It isn’t easy. It isn’t quick. But it is possible to learn to let go of struggle, and instead, cultivate joy. To cultivate a mentality that grows joy abundantly, even on the toughest and most painful of circumstances.

It is possible.

They say that pain is inevitable, but struggling is optional. I’d say I agree, to a point.

Struggling is embedded in the conditioning I received growing up, and I’m learning to leave it behind.

It has taken many years of constant mental vigilance and re-training to get me to where I am now.

I am still learning what to do with pain. How to express it, how to share it and who to share it with.

There is still a part of me that romanticises attachment to emotional wounding.

But mostly, I am getting good at staying curious and present with negative emotions as they arise.

I tend to prefer to amplify the good going on within me than to focus on the bad, particularly when it comes to what I share in public. This is a conscious choice to bring more of that joyful feeling into my life, and it works.

But I think it does give the impression that my life has no pain.

I have also heard it said that trees grow down into the dirt just as much as they do above ground. In order to reach the great heights, there is a need to explore the depths.

I think it’s a beautiful and accurate allegory for human life.

My pain has allowed me to appreciate my joy.

When I was fresh out of university, I came across this group in the US who treated violence like a virus. They quarantined those who had been exposed to violence and treated them with support.

It turns out that their model was wildly effective and perhaps closest to the truth.

So I decided to shift. I focused on beauty, awe and wonder.

In doing so, my world grew into a more beautiful, wonderful and awe-inspiring place.

My baseline shifted to happy and I had more spoons. I could give from a place of abundance rather than from a place of sacrifice.

It’s not because I refuse to see the “bad”, or am in denial.

I spent my early life dwelling on everything that was wrong. Everything that sucked. I wrote music and poetry about it and performed these expressions over and over.

I lived in my pain, and that seemed to be all I knew how to share.

Wow! This looks like a fantasy land!

Oh these are dainty

This mushroom looks like it was finely crafted in glass. I half expect to be able to pull at a chain underneath to turn it on.

This is a philosophical question for the ages

And they are 🌟