From The Life Model

www.lifemodel.org

Living From The Heart Jesus Gave You

• We are wired for joy and wholeness from birth, but we live in a fractured world in which we experience traumas (type A & type B) which block maturity.
• In the our first two years out of the womb, the desire to experience joy is the most powerful force in our life.
• Joy is relational and is best defined as “someone is glad to be with me.”
• Some neurologists now say that the basic human need is to be the “sparkle in someone’s eye.”
• When this joy is the strongest force in a child’s world, life makes sense because they look forward to moments when they can reconnect to joy – being with their beloved. And this desire for joy continues throughout life.
• Life makes sense and is empowered by joy when people are in relationship with those who love them and are sincerely “glad to be with them.”
• Joy is produced when someone is “glad to see me.” It is contagious and travels back and forth between people through nonverbal cues at a rate of six cycles per second.
• Joy also comes from a relationship with God who knows everything about me and is still “as-glad-as-glad-can-get” to be with me. Immanuel.
• 21st century neuroscience is affirming everything YHWH told us in the Bible and through Jesus thousands of years ago. This is something to pay attention to.
• Just the knowledge of someone “glad to be with me” can return us to joy. It does not even have to be physically experienced.
• This is what can heal our traumas from this fractured world because it builds our joy strength. Your potential joy strength must be greater than your pain in order to recover.
• Having enough joy strength is fundamental to a person’s well being. We now know that a “joy center” exists in the right orbital prefrontal cortex of the brain. It has executive control over the entire emotional system. When the joy center has been sufficiently developed, it regulates emotions, pain control and immunity centers; it guides us to act like ourselves; it releases neurotransmitters like dopamine and seratonin; and it is the only part of the brain that overrides the main drive centers – food and sexual impulses, terror and rage. The brain’s “joy center” is the only section of the brain that never loses its capacity to grow! So “joy strength” can always continue to develop!
• How does it grow? It grows in response to real, joy-filled relationships. This is part of God’s very design for our healing.
• 1] Smile whenever you see your child 2] Use authentic voice tones 3] Be genuinely glad to be with them 4] Have sacred time (tech free) – Remember, people respond to how we are feeling about them on the inside