Written by Although Sarah* (not her real name) was fascinated by dance as a little girl, she hadn’t attempted to move her body to music since she was six. Her joy-filled enthusiasm for participating in a group dance at school was squashed by the cantankerous teacher who shamed her for kicking her legs at the wrong time. When the teacher yelled and then banished her from the dance circle, Sarah’s joy was overtaken by deep shame.
Although the memory had long faded, the emotion lodged in her body. It wasn’t until Sarah was invited to participate in a group dance as an adult that the memory surfaced again.
As Sarah kicked her legs surrounded by a group of women laughing and swirling in a circle, she experienced healing that could not be facilitated by medicine.
It was orchastrated by God.
“A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” (Prov 17:22)
Sarah wasn’t fully aware of the deep sadness and shame in her body until joy flooded her body in that group dance. Pain that was locked away for decades was broken off with kicking, twirling and a healthy dose of laughter. As the leader of that impromptu dance circle, I was transfixed by the transformation happening right before my very eyes: By the end of the dance, Sarah looked different. Had we taken before and after photos, you might have assumed Sarah had lost weight or fallen in love.
And in a way you wouldn’t have been wrong…
By the time the music stopped, Sarah had shed the weight of decades of shame and started to fall in love—with herself.
Joy is medicine.
Long before science confirmed that laughter strengthens the immune system, boosts mood, diminishes pain, and protects us from the damaging effects of stress, God knew it. Proverbs 17:22 (above) is not just cute advice; it is a key to what ails a lot of us. I just wish more people paid attention to it.
Instead, many people struggling with mental and physical health challenges look to doctors to fix what’s wrong with them.
That’s not inherently bad; it’s just that pills can’t heal the pain in our souls. They may help deal with the symptoms of heartache, but not the underlying cause of our pain. That’s where joy comes in. What if the joy of the Lord really is our strength? (Nehemiah 8:10). Could seeking more joy in our lives improve what ails us?
Sarah would say yes…
Just to be clear, joy is not the same thing as happiness. Happiness tends to be more dependent on circumstances, while joy is described as the state of being that allows one to experience feelings of intense, long-lasting happiness and satisfaction. The shift in Sarah was not fleeting; she reports feeling drastically different after dancing and laughing her shame away.
Perhaps you are wondering if you need to take up dance to experience joy? Although I do believe a life of joy can be cultivated in a number of ways, including dance, (see below), joy can also be supernaturally deposited into a person’s life by God Himself.
Dr. Heidi Baker, a missionary in Mozambique, Africa recently recounted how praying for family members who witnessed the beheading of their family by terrorists resulted in them being filled with so much joy they began to roar with laughter. It’s hard to imagine how that’s possible under such horrific circumstances but with God, nothing is impossible. Wouldn’t it be just like Him to heal horrible trauma with laughter?
Certainly, His ways are not ours…
Why not try asking God to replace your mourning with laughter?
Besides praying and dancing, there are other things we can do to cultivate joy. Consider putting these into practice:
- Develop a habit of acknowledging (out loud) every small amount of joy you experience each day. This might include eating a delicious meal, watching a breathtaking sunset or reading an inspirational book. It’s important to cultivate a daily mindset of joy.
- Plan in small joy breaks throughout your day. Joy breaks will be personal to you. If you love to sit quietly on your back porch, grab a drink and head out there as much as you can. When I need a quick hit of joy, I watch videos of my grandson—sometimes three or four times in a row!
- Connect with nature. A study published in Landscape and Urban Planning compared participants’ moods after walking through nature verses those who walked through a city setting and found that the nature walkers experienced less anxiety, rumination, and negative effects overall. They also experienced more positive emotions and performed better on memory tasks. Get outside as much as you can.
- Practice gratitude: Many of us meditate on our problems and the things we lack. The antidote is to be thankful for what you do have. David Steindl-Rast said it best: “It is not joy that makes us grateful. It is gratefulness that makes us joyful.”
- Laugh: Dr. Leela Magavi, director of Community Psychiatry notes, “Laughter is contagious, and so is joy.” I agree! It’s hard not to smile when someone around you is belly laughing. Do you ever belly laugh? I do and it’s one of my favorite things to do. (Perhaps we should hang out?)
- Meditate on what Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross has done for you. I don’t know about you, but knowing I am forgiven for all my sin and past mistakes gives me great joy when I am tempted to succumb to shame.
- Forgive: It’s hard to tap into joy if you are harboring bitterness and anger in your heart. Remember, forgiveness is a choice. (It doesn’t mean what happened to you doesn’t matter.) When you make the decision to forgive, you are opening the door to receive more joy in your life.
- Get help to process past hurt, trauma and pain. If regular infusions of joy don’t help to permanently lift your heaviness, seek help from a trusted friend, pastor or counselor. (I’d be happy to help!)
Let me wrap up by encouraging you: I have recently been in one of the hardest and saddest seasons of my life. I understand if you are struggling to relate to joy. Although I have cried more in the last ten months than I have in years, I’ve also experienced incredible joy on an (almost) daily basis. I’ve put into practice every one of the above suggestions. They work.
Prayer does too…
I was at a conference this past weekend when a stranger approached me to tell me God sees my pain but joy is coming. Within minutes, another stranger came up to pray for me and somewhat weirdly, I began to laugh.
I have no idea why I was laughing but I couldn’t stop myself. Tears streamed down my face but this time my tears were tears of joy. Immediately I thought of Psalm 30:5: “Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes in the morning.”
May your joy come in the morning!
I’d love to hear about what you do to cultivate joy in your life! Please comment below.