THE JOYFUL LIFE: HOW TO MAKE IT LAST Series 2 of 2.  10 June 23

As Christians we believe that we are created to be in joyful relationship with God and people. We believe that we have a natural and spiritual craving for connection and we thrive when we satisfy it.

What we have learned over recent years is that God has given us special brain circuits that help us bond with others. When these circuits function well, our spontaneous experience will be to feel close and connected to the people in our lives. 

In the last blog we introduced our series. Today we zoom in on some steps to move forward. Then we will expand this over the next five blogs.

Zoom in: Some Steps Forward  

What do we suggest? We find it helpful to form habits in these steps. 

1. Be Aware of Your Relational Circuits:  

Learning to pay more attention to your relational circuits, keeping them on, and intentionally directing them towards God and the ones you love. 

2. Turn on Relational Circuits 

Regular times of purposely establishing interactive connection with God and people, learning to notice spontaneous connection, and creating more room for it..  

3. Keep them on more: 

a. Nurture your relationships with God and people 

b. Grow capacity by using the LIfe Model Skills: 

Life Model Works has identified relational brain skills that are essential for optimal well-being in all areas of life. Ideally, we should all learn these skills by the time we are 3 years old. We built on these skills to develop what we called Joyskills in the UK. When we don’t master these skills, we face difficulties1. We end up feeling hollow, a shadow of who we wanted to be. The first five skills are recognising relational circuits, self-soothing, sharing joy, appreciation and seeing how God sees. One of the skills Karl focuses on is deliberately accumulating faith-building experiences and stories. 

c. Increasing Self Understanding and Troubleshoot 

We help you increase your self understanding and do regular, ongoing troubleshooting to remove obstacles to your connection with God and people close to you.  

d. Heal your Heart:  

Regular, ongoing work to heal your broken heartedness and resolve trauma, as an especially important source of obstacles and difficulties. We often use HeartSync Prayer for this.  

These are what we do in our Joyskills ministry