It seems like today’s world is constantly changing, there is so much happening around us that when we stop to catch a breath it often feels impossible to find joy and happiness while looking at sorrow, sickness, and destruction. What I’ve learned is that we can’t always control things happening in the world around us. When chaos is all around us, what we do have is a choice on how we respond. We can control our hearts, our emotions, how we treat others, the thoughts and prayers we process each day. All of these things can help bring joy to our lives in the midst of a not so joyful world. Too many times I find myself dwelling on the negative of a situation and it’s so easy to go to that place. The other day I was working on a knitting project and had messed up and had to go back and redo a very large part of what I was working on. My mind immediately went to the negative, why wasn’t I able to get this right the first time, I didn’t have time for this, pure frustration at myself and the project. I decided to sit down in that moment with my journal and think about how insignificant that was to my overall life and day. I choose to focus on the positive, how I had the ability and freedom to find time to knit. How I could afford the yarn, how I was sitting next to the fire with tea knitting peacefully and even if I had to redo a huge section, it really was not the worst thing going on in the world, I love knitting anyways! Just a small mindset shift was enough to allow me to find joy in a simple everyday frustration. Often times disappointments in life can actually be blessings.

Here are some journal prompts to help you through a hard moment in your day.

1. What situation is currently bringing frustration to your life? How might this frustration actually be something positive?
2. Can you think of three things in your life that are really hard for you? How can you make small changes to those activities to allow them to bless your life?
3. Have you ever had an unexpected incident steal your joy? How did you overcome this? What did you learn?
4. What does it mean to have joy in your day? What brings you joy?
5. How can you bring joy to someone else’s life today?