JOY

Definition of Joy:
A feeling of great pleasure and happiness.

Synonyms of Joy:
Delight, jubilation, rejoicing, happiness, exhilaration, bliss, etc.

These notes are from recovery in AA and/or related 12 step programs. Readers are encouraged to click external links for more detail. We hope you find them helpful.

Love in fellowship.

Joy is the echo of God’s life in us. –Abbot Columba Mormion. Joy is the highest expression of love, is a pure joy unadulterated by self-interest. –Unknown

Life didn’t promise to be wonderful, but it sure is full of little wonders! And we only have to open up and see them, feel them, and let them happen. –Keep It Simple | More…

Joy fixes us to eternity and pain fixes us to time. But desire and fear hold us in bondage to time, and detachment breaks the bond.

We live both in the material realm and the spiritual. Each circumstance in the material realm is an opportunity for us to rely on the spiritual realm for direction, security, and understanding.

As we turn within, to our spiritual nature, we will know joy. –Each Day a New Beginning/Karen Casey 28/06 | More…

Since the beginning of our recovery, we have found that joy doesn’t come from material things but from within ourselves. Where, can true joy be found?  We know; the answer is within ourselves.

When have we found joy?  When we’ve offered ourselves in service to others, without expectation of reward. We’ve found true warmth in the fellowship of others—not only in NA, but in our families, our relationships, and our communities.

And we’ve found the surest source of satisfaction in our conscious contact with our God. Inner peace, a sure sense of direction, and emotional security do not come from material things, but from within. –Just for Today | More…

What do you want? What would feel good to you? Ask yourself that question often as you go through your day, as you live your life.

When you don’t know what to do next, when you’re not sure how to find the path that’s right for you, ask yourself what you want and what would feel good. That’s how you’ll discover what’s right for you.

By following your heart, by following your passion, you will find your path and you will find joy. Learn to become comfortable with joy.

You have the power to create joy by choosing what feels good to you.  –Journey To The Heart/Melody Beattie | More…

Joy should not be confused with happiness. Joy is absolute self-surrender and self-sacrifice to the Higher Power.

 The joy of service living a full and overflowing life in perfect understanding Have the right relationship with God finding your joy there

A person who has the right relationship with God lives life a natural a breathing wherever he goes –Oswald Chambers | More…

Joy is not just the absence of pain; it is the gift of continued spiritual awakening. I need only to bring into my recovery the willingness to grow.  –Daily Reflections | More…

I wonder why love is so often equated with joy when it is everything else as well: devastation, balm, obsession, granting and receiving excessive value, and losing it again. –Florida Scott Maxwell

Let’s not forget that all experiences, even the dreaded ones, are meant for our good. We are never given more than we can handle, and we will be given a balanced set of circumstances.

A measure of joy will follow a period of sadness. As experience has shown, quick on the heels of the fear of loss is the realization that in the spiritual realm we’re secure and all is well. –Worthy of Love/Karen Casey | More…

Everyone has two personalities, a good and a bad. This division of ourselves is not good; we must somehow become unified.

We do this by giving ourselves wholeheartedly to A.A. and to sobriety. “Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of Thy Lord.”

“Enter into the joy of Thy Lord.” Pass into that fuller spiritual life, which is a life of joy and peace. –24Hours | More…

Joy and sorrow are analogous to the ebb and flow of the ocean tide. They are natural rhythms. We are mellowed by their presence when we accept them as necessary to our very existence. –Each Day A New Beginning/Karen Casey | More…

Regardless of the problem and difficulties that this day will bring, I have an inner joy that comes with my recovery. With a clear head and body free from drugs and chemicals I can face today and look forward to tomorrow.

Spiritually I am free because I have begun to discover me. God can now be perceived in His world because I have sobriety. –Father Leo | More…

We are put on the earth to participate in life. We need to use our tools: the tools of prayer, and the tools of meditation. We are designed to change and live joyfully on this earth.

The only requirement for living joyfully is to live according to the laws, principles, and values given to us by the Creator. —
Elders Meditations | More…

Joy comes from living the way my conscience tells me to live. –Lombard, Illinois, February 1995/”The Most Beautiful Word in the English Language,”, In Our Own Words/Grapevine

Not drinking is the first requirement for joy; the second requirement is gratitude. — Lombard, Ill., February 1995/”The Most Beautiful Word in the English Language,”  In Our Own Words  / Grapevine

There will be love and laughter and well-being deep inside if you abandon yourself to the business of recovery,
not just recovery from the disease of active alcoholism, but deeper than that, recovery from a former self. –Neoga, Ill., February 1974/”There Can Be Love and Laughter,”  Spiritual Awakenings II/Grapevine

Life, we say, is to be enjoyed. Letting go of our shame and feelings of unworthiness will help us to let go and live. If we tap into our spontaneity, we will rediscover the sheer joy of being alive. –Answers in the Heart

We all have moments when we feel better than our best, and we say — “I feel fit for anything; if only I could be like this always!” We are not meant to be. Those moments are moments of insight which we have to live up to when we do not feel like it. Never allow a feeling which was stirred in you in the high hour to evaporate. Act immediately, do something, if only because you would rather not do it. Take yourself by the scruff of the neck and shake off your incarnate laziness. Laziness is always seen in cravings for the high hour. . Never revise your decisions, but see that you make your decisions in the light of the high hour. –My Utmost for His Highest |More…

The joy of Jesus was the absolute self-surrender and self-sacrifice of Himself to His Father. The life that is rightly related to God is as natural as breathing wherever it goes. The lives that have been of most blessing to you are those who were unconscious of it. –Oswald Chambers | More…

Don’t rejoice in successful service; the great secret of joy is that you are rightly related to Me (God).” The great essential of the missionary is that he remains true to the call of God, and realises that his one purpose is to disciple men and women to Jesus. –My Utmost for His Highest | More…

Don’t rejoice in successful service; the great secret of joy is that you are rightly related to Me (God).” The great essential of the missionary is that he remains true to the call of God, and realises that his one purpose is to disciple men and women to Jesus. –My Utmost for His Highest | More…

Joy means the perfect fulfillment of that for which I was created and regenerated, not the successful doing of a thing. There is no choice of service, only absolute loyalty to what you discern when you are in closest contact with God. –Oswald Chambers | More…