Photo by T. Keller.

Have you ever met a person who truly delighted in the world around them? Their delight transforms the world, allowing you to see things afresh, in ways unknown to you before. In this post, I share how you can make the deliberate choice to be abundant with delight.

In my life, the people that have most transformed me - who have shaped the direction of my life and inspired me to dream - are those who delight in the world. It is a simple delight, noticing everyday surprises and moments of grace that most of us ignore, or are too busy or distracted to see.

This aspect of playfulness is deliberate delight because I think delighting in the world is a chosen attitude. Some days it falls on you as a gift when you wake up, sometimes it arrives when in the presence of other people. Most days you will find that delight is not given directly, but you can choose to find it, take it, and share it.

There are three key features of deliberate delight. They are delighting in yourself, delighting in others, and delighting in everyday things.

Delighting in yourself

People who overflow with delight know the beautiful places in their own soul. There is pain there too - they may have travelled to the depths of their being to find the jewels that they delight in now. Because they know themselves, they are able to be real, to be who they truly are, and to share that in delight.

Jesus said, 'Love other people as you love yourself'. In saying this, he was showing how important it is to know our own value if we are to see the true value in other people.

For those abundant with delight, being comfortable in themselves allows them to be comfortable around others, to share their delight and ripple it outwards through the world.

Delighting in others

Photo by babasteve.

At the core of deliberate delight is the ability to see the beauty in everyone you meet, and to share what you can see.

Have you ever given a sincere compliment to someone, and noticed how their face came to life, and their body posture moved into a new confidence? To be able to give others this lightness of being is a real gift.

If you look into someone's eyes, anyone's eyes, even for a moment, you can see glimpses of their heart, of who they are at the core of their being. To share the truth of what you see can change a person forever.

The times that I feel most alive are when other people delight in me. When I feel that people truly like me, I am able to become more like myself.

James Alison says that when we become aware that someone likes us:

'we relax and are happy to be who we are in the eyes of the other. And curiously, as we relax, we find that we are much more than we thought we were.'

Delighting in everyday things

Photo by soylentgreen23.

Having focus is often useful. Without focus we would become constantly distracted, flittering from one thing to the next, never settling. Focus allows us to move towards our dreams, into the delightful places that we long to be.

However, focus can also be negative. With too much focus, we can miss out on so much that is beautiful and delightful. The familiar becomes too familiar, and we forget how wonderful life is.

Today, take a moment to notice the taste of the food as your eat, the eyes of your lover as you tell them about your day, the sound of your feet as you walk around the house, the feel of the air filling your lungs as you go out to work.

Delight in all these things.

This post is the first in my Aspects of Playfulness series. If you'd like to receive the rest of the posts in this series, please sign up to the beplayful.org RSS feed.

If you enjoyed this post, please Stumble it.

Beplayful.org is made possible by generous donations from its wonderful readers, just like you.  If you feel inspired by this post and would like to donate, please click here.