I Hope You Choose Joy

I hope you choose joy.

Choosing joy isn’t always easy. I hope you know it’s not as simple as a hashtag or a self-help book or therapy, or a night out, or an inspirational quote… or anything else that might seem like a quick fix that you can just pluck off a shelf.

Sometimes choosing joy is easy for people. Maybe you’re one of those people who’re always sunny, who can see inwards into their own soul and find perspective as easily as they breathe. Maybe you constantly see the world in rainbows and unicorns, and your perspective is absolutely beautiful all the time. I hope so, I really do.

But not everyone is built that way.

Sometimes, choosing joy takes discipline. And constant reminders. And acknowledging the despair that is coursing through your veins, so that you can climb your way back to joy.

That’s not always easy — but I do hope you choose it.

I hope you choose joy.

I hope you choose to put in the discipline. I hope you choose to remind yourself of the joy and happiness that you deserve as much as you need to. I hope you take the help that people want to give you, and I hope that you know that taking that help is not an admittance of defeat or weakness or any other self-flagellating word you can think of.

In fact, that choice to grasp the hands that want to hold yours, to fall into the arms that wish to hold you up, to let yourself cry on the shoulders of those who love you, that’s the first step in choosing joy.

That’s a huge victory, even if it feels like a tiny one.

That’s a step toward climbing your way back to joy.

Those hands, those arms, those shoulders — they’re all a reminder of the joy you deserve.

I hope you choose joy.