I think the beginning of January is an interesting one; we wake up new year's day late, slightly disheveled and perhaps still tired from the night before with our hearts and minds filled with dreams and aspirations for the year ahead. Maybe we even have a couple of resolutions and we are thrilled that we have begun our journey. But then the month goes on and we no longer have the shining new year's eve and festivities on our doorstep. So it seems like an oxymoron to call January Joyful when for a lot of us this is the hardest month. Pockets stretched thin and resolutions that look harder to achieve than we anticipated.

But i assure you I am not being oxymoronic. January can be joyful. If we make it happen. Joy is not a shooting star that passes fleetingly into view every blue moon. It is a practice. It is something that we can achieve by working on it. Like any other skill it can be mastered and improved upon. And as Brendon Burchard says we can 'bring the joy.' We can generate joy ' the power plant doesn't have energy. It generates it. We don't have joy. We generate it.'

Here are a few ways and resources that we can use to practice, generate and tune into joy:

1. Gratitude - ok you have probably heard this one before but it's key. Every morning and evening and when you're feeling that heavy cloud think of 3 things to be grateful for. Slowly this habit builds up and we genuinely start to feel more grateful for our lives. This practice parts the clouds so we can see that within our life there is a ray of light and that ray of light is what makes life worth living. And the more we practice gratitude the more the clouds part and we start to realise that that ray of light is emanating from the sun and there is a whole world to live for. Another trick to practicing gratitude is having a gratitude totem. For example every time you brush your teeth think of reasons to be grateful and this will make practicing gratitude easier as it is coupled with a habit you already do.

2. Master your health-Exercise and drinking 6litres of water a day will help you feel joyful because the more it is practiced, the stronger you will feel physically the stronger you will feel emotionally.

3. Try something new each week to make you feel more alive and joyful. It will take you out of your comfort zone and will ignite a feeling of joy into your life

4. Take Vanessa Van Edwards, 'The power of happiness' course. I have taken this course in the summer and absolutely loved it. It changed my mindset to happiness radically. And I can really truly say I felt truly more joyful and happy after implementing her advice into my life. So much so that I plan to rewatch it this month :)

5. Read some books on happiness and how we can hone in on this skill. Some examples are the 'The book of Joy', by the Dalai Lama, 'the happiness advantage' & 'Before Happiness' by Shawn Achor, 'Add more ing to your life' By Gabrielle Bernstein and 'Happy for no reason' by Marci Shimoff.

So with this being said I hope this month and year is a joyful one and that we can all learn to generate more joy and fill each other's lives with more happiness, delight and warmth.

Sending you lots of love and luck on your own joyful journey

Naomi Leila

Xxx

p.s. if you have ways of practicing joy I would love to hear them :)