EQ WORKOUT #47 The Emotional Intelligence of Finding Joy

Happy New Year!

I know for many of us these past few weeks sound an internal alarm that we must set some goals for the coming year. I have done this for as long as I can remember.

A few years ago, I was sharing with a dear friend my process for setting goals and she said to me, “Wow, it’s all so serious, I hope you are planning to have some fun?”

Her comment hit me like a rock. Yes indeed, where was the joy? I had turned something that should have been fun and exciting into a chore full of pressure to succeed.

So, I turned to a poem by one of my favorite poets, Hafez, for inspiration.

I sometimes forget

that I was created for Joy.

My mind is too busy.

My heart is too heavy

for me to remember

that I have been

called to dance

the Sacred dance of life.

I was created to smile

To Love

To be lifted up

And to lift others up.

O’ Sacred One

Untangle my feet

from all that ensnares.

Free my soul.

That we might

Dance

and that our dancing

might be contagious.

~Hafiz

There it was. I am created for joy, to dance, and for that dance to be contagious.

This has now become my New Year’s tradition. I take this amazing poem and let it sink in and ask myself how am I going to dance into this New Year?

As I write this blog we are once again in a new wave of the pandemic and it’s hard to think of joy and dancing. Yet no matter what situation we find ourselves I do believe we were created for joy and nothing should steal our hope and joy.

So, I offer this poem for each of you as we enter 2022.

What joy awaits you in the coming year?

How might your dance look and how might it be contagious, touching the lives of others?

Happy New Year to you and yours!