Whatever you do in your daily experience, the most essential ingredient is joy. When you feel joy, you are at peace with what is around you, content in the experience you are having right now and not concerned about the future, or the past. It is vital to allow joy into each day's nutritional program. You say you have too many other things weighing on you. That is conditioning responding to your desire for joy and not the real, elemental and undefiled essence which you are. We trade our ability to be in a state of joy of loving companionability with all around us, at ease and in harmony, we trade this state of consciousness moment by moment, second by second as we learn from our elders what the state of being a grown-up looks like.

For many of us, the state of being a grown-up looked tired, worn with weariness, bitterness, drained and unhappy with life circumstances. It seemed like the ability to change states of mind and be happy was valued much less than the ability to focus upon and be centered in the misery of living a life which feels overwhelming, a life in which one is a victim and must do certain things. That is the model of being an adult which was put forth to so many of us.

As soon as the words and ideas are in front of you, you recognize their false nature: being an adult means none of the above, yet how many of us as parents and adult role models have the insight to provide the young around us with a patterning of joy, happiness, having fun and taking time to relish this experience while it lasts? How many of us who truly wish to be good parents and for that matter, partners, place our focus on loving our own lives, indulging ourselves daily in the small, or large, ways that fill our inner selves with a sense of fun, joy and adventure?

Since we have forgotten, or never learned, the art of being a joyful adult, we can only pass along to others the opposite: the art of being responsible and mature. That model, that idea when we dissect it, looks very grey and gloomy most of the time.

If you are fortunate enough to have had an elder around you who spent time in a state of joy, who loved life fully and expressed that love in the small details of life, take your mind to that person every day. If you have no personal model of a loving, laughing, fun-filled and joyous adult, create one!

You have the ability to live a life in joy. Indeed the most important nutrient you can give yourself every day is noticing what experiences bring you joy, and focusing on those.

Take time to look for the joy which is your natural state and focus on that. Take time to consider ways to increase your joy. It can be a very simple and truly profound way to nourish that which is vital to a fulfilled life experience.