Articles by Mariabruna Sirabella, MFT

Choose Joy! – "Harvesting Pleasure through our Five Senses"

Since childhood, I've had such pleasing expectations about summer: school was out, and there was more time for playing in the garden, swimming, reading, even going on vacation and staying up late. In the old days, the merry making used to start with the Midsummer rites. From Ireland to the Alps and all the way to the New World there was dancing around bonfires and frolicking in the woods during long languorous evenings and into warm nights. Joy was in the air. When I found discovered these rites, I wished I had lived in those times.

I have grown up accustomed to expect joy from external events, and watch it fade along with the stimulus. Then the waiting would begin. Sometimes I even wonder whether those feelings were about excitement rather than joy. Are we really encouraged to feel just joy? Is joy teachable? Many spiritual traditions talk about contentment, peace and positive thinking. I encountered these messages as a young adult and somehow felt their prompting to be more about disciplining thoughts rather than cultivating experience. A part of me was still waiting.

Until, tired of waiting, I began to explore the possibility of letting myself taste joy and dwell on it. It took some remembering, some 'waking up' and some re-directing, but eventually my internal landscape started to brighten. Then an "aha" moment and I thought: Why not be proactive, why not look for joy?

I am not talking about endlessly chasing stimulating situations or creating extraordinary events. I had noticed how this exhausting pursuit leads to emptiness and endless competition against the normal rhythms of life. I am talking about plucking the joy that is already within reach, 'unharvested' so to speak. But how? Thinking didn't seem to help. That's when I started experimenting with my five senses.

You will discover that it is not so difficult to choose Joy after all, if you remember to use the five magnificent portals at your disposal, always ready to send signals to the brain. Through the senses, you can claim your joy, not in a hedonistic and self-indulgent way, but rather through presence, awareness, intention and choice. Harvesting pleasure lightens the load. Its power expands if a simple sensation is encouraged to travel, consciously, throughout the body.

The whole of creation offers innumerable opportunities to feel and sense. Consider the smells of grass after rain, of ripe fruit, of flowers and spices, the songs of birds, children laughing, the captivating sounds of music, the hand of a friend on our arm, our hand on the fur of our four-legged friends, the lusciousness of silk; the taste of ripe peaches, of .... The list goes on indefinitely. You can enliven all these 'trite' images if you want to. You don't need much or have far to go, but you have to choose it: savor one bite, one smell, one color and follow the thread of pleasure spreading inside of you. You do not need 10 'bites' to claim this experience: one is sufficient if you take it, right here in this moment

Rather than running after pleasures or waiting, you can harvest the pleasures that are within reach all the time. Letting go of the permanent state of distraction and rush certainly helps. Pleasure creates smiles and a general atmosphere of joy follows without effort when you take benefit of what is already yours. Begin now to receive this benefit. In this moment, choose joy!

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© 2009 Mariabruna Sirabella.
Mariabruna Sirabella, LMFT is an artist and psychotherapist in Watsonville, California. She is Adjunct Faculty at JFK University, a SoulCollage Facilitator and an authorized SoulCollage Trainer. She teaches internationally and her workshops offer California MFTs and LCSWs Continuing Education Units. She is also available for private consultations. Learn more at www.sirarte.com