Fostering Joy
We need no statistics or evidence to tell us that feelings like joy heal, make life worth living, enable us to move through struggle, and spark curiosity, imagination, innovation, and more.
MJN won't always be able to prioritize joy over every experience. Not everything in life brings joy. But we have accepted for far too long the norm that “work” is separate from life’s joys. In a world in which most of us work the vast majority of our lives in order to survive, we think our work can, on the balance, be a source of joy: a special blend challenge, fulfillment, fun, sustainment, and meaningful relationship. And if it can, it should.
We're not looking for a formula for fostering joy in our community. Instead, we're starting by looking back on our own lives to ask:
“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.” —Rabindranath Tagore
When & why was work not joyful? When & why was work extracting our joy?
What experiences, ways of being, habits, income-generating activities, and ways of being in relationship spark joy? And what do those experience tell us about what joy actually means for us?
By prioritizing joy, we've come to some conclusions that affect how we relate to one another and set up our programs:
Art is a critical source of joy. And artist get that.
Systems can be works of art, if people are allowed to think freely and radically about the end goal. Yes, we do need to think about the technicalities of implementation, but we shouldn't let it cut off our imagination.
We can find joy and get past conflict in our relationships if we love each other.
We don't need to overcomplicate everything! Centering joy or healing is often about not doing things, creating space for rest, letting meetings be unstructured or cancelled, going with the flow, and trusting that the structure will come if the commitment and love are there.
Focusing on our practice, not just the end goals or products, reframes our thinking around daily rituals and our own development. We are learning to release definitions of success in favor of practicing our values with dedication.
