Yesterday, I had the opportunity to speak in front of a roomful of breast cancer survivors and their guests. This particular group has decided to call themselves Thriving Survivors. For them, simply surviving is not nearly enough. They are committed to thriving. Thriving suggests adapting, growing and flourishing. Thriving suggests positivity and hope.

A part of my presentation was laughter yoga (which is one my new favorite things.) Basically, we start by inhaling deeply, and then exhaling with a loud ‘HA!’. Big breath in and then ‘HA!’ Then we get faster and faster, and the sound of Ha! Ha! Ha! fills the room. Soon the entire room room is actually laughing. The fake laughter turns into real laughter.

The people in this room already had the seeds of joy and positivity and hope planted in their hearts, so it was only a matter of seconds before the room was completely hysterical. There were loud roars of laughter, and cackling at the back of the room. People were pausing to catch their breath with long audible sighs, then laughing again. The room was a giant release of endorphins. Stress hormones melted away while the immunity boosting powers of laughter filled our hearts with oxygen, and joy.

They all know struggles, but they all continue to look for joy. And so, they easily find joy.

This morning a friend of mine posted a photo on Facebook. A fallen leaf lying on top of fallen pine needles. Last week, she had been participating in a  ‘7 Days of black and white’ photo challenge. She has a brilliant eye for lines and light and textures. Her photos made it obvious that she enjoyed taking them, and I looked forward to her artsy posts over the past week. But the challenge had ended.

So, when I saw her color version of lines and texture I commented on the photo… ‘The 7 day challenge relit the flame?’

And her reply was ‘Yep. Now I’m seeing beautiful things everywhere.’

To which I immediately replied ❤️.

A couple of weeks ago, when I did this silly little Facebook challenge, I found myself looking around all day for beautiful things, odd things, meaningful things, noteworthy, photo-worthy things.

And I found them. Everywhere I looked.

We find what we look for. When we look for beauty, we will easily find more beauty. When we look for joy, we will find joy more easily.  When we look to the sky and laugh, we will easily laugh more and more and more…

What have you been finding lately?

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