Do you feel like the authority in your own life?
Most of the time, in my experience, we do not.
We doubt our gifts, we question our reality, we abandon ourselves, we shrink from the spot light.
It’s f-cking TRAGIC.
Just about the ONLY thing we can be certain of is our own experience.
There is much to say about what we forfeit when we don’t allow ourselves to feel entitled to our own experience.
Today I am thinking about JOY.
When we don’t believe we firmly belong in the job, role, or body that we are in, we forfeit our access to JOY.
I had a photoshoot yesterday.
It wasn’t your typical photoshoot. I signed on with an artist who is a JOY Whisperer.
How does he get you to feel joy?
By inviting you to emerge from the shadows into the light of your presence with each click of the camera.
The week prior to the shoot, I noticed how I wanted to run from the experience I had signed on for.
An old story surfaced that said, "This is too big for you."
I ran around to stores in between hockey games and clients trying to find that “pop” of color that would make me feel prepared to be in that space. All of the looks I had assembled were black.
I could sense that I was shrinking behind a belief that I didn't belong there.
Shrinking creeped in with some pretty self-critical and shaming thoughts:
First the tremor: You are too old for this kind of thing. It's embarrassing. People will judge you.
Then the landslide: You aren't photogenic enough - your nose is crooked, your profile is ugly, your tummy rolls are showing, watch out for your chin, don't be too girly, too sexy, too wild, too, too, too."
Poof! Gone was my access to JOY. How can you get to joy if your fear thoughts are strangling your creative expression?
But when you are in the hands of Joy Whisperers - joy is standing at the door like a puppy with a new green tennis ball in its mouth.
Play is the road to creative discovery and belonging - JOY.
Joy fills in the color that is missing from any wardrobe.
Spoiler alert. . . When I showed up with with my wardrobe - the creative team went out to a discount store and brought back me the pops of color and sass I couldn't give myself.
Then they launched their play sequence!
It was a gift to be reminded that with any new experience, any step outside of the comfort of our neutral hues - it is possible to feel joy.
BIG, colorful, silly, sexy, playful joy. (Will share first images and links to creative team when I get my proofs!)
And the result is that we discover more of who we really are - which we must believe we are entitled to owning because joy belongs to us.
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