Joy: Session 7 Week 2

During an early morning yoga practice as heroes share their intention for the day, a favorite answer was joy. What a beautiful way to start the day, anticipating happy moments that you will encounter. For the heroes, as for all people, there are a situations that can take away our joy. Some of these challenges are necessary to learning and growth and lead to deeper joy and even more meaning.

For many adults, in the journey toward our goals, we can often get caught up in comparison and expectations that really thwart progress and ultimately steal our joy. Too much comparison, too much worry about keeping up with a “standard” or fitting in – no matter what we are trying to achieve will stifle growth and individuality. It also makes everything much less enjoyable.

The heroes feel less of this comparison. They hear the message that everyone in our communities has different goals and things that they are working on. Each hero has the freedom to work at their own pace. This doesn’t mean that everyone gets a trophy and that it is acceptable to give up when things get tough. We are a community that values perseverance and doing the very best that you can do. The hard work, accountability, and resilience that heroes show is rewarded.

For our learners, challenges often come when things don’t go as they hoped or when they aren’t meeting standards they have set for themselves. These moments don’t look like joy, they look like big tears of frustration. While it is tempting to come to the rescue and try to alter natural consequences or re-adjust someone’s standards, this wouldn’t actually help. When small failures and hard moments are allowed to occur the result is growth and self improvement. The next day the frustrated hero will come in with a new outlook or plan to achieve that high standard or to avoid that mishap. When they do, the joy is back and this time, even bigger!