Finding Your Joy Factor, Your Happiness Set Point

THE MAGIC OF BUMBLEBEES AND JOY by Irene Becker, Chief Success Officer, Just Coach It www.justcoachit.com nnScience tells us that there is no logical reason to explain how a bumblebee can fly. No way to understand the bumblebee’s aerodynamic capability. And yet this small, winged insect has made flight a priority and defies logic every minute, every day flying from flower to flower. nnWhat does the unexplained flight of a bumblebee have to do with joy? Absolutely everything. Joy is very much like the bumblebee’s incredible ability to fly. It is not the product of our intellect. It is not something we can understand. It is something that we have to feel. It occurs when we suspend disbelief, disengage from intellect and feel with our heart. nIn the very busyness of the lives we have created, it is easy to reach a place and a personal space there is no joy. nnWhen joy cannot enter our heart, when we have reached a dark place where we have lost touch with that which replenishes and restores our full passion, power and creativity, we have come to an apocalypse of self. An apocalypse of self where we are so focused on doing, that we have forgotten how to be one with the seedbed of our possibility and personal power, we have lost touch with our joy. nnScientific research notes that 2 billion pieces of data come through our senses every second. Our reticular activating system (RAS) then filters this data and tells our brain what information to pay attention to, what stimuli to focus on. The RAS filters what we will load into our conscious mind according to three criteria: 1. Is the information important for our survival? 2. Is the information new or different? 3. Does the information have high emotional content for us.nnJust as the bumblebee wants to fly, each human being has a basic desire, an innate need to find joy. True joy cannot be purchased, bartered or bargained for. True joy comes from our heart. Joy starts when we can begin to train our brain to recognize and emphasize what the heart already knows 1. Joy is important for our survival, as it is the seedbed of inspiration and innovation. 2. Joy always comes in new and different ways that can enlighten and engage us. 3. Joy is the emotion that holds the key to our happiness and personal power.nnNo matter where we are, what we are doing, how we are feeling, we can be like a bumble bee and create what we truly want. Seize the day. Seize your personal power to reclaim an attitude of gratitude, an emotional pause that shouts loudly to the realm of possibility and joy.