Welcome back to the continuation of our exploration into real beauty and how you can cultivate it.
In Part 1, we discussed how inner joy is the foundation for lasting and radiant beauty—something that makeup or physical appearance alone cannot achieve.
Read: The Power of Inner Joy: Redefining Beauty Beyond Appearance – Part 1
Now, in Part 2, we’ll go deeper into why inner joy is what you should truly strive for to be and remain beautiful, how its absence can impact your well-being, and practical steps to cultivate and activate it in your daily life.
Let us go!
Why Do We Need Inner Joy?
Fulfilled Life
Inner joy is essential for a fulfilled life. Without it, even the best make-up and the most perfect physical appearance won’t make you truly happy.
Provides Emotional Resilience, Optimism, Hope and Self-efficacy
Inner joy provides emotional resilience, optimism, hope and self-efficacy: This helps you navigate life’s ups and downs, and keeps you grounded. Living a life of calm not reactive life.
Inner joy makes you undeniably beautiful
Not only because of the light it brings to your face but because of the peace it brings to your spirit. Inner joy is the source of real beauty, a beauty that transcends time, trends, and make-up.
Improves Focus and Clarity in pursuit of vision
Inner joy teaches us how to manage our anxiety and channel it into action, allowing us to focus our minds on what’s important.
Fosters Patience and Tolerance
Inner joy helps us practice patience and tolerance, even when others hold differing views. It gives us the emotional space to respond thoughtfully rather than reactively.
Promotes Better Sleep
Many of us struggle to get enough restful sleep, either because we are physically overworked or mentally overwhelmed with thoughts. Inner joy helps calm the mind by managing stress and anxiety, allowing us to get the quality rest we need.
Improves Relationships
How we feel about ourselves shapes our perception of the world and our interactions with others. When we cultivate inner joy, we see the world—and ourselves—in a more positive light. This positivity radiates into our relationships, creating deeper connections and healthy self-esteem.
The above is not just a theory but a personal truth. Believe that inner joy is attainable and start your journey toward it today. You’ll discover that many of your worries are mere illusions; they fade away as you address them with a calm, centered mind.
The reasons for pursuing inner joy are many, and I hope that as you cultivate your own, you will find even more to add to this list.
The Consequences of Lack of Inner Joy
When inner joy is absent, the impact can ripple through every area of life—spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical.
Let us see how lack of joy affects each area:
Spiritual Consequences
Losing your inner joy opens the door for negativity to take over. Your spiritual strength begins to fade, and one of the first signs is a weakened prayer life and less desire to study God’s word. This disconnect from God’s wisdom can lead to poor decisions and a more worldly mindset, drawing you further away from solutions and deeper into problems.
Emotional Consequences
Emotional breakdowns, whether mild or severe, are dangerous if not addressed quickly. Here are a few symptoms that signal emotional disruption:
Anxiety
Anxiety is a clear sign of lost joy. It reflects a lack of hope, optimism, self-efficacy, resilience, and trust in God, leaving you feeling insecure and uncertain. If left unchecked, it can spiral into anger or frustration, which in turn diminishes your overall well-being and confidence. This teaching by Joyce Mayer could help to develop your inner peace.
Eating Disorder
Anxiety can push some to overeat, while others lose their appetite altogether – two extremes that wreak havoc on your health. And let us be honest, can we really feel and see beauty without sound health? It all stems from a deeper issue: a lack of inner joy. When joy fades, so does our beauty!
Instability
Without joy, life becomes an emotional rollercoaster – you are on top of the world one moment, and spirally down the next. This wild instability clouds your judgment, leading to impulsive choices and creeping feelings of hopelessness. Left unchecked, it can snowball into serious mental health challenges.
But here is the good news: you have the power to change that! Take charge and intentionally cultivate your inner joy. It is the key to emotional stability and lasting peace – and only you can make it happen, no one else can!
Prolong Sorrow
Sorrow, the heavy feeling of deep sadness, can drain your energy and hold you back from living fully. If you let it linger, it can spiral into depression, stealing your joy, hope and motivation. When trapped in sorrow’s grip, real beauty feels distance, almost impossible to achieve.
But here is the thing! Why let sorrow deem your light? Break free, reclaim your inner joy, and let your beauty shine from within!
Unhealthy Relationship
Lack of inner joy can damage relationships by making you easily irritated, impatience or emotionally distant. Without internal joy, you may experience mood swings that lead to frequent arguments, miscommunication, or holding grudges, which strains connections over time.
Research shows that emotional instability increases conflicts in relationships, as unresolved feelings are often projected onto others. Without inner joy, it becomes harder to build trust, empathy and understanding; making healthy relationships nearly impossible to maintain.
Mental Consequences
As emotional affliction deepens, it begins to affect your mind. Without peace, mental torment can manifest in the following ways:
Torment
A troubled mind is often filled with fear – fear of failure, sickness, or the unknown. The constant mental stress is a sign of lost inner joy.
Absent-Mindedness
When overwhelmed by problems, it is easy to become mentally distracted, and unable to focus on anything meaningful. You may find yourself lost in thought, unaware of your surroundings.
Mental Illness
Over time, unresolved mental distress can degenerate into more severe conditions. Mental health is intricately tied to inner joy. Without joy, you may find it hard to cope with daily life, leading to further emotional and spiritual deterioration.
Physical Consequences
When spiritual, emotional, and mental peace are lost, it eventually reflects physically. The body begins to deteriorate to a point where makeup and fashion can no longer mask it.. These signs include:
Sleepless Night
A restless mind often leads to tossing and turning at night. Some may resort to sleeping pills, but the real solution lies in restoring your joy.
Eating Disorder
Physical signs like overeating or loss of appetite are common indicators that something is troubling you deeply.
Suicidal Thoughts
A joyful mind never considers suicide, but a troubled mind is vulnerable to such thoughts. It’s crucial to address the root cause of the unrest before it spirals out of control.
Immorality and Drunkuness
Some turn to immoral behaviours or alcohol to escape their problems, but these only deepen the issues. Joy cannot be found in temporary solutions – external factors can’t give inner joy.
Weakness and Failure
When the mind is troubled, it’s hard to find the energy to pursue goals. Hope is shattered, motivation disappears, and tasks that once seemed easy become difficult. Prolonged lack of joy can lead to failure and an unproductive life.
Losing inner joy has far-reaching consequences, affecting every aspect of life. But by taking concerted efforts to develop yourself to know who you are and remain connected to God, then you can guide your heart and maintain joy.
Let nothing steal your joy, for it is the foundation of beauty unfiltered.
Recondition Your Heart For Inner Joy
Life’s difficulties can harden our hearts and make it challenging to experience joy. Stress, loss, disappointment, and comparison can rob us of our inner peace.
However, you can recondition your heart to activate joy once again. This means releasing past hurts, forgiving yourself and others, and making space for joy to grow. A joyful heart makes you more beautiful from the inside out.
Reconditioning your heart starts by first: knowledge (knowing what inner joy is), acceptability (accepting that you need it) and deciding to have it. And all of these are much easier if you do the following:
Seek God’s Presence
True joy comes from a deep relationship with God. Pursuing His presence daily helps us connect to an endless source of peace and joy – Psalm 16:11, “In Your presence is fullness of joy”. God can restore peace to you – Psalm 51:12, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit”.
Renew Your Mind
Reconditioning your heart starts with changing your thoughts. Meditate on God’s promises and reject negative thinking. Romans 12:2, “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind”. Watch this video to learn how to reprogram your mind for positive thinking.👇
Recognize False Beliefs and Negative Energies
Look inward and examine your thoughts, emotions, and relationships. Identify people, situations, or beliefs that drain your energy or fill you with negativity. Be open to learning and growing, allowing yourself to discern the truth and align with positive, life-affirming principles. Understanding the root of these negative influences is key to breaking free from them and replacing them with truth and joy.
Replace Lies with Truth and stay off from negative energies
Write down God’s truth that counters the lie. For example, replace the belief that you need others’ approval with the truth that God’s approval is all that matters. Reciting scriptures like Psalm 139:14 or 1 Thessalonians 2:4 can reinforce these truths in your mind. Stay aways from people that gives you negative vibes.
Self Awareness
Self-awareness is the ability to evaluate your thoughts, feelings, and actions by comparing them against personal standards and values. know who you are not letting someone else define you or subdue who you are. Listen to this video, you could kearn something from it! 👇
Cultivate Gratitude
A grateful heart fosters joy. Focusing on blessings rather than challenges shifts your perspective toward contentment. 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “Give thanks in all circumstances”. Practice mindfulness techniques such as meditation to become part of your daily routine.
Develop Growth Mindset
See changes as chances to learn and grow but not a threat to your ability and self esteem, this way you stay positive during setback.
Prioritize Mental HealthCare
Keep a good balance between work and personal life. Let no one play with your mental health not even your spouse.
Develop Yourself
Develop your intelligence quotient (IQ), Emotional Intelligence (EI) and positive self-talk. Challenge negative thoughts and look at situations in a more balance and positive way – be optimistic and hopeful.
Attaining inner joy is an ongoing journey, one where we continually grow and improve. It’s already within you—just make the decision to activate it and live a truly happy and fulfilled life, inside and out.
Stay tuned for Part 3, the conclusion of our journey. As you’ve followed Parts 1 and 2, begin nurturing inner joy—the key to unlocking true beauty.
Stay tuned—don’t miss out! ❤️
