Today has been typical. I waded into my email inbox, determined to respond to new messages so that I could get on to the rest of my to do list. Hours would pass before I came up for air. There is satisfaction when I accomplish a task, but I don’t make room for joy. At the end of the day, I knit my brow when trying to decide what the high point of my day was. Minutes blend into hours blend into days. If I don’t wake up, joy may be lost in pursuit of unremarkable productivity.

The alternative is to incline my mind toward joy.

Joy is as near as the colors in the room, the distant murmur of traffic, the feel of my body in the chair.

I can choose joy as the foundation of my attitude as I continue this day. I notice an immediate drop of my shoulders and lift of my spirits.

Of course, there will be times when joy isn’t an appropriate response. The idea is to make joy the default, interrupted by other emotions as they arise.

I brush my teeth a couple times every day. If I remind myself to incline my mind toward joy twice a day, it will clean and polish my spirit and add freshness to my soul.