What would you wish for? In the current movie, Three Thousand Years of Longing, Idris Elba the genie (or Jinn) asks Tilda Swinton, the academic, this question. The answer has to be her heart’s desire. She initially can’t come up with anything and claims to be content. The movie goes on to reveal that this is not true, neither for her nor the genie.
Imagine being able to wish for anything in the universe that you want. Oh there were restrictions in the movie – you can’t wish for eternal life, things like that. But there is so much in between.
Today I see so many clinics that advertise managing pain. We get older, and intermittent aches and pains slowly become permanent. They hang around like the guest that wouldn’t leave. Or perhaps we are dealing with an illness that generates pain. If we can’t get rid of it, we must learn to live with it, hence the rise of pain management clinics.
I say let’s manage joy! Idris is in that business, yet he is well acquainted with pain. The two can co-exist. He spends thousands of years in a bottle because he was blinded by love. Joy and pain are both within the realm of human existence. They are sometimes both sides of the same coin. If there are pain management clinics to minimize pain, why aren’t there joy management clinics to amplify joy? Perhaps there already are but are not called clinics…in the form of spiritual and community groups, events, and other vehicles that create joy. Joy is defined and pursued differently for everyone.
Joy is a choice. It’s grounded in gratitude and it’s contagious. You can be a joy spreader just by being joyful yourself.
What does it take to choose joy? What would a joy management clinic do? It might teach you how to make the space for joy by letting go of the things you can't control or of things that don’t serve you. It might help you look both outward and inward, having compassion for others, with all their strengths and weaknesses, and having compassion for yourself. It might help you develop new mental habits to redirect your negative entrenched beliefs and thoughts to positive ones. It might also show you supportive self-care practices, which may include movement/dance, art, or other creative modalities.
Studies show that joyful people have less chance of having a heart attack, maintain healthier blood pressure, and tend to have lower cholesterol levels. (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/cheerful-heart-attack-risk-happy-well-being_n_3575548). There's also research to prove that joy boosts our immune systems, fights stress and pain, and improves our chance of living a longer life (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-happiness-boosts-the-immune-system/). So there is a valid argument that choosing joy has the capability to mitigate pain.
For more on the subject, I recommend reading Martin Seligman’s book Authentic Happiness and/or going to his website: authentic-happiness.com. Seligman is often called the father of positive psychology; his book is described as “using the new positive psychology to realize your potential for lasting fulfillment.“
Another worthwhile author and teacher is Dr. Laurie Santos, Professor of Psychology and Head of Silliman College at Yale University. Also a podcast host, Santos is an expert on human cognition and cognitive biases that impede better choices. Her course, “Psychology and the Good Life,” teaches students what the science of psychology says about how to make wiser choices and live a life that’s happier and more fulfilling. The class is Yale’s most popular course in over 300 years and has been adapted into a free Coursera program that has been taken by over 3.3 million people to date. She has been featured in many news outlets, including the New York Times, NBC Nightly News, The Today Show, CBS This Morning, NPR, GQ Magazine, Slate, CNN, and O, The Oprah Magazine, and is the recipient of numerous awards. Dr. Laurie Santos is the podcast host for The Happiness Lab, which launched in 2019 has over 35 million downloads. (https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/the-happiness-lab-with-dr-laurie-santos)
So back to my original question. What would you wish for? Would you be altruistic and perhaps wish for world peace? An end to hunger and war and poverty and illness? Would you wish good things for your family and friends? What would you wish for yourself? What would bring you more joy? What is your heart’s desire? Let’s put those pain management clinics out of business!