Joy

“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.” ~ Thích Nhất Hạnh

4theGoodLife blog is on a quest to find and share true & actual ways we all can experience joy and live the good life. I am investigating and reporting what makes up a good life and how you can start living it today! This is my mission and I hope you will join me!

The Good Life Lab Experiments grow from that mission. Below are list of things you can do today, right now, in each of the 7 core areas of your life, to you bring more:

• Peace
• Happiness
• Satisfaction
• Reflection
• Wellness
• Abundance
• Focus
• Expression
• Purpose
• and much, much more!

This page will hold short Good Life Lab Experiments, related to the core area ‘JOY’, that you can incorporate into your life. Try them out. Some will work for you and others will not. This is about lifestyle design. Creating a life YOU fall in love with… on purpose, by being intentional with your time, effort and experiences.

 Good Life Lab Experiment: Color Me Happy

You may or may not be the artistic type but we have all once been bitten by the desire to create and make something beautiful. That’s where joy lies.

There was a study done that asked kindergartners if they were artists. As you probably can guess, most if not all their little hands raised high in the air. However, sadly, by the 6th grade, only 1/3 of the children raised their hands.

Being an artist isn’t about the ability to sell art, it’s actually more about how to view and interact with the world. Creativity should be a part of everyone’s life but as we age, we feel we must begin our practical journey towards adulthood. Well, I say NO MORE!

This is a artist revolt. Take out your crayons, colored pencils, glue, scissors and get some paper and let’s start making some art. But let’s get really creative. Draw outside the lines. Make objects different from it’s normal color (no more yellow suns). Give those characters a background with grass, flowers, trees and even friends. Make up back stories to go along with your colorings— just have fun.

Get even funkier by buying that fancy 64 color box of crayolas with the sharpener you always wanted especially if you weren’t lucky enough to have one as a kid… well, today is your lucky day! Relive those simpler times, color and see where your mind wanders off to.

You may feel silly at first, but who cares… you are here to clear away unnecessary mind clutter, judgments and fears— reclaim your joy!

 Good Life Lab Experiment: Music Recital part.1

Raise you hand if you played the recorder. Does that bring back joyful memories? Who smiled and who frowned? haha

Many of us have mixed memories of the recorder either from school music class or from your own child who was made to learn three blind mice on that dreaded thing!

Well here’s your chance at redemption. Get you a recorder and make some sweet, sweet music once and for all. There are tons of recorder tutorials on youtube and vimeo and get your very recorder delivered to you in 2 days from amazon .  Sweet!

Once you master that darn thing, have a recital for your family and friends. They’ll get a hoot out of it or download a video onto the internet and share your musical mastery with your friends on facebook or even on youtube… just disable the comments (don’t need to give any more power to those hateful internet trolls).

Be sure to share it with me also! I’d love to see you Rock that Recorder!