Welcome!

Posted on May 12, 2010 by Gina Bearne

It seems to me that ‘joy’ is a word that has become unfashionable and, perhaps, lost meaning for the modern age. Through this site, my aim is to explore the meaning of joy and the ways in which we can develop a capacity to tap into joy.

I invite you to comment on the articles that you will find here – simply click the post title to make sure you are in the full article and add your comments in the box at the foot of the page. Please join the conversation…and welcome!

Update June 4 2010: You can now follow a ‘trail’ of related posts, even printing these as a single document should you so wish!

(See also Why Passage to Joy?)


Posted in Site Aims | Tagged | 1 Comment

More joy of food and drink

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Gina Bearne

Recent experiences of tasting menus have inspired us to challenge sommeliers to come up with non-alcoholic pairings.

Twice now they have responded with such a genuine sense of interest and enjoyment (and last night Paul got his drinks for free!) that it has also provided an additional quality of delight in our experience of eating out. I have a sense that this kind of playful challenge is another way of creating a shared connection into the wellspring of joy.

In an interesting subtext to this challenge, why should we value the experience of those who drink alcohol over those who choose not to? Restaurants often fail to consider the non-drinker and have poor options, even though there are some wonderful syrups, juices, teas and more, many of which can be locally sourced and mixed to great effect.

I’d like to think that, in playfully planting this awareness, we may help to change this.

 


Posted in General | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The joy of food and drink

Posted on April 1, 2012 by Gina Bearne

Food – it is so easy to relate to what we eat in terms of necessity, habit and craving, to forget to savour the experience, the flavours, the textures, the provenance, the effort, the artistry.

Whilst it would seem to me excessive to eat expensively too often, after enjoying a wonderful local food tasting menu (with matched wines) at the Globe Bistro last night I came away very much aware that, in focussing on our experience of food and wine, giving it real attention, there is an opportunity to hone a more general awareness and appreciation.

We speak of the culinary art. Art at its best has always held an ability to shift my perception, to change the way I experience the world. Tasting menus, if they are any good, do just this.

They offer a reminder to be fully present when we eat in such a way that genuinely ‘feeds’ our sense of joy!


Posted in General | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Joy, suffering and the ego

Posted on March 13, 2012 by Gina Bearne

I read today a view that the ego will always attempt to suck us back into a state of suffering. Without resistance, we begin to blur our sense of separateness and the ego needs us to see ourselves in terms of separation and difference.

From the egoic point of view, it’s vital that we remain in conflict to some extent, and that’s why, when we look at the world around us, we see so much conflict among human beings.  (Adyashanti: Falling into Grace)

This prompted for me that the realization that joy, at least as I perceive it, is rarely if ever ego driven, existing most profoundly in the moments when the barrier of ego-separation is breached by a sense of connectedness, of grace.

So for me, part of the purpose in consciously working to develop the capacity to access joy is to provide myself with one of the tools with which to combat the pull of the ego and the resultant ‘suffering’, the fall from grace into being a part of conflict.

 


Posted in Nature of Joy | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

A story of snow . . .

Posted on March 1, 2012 by Gina Bearne

Words and storytelling give us tools to amplify wonder and joy in the everyday.

I walk across the park on my way to work through falling snow. Momentarily, I lower my eyelids and open my inner eyes. I am surrounded by myriad crystals, each unlike any other, that in moments will cease to be.

Later, amid the forced exodus of a fire alarm, I am blessed by a single, perfect flower-crystal that rests on my coat’s puffy black sleeve. I wonder, without that amplified perception that I chose to tap into earlier, would I have overlooked this gift?

Snow flakes by Wilson Bentley

Once again, I seem to have used a combination of knowledge and internal storytelling to fuel my sense of joy.


Posted in General | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The importance of storytelling

Posted on March 1, 2012 by Gina Bearne

Through listening to and reading the stories of others, we build the tools we need to frame our own experiences. Without words or narrative skill, we cannot reference or fully inhabit what happens to us and our responses to it; we cannot focus our thoughts or our emotions.

Stories give us metaphor, the stuff of the ‘creation of meaning’. They give us legends based on archetypes that enable us to recognize the rich cast of characters that inhabit our inner worlds.

Our ability to tell our own story and, further, to be aware that we choose the particular narrative that we tell ourselves and others, has a profound impact on our capacity for happiness.

The quality of our personal storytelling, as well as our capacity to listen to and truly hear the stories of others, is fundamental to our ability to connect, to build relationship.

Storytelling enables us to share our experiences and our perceptions of them and thus to show each other who we are. Our stories bind us together by connecting us to the commonality of symbol and myth and to our shared humanity.


Posted in General | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment