Unlock Your Joy

This one thing has really changed my life.

Winfred Gallagher, a behavioral science writer, made a connection between happiness and attention. She didn't make this connection after achieving awards or landing big job offers. She actually stumbled upon the connection after she was diagnosed with cancer. She recognized that she improved her quality of life by choosing to direct her attention.

Most of us base our life experiences on our circumstances. I would almost go as far to say it’s our default mechanism to look at what is or is not happening in our life and adjust our outlook accordingly. We often let life happen to us.

After Gallagher's diagnosis, she went on to do decades of research on the connection between happiness and attention. In the end, she concluded that our worldview is actually shaped by what we pay attention to.

If you focus on a diagnosis, a job loss, a past relationship, a failed attempt, an undesirable task, you will quickly become unhappy and dark. The overflow results in complaining and negativity to those around you. You exhaust people because you are only living in light of your circumstances.

However, if you focus on the opportunity to pour your morning coffee, hang out with a friend, workout without pain, live in a free country, smile at a stranger, take a walk in your neighborhood DESPITE your circumstances, you will quickly become happy and content. The overflow of giving your attention to positive happenings results in cheerfulness and positivity to those around you.

There are so many people living in a spiral of negativity today simply because they do not choose to shift their attention to good things. Missing out on the opportunity to find joy in every day knowing that even on our worst day there is good to be found.

This is great news for us as followers of Christ, because our attention is not only on the morning cup of coffee but the God who is gracious enough to give it. Our attention is not only on the opportunity to work but the opportunity to work to contribute to the world and influence people for Christ. Our attention is not only on what we can do but what the Holy Spirit can do through us.

This is the central idea behind why worship alleviates our worry. It’s why when we walk into a church service we feel heavy, and when we often leave feeling light. When we walked in our attention was on our problems, but when we leave our attention is now on God.

Gallagher says the key to improving virtually every aspect of our experience is to focus our attention on the good around us. I agree with her.

Remember, you can't control your life, but you can choose to control what you give your attention to. Mark that down as another way to #livealive.