Suzan Colon is a yoga expert and speaker, and the author of the book, Yoga Mind: Journey Beyond the Physical, 30 Days to Enhance your Practice and Revolutionize Your Life From the Inside Out. I’m thrilled to have her on the show this week to talk about her work and her book. Suzan Colon is a former senior editor for Oprah magazine, Details, Jane, and Harper’s Bazaar, and I have found so much inspiration in what she shares with us this week.

In 2002, shortly after becoming a yoga instructor, Suzan’s friend Francesco had a diving accident that rendered him unable to use his legs or arms. Suzan felt a strong sense that she could help him, and that he could use the properties of yoga to help him heal from the mental, emotional, and physical trauma he’d endured. In her book Yoga Mind: Journey Beyond the Physical, 30 Days to Enhance your Practice and Revolutionize Your Life From the Inside Out, she chronicles the first 12 months after Fran’s accident, and, artfully weaves in the lessons of practicing a Yoga Mind for the reader.

In this episode, Suzan Colon and I talk about:

• Her earliest sparks of joy as a child: getting new books and reading them, spending time with her grandparents, and experiencing the art of contentment
• Working as a senior editor for Oprah, Details, Jane, and Harper’s Bazaar
• How working at O Magazine influenced her to follow the spiritual side of teaching yoga
• Training as a yoga instructor, and her desire to teach about the spiritual path of yoga
• Fran’s accident, their friendship, and how Suzan wanted to work with Fran
• Asana as the physical practice of the spiritual
• Maitri and kindness as part of life, and the way we interact with ourselves and others around us
• The role of intuition in following your heart and purpose
• The “Art of Contentment” – and how being content is a noble and joy-adjacent experience
• Finding “Pockets of Santosha” – those moments when you feel a giddy, universal connection with someone or something and act on it in some way
• Moments of joy, and how they make it easier to deal with the rest of life
• How Suzan approaches resistance: Fear and enthusiasm are twins holding hands. She suggests that even when you are afraid, you “do it scared”
• How to Jump Start Your Joy: by being kind, generating peace as part of our job on the planet, and taking the risk to do something you’ve always wanted to do

Resources
Suzan Colon’s Website
Suzan Colon’s book: Yoga Mind: Journey Beyond the Physical, 30 Days to Enhance Your Practice and Revolutionize Your Life From the Inside Out
How We Choose to be Happy: The 9 Choices of Extremely Happy People - Their Secrets, Their Stories by Tarcher Parigee (on Amazon)
Rick Springfield's interview with Lori Majewski on SiriusXM
Episode with Fred LeBlanc on Jump Start Your Joy
Episode with Julia Samuel on Jump Start Your Joy
Practicing the Vibration of Joy episode

A recent hot topic with my mastermind has been that of confidence. About two months ago, we did a webinar for the first time on it, and found that it was such a deep and wide topic. This episode is a two-part one … today you’ll get to hear part one on my show and on Wednesday, part two is airing on Liz Applegate’s show, Midlife Schmidlife.

There are a couple of things I know to be true about confidence: nearly everyone, at some point, struggles with feeling self-confident. While it’s not unusual for other people to look and act extremely confident, the thing I’ve found (especially in talking to so many guests for the podcast) is that at some point or another, everyone doubts themselves. And I want that to sink in for you. Even published authors, even rock stars, even the front man of a band, or the voice of a super villain – every single one of them has shared with me that they don’t always trust in themselves, and, they feel like other people likely have it more together than they do.

The other thing that’s tricky, and interesting, about confidence is that it’s an emotion you only feel after doing the thing that scares you. This is also universally true – even with outwardly confident people – that you’re going to run into things (often those things that are most important to you), that scare you. And, doing whatever it is for the first time? You won’t feel so confident about it.

The tricky thing? The confidence comes AFTER you do the thing that is scary. It’s a bit of a leap of faith, and that’s what makes it so tricky, so scary, and why so many people stop in their tracks before even trying to do the thing that they are scared of.

There’s another way of thinking of this – it’s not so much that you don’t have confidence in yourself, it’s that you’re feeling fear and that’s uncomfortable.

In this week’s episode, Liz Applegate, Julie Houghton and I are tackling the questions of confidence. I hope you’ll join in.

In this episode we talk about:

• How confidence shows up for us in our lives and work
• What it means to reconnect and claim your voice when you’re not feeling confident
• How being kind with yourself about your human experience of feeling afraid is a key component to working through your fears
• That everyone experiences not feeling confident
• The myth of comfort and safety vs discomfort
• How people pleasing, boundaries, and being afraid to speak up play into confidence
• Learning to communicate more effectively to feel more confident
• Identifying what is in your control, and how that builds confidence

Resources
Sign up for our Workshop on April 20th
Listen to Part Two on Wednesday on Midlife Schmidlife
Liz Applegate’s Website and Podcast
Julie Houghton’s Website
Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life (book on Amazon)

A recent hot topic with my mastermind has been that of confidence. About two months ago, we did a webinar for the first time on it, and found that it was such a deep and wide topic. This episode is a two-part one … today you’ll get to hear part one on my show and on Wednesday, part two is airing on Liz Applegate’s show, Midlife Schmidlife.

There are a couple of things I know to be true about confidence: nearly everyone, at some point, struggles with feeling self-confident. While it’s not unusual for other people to look and act extremely confident, the thing I’ve found (especially in talking to so many guests for the podcast) is that at some point or another, everyone doubts themselves. And I want that to sink in for you. Even published authors, even rock stars, even the front man of a band, or the voice of a super villain – every single one of them has shared with me that they don’t always trust in themselves, and, they feel like other people likely have it more together than they do.

The other thing that’s tricky, and interesting, about confidence is that it’s an emotion you only feel after doing the thing that scares you. This is also universally true – even with outwardly confident people – that you’re going to run into things (often those things that are most important to you), that scare you. And, doing whatever it is for the first time? You won’t feel so confident about it.

The tricky thing? The confidence comes AFTER you do the thing that is scary. It’s a bit of a leap of faith, and that’s what makes it so tricky, so scary, and why so many people stop in their tracks before even trying to do the thing that they are scared of.

There’s another way of thinking of this – it’s not so much that you don’t have confidence in yourself, it’s that you’re feeling fear and that’s uncomfortable.

In this week’s episode, Liz Applegate, Julie Houghton and I are tackling the questions of confidence. I hope you’ll join in.

In this episode we talk about:

• How confidence shows up for us in our lives and work
• What it means to reconnect and claim your voice when you’re not feeling confident
• How being kind with yourself about your human experience of feeling afraid is a key component to working through your fears
• That everyone experiences not feeling confident
• The myth of comfort and safety vs discomfort
• How people pleasing, boundaries, and being afraid to speak up play into confidence
• Learning to communicate more effectively to feel more confident
• Identifying what is in your control, and how that builds confidence

Resources
Sign up for our Workshop on April 20th
Listen to Part Two on Wednesday on Midlife Schmidlife
Liz Applegate’s Website and Podcast
Julie Houghton’s Website
Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life (book on Amazon)

A recent hot topic with my mastermind has been that of confidence. About two months ago, we did a webinar for the first time on it, and found that it was such a deep and wide topic. This episode is a two-part one … today you’ll get to hear part one on my show and on Wednesday, part two is airing on Liz Applegate’s show, Midlife Schmidlife.

There are a couple of things I know to be true about confidence: nearly everyone, at some point, struggles with feeling self-confident. While it’s not unusual for other people to look and act extremely confident, the thing I’ve found (especially in talking to so many guests for the podcast) is that at some point or another, everyone doubts themselves. And I want that to sink in for you. Even published authors, even rock stars, even the front man of a band, or the voice of a super villain – every single one of them has shared with me that they don’t always trust in themselves, and, they feel like other people likely have it more together than they do.

The other thing that’s tricky, and interesting, about confidence is that it’s an emotion you only feel after doing the thing that scares you. This is also universally true – even with outwardly confident people – that you’re going to run into things (often those things that are most important to you), that scare you. And, doing whatever it is for the first time? You won’t feel so confident about it.

The tricky thing? The confidence comes AFTER you do the thing that is scary. It’s a bit of a leap of faith, and that’s what makes it so tricky, so scary, and why so many people stop in their tracks before even trying to do the thing that they are scared of.

There’s another way of thinking of this – it’s not so much that you don’t have confidence in yourself, it’s that you’re feeling fear and that’s uncomfortable.

In this week’s episode, Liz Applegate, Julie Houghton and I are tackling the questions of confidence. I hope you’ll join in.

In this episode we talk about:

• How confidence shows up for us in our lives and work
• What it means to reconnect and claim your voice when you’re not feeling confident
• How being kind with yourself about your human experience of feeling afraid is a key component to working through your fears
• That everyone experiences not feeling confident
• The myth of comfort and safety vs discomfort
• How people pleasing, boundaries, and being afraid to speak up play into confidence
• Learning to communicate more effectively to feel more confident
• Identifying what is in your control, and how that builds confidence

Resources
Sign up for our Workshop on April 20th
Listen to Part Two on Wednesday on Midlife Schmidlife
Liz Applegate’s Website and Podcast
Julie Houghton’s Website
Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life (book on Amazon)

As an illustrator, designer, and artist, Mandy returned to drawing after a fairly long absence. What I’ve noticed about people who have a grasp on joy is that they often are actively making space to do the things they love in their lives. They take the time to listen to what their heart is saying to them, and they are open to the nudges that they get from the universe along the way.

In the last month, I’ve been talking a lot about this - and  I’m calling “Practicing the vibration of joy.” In a nutshell, it means that joy is more than a simple choice, but it’s also a choice that you must take action on to really feel the benefits of the emotion of joy. Simply put, you’ve got to DO something joyful in order to then feel the emotion of joy, and so, I’ve been looking at ways that people have made an intentional point of actively following joy. Mandy Ford and her work really stood out for me, and so this week I’m re-sharing the interview with her (that originally aired in Season 2 as episode 97).

Link: http://jumpstartyourjoy.com/2017/08/inspiration-doodling-becoming-illustrator/

I started putting this all together after speaking to Fred LeBlanc, in episode 125. He made it a point to get curious about what was missing from his life, when he noticed that he was not feeling connected and joyful. He then made an active and purposeful choice to find his way back to joy. I see a ton of similarities in his approach and the way Mandy found her way back to drawing.

I love how Mandy has said yes to this inspiration, and following the many nudges she’s gotten from God and the universe along the way. As she says about that moment that she returned to drawing, “my soul knows something that it isn’t ready to tell me yet.” I know you’re going to be delighted and inspired by Mandy.

In this look back episode (which was originally episode 97), Mandy Ford and I talk about:

- how she loved collecting rocks as a child, along with  Lisa Frank stickers and all things “Poochie”

- how working at a Earlham College (a Quaker seminary) has changed her life and shaped her drawing

- that her journey of taking a writing class brought her back to her love of drawing

- how she got a licensing deal just four months after she returned to drawing

- how she approaches the creative process

- her work with Illustrated Faith, creating scrapbooking kits

- her tips for Instagram and finding a community there

- the work she's most proud of to date (spoiler: it's being a mom to her twin boys)

- what harmony looks like for Mandy, in her life

- her thoughts on jump starting your joy - taking time to look up and notice the world around you, being kind, and giving freely to people

Resources

Mandy Ford's Website

Mandy Ford's Instagram feed

Mandy Ford's "Create Your Own Crazy Doodle" class on Skillshare

Jessica Swift's website (including the link to her Pattern Camp)

This week on the show, I’m excited to share a solocast all about why joy matters. I recently had a series of aha moments around the interviews with Fred Leblanc and Julia Samuels, along with the work I’ve been doing in Tiffany Han’s Inner Circle - that led me to a realization that joy isn’t just a choice, but it’s a necessity and it’s something we need to make room for everyday, in some way.

This big aha moment has roots in four places:

1. Living a joyful life, and being dedicated to joy means going beyond choosing joy. This first part comes from the Henri Nouwen quote, “Joy is a choice and we must keep choosing it.”
2. It means actively practicing joy and spending time with joy. Joy is energy, and we can choose to engage with this energy. (Fred Leblanc from Episode 125)
3. We can carve out time for joy, making it something we add to our days, purposefully. Life will continue to throw difficult things at us. (Julia Samuel, Episode 127)
4. This ties in with the Law of Attraction, and setting aside time to “play” with joy, you are “Practicing the Vibration of Joy.”

In this episode, I talk about:

• How we decide to focus our energy, and how emotions are tied with energy
• The impact that my discussion with Fred LeBlanc had on me, around making choices of how we spend our energy
• How in grief work, those who are grieving are encouraged to spend pockets of time feeling something besides grief (along with other practices)
• That we need to make room for, and carve out time to interact with joy every day, before we get to the place of feeling detached or distracted
• That we can develop a practice of joy, and build it into our days
• How scout ants set out to find things, daily, and the purpose is exploration (just as you should set out to discover joy). They don’t always find food, but they keep going.
• Once you’ve discovered joy, accessing it and growing on it may feel more in flow.
• Being careful not to judge yourself about how you practice joy, what it looks like, or if finding joy is a worthy practice. Put negative self talk aside, and keep going.

Resources

Fred LeBlanc on Jump Start Your Joy (Episode 125) http://jumpstartyourjoy.com/2018/03/fredleblanc/

Julia Samuel on Jump Start Your Joy (Episode 127)http://jumpstartyourjoy.com/2018/03/julia-samuel/

Julia Cameron’s book, The Artist’s Way, on Amazon https://amzn.to/2H1GYEx

Sign up for the Confidence Webinar by visiting this link. https://app.convertkit.com/landing_pages/359391