In French, “joie de vivre” means “the joy of living.” It’s a delight of being alive. Also one of the qualities/feelings that are most sought after. It can be described as “a feeling of happiness or enthusiasm for life.” Even the wealthiest, most prosperous people continue to want and pursue the joy of life… True enjoyment in life and everything it has to bring.
So, what does “joie de vivre” actually comprise? Is it happiness? Is it all bliss? Is it living mindfully? Is it a carefree life?
For those who do not understand, joie de vivre is the art of living… Genuinely enjoying life, truly embracing it. “Joie de vivre” is a quality and a feeling that we can all learn to attain, whether you term it living in the moment, or self-fulfillment. Most of us know a small number of individuals who exhibit this quality: an exuberance of spirit that makes every day unique, and many of us wish we had it, too.
If you no longer appear to be interested or excited or joyful or amazed about something. How do you get the feeling of “exuberant enjoyment of life” or does it just fade off as you get older? To get your answers, follow up on this post.
If possible, get away from everything. Take a break for a week, drive on your own somewhere. Quite often, we’re just too distracted to appreciate anything. There’s a time in our life when we get to a much boring level of life when we don’t go on road trips. Experiencing and practicing mindfulness seems like what you need. Switch things up-new passion can be found. Hobbies… I’ve never had any hobbies. Now that I do, I start waking up happy to do them on the weekends, I draw inspiration in activities that were boring before, and I feel happy to do something.
As I grew older, my passion for life diminished, but as of late, I seem to be able to recapture it. How? By establishing certain personal goals. I have just lived my life for the past decade. I didn’t have any primary goals other than “to be happy” The truth is, you won’t be if your purpose is to be happy. By having larger aims, you need to obtain satisfaction indirectly.
Maybe “to write a book” or “to teach kids about airplanes” or “to make a massive rose garden” may be one of your goals. But whatever the case, I’ve come to believe that the best way to derive joy is to follow a goal.
Going back to nature is the second-best way. Your spirits soar while you are hiking or camping or otherwise spending time in a natural setting, away from modern life (especially technology).
A few other things that are helping:
Exercise a lot, even if it’s only going for a stroll in your neighborhood multiple times per week.
Shorten the time you spend in front of the computer and/or the TV.
Develop friendships. Reconnect with friends and partners. Social networks contribute to making life exciting.
Spend time with children. If you don’t have your own kids, spend time with the children of your friends. Or volunteer somewhere where you can communicate with them.
All these things listed above will help you to restore the joy of life that you felt you were lacking.
Of course, do not believe that when you grow older, life just gets duller. It didn’t. But because routine will provide you with fewer new experiences as you settle into a job and area and home, you’ll find that you have to deliberately discover different experiences, which is what will give you that joyful feeling.
Inspire yourself. Articulate some of the dreams and stuff that you always wanted to do. An adventure trip or an exotic holiday will do magic. Network with people. Enter group ventures that are exciting to you—maybe things like park-building or developing a new program of theater, music, or projects. Anything that builds on an accomplishment.
When I was younger, there were moments that I felt all the happiest and most beautiful days had gone. It was a total illusion; you just have to continue to improve yourself and avoid being lazy. There will rarely be amazing, magical experiences walking up to your house. They must be sought after. Hopefully, a hundredfold would account for the effort you put into discovering and making amazing experiences for yourself.
Often, one thing that people who truly enjoy life seem to have in common is that what other people think is not important to them. Clearly, living a “normal” life involves often making some compromises to the views of other people, but it can quickly get out of control to the point that you don’t even know who and what you are anymore. Perhaps you need to think a little bit less about integrity and see what develops.
Also, the most financially wealthy, most prosperous individuals continue to want and experience the ‘joie de vivre’ … genuine enjoyment of life and all that it has to give. Therefore, the achievement of joie de vivre does not depend on your success level or your socio-economic status. It is about your mindset and understanding of events in life. It is about knowing your intent, getting comfortable with it, and doing it.
Being in spirit “It is similar to having that joie de vivre to be “. Settled, grounded, purposeful, and mindful will teach you the joys of living sooner than later. It’ll arrive organically. So you have to constantly choose to think, act, do, and act in ways of your soul, your heart, to maintain it. This can mean letting go of old situations and becoming a little vulnerable.
It may also mean constantly seeing your life as a small, but very important part of a much larger picture. It will imply knowing and embracing your “being” as an essential part of a cosmic soup bowl that is interconnected, carefully patterned yet ever-changing. In the collective consciousness, you are also a unique and special soul.
So, take note! The next time you see the human smiling, laughing, relaxed, carefree, you know that you can still feel the same thing.
Alona Koenig Photography. Vintage charm. Timeless elegance. French ‘joie de vivre’
