Joy
J oy is the most terrifying emotion. For me, feeling joy means that at some point I will also feel anguish. If I allow myself the thrilling experience of joy I can feel the difficult emotions as well. About a year ago I was watching a Netflix special that featured Brené Brown. In this special she talked about joy. She said "when we loss our tolerance for vulnerability joy becomes foreboding." She used the example of when a parent is looking at their sleeping child and they are overcome with how much they love this child, then within seconds the parent thinks of something awful that can happen to the child. We dress rehearse tragedy so we can beat vulnerability. It's a way to beat vulnerability to the punch. A way to remain in the middle. If things don't work out we won't be devastated. If they do work out then it was a pleasant surprise. It's a shutter that runs through us after we have had a joyful moment. Or simply a happy one. The shutter that says don...