The Power of Joy

I recently read an impressive book called If I Am So Smart, Why Can’t I Lose Weight? Tools to Get It Done! by weight-loss coach Brooke Castillo. In it she presented a process that isn’t about food or exercise but about the beliefs and habits that keep us stuck in self-destructive patterns.

Brooke’s discussion about joy really spoke to me. While it’s natural and healthy to derive some pleasure from eating, getting too much joy from food, will make it extremely difficult to give up. However, if I have joy in my life from a lot of sources, the need to eat for the joy of it will drop. Brooke challenged her readers to estimate how much of their total joy came from food and eating, and then to build into their lives additional things that would give them joy, so that food would contribute a smaller proportion.

I can’t help thinking that this has applications beyond food. Activities such as mindless television and computer games can work like food to give us low-level joy when we haven’t build enough really satisfying pleasure into our lives. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have so many things in our lives that we truly love that we don’t care about the Doritos or who’s dancing with the stars?

So, what about you? Is there enough pleasure in your life? What would really give you joy? What would you love to be doing? When are you going to start building it in?

For myself, I hosted a games night last Friday, I’ve started a sewing project to revel in my creativity, I’ve planned more visits with my nieces and nephews and more fun time with my husband, and I’ve recognized that, for now, joy also looks like a good book and a latte at Starbucks and I’m giving myself permission to indulge in that joy, too.