Joyful Living

It can be fun and easy to talk about joy when things are going really well or really smoothly. However, what about joy in the hard times? The past few weeks have been more intense than usual for me with lots of great things in the middle of lots of struggle and craziness. Through it all I’ve learned some POWERFUL lessons about one of the greatest catalysts for joy in hard times: EMPATHY. 

The lost art of empathy has the power to bring deep joy both to the giver and receiver.

Some of my favorite things that came out in this episode are the top 5 ways to NOT show up in empathy and honoring that “empathy is a divine act of courageous love.”

The best definitions came out for empathy, also, as well as it’s frequently seen counterpart:

* empathy – to feel with (to love within your arms)

* sympathy – to feel sorry for/pity (to love at arm’s length)

As we get clear on what empathy actually looks like, it empowers us to bring more life and love to our relationships. This single great tool has the capacity to bring depth, trust, and joy to your relationships like nothing else does. Powerful stuff!

One of my dear friends and favorite coaches, Ashlee Miller, in on the Joyful Living podcast today! I can’t wait for you to listen in! Along with many powerful insights on joy + living joyfully, we talked A LOT about a subject we’re both passionate about: embracing seasons. Why is this important? Because resisting seasons is one of the biggest reasons why you’re not experiencing as much joy right now as you could be. But how do we go about embracing seasons? Listen in to find out.

 

If you really jive with Ashlee’s message and want to learn more about how to connect with her, head to her website: ashleemiller.com.

Congratulations!! You've just won some FREE TIME!!! You could sure use a break!

But... do you really even want it? What would you even do with it? Maybe you wouldn't use this gift wisely anyways. Do you feel you even deserve it? What would everyone think of you, seeing you enjoying that free time?

Maybe having free time isn't really the issue at all. Maybe understanding and knowing how to allow + enjoy free time is the crucial thing blocking you from having more space to breathe and renew.

The truth is: free time can radically increase your health, joy, and peace in life. Deep down we know this, but I believe we are TERRIFIED of free time. In this episode we'll dive deep into why free time is so healing and how to allow yourself to receive more of it. You deserve it, baby.

This is a POWERFUL episode of the Joyful Living Podcast! We went DEEP in this episode with coach Calli Lewis as we discussed all the various triggers that so frequently can keep us from experiencing JOY.

One of the fundamental concepts Calli taught was "when you can change your mind, you can change your life." This requires looking at our beliefs, perspectives, and patterns about whatever is showing up, especially shifting out of a victim mindset into that of a conscious creator.

Close your eyes. Think of your favorite movie or play that has a total rock star leading lady. Someone you just can't take your eyes off of because they are owning their role. They are so right for this part.. like it was made just for them. Love them, hate them... you can't help but applaud them for being all in.

Now think of your everyday life. Are you the rock star leading lady or are you hiding behind the curtains, waiting for someone to either do the show for you or give you permission to take the lead?

When your WHY is at the heart of your business, it will thrive. Author and speaker, Simon Sinek, brought this to the forefront of our minds with his TED talk and book on how knowing and communicating our "Why" is key to our success.

However, did you know you don't just have a Why" in business; you have a Why in every area of your life. Keeping track of all your Whys could feel intimidating and overwhelming except for one little, powerful secret: why you do something is why you do everything. Knowing this can change everything, infusing all you do with power and passion.

In the business world we hear A LOT about "scarcity vs. abundance." The Cliff Notes version of this conversation would be: "scarcity = bad, abundance = good."

This conversation typically centers around financial abundance in a business setting. Over the years I've listened to plenty of teachers and speakers tell me how great abundance is and even ask me to identify and coach through what's blocking me from receiving financial abundance (usually because I'm not currently a millionaire like they are... or like the people they coach are).

However, when is enough enough?

In my experience, nothing robs joy more from the moment than me thinking the current moment isn't good enough and should be better. Often the conversation of "abundance and scarcity" can leave us feeling like our current, everyday moments are SCARCE. If we were "abundant" we'd be having our current moment on a beach sipping pina coladas rather than cleaning up the dirty clothes that are on the floor again no matter how many times we remind our children to put them in the hamper, right? Or, if we were "abundant" we'd have our happy little "Alice" cleaning up all the messes and making things right around our homes like the Brady Bunch.

Clearly, I have no problem with beaches, pina coladas, and housekeeping help. I adore all of those things and think there's a time and place for them. However, the message being sold to us is that "abundance = happiness" and that it solves all of our problems. This is dangerous ground, especially for our joy.

In this episode of the Joyful Living Podcast we dive deep into what abundance can actually mean if we're not careful. We'll also look at how you can find more peace with "enough," which will boost your JOY.

Brilliant and beloved author and researcher, Brene Brown, said in her research she found the emotion we as humans are the most terrified of is JOY. But why is that? We all think we want more of it, but there's something blocking us from our joy. Listen in to this episode as we go deep to define what "joyful living" actually is and how we can truly live lives more full of joy.

"Joyful Living" can seem like a nice idea, but a tricky thing to actually implement in our daily lives, especially as we feel like life is tossing us around and we're just doing our very best to keep our heads above the water. However, JOY is real and it's there every day for us to enjoy and savor.

Some of you might be wondering, "what is joy?" I loved this definition:

"Joy seems to me a step beyond happiness. Happiness is a sort of atmosphere you can live in sometimes when you're lucky. Joy is a light that fills you with hope and faith and love." - Adela Rogers St. Johns

WOW. Just recorded a POWERFUL Episode 2 of the Joyful Living + Inspired Business Podcast with special guest Heather Madder. Some of my favorite points that Heather taught were: "Happiness is a skill level." + "What you want wants you."

We discussed the patterns and beliefs that lead to unhappiness and rob us of our joy now and how to shift them. In talking about how to get through the hard times, Heather said, "Logic + radical hope gets you through."

What logic? Hope in what? Listen to this amazing podcast to find out. It might surprise you.

Please enjoy this powerful episode of the Joyful Living + Inspired Business Podcast

p.s. Subscribe to the Joyful Living + Inspired Business Podcast in iTunes next week!