’t fall too far off tracks. And I love the jar idea! I used to do that and read all the good things at the end of the year as a reminder that I had an amazing year and good things are coming.
Thank you for sharing! Wishing for you a JOYful day!
This is 100% true! Thank you for the great reminder.
I’m glad it touched you! JOY!
I love this. Joy is so much more valuable than happiness!
Yes indeed! Many people do not understand the difference in happiness and JOY!
I keep a happy jar and that really lifts the spirits when a tough day comes my way.
Great post x
These are great tips. It is easy to get bogged down by the negativity around you, but by focusing on something positive and thinking positive thoughts and affirmations you can avoid getting down.
Love the idea of a “joy jar.” How cute!
Thank u. My church was preaching a lot on joy recently. I have joy but am not happy. I’m not sure if that makes sense. But I will try some of your tips to see if that help 😁
I been struggling to find joy lately and this post has helped me to find some thanks for sharing.
Jimmy, I’m glad you found something in the post that you could use.
Blessings,
Louise
I love the idea of a Joy Jar!!! I am totally going to do that.
Taylor, I’d love to know about your JOY jar after you get it started.
Keep me posted.
Louise
I LOVE the idea of a JOY jar! And this post has so many other great reminders. Thanks so much for sharing!
Jen, I’m glad you liked the JOY jar idea.f
Wishing you JOY,
Louise
Louise, I looked forward to reading this blog about joy! Very well written and I just loved what you wrote about ‘Gratitude is The Shortcut to Joy’. This is so true. Looking forward to reading your next blogs. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for your encouragement, Beth.
Blessings
Louise, One of your Pinterest pins helped me discover this earlier post of yours. I love this idea of the JOY jar. I give thanks and express gratitude but need a lift at times. I found the perfect jar during the holidays at the dollar store. It is red and has a see-thru capital JOY. Great way to start this year. Thanks for this very thoughtful post. Joyce
Joyce, I am thrilled to know you found a way to use a JOY Jar! Mine is right beside my desk and I love using colored paper to pop notes in there.
These tips and advice are so important in our world these days. Thank you for sharing!
I’m glad you enjoyed the read!
I love this! I so needed this today because I’ve been struggling with joy lately. My favorite part here is the part about letting go.
Yes, sometimes we just have to let things go. There’s no other way.
Wishing you a joyful day!
That’s a great tip to focus on positive talk when talking with a friend instead of rehashing your troubles. I know that talking it up works you up. I love these kind of positivity posts. Thanks for putting it together.
Thank you for your kind words. It does take a conscious decision to talk positive instead of going along with the negative talk.
Best wishes!
It can be so hard to see through failures and sadness at times but these tips are very helpful ways to find joy through it all. Thank you.
Joy is always available, but it’s not always easy.
Wishing you a joy-filled day!
I love the idea of the joy jar! Sometimes it’s the smallest or most ordinary things that really light us up when times are hard!
Oh, you are so right. I LOVE my Joy Jar!
Awesome tips! I like the joy jar thing. I m gonna start with right away 😊
Excellent! I LOVE my Joy Jar! It’s so fun putting notes in there.
I like to journal and write what I am grateful for each day. As a family we kept a joy jar for a week, I enjoyed it. The family now shares daily what they are grateful for each day, big and small.
Angie, this is lovely. It’s fabulous that you have an engaged family!
Blessings!
Good advice for the current times. This is a strange reality we’re in right now and I still see a lot of people being as petty and miserable as ever unfortunately.
Rebecca, you are so right. We’re all so spoiled to our everyday lives that it’s difficult to “Stay At Home.”
Stay well, my friend.
Thank you for these great ideas! Being an introvert I thought I’d be able to handle this lockdown just fine, but it’s been tough!
The lockdown is hard on everyone for various reasons. Just wondering about the unknown makes it tough.
Stay well!
Gratitude/Joy is so important and helps you deal with the no so fun moments in life. Each morning I try to write down three things that I am grateful for and then do the same at bed. It really helps change perspective.
You have a great routine established. Keep it up!
Wonderful post. These are great suggestions. Love the joy jar idea. When I was struggling with my cancer diagnosis, I started a joy journal of sorts. I included quotes, thoughts, ideas, etc. that I found comfort in. Now that my treatments are over and I am on the road to healthy, I go back into this journal from time to time as a reminder that happiness takes work. Just as we exercise our bodies to be healthy, we need to work on our joy and happiness. Love your post and the work you do to spread this joy around. And, yes, walking is an amazing boost to my mood too.
I love the idea of including quotes and thoughts. You are so right that we must work on our joy and happiness. Some days are easier than others.
Thank you for reminding me that happiness in a stressful time is a choice.
You said it beautifully!
Some amazing tips noted down. I’m gonna try the joy jar for sure. Sounds interesting. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Best of luck with the joy jar. I think you’ll find it amazing.
I love the idea of a joy jar! That gives me so many ideas for art projects I can do to feel more joyful!!
You sound like a true creative!
Wishing you joy!
Such a great way to remind people about joy. GRATITUDE is absolutely crucial in finding joy. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for these simple yet effective tips! 🙂 I especially love the joy jar and want to do it soon! 🙂 We all need to keep our spirits up these days, what with everything going on around in the world.
These are great tips you’re sharing! It times of darkness, the best thing we can do be the light and shine the best we can! Time’s are really tough so articles like this help refocused the attention on being positive and grateful for what we have instead of what we don’t.
Similar to you, I’ve been focusing my energy on creating content to help others as well. This week, I wrote a series of motivational articles since so many of us are in the slumps with how we’re feeling. In this article, I wrote a few practices I used to develop clarity and regain motivation (https://strivewithme.com/developing-clarity-and-regaining-motivation-to-pursue-your-goals/) I think your audience might find it helpful too 🙂
Thank you for your generous sharing of your article.
I will definitely read it myself and encourage others to do so.
Yes. These are all good things. Feelings definitely work on momentum so just the act of going for a good feeling thought can be a great way to slow down the momentum from negativity and start working towards positivity. Thank you for your post!
We can definitely choose our happiness no matter how difficult times we are facing, thanks for sharing this article!
I love the word joy-o-meter! Thanks for these tips we all need to boost our joy energy as much as can! I always say a prayer of gratitude for everything that happens daily even the smallest things.
Love this post! We all should experience more joy and you made some great suggestions!
Love the joy jar!
Great tips! This reminds me of my friend from a far always calling me it really helps me distress and have someone to listen to. I’m glad I have friends from a far that I can count on. Thanks for sharing! I will practice the things you mentioned here.
Awesome tips to stay in Joy
Whenever I need a reboot after a long day, I go for a walk with my son. Puts a smile back on my face to get moving and have some fresh air!
Kendall, this is a precious response. Thanks for sharing!
I love the joy jar. We did something similar to this at my church, but it was a blessings jar. So, over the course of the year, wed fil lthe jars with our blessings and then at the end of the year, dumpt them all out and read through them all. I didn’t get to participate in this, but I know that it is something I am definitely going to do at the beginning of the year – to have the opportunity to look back at all of the blessings in our lives can be so humbling.
Nancy, the blessings jar is a fabulous idea! Thanks for sharing!
Love love love this! Thank you for these tips. ❤️
Lina, I’m glad you enjoyed it!
These are some lifting spirit tips, thanks a lot that was helpful.
Amira, I’m glad it resonated with you.
Perfect post to feet good specially during this tough time of pandemic.
I am so glad this post resonated with you. Stay well!
Sing, smile, dance, laugh- so good. Hard to do when feeling not so joyful, but definitely good for the soul. I also love the friend therapy.
Friend therapy is one of my favorites.
These are great tips to bring back joy. Friend therapy and gratitude are the two I use the most, but I really like the joy jar idea! I just might have to start one of those. Thank you!
The JOY Jar has remarkable results. I hope you will try it.
Being thankful is one of the best ways to inspire oneself and is something I practice daily. I have learned more on other ways to inspire and have joy in my life from your post. Thanks for sharing.
This was joyful reading. Great tips also. Really enjoyed reading today.
Great tips!
I have never tried affirmations. Always been intrigued by them though. OK, you have convinced me.
I am still in love with the power of gratitude though, don’t think it can be beaten. Hurrah.
These tips are great! I especially love the idea of the joy jar! I’m a big fan of choosing gratitude and joy. Thanks!
With so much happening around us these days sometimes it’s hard to stay joyful. These tips are awesome and really helpful. Thanks for sharing.
Yes, setting affirmations are a great way to finding your joy again!
Choosing joy is big for me. I am typically a pretty positive person, but I have found myself getting down and discouraged lately. Getting outside, spending time with a friend, and singing have all been helpful. I love the idea of the joy jar!
I really needed this, I have felt kind of down and out this month. Thanks!
Love this! It can be really difficult to choose to be happy each day but these tips will certainly help!
I love the idea of a joy jar. And walking outside to find joy is one of my favorites. If I am working and need a boost I just take a short walk in the sunshine and realize the goodness and glory of God.
Take a walk outside. That’s what really helped me during those sad moments in my life. This article is worth sharing!
It’s all about perspective! Practicing gratitude and being joyful for the present moment has made such a big impact for me during these times.
Lousie, I love the quote, “Gratitude is the shortcut to joy.” Haven’t heard that before but it sure is true! Lots of great advice and reminders in this post! Thank you for sharing!
Whewww did I need this 😩 I absolutely love this post. I tend to allow my joy to depend on external entities which shouldn’t be the case. I’ll definitely try some of your tips.
Beautiful post and much needed for me – thank you💕