Don't let them steal your joy

A GREAT book on how to live a life full of JOY is Dr Chris Baker's powerful little guide, REAL.

“I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart…”  ~ George Willis Cooke

Screens. Your and your family’s mobile phones, pads, computers, TVs and computer games, are stealing your joy.  

That’s complicated, because of your need to communicate with your phone, and to answer emails and work at the computer.  Even your children may be required to work at the computer in and out of school.    

However, we know now that screens are addictive, creating notable changes in brain chemistry, particularly the release of dopamine.  Dopamine is nicknamed the “pleasure neurotransmitter,” and neurologists know it is due to dopamine that screen use is addictive. 

Besides being addictive, screen games, shows, videos, have fast-paced scene changes every few seconds, and contribute to ADD and other brain disorders.  

In fact, IUD is the medical name of the mental health disorder, Internet Use Disorder, classified in the DSM-5 (American Psychiatric Association Diagnostic Manual). 

​IUD messes people up.  It has the hallmarks of all addictions - inability to focus on tasks that require concentration, restlessness, moodiness, lack of joy.  These screens steal our joy.

“We live our life through screens and images in this way, and we don't know what is real or fake anymore. And it doesn't matter to us”
~ Alison Jackson

This week, consider turning off your TV and not using your other screens any more than absolutely necessary.

And focus on joy.  “Joy is not in things - it is in us.” ~ Richard Wagner

Enjoy the faces and voices of your favorite, most beloved people. Grab the moments and turn them over and over in your heart. Savor life's preciousness.  

“Joy does not simply happen to us.  We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day.”  
~ Henri J.M. Nouwen

After all, “For to miss the joy is to miss all. “
  ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

Love,