The season of joy can start anytime. Neither daily nor night hour matters, nor numbers in the calendar, nor weather, nor even suitable economic – political situation. It takes very little to launch season of joy in our life. Just allow it enter our life. Successful season of joy has the one and only condition: feel the present moment.

I have found out, that however simple this condition may sound, there is a snag. To be able to fully enjoy a season of joy I had to sloooow down. Both, body and mind.

I am convinced that one does not necessarily have to end up on neuro-surgeon´s table, nor get hit by any other serious wound, to “receive the message“. Myself, I gained this knowledge after I did end up on neuro-surgeon´s table, in fact. Well, I know how hard it is to perceive first, second, third warnings, soft kicks. Honestly, who´s got time for that nowadays! My list of soft kicks includes regularly prolapsed disc – preferably on New Year´s Eve – honestly, intravenous infusions did not help me to get the message at all. There are many more of warnings showing up as different types of pain, or they reflect themselves on our complexion, hair, nail quality or impact our digestive system, just to name few. All these belong to the list called „what my body tries to tell me?“ There are other lists such as „how I react at work“ or „how I react at home“ etc. Got it? Not yet? Well, well, next level brings tougher kicks. Now I am thankful for my own tougher kick. What else large CSDH – chronical subdural hematoma could be?!?. Thus, I was a bit out of humour last year in Spring, when I had to undergo neurosurgery, to be frank with you.

So, the season of joy starts with feeling of the very moment. Forget multitasking. It is said, that women are multi-performers. Iron in one hand, colleague from the office on the phone just for a sec to resolve the urgent task, spatula to stir the evening casserole in other hand and an eye keeping on kids´ homework. Raise your hand who first said that multitasking is a positive feature? Poor girls (and boys, too) who are proud of this crazy capability. If this is your case, just jump back to above paragraph and try to get to your own list of warnings and kicks. I bet that it does contain few items.

Let´s get back to my own experience… Focus on the one and only action here and now. Oh God, how this hurts! It caused me a lot of physical and mental pain to change my intense vibrating to peaceful pace.

Pace of my own breath.

Pace of my own heart.

Pace in which I am truly able to perceive each moment consciously.

This deceleration required so much energy! …to switch from auto-pilot mode to self-conscious mode. Days full of doubt followed: is this really a good idea? What if I miss something really important? In fact, all the time by then I was missing something truly important: myself.

Deceleration and concentration were demanding, but finally it paid off. Simple daily activities suddenly brought me more joy, satisfaction, even happiness than ever before. The more self-conscious I was, the more satisfied and self-aware I felt. Then a morning came when I woke up and felt completely happy just because I was alive as a human being. Because I woke up and the whole day ahead was mine. Simple as that. What a feeling! I was happy by default. As if I have reached my default setting, re-formatted myself. Incredible! That was the launch of my season of joy. Of course, this re-formatting still continues step by step. It may be a never-ending process. To be honest, I was not a completely different woman as from that very morning, none of that. But I realised that my slowing down was successful. I reached a pace in which I was able to perceive my pure existence. That was an important starting point.  

My morning coffee is an inseparable part of my season of joy. Every morning I have a rendezvous with my coffee. It has its specific taste, very mine. A large mug of French press, a teaspoon of sugar, bit of milk, not too little, still not too much to change it into flat white completely. Poured nearly full, sometimes touching the mug edge… Then I have to, as my Mum used to say: “press it with my knee“ to allow more space for milk! If Italians let visitors to their country based on the type of coffee people drink, they would haunt me to far Scandinavian North. Be it. That´s my morning coffee.