When do you feel JOY?

Finding Joy has come up a LOT lately – in my own life, invitations for me to explore and lean into, and almost daily in my client sessions. It is a great reminder and invitation!

Slow down. Pause. Let’s really think about this.

I’ve been deepening my exploration around Joy for the last few weeks. Bringing more awareness to it in my life: when does it show up? What brings me joy? When do I feel joy? Why can’t I feel joy? You get the jist.

What is Joy? What does it represent? Why do you want it?

On the scale of consciousness, Joy is near the top. It’s a reflection of a higher frequency energy in your body, OF your BEing. On the scale, it represents a higher state of being and connection to God or a state of universal consciousness.

To put this into perspective, know first that you are an entity of energy. Your entire BEing is a whole bunch of frequencies. And your chakras are the magnets – they are essentially the memory bank or repository of the frequencies you are holding based on your past ancestral karma, your personal karma, and everything you think, feel, believe, and do everyday. The dominant frequencies are playing a role in where your mental state is most of the time and calling in more of what you’re experiencing, ultimately impacting your experience of life in all the physical, mental, and emotional ways. In order to manifest or draw into existence that which you seek or desire, we can look to understand this aspect of energy, and the law of resonance.

Perhaps you have a desire for a life filled with more love, joy, or peace. Perhaps you desire to align to your soul’s purpose, your true self. Perhaps you wish to heal physical ailments. In order to do any of these things, must first connect with and hold the energy frequency within yourself to magnetize the desire to respond to your frequency and make its way to you.

How do you find Joy?

So let’s just say that you already recognize and have set the intention that you want to feel more Joy in your life. How do you actually achieve it? How do you find it?

I often inquire, “What lights you up?” “What get’s you excited, passionate?” “What are you doing when you find yourself in the flow state, where time essentially disappears and you’re just enjoying the life you’re living in that moment?” I’ve been reassessing this for myself, too. Asking myself the questions. Probing, exploring, meditating.

What I’m noticing is that many of these questions have a tendency to lead us to seek something outside of ourselves to find our joy, often giving our power away or becoming dependent on something external. Many people think something like: “Money brings me joy.” “Loving relationship brings me joy.” “Traveling brings me joy.”

Also, pause to notice: Do you place qualifiers on you feeling joy: “I’ll feel joy when…” “I’ll feel happy if…”

When I slowed down this morning to really sit with this inquiry, it illuminated a new awareness for myself: I have been connecting my joy with the service and joy I bring to others. When people come to class, a reiki session, or aura/biowell session, I certainly receive joy when I have had a positive, healing impact on them or when they’ve received something beneficial from me. This is true. But I also realized that I am giving my power away to “them”. This is actually showing me that I am depending on others and my services to them in order for me to receive the joy. Woah.

Let’s unpack this a little more. Instead of recognizing JOY as how you are perceiving life in the moment, as something which is created, felt, experienced within yourself, notice if you are in fact looking for something outside yourself to be the “thing” that solves the problem.

Someone could give you a whole bunch of money. Yes, that would likely give you joy, for a period of time, but then what? Would you not then worry about what happens next, or how to keep the money or make even more? Perhaps you feel the most joy through service, where your service to others is what brings you joy. So what happens when the people don’t show up? Where is your joy then?

You see, we’re relying on things outside of us to bring us this joy. Instead, let’s ask ourselves: when do or can I feel joy, within myself, no matter what others are doing? What is it/when is it/in what state can I feel joy, regardless of outside people or circumstances, or whether I’ve given of myself to others? These certainly can bring very beautiful and joy-filled moments, but yet if we give away our power, our ability to feel joy on these external circumstances, we are allowing others to dictate our own internal state.

I don’t know about you, but that’s not good. That’s actually co-dependence. I want to be, hold, magnetize Joy per my will, not depend on the external circumstances to allow me to find and feel it. Remember, if I can hold the frequency of joy, I am then also magnetizing and calling in the life I want, taking action in alignment with or from that joy which then brings more joy and goodness to me.

So, in this awareness, I’m acknowledging how I’ve been giving my power away and instead, I’m digging a little deeper this morning to really inquire “When do I feel JOY?” The following is what came up for me.

I am noticing my ability to access, feel, and express joy fully on my own when I give myself the space (mental/emotional) to BE free.

Read that again. Here’s some examples of how that shows up:

• When I give myself space, without requirements or expectations, to sit and journal.

• When I take a road trip and allow myself to just dream, imagine, process, reflect.

• When I travel internationally and give myself freedom to explore other ways of life, other cultures, beautiful spaces.

• When I take a pause in a busy day, turn on a good soulful song and allow myself to just move, connect, feel.

• When I intentionally set aside time to take a yoga class or do my daily practice, giving myself space through the practice to reconnect, reflect, receive.

• When I put aside obligations and allow myself to just sit and leisurely read a book that excites me.

• When I do meditative chants, carving out space for me to just be myself.

I feel the most joy when I create space for myself to be FREE, with no expectations!

Now, it is still true that serving others brings me joy; this doesn’t change that. But I guess, now, I can look at it as such: If my goal is to have more joy in my life, rather than depending on my services to others as bringing the joy to my life, I can now choose to bring joy into my own life, and the joy from others will only add to my joy, rather than be the only source of joy. With this awareness, I can set the intention for myself, experiment with different ways in my days, weeks, months to create space for myself where I can give myself this freedom. I can recognize the importance of creating these opportunities for myself and why I need to follow through for myself. This will create a stronger baseline within myself of the Joy I want more of, thus attracting more of it, including more opportunities to serve, and beyond. But it starts with me. It starts with you. The answers we seek are within ourselves; the external world is just a mirror to help us learn.

Side note: having Joy also doesn’t mean that you never feel the opposite emotions. Choosing to live a life of joy doesn’t mean that bad things don’t happen or you live in a cloud, oblivious to reality or not having obligations or responsibilities. Having this range of emotions is what life is about – this human experience. But the thing is, you don’t have to let those emotions dictate or control the outcome. So much of life is about how you PERCEIVE life, what you make OF it. You can still honor the range of emotions and shit that life gives you, AND you can also CHOOSE what you want to cultivate or magnetize.

So, when do you feel joy? Start to inquire. Start to notice: what are the moments when joy is present? What are you doing? What is it about the experience that is bringing up joy for you? Are you dependent on others, or how you give to others for your own joy? If so, just notice that without judgement and look a little deeper: when do you naturally feel joy without relying on external circumstances?

As we wrap up this exploration into the essence of joy and how we can harness it in our daily lives, let's remember that yoga is more than just a physical practice—it's a holistic journey that teaches us about balance, resilience, and the importance of nurturing our inner selves. Each pose and each breath is an opportunity to reconnect with what truly brings us joy and to explore the depth of our being.

I encourage you to join us in practice, whether through our yoga classes, private sessions, or coaching programs, where we focus on aligning mind, body, and spirit to foster a more joyful and fulfilled life. And as we prepare to launch our 5-Day JOY Challenge, I invite you to sign up and join a community of like-minded individuals eager to infuse their lives with joy. More details will be released next week.

Let’s not wait for joy to find us; let's actively create it in every moment of our lives. Reach out today to reserve your spot in the challenge or to explore other ways we can support your journey towards a joyful and vibrant life. Remember, joy starts within, and together, we can unleash it in ways that transform not just our own lives but also those around us.

Much love and many hugs,

xoxo

Jess

Upcoming Events at Many Paths Wellness:

• (Sat/Sun) June 22nd & 23rd Jess @Atlanta Women's Expo, Gas South Convention Center. Click here to receive a free entry ticket for the expo!
• (Saturday) Tamila will sub for the June 22nd 8am (Saturday morning) class! Elissa will be subbing the Sunday evening Yin Class!
• Monday July 1st - Next Sip & Share: free event to talk about yoga off the mat!
• Friday July 12th - Next Community Potluck, 6:30-8:30pm. Bring a dish to share, and a friend!
• Sunday July 14th - Next SUP Yoga Class, Tidwell Park Lake Lanier
• Monday July 15th - Next Women's Circle
• Saturday July 20th - Therapeutic Roll & Unwind Yoga Intensive Workshop with Elissa

Which ones will you enjoy?? ❤️