Every day, I like to write all my JOY moments from the day down in my JOY journal.

Well, lately, I've been slacking on this BIG TIME!

But, this past week, C, has had some friend troubles and it's caused her to really think negatively about it all. Even I had some "stuff" come up in this past week that made me feel icky and was keeping me stuck in negative-mommy-land.

After an emotional time and with me trying to guide her and myself to see the GOOD in it, I realized that it's time to bring out my JOY journal again.

I also realized that it was time to show her my JOY journal since I hadn't yet shown her before.

Here's my entry from the other day AND what came of it. :)

November 29, 2017

Joy is...telling my kiddos how it's SO easy for me to stay focused on everything I don't love in my life than what I do love in my life, and then showing them my JOY journal and telling them that each day, even though it seems like everything feels awful and nothing is going how I want it to, that, if I look back on the day, there actually were moments (one, five, or even ten of them!) that did make me smile and feel good!

So, no matter how awful the day may seem...that awfulness truly didn't happen every second of the day like I thought it did...because, yes...hearing that bird tweeting outside made me stop and smile...seeing the bright blue sky when I walked outside made me stop and smile...giving my kiddos a great big hug when they were sad and crying made me stop and smile.

And that is why I write them down in my JOY journal...because I never want all the bad moments in my life to cloud my view to all good moments that happen, too!

Right after that, they both grabbed a journal out of my art bag and started thinking of what brought them JOY right away!

And the next thing I knew THIS happened!!

C's is first and Luca drew his out since he doesn't know how to write sentences yet.

So yeah...when times seem like they're always tough, yay for JOY always being there through it all!!

And, of course, I always tell them, all the non-joy moments teach us to move in the direction of joy. If we didn't have moments of funk, we'd never know what brings us moments of joy!

And from that moment on, she has been HOOKED! Every night now, she says, "I have to write in my JOY journal!" before crawling into the bed.

And yesterday, the first thing she said to me when I picked her up from school was, "Mommy! I have something to tell you that happened at school today that I'm going to write about in my JOY journal."

Oh my gosh!! I got teary-eyed right after she said that and told me the entire JOY moment that happened during her lunch with her friends.

I also realized how easy it is for kids to stay in their JOY.

I've seen her focusing a lot on a negative moment, which I can do, too. But, what I know for sure, if I don't keep guiding her to find the JOY in the good and the bad, she (and her brother!) will end up like I did, as an adult, with having a hard time even figuring out what brings her (and him!) JOY.

Because when we're kids, it's NOT hard at all. And, now that I've crossed over to the JOY side as an adult, it's NOT hard for me now either.

But in the beginning...oh gosh, it was SO hard!! I couldn't even think of one moment!!

So yeah, if you (or your kids!) ever find yourself way more focused on what's going wrong in your life more than what's going right...try getting yourself a JOY JOURNAL...they're absolutely life changing!!

THANK YOU, UNIVERSE!!!

Until next time...

Life IS so GOOD and SO full of JOY!!