by Sean M Kelly…

According to the actor Morgan Freeman in the film “The Bucket List” the Ancient Egyptians believed that when you arrive at the gates of heaven you are asked two questions and your answer to these questions determines whether you are admitted. What were the questions?

1. Have you found Joy in your life?

2. Has your life brought Joy to others?

Are these great questions? Absolutely! Let’s think about the first one - have you found joy in your life? But first how do you define joy? For me its an absolutely fantastic emotion where we feel totally present, passionate, fearless, nothing needs to be added or taken away, we are there, everything feels totally fantastic and we feel we are exactly where we are meant to be in this life. Of course it can be really simple where we, like Morgan Freeman in the film, simply “laugh until we cry”.

Now the interesting thing here is once we enter that state, our joy beams out of every pour of our being and in doing so our life brings joy to others and sometimes in the most unexpected ways.

In 2003 I went on a retreat to Israel and Palestine. One day a few of us visited Bethlehem and a Palestinian who was with us asked me to play the bagpipes outside the Church of the Nativity. At the time Bethlehem was under a strict curfew for most of the day. Most of the people there could not work because of this, so they would try and sell what they could to any tourists that were around. As the cold wind blew outside the church I took out my pipes and began to play. Immediately we were surrounded by quite a crowd, with very little room to move. After playing a couple of tunes, it was quiet again. I looked over at this one man who looked like he’d suffered a lot in the troubles over there. Then he put his hand out to shake mine. I of course returned the gesture and as we shook hands he looked at me and said “thanks for bringing your music”.

So really in answering the first question we answer the second - once you find your joy you will directly or indirectly create joy for others.

Even more interesting is that if we go straight to question 2 because we’re not sure what our joy is and create an intention to bring joy to others we will very quickly find our joy, since in order to bring joy to others we must feel joyous ourselves.

Let this week be a week in which you find your joy and bring joy to others. Remember this doesent mean we have to go off changing anything, joy is a state of mind, a state of heart which can be experienced anywhere, anytime.

Here’s 7 ways to find your joy:

1. Do something you love to do - go for a walk, play with your kids, invent something new, write a song, sing a song, have a day totally free from technology - internet, mobile phones, tv; go the extra mile for a customer, make your garden more beautiful!

2. Tell your partner you love them with all your heart. Listen to the song “Say” by John Mayer, from the movie here if you need inspiration for this:

3. Do a form a exercise you love to do - swim, jog, cycle, martial arts, yoga or whatever you love

4. Take a step in the direction of your dreams - stop putting off what you’d love to do - begin the book, take the course, write the music, climb the mountain, begin the business.

5. Phone a friend - if you’ve lost contact with a friend over the years, give them a call even if just to say hello!

6. When a child wants to say something to you, go down to their height, look them in the eye and truly listen to what they are saying. You never know perhaps there is a message there for you.

7. For one day totally know that you are being looked after. Totally believe in the old Irish saying “you are held in the palm of Gods hand”. Hand everything over to God or whatever universal intelligence you believe in and get about your business knowing that everything is being taken care of for the greater good of all.

Here’s the clip out of the movie where Morgan Freeman is asking Jack Nicholson these two questions.

In-Joy
Sean M Kelly

About the Author:
Sean M Kelly is a musician, inspirational speaker, and trainer/coach. He has performed in many countries around the world including Ireland, the UK, Spain, Israel, Palestine, South Korea and Peru. Dare to Dream, Sean’s debut album was released on 3rd December 2005 and has already achieved worldwide sales. Sean’s intention with his music is to inspire you to follow your dreams and to connect that place within us all where perfect peace exists. Visit Sean at http://www.beinspired-blog.com

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