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Jump Start Your Joy®

This vibrant show dives into the inspiration, intention, and actions that bring a positive outlook to life, even in challenging times. Lovingly curated as a retreat from the everyday, each episode invites you to step outside routine and engage with uplifting stories and fresh perspectives. Guided by Henri Nouwen’s reminder that “Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day,” the show explores how resilience and purpose can turn ordinary moments into opportunities for joy.
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Now displaying: December, 2021
Dec 29, 2021

I truly enjoyed getting to speak with Jonni, and felt myself sinking into the conversation in a deep way. One of the most inspirational parts of the discussion for me was when we walked through the Four Golden Insights, which are the pillars for the work Jonni does.

  1. Life is Sacred
  2. Love is our Nature – we serve, nature, and find connection
  3. Wisdom is our Power – Jonni talks about finding the intelligence of love, and reconciling the appearance of resistance and opposites.
  • We also talked about “embodied leadership power, which equals the ability to influence the environment around us.”
  • Wisdom can enliven and awaken the truth of who we are

4. Fulfillment is our Purpose – we find our purpose by fully understanding who we are

Resources

Jonni Pollard’s website

The Golden Sequence by Jonni Pollard on Amazon

 

Jonni Pollard and I talk about:

  • His earliest sparks of joy as a child – playing with other kids, playing games, and any kind of games where he could evolve and find excitement
  • Being a multipassionate, where he reflected that he felt that the many different things he enjoys in his life are all just different ways that his soul and purpose is revealing itself
  • The filters that we use from the outside looking in, and how it changes the way we see ourselves
  • The desire of creative beings to become expressive
  • Our conditioning as children and the pervasive ideology that we learn as young people
  • How adopting and conforming to social ideals causes immense suffering
  • The four golden insights that set the pillars for the Golden Sequence
  • What happens when energy does not flow naturally
  • The dissonance that fear creates
  • Why we need to connect to our purpose and our humanity
  • Jonni’s thoughts How to Jump Start Your Joy: wake up and connect to the world around you, meditate for success and to affirm your humanity, and to show your best connected self to whomever you first have contact with in the morning

 

Dec 22, 2021

Intentional Comfort is the theme of this season, and in this episode I'm taking inspiration from Priya Parker's Art of Gathering, and using her 3 rules of gathering to consider new ways to reconnect with what nourishes, fortifies, and supports you.  While her Ted Talk is about how to interact in groups and gatherings in new ways, I find that her rules and thoughts offer insights on how to connect with yourself, and how to determine what is meaningful to you when looking for intentional comfort.

Here are the basics of what I'm covering:

Don't leave it to chance

This is the intentional part of things. If we leave the relationship and connection we have to and with ourselves to chance, it's far too easy to focus on the basics and logistics of life, and ignore time for self care. If you're longing for more time for yourself, or time to do thoughtful, comforting things, schedule that time in.

Embrace your purpose

For many of you, especially over the stretch of the pandemic, you may have developed some habits that aren’t really serving you. And, while they likely did serve you for a period of time, now that we’re nearly into the third year of all of this, I think the way we look at comfort and what fortifies us has likely changed. It’s become super apparent that this isn’t about a sprint, this is about a transition. What is the purpose, or meaning, behind setting up time for intentional comfort?

How can you craft something that supports and nourishes you, as we all work through this transition together?

What is the purpose of what you want to do, in finding comfort?

What would meet your needs?

If you’re looking for an escape, what does that look like given any of your current constraints?

If you’re looking for peace and quiet, why?

And if you dig a layer deeper, is there something you feel is missing? 

Cause good controversy

Priya says that “human connection is as threatened by unhealthy peace as it is by unhealthy conflict.” And, I’d add that this connection is true for gatherings as it is for the connection you and I have with ourselves. 

For this, I’d ask yourself what do you need, right now? Drop any sort of “shoulds” or polite answers. You're answering this just for yourself. 

Some of these answers might be overly simple: a walk, a shower, a drink of water, a meal

Some of these answers might be more complicated and feel harder to figure out: a feeling of connectedness, quiet time when I’m not needed by anyone else, a day to just bake cookies and connect with the holiday spirit

How can you do this? It might feel like it involves creating some good controversy, especially if it involves speaking up to divide up housework with your family, to find quiet time, to find time to pursue a hobby, or to interview for a new job. You may need help from other people to do these things. So, dive in and ask yourself what you need and then figure out what kind of help you need from other people in your family.

The other side of this good controversy could be a totally inside job. It could be that you’ve been sitting with something for a long time that doesn’t feel so great, and in order to find comfort and joy on the other side, you need to work through it. You may need to break through a Story - or something you’re assuming is true but isn’t really true.

Use "pop up" rules

Priya suggests this for groups that gather that don’t necessarily share the same background, or are part of the same generation, culture, or rules for etiquette. She says in those situations, you can set up pop up rules to encourage meaningful connection.

What if you changed your own rules for a bit? What rules could you set for yourself, just for a day or a week, to support yourself?

An example might be: set a bedtime for yourself for the next week if you are tired.

Make a rule for yourself that this week, you will slow down and have an afternoon snack and see how that feels.

Limit your interaction with people who stress you out, if possible. 

Maybe if there’s a particular person that tends to upset you but you know you’ll see at a holiday event, maybe set a rule that you can leave after a certain amount of time at the event, or request that you not be seated next to them?

This might mean that you’re asking for something slightly different of yourself and other people - and that could be uncomfortable. So, let it be an experiment. Try out what something new looks like.

Wrap up

These ideas are all so applicable to how we can find intentional comfort and joy in our lives. It’s so easy to get into habits that don’t really support you, but have addressed discomfort you may have been feeling. Intentional Comfort is all adding a layer of mindfulness to what you do every day. I have been looking for ways to intentionally add nurturing and nourishing habits to my days, and find that when I make those choices, I do find more joy, too.

Resources

Priya Parker's Ted Talk

Stasia Savasuk on Jump Start Your Joy (episode 303) 

The Joy Diet by Martha Beck

The Work of Byron Katie

Loving What is by Byron Katie

Dec 14, 2021

Stasia Savasuk is an amazing style coach, and the super power behind Stasia's Style School, The REVEL-You-Tion, and Wear Our Word. She helps women find "inside out congruency," which is all about how you can do the inner work to define your values, and match those in the clothes that you choose to wear. I've thoroughly enjoyed her leadership over the last year, and her program encourages beautiful, authentic growth that has people shining from the inside out.

In this episode, Stasia and I talk about:

- Bell Hooks' book, "All About Love"

- Self-regulation, and how to regulate when you feel triggered

- How Stasia chooses themes for her REVEL-You-tion program

- Inside-out congruency: Who are you on the inside, and how can you reflect that on the outside?

- Becoming happy with yourself now, just as you are

- The BS of the standard cultural beliefs around what is beautiful

- Why community is important in making change

- Why self acceptance is so important and how it is life changing

- Why New Years Resolutions don't work, and how they are just part of the problem

- Wear Our Word workshop

- Her top ways to jump start your joy: get outside

Resources

Stasia's Wear Our Word workshop waitlist (click here)

Stasia Savasuk's website

Stasia Savasuk on Instagram

Stasia Savasuk on JSYJ, from Season 4: Dressing for Joy and Confidence

Stasia's TedX Talk

"All About Love" by Bell Hooks

 

Buy Jump Start Your Joy: Heart-Centered Ways to Find Joy in The Messy Middle on Amazon (affiliate link)

Follow Jump Start Your Joy on Apple Podcasts

Follow Jump Start Your Joy on Spotify

Dec 7, 2021

I am delighted to be joined for a second time by Marsha Flowers, who is the owner of Five B and Co Candles, and the newly launched Little Bee Scents. In our conversation, she shares how she has listened to her heart to expand her business in new ways. After thinking about what she likes best about candle making (the creativity, creating scents, and community), she realized that she also wanted to help other candle makers (and soap makers too!) bring their dreams to life. In the spirit of mentoring and helping others in the field she loves so much, Little Bee Scents was born.

In this episode, Marsha and I talk about:

  • The launch of Little Bee Scents and becoming the candlemaker for Boulevard Brewing Company in Kansas City.
  • How she is helping people get creative and produce quality products by offering custom scents for them to use in their own business, without having to buy a large minimum order
  • Why Marsha wanted to change things up in her business
  • The process of crafting scents that match the smell of beer, hay, and the fresh smell of the earth after the rain
  • Why candles offer comfort to people and connect us to memories in a powerful way
  • How Marsha let her heart lead her to the place that made her feel good about her business
  • Mad, glad, sad, or ewwww: Marsha’s new way of identifying her emotion over things, and following her first impulse about them.
  • How to jump start your joy: through smiling and helping other people create things that they love

Resources

Marsha Flower's candle website: Five Blessings Candles

Marsha Flower's scent website: Little Bee Scents

5BandCo on Instagram

Marsha Flowers on JSYJ: Creating “Happiness in The Form of a Flicker”

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