From Equilibrium: 31 Ways to Stay Balanced on Life’s Uneven Surfaces.
How can we leave a legacy which includes a few laughs? Well, let’s not force it or mimic how someone else does it. Let joy be an inner reality not like happiness coming from external circumstances. Let joy come from the Spirit of God living inside us rather than the pleasure of things all around us. With that reality, it is a choice we can make to rejoice and be glad.
The Psalmist wrote, “The Lord has done it this very day; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24)
The apostle Paul wrote, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4)
* Realize the importance of celebrating alone.
Like most of these steps toward equilibrium, celebration is to be done alone and with others. Too often we rush toward groups as a method of denying our dislike of ourselves. Rejoice alone. Refuse to need an escape of herding. Early morning merriments and late-night revels need not wait for the masses to arrive. Begin and end making a choice to rejoice when alone—remembering you aren’t alone at all. The One you are celebrating doesn’t need a crowd. You don’t either.
* Realize the importance of celebrating with others.
Though alone moments of rejoicing move us toward a healthy equilibrium, and though our example Jesus often left the masses to cherish times with the Father, all of these steps of a balanced life include community. Most of the biblical texts about rejoicing are in the plural, not the singular. Join with others to rejoice. And remember. It is not just about your style of preference musically or ceremonially. Yes, stay true to your convictions. But step out of your partiality. You are not rejoicing about your method of rejoicing. You have a reason to be glad. Remember that reason. Find and experience your joy there.
* Realize the importance of celebrating often.
Refuse to let these experiences be rare. Daily, take time to be glad. Regularly, set aside moments to rejoice. Consistently, when emotions participate or when they would prefer to frown all day, smile about what matters most. Schedule times to apply the discipline of rejoicing alone and with others. Also, be ready to rejoice when those pleasant astonishments occur. Gaze at the wonder around you and celebrate. Your true self will appreciate this shifting from leaning too far and too long away from positive experiences.
When have you recently smiled? When have you recently laughed? What is a story from your life when you felt joy was distant? What is a story from your life when you found joy amid difficulty? How can you live with a true smile—not one of those fake smiles for a picture—shining from your face?
It often helps to step aside from the whirlwind of negativity and intentionally focus on a few positives. Through this book you know I am not encouraging you to avoid or deny hurt. I want you to face them.
I also want you to let God bring grace to you during those storms. One way a calming might come is for you to redirect your thinking toward optimistic, constructive realities.
Right now, celebrate.
Make the choice to rejoice.
This stepped on my toes. I am the one that it is referring to when talking about being afraid to rejoice alone. A lot of times when I think about celebration, I feel like this can only be done when you are with other people but that is not the case at all. You can celebrate what God is doing in your own life, and that does not require the celebration of others. Though both corporate and personal celebration are important, I need to get better at celebrating alone.
I believe it is the most amazing thing for us as people to be happy. Being happy is not hard. Having little or having a lot is all on how you look at it. I have ALOT and I don’t need anymore. I am 99.99 percent always happy. This comes from the joy in my heart from Jesus, my hard work ethics and morals, and my addiction to making other people happy. I pray I always make a positive impact on everyone’s lives I come in contact with. This helps me know that my calling as a person who makes other people smile even for whatever reason, is being fulfilled . I’ve been called to be a shining light on this earth and that’s what I’ll do everyday
Celebration comes so easily for me. However, it’s only easy for me when it’s with others. I like to celebrate others and all the good and exciting things they are accomplishing. When it comes to celebrating alone, I find myself critiquing and pointing out the flaws. So, I’m going to continue to work on this.
I really enjoy this writing. I like that at the end of the piece it speaks on choosing to be happy every day as well as to laugh. I think nowadays everyone always looks at the negative side of things which puts a sheet of negative over our society. If we can all be much more optimistic I believe we all will be much more Happier.
I really like those three points, celebrating alone, celebrating with others, and celebrating often. I think it is so important to embrace these moments of celebration throughout our life. It can be so easy to put celebration in a box and think it can or does only look one way. But I think it can show itself in so many different ways throughout our life, if we are looking for it.
I think the idea of rejoicing not only alone, but in the moment and everyday is so unique. Celebrating and thinking about the idea of having an “Audience of 1”. choosing to rejoice and celebrate, even if it is dutiful aspect thanking God for the day and the opportunities we have been blessed with. I think I have celebrated alone a lot more than most, as an introvert, there have only been a few times that come to mind where I was celebrating with a group. But on the other hand, celebrating alone is something I have grown accustomed to. Whether it is something small like cleaning the kitchen, or something big like passing a class or test I was concerned about. Celebrating those moments is often something that happens to me alone, and then I choose to celebrate with others afterwards. That being said, I have a certain fondness to celebrating and thanking God first before sharing what I am proud of or have accomplished.
I have always been one to celebrate others as it comes very easy to me. I love to make others feel good about themselves and make them and their accomplishments seem like the most exciting thing. When it comes to celebrating alone, I have a hard time because I feel as though if I try to celebrate by myself I just end up critiquing myself and thinking it’s not that important. This is obviously not how I should think because any thing I feel like is an accomplishment is worth celebrating and I need to start celebrating and rejoicing with God because He is the one that has allowed me to achieve these things.
I think this was a pretty tough thing for me to look inwardly at. I often am alone, but rarely do I celebrate alone. I’m not bothered by being alone, and in fact, I love my alone time, even as an extroverted person. I really prefer being alone, but I do really well in groups. I think learning to celebrate in my alone time might bring out a different side of me, however, and that could be very refreshing.
I believe that celebration comes easily when I am around others. For example, I believe I’m more like a thermometer that matches the temperature in the room instead of a thermostat that can control the temperature room. When trying to celebrate alone I often cut it short because my mind wanders to how can I become better. I consider this because as humans it is hard to become complacent.
I love to celebrate the people in my life. I feel like celebration comes easy for me because when the people around me are positive than I am positive. But on the other side of that I feel like I may deprive myself of all the emotions because I try to be happy as much as I can. I also relay on my friends emotions to determine my emotions and I feel like that can be bad in the long run.
I think most people enjoy celebrating. Wether you are celebrating alone or with others. However, I feel like most of us including myself forget to celebrate with God. Without him, what would we have to celebrate? When we celebrate with God by our sides we can truly appreciate all of the moments we have been blessed with. Not only the good times but the hard times as well. We must go through those hard times to truly celebrate the good times.
Personally, it is not hard at all to celebrate others, but I have been working on celebrating alone. I used to struggle with having a true smile on my face. I had a long period of time in my life where I couldn’t remember what it was like to be truly happy, to have joy. I was putting on a facade in front of others simply because I didn’t want to be a burden. However, my joy was restored last year and I can say that the sun is definitely shining brighter, even during a huge storm surrounded by grief. For me, it’s a process of starting with the small victories, slowly working to the bigger ones.