It's funny that this question comes up because lately I have decided that I am going to choose to live in joy and peace. I keep meditating on it. And when things come up and I could get upset (often unnecessarily) I say to myself I am choosing to live and joy and peace.
I even feel that joy and peace and even a cheerful optimism are becoming my new modes of being. It's not to say that nothing is hard, or things aren't difficult or sad sometimes. But I choose not to dwell in those places.
One of my favorite authors argues that every one wants joy, but the reason we don't get joy all the time is because joy doesn't change us. It doesn't help us grow, it doesn't challenge us, it doesn't require anything of us. In fact, he says, it might even detract us from deeper things or pursuits like god and truth.
And I think that is true. Life can't be one rainbow colored smoothie of joy. But here, I am not talking about joy based so synergistically on events/circumstances etc. I think you can find or choose joy even in the hard things, even in the mundane.
One of my favorite quotes says it best:
“Joy lies in the fight, in the attempt, in the suffering involved, not in the victory itself.” Mahatma Gandhi
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