Last week, we watched the Democratic National Convention either through clips or live. We felt the energy, the excitement, and most importantly, the joy. The last 4 years ( and if we are honest, the last 8), we have been fighting just to keep going. The stress of another possible Trump presidency has been looming over our heads and Covid never went away. And yet we will still fight and believe that it is worth fighting. But this can wear us down, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. It is why you need to be able to check in with yourself and rest, but even more so you need to be able to find the joy in the work again.
Watching the DJ hyping up the crowd from state to state seeing how everyone was reacting really brought those feelings of joy. Not realizing it at first but as soon as Georgia was called and seeing Lil John performing Turn Down for What may not have been on my 2024 BINGO card but it’s what made me realize the tides were turning and joy was at the heart of it. Watching some of my favorite TikTok creators interacting with each other, politicians, and the whole convention brought together many worlds and really showed people the joy that can still be felt.
To do this work there is a love for people and a knowledge that we as a country can do better. We put our all into fighting for change, we often forget to take care of self. So how do we do this? The DNC is actually a great example of having a space to refill your cup, you want to get together with your community and not talk about the negatives that has happened but trying to look forward and celebrate the wins that have happened. Slowing down to celebrate them, we often go from one to the next that only a brief acknowledgement is given before jumping into the next project. It can feel like you are not achieving anything or that ones you have are not as important thus taking a step back and taking time to look as those victories to truly celebrate them helps remind you of the joy.
We need to get to the things we love doing. The emotional and sometimes physical labor our work demands can leave us exhausted by the time we are actually done that we barely want to feed ourselves let alone feed our souls. Make time to do the things that you love, block out time in your schedule to do so, it’s how we make sure our work gets done each week, apply it to your hobbies, prioritize it. Reading, writing, art, working out whatever it may be go do it clear your head. Sometimes to find joy in the work we need to our personal joy.
Trying to stay positive and find the joy in the work isn’t always easy. What we do isn’t easy but we continue to do it and that is how we need to think about joy. It is worth it every single time.
.svg)