Joy Of Being Mindfully Present: How To Be Present and Feel Joy In Life

By Kristin Larsen

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What if you knew how to create joy in any moment while being present in your life?

??? ?? ????? ????????? ???????: ??? ?? ?? ??????? ??? ???? ??? ?? ????, is a book that explores what presence and joy are to each person in their lives. The book discusses the essential elements required to experience joy and be in presence in each life moment. Processing and understanding emotions is an important topic theme discussed which reveals the connection between joy and presence. Kristin presents "living in presence" in a way that invites curiosity to discover what the vision looks like for each individual and what is getting in the way from experiencing it. The reader can expect to be guided through thought provoking questions and resources that assist them with accessing their own inner wisdom to make living in joy and presence possible.

In his latest book, Kristin Larsen shares, "writing the book was always about creating a deep connection to self and others. I wanted to provide a tool of awakening, reflection and resources that help people discover new choices by seeing other perspectives, and to find inner peace through the daily habit of presence."

The book encourages taking the journey within self to open the heart to connection of authentic acceptance and expression.

"Joy resides fully embracing the present moment whatever it may contain - with appreciation and curiosity."

Larsen shares this thought with an important question,, "Appreciating the joy in life isn’t always easy. During moments of hardship, challenges, and setbacks, joy seems even less a part of our lives. Yet, deep inside we know that even during difficult times, joy is still within and around us.
So why can we often not access it?"
His intention is for the book to answer the question and give the reader the tools to access joy whenever they want, despite circumstance or situations.

May this book offer you a way to create a vision of what presence and joy feels like in your life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gatekeeper Press
• Release date: Oct 21, 2023
• ISBN: 9781662915420

Book preview

This section of the book introduces eleven core elements of being in presence and joy. These elements are established on the foundational concept of awareness. Awareness is a powerful tool for deepening your appreciation for these elements, and for integrating them into your life. Weekly exercises will help you implement these eleven elements into your day, as well as improve your awareness.

How Is Joy Interpreted?

Joy can be thought of as the acceptance of connection. The feeling of joy is experienced when connection—to other people, or perhaps to the world around—is welcomed with a sense of experiencing something good in the moment.

The Oxford Companion to Emotion and the Affective Sciences defines joy as a pleasant state that shares conceptual space with other positive emotions such as gladness, elation, happiness, and, to a lesser extent, amusement.

And the American Psychological Association states that the feeling of joy may take two forms: passive joy or active joy. Their explanation continues to state that passive joy involves tranquility and a feeling of contentment with things as they are. Active joy involves a desire to share one’s feelings with others while having more engagement with the surrounding environment.

The Book of Joy, by the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, says there are eight pillars of joy. Those eight pillars are separated by mind focus and heart focus. Four pillars are qualities of the mind — perspective, humility, humour, and acceptance — and four are qualities of the heart — forgiveness, gratitude, compassion, and generosity.

Other fundamental aspects of joy have been collectively offered by various thought leaders such as Robert Holden, Ph.D. He describes common qualities of joy as being constant, inspiring creativity, often being unreasonable, untroubled, and enough.

Additional fundamental aspects of joy are that it spreads, it breeds clarity, it creates opportunities, and it builds resilience.

In her book Joyful The Surprising Power Of Ordinary Things To Create Extraordinary Happiness, Ingrid Fetell Lee identifies ten aesthetics of joy that were compiled from research by psychologists and neuroscientists; through interviews with celebrated artists, gardeners, and architects; and through her own travel experiences. She asserts that joy is felt in ten basic appreciations: Energy, Abundance, Freedom, Harmony, Play, Surprise, Transcendence, Magic (wonder), Celebration, and Renewal.

Element 1: Core Life Values

How do we ensure we are living each day with the highest of joyful and fulfilling intentions? The answer to the fundamental question about how to be fully present in your life lies in living in your core life values. Your core life values can be thought of as guides that help you stay on the path to wherever you are going. Living in your core life values is part of maintaining integrity with yourself, because the values are something you feel strongly about, and they are aligned with your vision of how you wish to be. You may feel a lack of guidance if you are not aware of these powerful, personal values. Understanding and respecting your core life values creates trust and a deep connection to your true inner self. Therein, lies presence.

Defining your core life values, and then living each day expressing those values, will ensure you are bringing true happiness into your life. Without knowing what your core life values are, navigating the true path that you envision for yourself will be challenging. But how do you know what your core life values are?

If your core values are not clear to you, start by reviewing your life up to this point. Think of past experiences that brought you great happiness and joy. Can you identify values associated with those experiences? Combining the experiences with the values you associate with them will help you narrow down those values of most importance. You can view a sample list of core life values in the resources section, on page 98 in this book, and explore what you feel your core life values are.

If you have identified a certain important life value that is missing from your life, ask yourself, How can I bring this important life value into my life? What can I do to change my life in order to integrate this value? The goal is to determine how to begin to incorporate that value into your life and gradually build on the way it is used and manifested.

Let me illustrate this process with one of my core life values, which is helping people. For me, being in alignment with this value means giving kindness, connecting authentically, listening, being welcoming and accepting, encouraging others by acknowledging their strengths, and inspiring with genuine vulnerability and courage.

Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one’s values.

—Ayn Rand

Once you know your core life values, you must ask yourself if you are living your life in alignment with those values. If not, why not? What is holding you back?

What can you do to start living in those values?

Weekly Exercises

Week 1: Identify your most important life value.

Are you content with how represented it is in your life at this moment?

If not, what can you do to increase its presence each day?

Week 2: Ask yourself, "What five values are most important in my life right now?

Why do I value them?"

Week 3: What are three additional values that you would like to be present in your life, but are not right now?

How does it make you feel to not be expressing these three values in your life? What might be some reasons why you are not living with them?

Ask yourself, What things in my life am I prioritizing over my core values?

What can you do to introduce those values into your life right now?

Week 4: If you had to prioritize your top five life values, what would they be? And in what order would they be?

Why are they in that order?

Element 2: Gratitude

The art of saying thank you is not merely the expression of gracious etiquette or perceived positive social manners. It is an essential mindset practice that we must be conscious of everyday. This practice is gratitude.

Living with gratitude powerfully changes our outlook on life. When we live with gratitude, it is similar to saying thank you for every opportunity, for every interaction, and for each moment we are given to make our lives special. It is important to express gratitude to others, but it is also an essential life operating principle for overall happiness and success.

Being grateful helps us to truly appreciate each moment and everything happening in that moment.

This allows us to view each day as a gift because we acknowledge it as a blessing and feel thankful that we are alive to experience