by Laura West
We all want, in general, a happy life and a great business we love
With that as the ultimate goal you would think we would welcome in the joy.
It’s amazing how common it is to push away the joy. To not allow ourselves that peak experience of savoring the success, the laughter or the sense of accomplishment.
Brene Brown called it “a foreboding sense of joy.”
You sneak into your child’s bedroom in the middle of the night to check on her. You feel this overwhelming sense of love as your heart starts to expand and BAM! Your instincts take over and you shut it down. You start thinking about all the ways this child in their little bed could get hurt on their bike or later in their car. What if someone takes them away in the middle of the night or they stop breathing?
Nothing happened to make you think this way. Nothing changed from 1 minute ago.
And yet, it’s all too familiar of a dance. We have to take down joy, squash it, keep a lid on it.
A book on my all-time favorites list is The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks. He talks about going to a banquet with his wife one evening. He was given a big award and acknowledged for his success. In the car on the way home, he picks a fight with his wife. Once they get home, he realizes what happened. It somehow felt wrong to feel this good, this proud, this happy… he had to take down joy before something else did it for him, so he picked a fight. (Yes, he apologized, and it opened up a conversation for how we hold back our happiness, love, joy and success and he wrote that amazing book!)
How do you take down joy?
I’ve had several occasions where a program was going so well with lots of enrollments that my excitement and joy overtook my body. I couldn’t think straight (I call that fuzzy brain) and I didn’t feel grounded. I usually find myself standing in the kitchen in front of the cabinet mindlessly crunching on something to help dissipate the energy.)
It’s like it’s almost too much for my body to handle.
For me, joy is an energy that runs through my body.
For you, it may be that you think of all the bad things that could happen, so you don’t experience the joy. It feels dangerous to feel your success and happiness.
Maybe you too pick a fight because things are going “too good to be true.”
We often think of ourselves as having this behavior when things aren’t going well. But we also do it when things are going well too.
How do you sabotage your success, joy, happiness or feelings of abundance?
I’d love to hear what happens for you. Share with me how you “take down your joy.”
I write this quote each day in my journal to remind myself to be open to joy in all it’s forms (based on the mantra in The Big Leap.)
Today I am open to receiving more joy, love, inspiration, creativity, abundance and success, and I inspire others to do the same!
Would you like to create more joy, creativity, abundance and success in your business? You can join us in the Joyful Business Studio where you can get twice a month dose of what it’s like to market from joy in your business.
In June, I’ll be teaching my Elegant Enrollment class in the Studio. This is a favorite of my clients. It takes the “ick” out of sales and makes it a pleasure to help others. I’ll take you through my exact process for how to do this!
Check out the Joyful Business Studio, my monthly membership program and join us!
BONUS: When you join by Friday, June 7 you’ll receive a private coaching call with me AND the entire Studio Library of past trainings. This won’t be available after June 7th. You can dive into teachings about growing your Joyful Business instantly!
