I am part of a woman’s group and we catch up together every Sunday evening to reflect, share, learn and grow together. Ultimately to support our compassionate self-awareness journey. It’s an incredible gift to share my life with this circle of women and a number of others. To practice truly being myself. To practice authenticity in all its messy, scary, vulnerable imperfections. We laugh, we cry, we deal with conflict honestly and openly and most of all we love and support each other.
One of these beautiful women always brings her special cards and we each pick one at the end of the evening to read and share with each other. Last Sunday one line in the paragraphs I read really stood out to me “Now would be a fruitful time to deepen your inner joy in order to strengthen your self-confidence and personal resilience. Above all else, remember to play”.
How wonderful! I love the idea of cultivating and deepening my inner joy. Remembering to play. What a great practice. Sometimes I can just take life WAY too seriously. And I really get how cultivating my inner joy will also strengthen my inner confidence and resilience.
And it reminded me of this quote by Marianne Williamson “Joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves to recognise how good things really are” and I would add, when we allow ourselves to have fun!
I have had a big few weeks and I am tired. And within this tiredness I have run out of having anything to give. I have reached my limit. My tank is almost on empty. And I am starting to feel a bit irritable and cranky. I need to stop, rest, fill up my tank. But most of all I need to create space to cultivate my inner joy and recognise just how good things really are.
I remember Brene Brown saying that joy is one of the hardest feelings for us to feel because typically, when it arrives, we quickly start worrying that it will be taken away soon and then we can’t feel it anymore.
My life feels full of joy at the moment. And for the first time in 47 years it feels like it is seeping into every area of my life. I feel beyond grateful and deeply appreciative of how good things really are. And my practice at the moment is to allow myself to feel my joy. To cultivate joy through gratitude. To cultivate joy through play and laughter. To cultivate joy through the people I surround myself with. To cultivate joy through my family and our new home by the beach. To cultivate joy through my relationship with nature. To cultivate joy through the deeply meaningful work I am part of.
May we all allow ourselves to recognise how good things really are. To deepen our inner joy in order to strengthen our inner self-confidence and personal resilience. And, above all else, may we all remember to play more!
With great warmth
Jo
