@everydayadventurepsych

You deserve joy 💃

Even more than that, you need it.

It is fundamental to our psychological resilience and research has found that even brief moments of joy can counter the effects of negative emotions (Fredrickson, 2001, 2013)

Yet so often we can see joy as a bonus that we are lucky to encounter - or even feel guilty when we actively seek it out.

And resilience is often framed that way - as our capacity to endure, to keep going no matter what life throws at us.

But what if we see resilience instead as the active pursuit of joy. Not toxic positivity, not always being happy, but rather a stubbornness to seek the pockets of brightness where we can, to find the light between the cracks.

It’s not easy. It takes effort, a constant re-focusing and even re-wiring of how we see the world. But - just like most things in life- the more we practice it, the easier it becomes…

So here is my invitation- what will you do to bring joy into your life today?

Ps photo taken at the end of the Pier to Pier swim on Saturday - think my expression is closer to relief (!), but having 1 hour to myself with nothing to do except be in the sea definitely brought me a lot of joy 💙