Why Joy?: One Year of The Joyfilled Seeker!

With fear about the unknown but also a sense of knowing this is my purpose, I published my first post, What *Really* is Joy (+ Why Do We Need it in Our Lives?), one year ago this month.

To celebrate this milestone, I thought it would be good to share a little bit more about the feeling of joy to me and how it has impacted—and continues to impact— this space!

Who knew what a beautiful ride this past year would be (I am so excited to share more about what has been going on)!

Keep reading to get a better understanding of this pillar of joy and how it relates to The Joyfilled Seeker!

So, Why Joy?

So Why Joy?

Why did I dedicate this whole space to seeking out the joy in life?

Well, if you haven’t read my about page, 2020—as for many— was so rough for me.

I reached the complete bottom point of my life, and I felt everything but joyful.

When I decided that I was tired feeling that way, I decided to embark on a healing journey (that I will always be on!), and suddenly like so many, the feeling of joy came up.

Repeatedly.

My heart had had enough.

Enough of living the way “society” thought I should live, enough of living by all my old limiting beliefs, and enough of living with a closed heart.

Finally, I opened my heart—for the first time in my adult life—and suddenly, this treasure of joy and appeared.

One of the books I included in my post on 10 joy books, The Alchemist, has this quote which kind of summarizes this all so well (this book is truly a book all about living your purpose—or personal legend as it says!):

The thought kept coming up: I want to show everyone how much joy there really is in life.

So, The Joyfilled Seeker was born!

Ironically, the name came to be because I made an Instagram profile (which I originally created with an entirely different name!), and I had to work around some different names until I found one that wasn’t taken!

How the Joy Appeared:

As the first quote from The Alchemist says, when I found The Joyfilled Seeker, everything in my life suddenly made more sense.

I have always had a more positive attitude (I have so much appreciation for my parents for raising me with those positive beliefs! Thank you, Mom and Dad!) which has always led me to “seek out the joy” in life more.

I had always had a goal (spending multiple birthdays having it be the wish when I blew out my candles) to have a “happy” year.

Even in middle school, we had to write the first chapter of our very own book. Mine was all about a girl who was traveling the globe to learn more about finding joy and happiness in life.

On the technical side, I have always envisioned a non-traditional “career” for myself: one where I could live fully in my purpose. Plus, I have enjoyed writing, reading, and being creative for many many years.

Interestingly, when I had an undergrad internship in a communications department at a non-profit, I LOVED coding. It truly fascinated me to be able to change something by changing the code.

Education-wise, it continued to make sense! I have backgrounds in studying political science (which I especially loved learning about different cultures!) and studying mental health.

Again, it’s been wild to see how everything has—and still is—combining to make sense with this purpose I have been given in life! The Joyfilled Seeker, looking back, has always had its little signs pointing me towards it!

Why I Love Joy:

I love that this ended up being my purpose for so many reasons!

One of the biggest is that I love joy!!!

I love it so very much.

One thing I especially love about joy, which I talked about in my first post, is that joy has no conditions to feel joyful.

One of the Universal laws is the Law of Impermanence which highlights the idea that everything is always changing, and nothing is ever staying the exact same.

By having no conditions, joy allows us to experience it all the time.

No matter what is happening (+changing!) in life.

The second reason I love joy so much is because it is one of the highest feelings we can feel as humans.

According to the Emotional Guidance Scale, all our feelings exist on a scale with positive ones on one end and negative ones on the other.

At the most high level are the feelings of love, appreciation, knowledge, freedom, empowerment, and joy!

I love that I have the chance to serve people by showing how we can more readily tap into this wonderfully positive feeling of joy! By feeling joy, I think it also it allows us to feel those other wonderful emotions of freedom, love, knowledge, appreciation and empowerment more easily as well. What a wonderful world it would be if everyone was tapped into these feelings more!

“Seeking” Joy?:

One thing that has come up for me in this space is the idea of “seeking joy”.

I love the quote by Rumi above (and quotes by Rumi in general—I wrote a post with Rumi quotes on joy!).

For me, I always loved the seeker part of The Joyfilled Seeker.

Being a feeling/emotion, we can’t ever really “find” joy in the physical sense, but we can constantly “seek” to feel it more/ see it more in life.

I also love the “seeker” part of this space because of what Rumi says. When we seek something, it— at the same time— is seeking us.

When we seek out joy, joy is seeking us out!

By seeking out the joy, I think it helps us to retrain ourselves to truly live a life filled with more joy!

Where Joy Collides:

So how does all this fit together in The Joyfilled Seeker?

Well, this is my vision (although it could easily change—remember the Law of Impermanence?):

Firstly, I want to serve others in seeing and adding a little more joy into their lives through posts on “Joyfilled Living”. I hope through my products suggested, this can help to inspire you to tap into your own inner joy more.

Secondly, I want to serve others in looking for the the joy in life through the eyes of others via “Joyfilled People”.

Thirdly, I want to serve others—and inspire others—in creating a more joyful life and world by learning what we can about joyful living through other places and cultures through posts on “Joyfilled Travels”.

Lastly, I want to live in my joy.

I hope this space can be a reminder for you to do that too, ultimately. Have the faith to take a leap into your true innermost joy!

With Appreciation

Taking the time to be appreciative of all the good, is such a powerful exercise!

In the spirit of appreciation (and joy!), I want to take a moment on this one-year anniversary to appreciate everyone.

Everyone who has clicked on a pin, looked at my Instagram, reached out, read a post, purchased something through my affliate links, and celebrated this space with me (especially to my parents, other family members, and all my friends)!

To take a huge leap of faith really is something, and to be able to have found and live my purpose in life—there truly are no words…. just love and joy!

Thank you all for being here to make this one year so incredible!

Let’s keep seeking out the joy!

Joyfully,Claire