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Between stimulus and response there is space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.
Do the people around you seem happier?
More fulfilled?
Is something sucking the “happy” right out of your life?
Welcome to The Joy Strategy, where our goal is to use the universal Law of Attraction to prioritize our daily Joy.
Say you’re driving to work, but you hadn’t set your alarm earlier so you’re running late.
Total Not-Joy.
GET CAUGHT UP!
If you haven’t already, please click to read the prior posts in this series:
Suddenly, a car cuts you off and now you have to brake and wait for another red light.
Now you’re at an even deeper level of Not-Joy.
It is at this Not-Joy instant that we humans understandably tend to make a Not-Joy cause.
It’s a cause you make as a result of this other idiot Non-Joyful driver.
Could be a yelled curse word, a middle finger or an even worse example of road rage.
And this Not-Joy cause will now set your metaphysical radio signal to start your entire day and create Not-Joy effects throughout, which will dictate your mood for a long while.
So don’t curse or pop them off.
Except it’s tough to ignore someone cutting you off, right?
And even tougher not to let it get you angry. Frustrated. Impatient. Vengeful.
All Not-Joy.
But let’s slow that moment down for a second.
Two things happen the instant you get cut off.
First, you have a reaction. Then, you have a response.
Your reaction is how something makes you feel, and your response is what you do about it.
When it comes to Cause and Effect, those are two entirely different karmic things.
For the purpose of your Joy, it’s critical to know the clear difference.
Your reaction is your body’s initial take on anything that happens to you in life.
Your reaction is that thing you feel, fight or flight, the second something alarming goes down.
Your reaction is a direct reflection of your dominant frequency, meaning your current mood.
Your reaction is also the sum result of how you were raised, how your friends and family and workmates tend to think, how your clubs and colleges tend to think.
Because of all those random influences, your reaction is often one of Not-Joy.
Embarrassingly petty. Pathetic, even. Sometimes it’s even racist or sexist or otherwise cruel.
No judgement, though, because your reaction is not your fault and is definitely not a cause.
Your reaction is actually an effect of those earlier causes I just listed, as in how you were raised, how your friends and family and workmates and your clubs and colleges tend to think.
The exact opposite is true with regards to the Law of Attraction.
Your response, however, that thing you do after that Not-Joy reaction, is definitely a cause.
And it’s this new cause that’s ready to produce some new effects, good or bad.
Your response is a cause because it’s based on a conscious choice you make.
That decision is whether your response will be an extension of your initial Not-Joy reaction or something else purposely more Joyful.
Your knee-jerk response also tends to depend on your mood.
At every Not Joy moment, responses tend to be either…
a) we give in to our crankiness and double down on our reaction and respond with the same Not-Joy energy.
Or
b) we choose to make our response a more Joyful cause that is fueled by the Joy energy we have built up through our Joyful momentum.
Learning to make a conscious choice in this critical moment will be key to your Joy Strategy.
In the earlier road rage example, that driver cuts me off and my reaction is that it pisses me off.
If my response is an extension of my angry reaction and I chase him down and pit maneuver his Chevy into a guard rail, that definitely becomes a Not-Joy cause.
And probably ruin my day with the effects of jail time and making the local news.
However…
If my response is to use the extra time I just gained from having to wait at the light to turn up my radio and shout along with Eminem’s “Lose Yourself,” that would be a more Joyful cause, assuming it makes me feel good to rap those lyrics.
“You better lose yourself in the music, the moment
You own it, you better never let it go…”
Of course, you might prefer Snoop Dog or Abba or Beethoven. Same Joyful cause, either way.
Understanding the difference between your reactions and your responses is fundamental in terms of making joyful causes, since many of us automatically react and respond in the same moment with the same Not-Joy energy without realizing it.
The more Joyful move is to first react and give yourself a quick sec to feel your feelings fully.
But before you respond, use your Joy Strategy to get your energy back to neutral.
Then make a conscious decision about how you want to respond.
It’ll be slow moving at first, but over time it becomes a smooth muscle memory.
Remember, your response is the cause, or action, that will set the signal of your metaphysical radio.
It tells the universe to send you more of the same, which affects your day and everyone in it.
The Joy Strategy, as you will soon see, makes this easier to accomplish.
First, though, let’s go over a few ways to tap into your own Joy moments.
You’ll use these again in later section to begin purposely shifting your radio signal back to Joy.
![Read more about the article JOY STRATEGY [2]: How Your Joy Radio Works](https://mike-lukas.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Joy-Radio-1-300x186.jpg)
![Read more about the article JOY STRATEGY [3]: The Two States of Mind We All Share](https://mike-lukas.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Joy-Not-Joy-two-colors-280x300.png)
![Read more about the article JOY STRATEGY [7]: Why the Law of Attraction is Unlike the Law of Gravity](https://mike-lukas.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Gravity-1-300x223.jpg)
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