Tanmay Vora...............................

 

............................goes with the flow.

joy...........................

 

Joy is in the doing, not in the outcome after the doing.

 

Do more things you like doing.

-Annie Mueller, from here

Walking with joy..................

 

......................through the valley of the shadow. . .

a product.......................

 

Material possessions can be here today and gone tomorrow, and if your happiness is tied up in them, it too can be here today and gone tomorrow.  But happiness, a product of a mindset that combines curiosity, the joy of perpetual intellectual discovery, and an appreciation of life's experiences, can be more lasting.

-Gad Saad,  The Saad Truth About Happiness

the world......................

Man was made for joy and woe,

And when this we rightly know

Through the world we safely go.

Joy and woe are woven fine,

A clothing for the soul divine.

-William Blake

thanks Rob

choices...........................

 Playing your own game in life means understanding what truly matters to you. It’s about self-awareness and knowing your strengths and weaknesses. It’s about recognizing what brings you joy and what drains you.

-Vishal Khandelwal

     via

an atmosphere of quiet.........

 

A happy life must be to a great extent a quiet life, for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet that true joy can live.

-Bertrand Russell

Joy..................

 

Joy for the human beings lies in proper human work.  And proper human work consists in: acts of kindness to other human beings, distain for the stirrings of the senses, identifying trustworthy impressions, and contemplating the natural order and all that happens in keeping with it.

-Marcus Aurelius,  Meditations

Recommended...................

      The Stoics believed in social reform, but they also believed in personal transformation.  More precisely, they thought the first step in transforming a society into one in which people live a good life is to teach people how to make their happiness depend as little as possible on their external circumstances.

-William B. Irvine, A Guide to the Good Live (the ancient art of stoic joy)

it's a process...............

We're often told that if we want to develop our skills, we need to push ourselves through long hours of monotonous practice.  But the best way to unlock hidden potential isn't to suffer through the daily grind.  It's to transform the daily grind into a source of daily joy.  It is not a coincidence that in music, the term for practice is play. . . .

 Elite musicians are rarely driven by obsessive compulsion.  They're usually fueled by what psychologists call harmonious passion.  Harmonious passion is taking joy in a process rather than feeling pressure to achieve an outcome.

-Adam Grant, Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things

Life its ownself...................................

      This country has felt more stunned and doomed than at any time since the assassinations of the 1960s and the Vietnam War, and while a sense of foreboding may be appropriate, the hate is not.  At some point, the hate becomes an elective.  I was becoming insane, letting politicians get me whipped up into visions of revenge, perp walks, and jail.  But it didn't work as a drug, neither calming nor animating me.  There is no beauty or safety in hatred.  As a long-term strategy, based on craziness, it's doomed.

     No one can take this hatred off me.  I have to surrender it every time I become aware of it.  This will not go well, I know.  But I don't want my life's ending to be that I was toxic and self-righteous, and I don't know if my last day here will be next Thursday or in twenty years.  Whenever that day comes, I want to be living, insofar as possible, in the Wendell Berry words "Be joyful though you have considered all the facts," . . .

-Anne Lamott, Almost Everything: Notes on Hope

accidentally...............................

     As we develop love, appreciation, and forgiveness for others over time, we may accidentally develop those things towards ourselves, too.  While you might think it's a trick, having affection for one's goofy, crabby, annoying, lovely self is home.  This has been my meager salvation.

     That we are designed for joy is exhilarating, within reach, now or perhaps later today, after a nap, as long as we do not mistake excitement for joy.  Joy is good cheer.  My partner says joy and curiosity are the same thing.  Joy is always a surprise, and often a decision.

-Anne Lamott, Almost Everything: Notes on Hope

Life Its Ownself.......................

 ...........the joys of parenting — and grandparenting:

Highly recommended..........................

 

For all the books on all the shelves of all the world's libraries, life must in the end be lived as a series of discrete moments and individual decisions.  What we face may be complicated, but what we do about it is simple.  "Do the right thing," Laura White told her son.  "Do unto others," a teacher told his disciples, "as you would have them do unto you." . . .

How does one thrive through a maelstrom of change?  By standing on ground that is permanent.

a joy which is free from all sorrows...............

 The ordinary surroundings of life which are esteemed by men (as their actions testify) to be the highest good, may be classed under the three heads — Riches, Fame, and the Pleasures of Sense: with these three the mind is so absorbed that it has little power to reflect on any different good. . . . But love for an object eternal and infinite feeds the mind with joy alone, and a joy which is free from all sorrow. This is something greatly to be desired and to be sought with all our strength.

-Baruch Spinoza

no rift or cranny...........................

29.  For a life that is sound and secure, cultivate a thorough insight into things and discover their essence, matter, and cause; put your whole heart into doing what is just, and speaking what is true; and for the rest, know the joy of life by piling good deed on good deed until no rift or cranny appears between them.

-Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book Twelve 

Join.............................

 Join with those who have never said: "Right, that's it.  I'm going no further," because as sure as spring follows winter, nothing ever ends; after achieving your objective, you must start again, always using everything you have learned along the way.

     Join with those who sing, tell stories, take pleasure in life, and have joy in their eyes, because joy is contagious and can prevent others from becoming paralyzed by depression, loneliness, and difficulties.

-Paulo Coelho,  The Archer

Like blogging...................

So, yes, work your ass off and get some semblance of economic stability.  But take notes on the things that give you joy and satisfaction, and start investing in those things.  Pay attention to things that bring you joy that don't involve mind-altering substances or a lot of money.

-Scott Galloway,  The Algebra of Happiness:  Notes on the Pursuit of Success, Love, and Meaning

Painting with too broad a brush............

................................or as they used to say in the old 12-step group,  be careful of "shoulding all over yourself":

     Our society had become a conspiracy against joy,  It has put too much emphasis on the individuating part of our consciousness—individual reason—and too little emphasis on the bonding parts of our consciousness, the heart and soul.   We've seen a shocking rise of mental illness, suicide, and distrust.  We have become too cognitive when we should be more emotional;  too utilitarian when we should be using a moral lens;  too individualistic when we should be more communal.

-David Brooks, from the Introduction to The Second Mountain:  The Quest for a Moral Life

Joyful..........................

     The people who radiate a permanent joy have given themselves over to lives of deep and loving commitment.  Giving has become their nature, and little by little they have made their souls incandescent.  There's always something flowing out of the interiority of our spirit.  For some people it's mostly fear or insecurity.  For the people we call joyful, it's mostly gratitude, delight, and kindness.

-David Brooks,  The Second Mountain:  The Quest for a Moral Life