Welcome back to our brand new guided interactive series – How to Flourish! If you’re joining us for the first time, make sure to go back and check out the previous week’s articles so you don’t miss a thing. This week we’re talking about Infusing Joy. Joy is such an important part of your holistic wellness. We’ll go into what we call Sustainable Joy and dive into how to romanticize your life.

How to use this guide: 

Try out the exercises and take time to reflect afterward. You can just allow your thoughts to flow in a “brain dump” style journaling session, or using voice notes. Feel free to keep these to reflect later or even delete them once the thoughts are out of your head! You can also work through these questions with a friend or partner. 

It may be helpful to do this work in short sessions daily or a few times per week. Get comfortable, make a cup of tea or coffee. Put on a soothing playlist or enjoy some quiet time. 

You can also feel grounded by doing some deep breathing before you get started! An easy exercise to begin with is inhaling for 4 and exhaling for 6, pretending like you are blowing out through a straw. This will help you activate your parasympathetic nervous system, aka the “rest, digest, recover” part.

Romanticizing Your Life

What is it?

Romanticizing your life is a combination of  living in the present moment, feeling a whole lot of gratitude for what you have, and living in an abundance mindset. It then goes even a step further than this – *loving* your life, and who you are, right now.

How do I start?

Start by channeling that “main character” energy. Think of your life like a movie and you’re the creator of the story. What aspects of your life can you see as dreamy and wonderful? What little “pinch me” moments can you be grateful for and even a little dramatic about?

Shift your perspective by asking yourself what someone else would see when they look at your life. Allow yourself to be silly, let loose, and have fun. Maybe this looks like dancing around by yourself and just being happy. Maybe you treat yourself to a coffee and sit in the sunshine and just fully enjoy that moment. Or maybe you create another ritual that you truly look forward to.

Sustainable Joy

Joy is good for your wellbeing! It’s scientifically proven to be good for both physical and mental health. So don’t sleep on it. It’s important to make it a regular practice!

What is it?

What we call “sustainable joy” refers to small moments that you can enjoy daily or at least a few times per week. Most of us are not used to this and instead focus far too much on the big things. We fall into the trap of chasing the big wins and the big highs like fancy vacations and spa days, and yet we struggle with the small things like romanticizing and appreciating our daily lives.

How do I start?

Try this exercise that we do with our clients. We actually create lists of things they enjoy that are different “sizes,” so to speak, and we create a toolbox with them. We experiment with it and find what works for them. We especially focus on the small things, because this is a practice that has to be sustainable, repeatable, and accessible at any time. 

Make three lists – small, medium, or large. Then list out things that bring you joy under each category. Small things can be done every day, and sometimes even more than once. Medium things can be done weekly or monthly. And large things typically happen somewhere in the neighborhood or quarterly or yearly.  For example, sitting in the sunshine with your coffee is small. On the other hand, a tropical beach vacation falls under the large category.

Challenge yourself to see just how many items you can list under each category, and especially the small one! Try to incorporate at least one thing that brings you joy each day, and bonus points if you can do more than that. Remember, make the small moments of joy as small as you can. It’s fun to see how many of the small moments you can fit into your day. Then, look ahead at your schedule and try to plan for some medium and large items too.

And that’s part 8! We hope you enjoy taking time for your own self discovery as well as the homework assignments and the resources.

Next Steps

Thank you SO MUCH for being on this journey with us! Feel free to reach out to us via email, instagram (or comment below!) with any insights, questions, or breakthroughs! We would love to hear what you love and what you’d like to see more of.

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Want to go deeper? As we always say, it may be called “the inner work,” but that doesn’t mean you’re meant to do it alone. We would be honored to be your guides! Book a free session with either of us here. It may be the most valuable thing you do to move forward in your personal development journey!