As I mentioned previously, my word for 2026 is JOY. I decided to make a Joy Journal. Well actually it is a journal for my words of the year. I picked up a journal with blank pages at Dollar Tree. I also got a bigger sketchbook at Five Below to use for my explorations in joy. When I was reviewing my posts from the past, I found this one sharing the book Joy in Every Moment by Tzvia Gover. I pulled it off my shelf and have started reading it daily and trying some of the mindful exercises in it. I use my journal for this as well as ones I think of. On the first page of the journal, I wrote down all my words of the year with the date. One of the mindfulness exercises was to take time to define what joy means to me. I did this in my journal. It is not a formal definition but words I think of when I think about what joy means.
Another idea I had was to do a sketch of joy with the word joy on it. It is a work in progress, but I will share it with you. This is in the sketchbook. I wanted to make JOY visible and have something to look at that makes me feel joy.
Then this morning as I was waking up, I was thinking of poems. I was thinking I was creating haikus, but I messed up the number of syllables and did the first line three, second five and third three. I wrote these in my journal but created visuals for you to see some of them.
This one goes with my definition and was the first I did. Although I may have changed the words a bit by the time I got out of bed and wrote it down. It is the first one I thought of. Then one of the activities in Joy in Every Moment was thinking about children and their joy, so I created one with Joyful Sounds.
While I was writing them down there was a flurry and I was watching the birds and squirrels outside at my feeders. Ever since the pandemic I have found birds and the squirrels bring me joy.
Then I thought about my favorite way to birdwatch in the winter--with a hot chai. I wrote this one.
Next I got back to thinking about what joy means to me. Since I was using less syllables, it was harder to get my thoughts all in one poem.
One of the first mindful exercises in Joy in Every Moment is to say, "I am joy." It is something to keep doing over time, so it becomes part of you. I have been doing this and wrote this poem starting with I am joy. I think this might be my favorite one.
I decided to share some of my mindful exercises and creativity here on Sundays. It may not be every Sunday, but it will help hold me accountable and hopefully will help others to choose joy each day!
