Laurie Juszkiewicz :: THE JOURNEY TO JOY
Growing up as a kid, I believed I would feel joy when everything was perfect and just right in my life. This belief brought with it this feeling of always chasing joy and that I would never be able to actually reach it because there had never been a time in my life when everything was perfect and just right. If it was ever perfect and just right, it would last only seconds as my mind would immediately generate something to do or worry about or bring my awareness to something that wasn’t just right, and then suddenly, that feeling of joy would vanish. What I have come to learn is that joy is not this place or destination where everything is perfect, amazing, and great. Joy is in the shitshow and swirl of your everyday life. Joy is in those moments when you feel like you just can’t take
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Navigating joy comes down to redefining what joy means to me.
anymore and all that is left is to push your chair back, surrender, and allow that energy to move through you so it can be heard, felt, and seen. The shit-show is actually an invitation to joy! I know it sounds crazy, but stay with me for a moment here. What I know is that oftentimes, when my environment and all that is around me is going to hell in a handbasket, I know that joy IS coming. While it isn’t obvious at the moment, joy is there, waiting for me to feel the full gamut of emotions so I can come out the other side and find it. To get there, to get to that feeling of joy, you must move through how you are feeling and honor that first. Honor your shit-show my friends! “Every feeling fully felt is bliss.” —Joseph Campbell I knew in my mind what this quote was saying. I understood it logically. Yet, due to a recent experience where I had to feel all the feelings, I know what this quote fully means in my body! I received some awful news the other day and I felt rage. Pure rage. At first, I felt like a crazy person.
