Work lightly: Be Joyous
 An excerpt from The
Day Job Survival (& Escape) Kit by Durga Keyser
It’s a challenge to create joy where you think it doesn’t exist.
It’s like having to be creative when you don’t feel inspired.
But there are ways to manufacture inspiration, and there are ways
to manufacture joy.
Inspiration and joy are like fairy dust. Stick your hand into
a pile and the stuff flies everywhere. If you’re feeling a lack
of inspiration, you’ve been letting the dust settle for too long.
Wiggle your hand a bit and stir it around. Let it fly!
Energy is everything and everything is energy. As artists, our
media may appear to be to be paint or words or movement or music,
but as creative souls our medium is energy. You cannot use energy
effectively if you stop it from flowing. You won’t have any material
to work with.
Inspiration and joy are no different. If you want ripples in
a pond, toss a stone. If you want inspiration, stick your hand
in it. And if you want joy, do something joyous. When your muscle
needs stretching, do you wait for the stretch to come to you?
No, you stretch your muscle. And how good it feels! Never wait
for inspiration and joy to come to you. Toss a stone and watch
the ripples reach the other shore.
Joy on the job can transform your entire life. After all, what
more could you possibly want while you’re working than to feel
good? If you’ve got joy on your day job, you can throw this book
away. And joy is infectious. Become a joy-manufacturing plant
and you’ll transform the working lives of everyone around you.
Start by smiling. Surely you can manage this. If you can’t toss
a stone, toss a pebble. If it’s too much to smile at other people,
practice smiling when you’re alone. Imagine that every time you
smile at work, you’re increasing your ability to manufacture creative
inspiration.
This is true, by the way. Contrary to popular belief, inspiration
does not come from the depths of depression and nihilism. Inspiration
is the drawing in of breath, the gift of life. Creative inspiration
comes from clarity, a sudden parting of the clouds to let the
light explode. If your clouds are thick and heavy from not enough
joy, no light will get through no matter how much inspiration’s
raging on the other side. So start by smiling. Thin the clouds
out a bit.
Joy and inspiration are good partners. They both come like fairy
dust and they both need stirring up on occasion. Feeling stuck
in the mud? Play with a kitten. I guarantee you the energy will
fly.
Bring joy to the workplace. It’s one of the ultimate challenges.
If you can create joy on your day job, you can create it anywhere.
And if creating joy teaches you to create inspiration — any time,
anywhere — your creative life is blessed.
Thoughts and actions for
Being joyous
1. Do not underestimate the power of fun.
Fun can really jog the energy and get it moving in a more creative
direction. Listen to music, if you can. If you work at home, pet
your dog. Open a window and breathe in some fresh air. Walk around
the hallways and pirouette when no one’s looking. Tell a joke
and make someone smile. Pack yourself an unusual lunch. Have a
cappuccino instead of tea.
Fun is everywhere in this delightful universe, just there for
the picking. Plan a reward for when you get home: a hot bath,
a good meal, a romantic comedy. Laugh. Relaxing into laughter
or contentment renews the connection with your creative self.
It can be as refreshing as a nap. Clear the fuzz and blast through
the cement ceiling in your head.
Welcome in the sunshine and let the energy flow. Be its friend,
invite it in, learn to dance!
2. Explore the joyful character of inspiration.
Picture piles of fairy dust just lying around and wave your hand
through them as you walk by. Stash a pile by the filing cabinets,
the storage closet, the archive basement — your secret stash of
fairy dust. Watch it rustle as you walk past.
Know that your inspiration is lying around like this, in secret
corners, along the hall, in the cash register. You never know
where you’ll find it. Let your heart smile when you stumble on
a pile and see it lift in the breeze. Practice stirring and smiling
and stirring and smiling until you laugh out loud. Inspiration
is that easy. Let it take you back to when there was no struggle,
no dark clouds. Just crayons and fairies.
Begin thinking of inspiration as a joyful thing, accessible and
available, piled up everywhere, especially at work! •
© 2006 Durga Keyser
About
the Author | More
by Durga Keyser
Durga Keyser is a creativity coach, consultant, and artist, practicing joy
on the island of Corsica.
04/07/06
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