Why "Joy"?

The Joyful Creative

Why Joy? I didn’t call this podcast the JOYFUL Creative for nothing!

Is joy possible or even important in our busy lives, particularly in the world today? Listen in for my musings on joy, how we take a joyful perspective on the not-joyful aspects of our lives and how we can ensure our creative practice brings the joy it is meant to (not be another burdensome item on the to-do-list)

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TRANSCRIPT:

Well, hi there and welcome back to another episode of the joyful creative. Today, I'm talking about joy. Is Joy important? I think it is. And that's one of the reasons why I chose the title, the joyful creative for my podcast.. It's not the productive, creative, or the dedicated creative. It's about joy. I feel that so many people lack joy in their lives and joy is important. If you don't have a bit of daily joy in your life. speaking from personal experience and from observing the same thing in the people around me. When you don't do anything fun, you get miserable.

And you know, that might seem a little bit flippant, but you know, that's how depression and anxiety set in. And well, there might be reasons to be anxious in your life, but if you have a little bit of joy in that sort of helps to subside that. Now I'm not a doctor, I'm not a psychologist. I don't come with any medical professional opinion. This is purely anecdotal, what I've experienced with myself and what I do see in others and from conversations I've had with people recently. There's a lot to be said for prevention. Let's not wait until we're all taking antidepressants and having to have time off work because we're completely burnt out. Let's be preventative. Let's see what we can incorporate into our lives to avoid going down that dark tunnel and just to keep us a little bit buoyant.

If you think about the things that we want in life, the things that we covet and, you know, we think that we'll be happy when we get that thing. Well, If you drill down to why, like why do I want a better job? Do I want a bigger house? Do I want to get pregnant? Do I want to find a life partner? Why do you want that? Well, I want the better job because it will pay more money. Well why do you want more money? Because then I can pay off my debts. Well why do you want to pay off your debts? Because then I will feel a little bit less stressed about my financial situation. And if I feel less stressed, then I'll be happy. So, if you drill down to all the things you might want in your life, you probably find that the reason why, the intrinsic reason why is not just to have a house, not just to have a partner, not just to have a baby. But because you perceive that those things will bring you happiness. So happiness and joy are really the issue. Happiness and joy are what we're striving for.

We're not striving for more money. We're striving for happiness and joy. And so why not bring something into your life that can bring a little bit of joy? Um, to have a bit of joy every day. It doesn't mean your whole life is perfect. It doesn't mean that you don't have things that upset you or stress you or that you don't have any problems, but you know, there are a lot of problems in the world, I understand there's cost of living crisis. Housing insecurity, and of course what's going on in the world, all those atrocities, you can't even look at the news without seeing something that's really disturbing and can really make you feel like, well, what's the point?

Am I allowed to feel joy when people around the world are suffering so badly? It's a tricky question. I'm not proposing to, to be finding the answer. I'm just giving my own perspective here. But. I think if we have the attitude that well, there’s so many terrible things happening in the world so I can't feel joy then you can't be a beacon of light and joy to anyone around you. So do we all just want to be miserable?

I think when people are miserable, it brings out the worst in people and people are more likely to act out of desperation and not in their highest good or the highest good of the people around them. So I think there is a greater good in people finding their own joy that they can then spread to the people around them. So let's bring it back to creativity. I did get some feedback, from a friend who I don't think she was meaning to say it in this way, but I perceived that, she was taking my message, my message of “Everybody should do daily creativity” to mean. Gosh. Yes, I know I should do that, but now it's another thing. Now that's another thing on my, to do list. Another thing I should do. Another thing I should do, like going to work, like going to the gym.

And I just want to flip that around because the creativity is meant to be your joy. So, if you're applying anything other than joy to your creativity, then you're really defeating the purpose. And another perspective of this is to think about anything that you feel like you have to do in life. I have to go to work. I have to go to the gym. I have to do the house work. I have to drive my kids around. And look. Yes, our life is full of things that we have to do. But if you think about it, everything that you have in life, on your to-do list, in some ways, at some point you've actually chosen that. If you've got a horrible job that you hate going to well, in some ways it does bring you some joy. And joy might be a big word, but yeah, that job that you don't love…At least for now, until you find something better, it is providing some financial security for you. So again, joy is a big word. But let's think little joy, joy with a little J. It might bring a little bit of joy to your life, or at least a bit of contentment that you have that financial security.

Yes, we have to, we should do, should go to the gym or we should exercise.

Well, the way to look at this is to be joyful or grateful that you've actually got an able body that can take you there. That can exercise that you can keep healthy.

Or when you've got to run your kids around, I'm sure that you'd rather be sleeping in on a Saturday morning, rather than getting up early and taking them to a soccer match outside in the cold. But you do it because you love your kids and you want to give them the opportunity and you want to be the best parent that you can be to those guys and give them the opportunities to play sport. So you do that. So that is something that you get back. The feeling of what you're providing for your children. So everything we have to do, there is a way to flip it around and think of “What am I getting out of this? I am getting something out of everything that I have to do”?

Even housework. No one likes to do it. Well, some people like to do housework. I tend to come at it very resentfully. I hate the fact that I have to spend my weekends doing housework, but then I really love to have a clean house. So, yes, there's been times I've had cleaners in the past, but we just don't have one at the moment. So I know what I like to do at, at the time, but the payback is that I have a lovely clean house and I am grateful that I live in a house that I can feel pleasant in.

So look, I'm not saying in any way, please don't take this to mean I'm saying “you made your bed so lie in it.” It's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying that. Yes, we all have situations. Sometimes the situations are things that we didn't choose. And I understand that. But for the most part. Let's think about the things that we have to do in life and put a bit of a joyful spin on it. If, if you can.

And when it comes to creativity. Yes. It might seem like, oh, it's another thing I need to do because it's good for my mental health and my wellbeing.. And I used to do this. I used to think, well, I want to call myself an artist. And I've taken on a commission or Or I have a piece going into an exhibition or a body of work so I really need to get into the studio and get it done even though I'm already really busy with lots of other things and very tired. And then I realized that what I was doing was getting a bit resentful about having to be creative. Which really surprised me because I love being creative.

I love being in my studio and being surrounded by all my pretty art supplies. It really does bring me joy. So why would I be sitting there on the couch, trying to get motivated and feeling resentful about having to be creative? And it made me think about Elizabeth Gilbert who wrote big magic this is the Elizabeth Gilbert who also wrote, eat, pray, love, which most people would know about. But she also wrote this book called big magic and it's all about creativity. Um, it's a great book. I really recommend it. But one of the things she said in his book that really hit home for me was that she, so her creative thing was writing obviously. And she likened her creative practice to a secret lover, a thing that she would steal away to spend time with and be excited to spend time with alone. And I think that's a beautiful way to think of your creativity. And that certainly helped me too. Think of it.. I actually think about my creativity, like, like my baby. Like I would never be upset with a newborn baby for crying at night. You'd never be angry with the baby if it was demanding on you in any way, because he loved that baby. And if you think of creativity like the baby. You want to nurture it? You want to be there for it. You love it so much that even if you spend time on it, which you feel you don't have, or you don't have the motivation for, you know, what it gives back to you. So it's not a burden. You don't feel resentful about spending time with it. So that's a perspective that's really helped me. And again, as I mentioned in some of the previous episodes about making time for creativity, It shouldn't be a burden. It should be something that you're looking forward to doing. And like, I suppose, for example, if you have a free night where you're home alone, instead of doing housework all night, or even accepting an invitation that you don't want to go to. Just block out that time for yourself and for your creativity.

It doesn't have to be in everyday thing, but if you really want to get the benefits out of it, It should be a regular thing. And as I mentioned about my streak that I'm on, If I don't do it every day, then there's just so many reasons why my practice can be derailed by. Change of routine or being a bit sick or going away on holidays or work or anything like that. So if I don't do it every day, it goes by the wayside very easily. So that works for me. You can also have a streak where you say, okay, I'm going to do something three times a week or once a week. But making that commitment to yourself.. and when I say making the commitment to yourself, of course now it's sounding a bit prescriptive, which is what I'm trying to avoid. Your commitment to your creativity should be, and again, I hate to say the shoulds and shouldn'ts. But you want it to be something that you're looking forward to. Something that is joyful. Something that draws you in. And that you just can't wait to spend time on like a secret lover.

So there's a bit of advice, I suppose, a bit of guidance on how you can have a more joyful perspective on the things that we need to do. And particularly when it comes to your creative practice which is so beneficial for you, if not, for any other reason than it brings you joy. And Joy is important, as I said. And if you're applying anything other than joy to your practice, then you're defeating the purpose.

So look, I hope that's been useful. I definitely don't want anybody to feel that my message is demanding or prescriptive in any way. I'm here to encourage you and to inspire you to really carve out that time for yourself. We all do so many things that we have to do that it is important for our well-being and our future mental health to maintain a little joy in every day. So I hope that's helped, and I'll see you in the next episode. Bye for now.

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