3 Steps to Reconnect for Your Emotional Energy
Strengthen your relationships to feel more joy
Rejuvenating Nourishing Rituals for Loving Relationships
Your natural positive state of being is joy with loving connections and unity with all life. When fear or pain disrupts your natural state, you automatically attempt to return to that state, but modern culture makes it harder with its constant negative news pitting people as us vs them. Then you tell yourself you “should” have more healthy habits and better relationships, which triggers more stressful resistance.
I invite you to reframe the way you speak about creating positive healthy habits to enjoy loving relationships and oneness with all life. Instead of saying, “I should have good self-care habits and good relationships”, try saying, “I love my rejuvenating nourishing rituals, and I deserve them! My rituals strengthen my loving connections with myself, others and all life.” Do you feel the difference? What would you love? Create your own rituals to rejuvenate and nourish your mental, emotional and physical health. You deserve a little RNR!
Create rejuvenating nourishing rituals that you love to provide you with a mental reboot, a social reconnect and a physical reset. My previous blog, 3 Purposes of Rejuvenating Nourishing Rituals, provided an overview of those 3 purposes. The last blog, 3 Ways to Reboot Your Mental Energy, focused on the mental reboot. This blog focuses on the social reconnect.
Social Reconnect - Receive
Let’s focus on ideas to reconnect socially, so you can feel more joy in your life. Think about your relationships with yourself, with other people and with all life. You need healthy connections in all three areas to experience more joy in your life.
You can relive your past in your imagination to remind yourself of some of the ways you used to feel joy. Your imagination is also good for creating ways to enjoy activities by yourself or with others. What would you love to do? How often would you love to do various activities? Play with your ideas.
Intuit Ways to Feel Joy
Joy, like peace, love and happiness, is a natural positive state of being. I use joy because it is often listed as the highest level of energetic vibration within the emotions, and it lacks the level of debated meaning of the others. Imagine what it would feel like to live from a constant state of joy. Memorize that feeling, so you can return to it frequently until it becomes your natural state again.
When fear or pain disrupt your natural state, you will automatically move to correct the situation and return to your natural state. Unfortunately, our modern culture creates an almost constant state of stress, through work pressures, sensationalized media and economic uncertainties. It can be harder to return to your natural positive state. It can be harder to experience true joy. The ultimate goal is to feel joy even in the midst of the most unfavorable circumstances.
Intuit ways to feel joy. Start by centering your mind and recalling all the ways you’ve experienced joy in the past. What were you doing when you felt joy as a child? Bring to mind any time you experienced joy at any age and in any circumstances. Once you have some memories in mind, bathe in the feeling of joy. Then invite your intuition to provide ways to feel joy in your present life.
Play with all that comes to mind. Notice any differences in the way joy feels under various scenarios. Is joy softened and peaceful or excited and thrilled? Are you experiencing joy in serenity by yourself or in exciting excursions with others? Are you experiencing joy in serenity with others or in exciting excursions by yourself?
Intuit the ways you would love to continue experiencing joy. Would you like some quiet joyful moments in nature? Would you love quiet joyful moments at home with loved ones? Would you include some loud boisterous family occasions or dancing to your favorite music by yourself in your pajamas? Joy can be experienced in many different ways. The key is to accept all that is happening as it happens and to respond to all as positively as you can.
Invite Others to Play Joyfully
You probably have some ways to return to joy by spending time with family or friends. I invite you to create rituals to ensure that you have ways to bring you back to joy throughout the day. Centering or short meditative practices can be an easy way to connect with yourself throughout the day. Recalling memories of past joyful moments or anticipating joyful experiences that you have planned can bring an instantaneous boost to your emotions.
Connecting with loved ones via a call or text, or actual hugs if you’re as fortunate as my husband and I are to both work from home. We typically go out for dinner once a week. Our son and his girlfriend often join us for a family outing.
Meeting with friends and/or colleagues for meals or a walk at lunchtime can return you to joy. You can host backyard get-togethers for special occasions or for no reason other than to enjoy each others’ company.
Find the friends who love to do the same things you do, whether it’s game night or going to plays at the local theater. Maybe you enjoy museums. I’m fortunate to live near all the wonderful museums and theaters in Washington, DC, or a short trip to Philadelphia or New York City. What places do you enjoy? One friend tells me all about the wonderful experiences she enjoys in Ohio. Others enjoy many states from California to Florida, and Montana to Maine.
Maybe you prefer rural entertainment. My sister’s family loves horses. Some friends have several horses, too. Do you enjoy hiking in woods or observing crystal grottos and other caverns?
Think of ways to connect with nature as often as possible. You could enjoy the horses, woods and caverns we just mentioned, and also choose some smaller daily activities. Grounding by standing barefoot in the grass can bring joy. Pets can bring joyful connections. My dog is named Beatrice Zendaya (BZ), which means “bringer of joy and thanksgiving”, and she literally brings me joy every day.
You could also enjoy traveling to other countries to experience their culture and their unique natural wonders. I would love to visit Iceland to see some of their beautiful skies. The rainforests of South America and Africa sound beautiful. Where would you enjoy visiting?
Fully Engage in Joyful Activities
One of the purest ways to feel joy, also known as being in the zone, is to be fully present with whatever you are doing. Remember this whether at work or play. If you tell yourself that you don’t want to be at work or doing chores at home, then you will perform the activities more slowly and feel miserable during the entire process. If you choose to do the work in the most enjoyable way possible, then not only will you feel better, you will also finish more quickly and the time will seem to have sped by.
You may ask how can you make your chores more enjoyable. I can quickly think of several ways. Make the activity a game, maybe a literal race against the clock without forfeiting quality work. Reward yourself with monetary points for every 15 minutes of chores you complete to be used for a healthy treat like a massage. Blocking chores into 15 minute chunks has the added benefit of releasing overwhelm. Music can make any chore seem more fun. My sisters and I used to sing our favorite songs while doing the dishes. Doing chores together can definitely make the time more enjoyable. I do my best cleaning before my parties, because it makes me feel more relaxed to welcome family and friends to a clean, comfortable home.
Enough talk about the activities you may not have enjoyed up until now, but what about the activities you enjoy? Again you’ll want to fully engage in those activities. Don’t let other commitments distract you. If you think of other things, write them on a list to deal with later, then return your focus to what you are doing. The more fully you engage, the deeper the emotions and the memories you’ll make.
Remember to accept everything as it happens. Even your favorite activities can be ruined by trying to compare it with a past activity or what you had envisioned in your mind. When you’re fully engaged and accepting, you’ll discover delights that you never even imagined. Be open to new possibilities. Be flexible to changing circumstances and enjoy the entire experience.
Plan plenty of time to fully engage in joyful activities daily, weekly, monthly, annually or special occasions. Consciously connect by scheduling it as an appointment and by eliminating all other distractions. Actively pursue ways to joyfully collaborate with others and/or to have fun with others. Again, to get the most joyful benefit from any activity, give it your full attention and accept everything as it happens.
Going Deeper with the Rejuvenating Nourishing Rituals
In the next blog post, I will discuss the purposes of rejuvenating nourishing rituals in more depth.
3 Moves to Reset Your Physical Energy
Practice your rituals for optimal natural health