Saying Yes and Joy

 

This came in my inbox this morning. It's a quote from Abraham Hicks:

"Life is supposed to be fun. You said, "I'll go forth and choose. I'll look at the data, and I'll say, yes to this, and yes to this, and yes to this, and I'll paint a picture of the things that I want, and I'll vibrate about them, because that's what I'm giving my attention to. And the Universe will respond to my vibration. And then I'll stand in a new place where a whole new batch of yeses are available, and I'll say yes to this, and yes to this, and yes to this." You did not say, "I'll go forth and struggle into joy", because from your Nonphysical Perspective you know it is vibrationally not possible. You cannot struggle to joy. Struggle and joy are not on the same channel. You joy your way to joy. You laugh your way to success. It is through your joy that good things come."

Excerpted from the workshop in Los Angeles, CA on Sunday, August 2nd, 1998

That's such a nice picture, and on one level it's all true. But it's missing at least half the picture. That part about "You joy your way to joy," well, I was going to say it was right on, but there's something missing in that, too. How do you joy your way to joy? What does that mean? I guess what seems to be missing to me is the rest of the human part, the part about what brings you to Joy, and just what true Joy is.

When I set out on my journey to earth I think I said something along the lines of "I want a great journey. I want to know myself completely in this new medium called human life. I want to feel the experience of living in the physical dimensions, and I want to experience bringing unlimited God consciousness into limitation. I want to experience waking up."

So what I keep wanting to say "yes" to is human life. I want to say yes to my experience.

Now this involves a lot of Joy. Saying "yes" to what you are experiencing is a brilliant recipe for moving out of struggle and into Joy. For some people and in some experiences it really is that simple. You just say "yes". Bingo, everything's great.

Sometimes it isn't quite that easy. Because sometimes what you are saying "yes" to does not immediately feel like Joy.

When you look at the chakras in your human body, and what emotions are associated with what chakra, Joy lives in the solar plexus. This is a disc-like section of your body roughly from the bottom of the sternum down to the belly button. The solar plexus houses most of the integration organs, like the kidneys, the liver, the gallbladder, the pancreas and the stomach. This is where your physical self integrates higher energies with denser energies.

Another way to phrase what happens, physically, emotionally and spiritually, in you solar plexus is to say this is where you take Responsibility for your human life.

So here's what taking Responsibility means: Slowing down, recognizing yourself as the creator of your life, allowing yourself to experience the journey you have created, and thus stepping into this present moment. Therein lies your Joy – the Joy of getting to have this amazing experience called human life.

Note two things – the capital 'R', which distinguishes Self-Responsibility from social responsibility. My description of Responsibility didn't include taking care of other people, or doing things you don't want to do, or earning enough money, or getting enough sleep or any of that. Responsibility means paying attention to your emotional journey and letting yourself have it.

And, secondly, notice that I'm talking about Joy in human experience, not just Joy in happy times. The human experience is about all sorts of emotions and thoughts and creations. Sometimes it includes struggle. Probably the biggest struggle we face is this struggle against being in the moment and taking Responsibility for our lives. And yet there it is – struggle. One of the most brilliant things about this is that if you can slow down into whatever experience you're having, even struggle, you can find Joy in it.

Yes, it's fun to struggle. Why do we do sports? Why do we want action and conflict in our movies? Why do we like roller coasters? Because they're fun! Because they involve some level of struggle.

Every step you take to actually let yourself feel what you are feeling will take you closer to that Joy.

There's another part to this all, which is about what keeps us from feeling our journeys, which is basically the biggest barrier known to human and Divine kind, which is self-judgment. I'll get into that next.

Until then, slow down, pay attention, let yourself feel.