Joy, For Me, Is ....

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Enjoyable Delay

Dreaming on a United flight from Calgary to Denver, where I am enjoying the memory of a delayed plane because of technical problems and also accomodating passengers from cancelled flights. The attendants were so human, as they squeezed luggage, wafted cooling air from hand-held, newly reassigned safety leaflets to counter sweltering inboard temperatures, and continuously acknowledged us for our continued support, cooperation and patience. What's more, these sky angels were dressed to the nines in polyester and wool, a testing combination even on milder days, and yet remaining gracious and encouraging. I was grateful for this experience because, not only did I witness mastery of public service, but also experinced me suspending my own superficial needs for being on time, instead allowing myself to be a participant in an unfolding story. I suggested the wafting and our attendant wafted; it wasn't just our heat she cooled but also our and her frustration. New possibilities unfolded for fun and lightness, even enjoyment of a predicament which, as time drew on and the take off still wasn't happening, would otherwise heighten nervousness about missing connecting flights.

What I'm dreaming of is spaces and interactions which are wafted by leaders stepping up, "inappropriately" used safety cards in hand, to create new possibilities for enjoyment.

P

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Attack of the Giggles

Thanks to Heidi Heyns for posting this clip on YouTube; it is a "Laughter Yoga" group at Audubon Park, New Orleans:



What if a public space could be infected with laughter at a peak time of day for passers-through? Now that would be a Joyist act.

Research sources on Joy Fear and Love

I'm revisiting some email exchanges from the start of my inquiry earlier this year (2008). My inquiries led me to Dr Bonnie O'Conner, of Brown University Faculty Development in Pediatrics and she provided me with several leads, for which I am very grateful.

Here follows her email to me and I have added the links where possible to help you start your own threads:

===========March 12, 2008===============
Hi Phil -

Thanks for your inquiry, and good for you for pursuing this work! The first person that comes to mind in this regard is Candace Pert, whose book Molecules of Emotion will lay out the thoughts of an NIH scientist on the physiology and biochemistry of emotional states and responses. The place to go within the further medical literature, if you want to see their take on this is to the field of psychoneuroimmunology (try it on PubMed). As you may imagine, this is a controversial field, but gaining steadily in acceptance and getting more attention; again a good focus on physiologic models and explanations.

Herbert Benson’s work, and that of others in Mind-Body medicine, will be important, as will Jon Kabat-Zinn’s work on mindfulness-based stress reduction. The whole “alternative” field of energy medicine will be a good place to browse – see works of Tiffany Field and Janet Quinn on Therapeutic Touch and Touch therapies in general, and check out the International Society for the Study of Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine.
Also some of the following:
• Dreher & Domar, Self Nurture
• Dreher H: “A challenge to the mind-body health movement.” Advances in Mind-Body Medicine #17, 2001: 147-150
• Diener, Suh & Oishi, “Recent findings on subjective well-being.” Indian Journal of Clinical Psychology, March 1997
• Anatovsky A. Health, Stress and Coping: New Perspectives on mental and physical well-being. Anatovsky coined the term “salutogenesis” (1979), used and explained in this book. (This concept has been taken up by the Samueli Institute, q.v.)
•Smith DF, “Functional salutogenic mechanisms of the brain.” Perspectives in Biology and Medicine #45(3), 2002:319-328.
• Coleman, D (ed.) Healing Emotions (published 1997 by the Mind and Life Institute, q.v. also) - a record of the 1991 Mind and Life conference which brought together the Dalai Lama, physicians, psychologists, and meditation teachers and started an ongoing collaboration)

I would also recommend works such as Paul Farmer’s Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues (1999) for perspectives on social factors and particularly entrenched social inequalities on health and well-being.

Good luck!

Cheers,
Bonnie O’C
===============

My footnotes:
Candace Pert has a wonderful podcast called The Physics of Emotion. She has also Published another book called "Everything You Need to Know to feel Go(o)d", which is premised on that we are "hard wired for bliss". She has also written many other books.

Let's Chat in the news

On April 24th the local media got interested. I spent most of my 2+ hours in the park accompanied by CBC Radio One's arts reporter, John Spittal, and then by Global Television News' Gil Tucker and his cameraman. Since that time, more people are approaching me as a result.

My friend, Derek Heck (thanks) sent me this Global TV clip to share with you



and here is the CBC broadcast (Real Audiuo stream), which was aired on the Calgary Eyeopener, May 5th 2008. Shorter clips also appeared in other local news items.

Thrilling! People are approaching me for a chat just because they were exposed to the reports. John and Gil; THANK YOU very much, for the exposure and opportunity for bigger impact (whatever that might turn out to be).

Phil

An experiment in Joy; Let's Chat

Spring has sprung in Calgary, the heart of Canada (potentially). So, with bearable temperatures I've embarked on my latest social experiment to see what impact can be created by having real encounters with strangers. I hope that by demonstrating the power of connection and dialogue, people will be inspired to get curious instead of judgemental about their fellow human being.

Today was day 2 of many more, where I sit with my sign near a busy lunchtime spot for Calgarians and invite passers-by to spend some time and chat about whatever they want.

I am careful to not have an agenda; I am not selling anything. In that respect I will only give my first name, enough to establish some trust and I'll discuss whatever anyone wants with them.

When I get more data, I'll report here.
UPDATE: Let's Chat attracted local media

Exciting! - A proposal for Joyism from 2000

Thomas Daffern is a Canadian born poet, philosopher and author, based in the UK (Wales), where he is Director of the International Institute for Peace Studies and Global Philosophy (IIPSGP).

In 2000, he published a philosophical paper called "Joyism not Terrorism: Towards an Alternative Non-violent Revolutionary Epistemology" and the title captures the essence of my discovery and the prerogative for Joy. The paper can be found contained in Daffern's book of collected works, "Wisdom Affairs: Towards a Cartography of Enlightenment, Enlovement and Joyism for Wisdom Lovers", available at lulu.com as a bound copy or a download.

I'm going to read a copy. I'm also going to speak with him. I will write up what I discover, here.

Just found - Joyologists on the www - a new special interest group March 2008

Joyologists, at www.joyology.org are people who describe themselves:

"A joyologist, then would be one who studies joylogy. Frankly our world could use a great many joyologists whose mission in life is to actively research the effects of discussing and sharing joy. The research could branch out into how joy effects our careers, family lives, and friendships. The very act of doing the active research should spread jubilation throughout the world and bring about positive results. What a fun job! All one needs to start with is to share the words joyism, joyology, and joyologist with others. Use the words daily and make them a part of the world's vocabulary."

And I am excited to find them on the web. They created their website, it seems, just a week or two ago, so perhaps this is another sign that a shift in our paradigms is wanting to happen. Anyway, I have signed up and hope to be accepted into that small community.

Enjoy Now
Phil

Joyism from 2006 - here's another blog!

At the beginning of 2006 this Blogger penned several pieces and then seems to have fizzled out. Where are you now, "Pope Magniminimus Omnibus Short Bus XIII", who are you now and what are you moving?
Despite "the Pope's" discouraging name, he/she wrote some very thought provoking pieces, including:

• The Ultimate Truth of JOY (February 2006), and

"We are one being - literally (individuality and separation is an illusion)
There is enough - but not distributed with equality or fairness at the moment (this will change)"

• JOYISIM is my personal war on terroism (February, 2006)

"I think the answer to terrorisim is JOYISIM. I think that we have enough non-profit charitable organizations. Government programs all tripping over their own feet. ... I say we cut out the middleman. Go direct to the root of the suffering. INDIVIDUAL to INDIVIDUAL."

And "The Pope" also provided some links, all now defunct, unfortunately. Perhaps my writing what I am at this time is the sign that the time is ripe for a resurgence of the idea. Thank you The Pope; I hope we'll connect.

Joyism, a new creed

Yayyyy! I am not the first to publish a theory of "joyism". Perhaps my discovery of joyism is one of those creations that happen simultaneously across the planet in diverse, unlinked populations. (what's the term for that, anybody?)

Dax Moi, I just discovered your page on The Magic Hundred, a social neworking site. And you proposed in your blog that "Joyist" be an entry in the dictionary. It will, my friend, it will. As more of us pick up on this antitheses of terrorism, Joyism, the term will build as a compelling, encouraging way to create social shifts based on experiencing JOY.

So what is a Joyist? A joyist is a person who engages in acts of joy, in order to spread joy in a population and create shifts in focus, shifts in activity, shifts in perception, and increase in choice.

A joyist can act in a small scale or large scale way, for example facilitating a joyful experience for another person, or by creating an act of mass joy.

There is a huge opportunity, folks. Joyism as a way of bringing about shifts has no language. It is based on acts of love. Love is abstract and prone to misappropriation for religious or political agendas, and so creates cyclical, pointless dicussion. Joy is an experience all humans share and all humans want.

What would it be to redefine our world on joyist principles and methods? But what are those, exactly? Hmmmm.

Let's create them from scratch, using the principle that there's nothing new under the sun. A great place to start will be to ask some questions.

Here are some that come to my mind:
"What can terrorists teach us and how do we 180-degree the doctrines into a Joyist way"?
"What is the human experience of Joy, behaviours, physiology, belifs, impacts, so that we may know when joy is present?" i.e. so that we know when we are increasing joy and have a feedback structure.
"What is the opposite of Joy and the human experience of that?" for similar reasons to the question before.
"What would be joyist ways of creating mass shift?"

That's all for now.
P

On Leading, Availability and Love

Human love, in its purest form, is quite simply making your whole self available to the growth of another human. In order to notice the human needs of another, you must first notice and acknowledge the human need in your self; in other words make yourself available to be loved and love yourself.

Loving has nothing to do with being "hard" or "soft", "weak" or "strong". Nor is it connected with giving everything away, including your wealth or your power, although we often make up that it is. We can still be hard on someone yet see them kindly and want for them their biggest, most beautiful self. The impact and eventual outcome of such an interaction is affected by the way the one sees the other and by how the other feels seen, mutually.

It takes courage to love; courage to BE different. To love is a radical act. To love is to invest, where the risk is insignificant in reality, if not in your imagination; the cost is only in terms of your fear of losing control, and the yield is very high. Increasing staff and client retention challenges and issues of loyalty and sickness all tell me there is a strong case for love in business. If you think your organisation is slow to adapt or seems timid or ossified, there is a strong case for seeding love there. Being a leader in these cases is about being the first to break the mold, the first to BE out-of-the-box, the first to create movement.

YOU and I are both responsible: lead by example.

On Ghosted Wing

I came across this scribble in an old notebook and thought I'd share it.  I wrote this as I noticed my feelings towards meeting an old friend for the first time, someone with whom I'd become Certified as a Professional Co-Active Coach and only met on the telephone.  I was in the approach to San Francisco on a connecting flight out of Seattle:

On Ghosted Wing:

Mid air turbulance,

Opera in one ear,

Suzanne and William,

Flying through dark,

Gently descending.

Let others streak and amble,

ghost wing flickering

A man comes,

On ghost wing grinding,

To a place of trees and gulls,

And magic,

Salt and twig and feather,

Brazen stone and white Hart's play,

And mermaid's song,

There renewed.

On ghosted wing

Pale spirit comes.

Phil Durnford, Calgary, November 2005

Recipe for Borrowing Love, Breathing Love - an offered practice

On Breathing, a recipe:

Allow stillness,

Allow quiteness,

Allow commitment,

Breathe forgivingly and notice,

Wait,

When readiness happens,

Commit to breathe out every last breath of air in your lungs,

As if the life of the World depends upon it,

Pivot gently about your lower gut and gladly give back your last air to the Universe,

Know that it is returning to nature,

As the river blends with the ocean,

And feel the gratitude for its gift

Upon giving it up, make a choice;

Your next breath will be an inhalation of Love,

With an accepting heart,

Breathe Love through fresh and willing nostrils,

Notice and enjoy the emotion of wanting,

Open the doors of your heart's hall wide at each end,

And allow the Love to pass through,

Lighting hearth and bringing laughter,

Bring the Breath Love into your swelling belly,

Until you can take no more,

Decide to stop,

Be still,

Take delight,

Notice your intentions for the World,

For nature, 

For people known and unknown,

Allow Gratitude,

Allow Forgiveness,

Allow what's wanting to happen

Allow commitment,

Allow stillness,

Allow readiness,

Wait,

When readiness happens,

Breathe Love with your intentional commitment,

Back to the Universe

repeat the cycle.

Repeat until you are repleat.

try it, post what you experience.

Love and peace

P

Reflection: Love is on Loan

The Universe provides us with free, unlimited access to its lending library of Love.  As it happens, we are all already members.  Only thing is, many of us threw out the reminder notice with the junk mail.

Love is the meta knowledge that feeds our curiosity, learning, application and, ultimately, human progress.  So what do we do with the meta knowledge that we borrow from the Universal meta library? We nourish our soul and we excrete our agonies and ecstacies.  Nourishment fills us with possibilities for human interconnection, co-creativity, procreation and growth.  Excretion lays the foundation for the development of humankind and for the planet, as would a river delta lay down silt on the continental shelf, without any design on the wonderous landscapes or ocean features that silt will become, possibly eons into the future, possibly during the next storm.

Jumping out of the sedimentological metaphor back to excretion, and asking a rhetorical question: who keeps their poo?

So our opportunity, people, is to borrow Love, nourish ourselves, share an apply the meta knowledge and, upon returning the Love back to the Universe, lay down our agonies and ecstacies, knowing that they contribute to the evolution of the planet and of humankind.

I love mixing metaphors, or rather I love blending them.

Have a beautiful day!

P