I Opened an Account at the Bank of Joy

Today I opened a Joy account at the Bank of Joy. I deposited 100 joy points.

Later this morning, I noticed on three separate incidences, I judged myself, someone, or something, all of this speedily taking place within a few seconds. 

The purpose of my joy account is for me to become conscious of my thoughts. For every judgmental thought I have I withdraw one joy point. For every loving and compassionate thought, I add two joy points. These can be thoughts about myself, someone else, or something else. The calculator on my cell phone is a handy tool for keeping track of my deposits and withdrawals. 

A secondary goal is to have more than 100 points in my joy account at day’s end. After a week, I want to see 1000 points.

I could have numerically weighted my accounting differently. That wasn’t important to me. What was more important was for me to have a way of being consciously aware of what I am thinking.  All too often, I can be unconscious of the thoughts, especially the judgmental ones. They are a habitual constant, running in the background of my mind and they are defining what my life is to be. At times I am more consciously aware of the food I put into my body than the life defining thoughts I am thinking. 

My joy account also serves as a way for me to become more consciously loving towards myself and others. It is easy for me to love those close to me, yet it is not always the same for myself or for strangers. I want to change that. Increasing my self-love will automatically increase it with strangers. 

So far at 9:00 a.m. today my joy account has 96 points. While writing this article, twice I judged myself for wasting my time believing I had more important things to do

I encourage you to step into the Bank of Joy and open an account. You will be glad you did.

©2020 Cristina Whitehawk