Ep 34 Find joy, share your joy
Doing business differently needs to include joy...otherwise why are we doing it in the first place?
If the work you do is in aid of building a 'better' world I'm guessing that vision includes joy too.
So, today's episode is a reminder, if you need it, to find and make time for joy.
And once you do, a gentle encouragement to share it.
Let's dive in.
Episode Transcript
Hello. Hello and welcome to this episode of The dietitian values Podcast. Today I want to talk to you about finding joy and sharing your joy. I want to talk to you about joy and I feel it's very fitting this time of year, depending on what you celebrate. For me, I do celebrate Christmas. And I know that not everyone does. But there are other holidays that happen this time of year. And for a lot of people it is a time where we're focusing on it so I feel it's very fitting this episode is going to drop on Christmas Eve. And if you are catching it and you do celebrate, I wish you a joyous festive season. If you do catch this and you don't celebrate around this time of year for whatever reason, then I hope that this finds you in a space of taking care of you. I want to talk about finding joy not just at this time of year if this is what is associated, and let's be honest, sometimes this time of year is anything but joyful depending on what goes on in your life. I've definitely had some Christmases where this time of year where joy is not always as high up on the list, so I acknowledge that as well.
What I want to talk about around joy is not just as it relates to the current time of year we find ourselves in, if that's the association you have with this time of year, but finding joy in our day to day life. finding joy in our year, finding joy in our business, finding joy in how we show up, finding joy and sharing our joy. And why do I want to talk about this? Well, couple of things. We've talked on the podcast and I talk about it all the time around building your values based life, building your values based business to flourish in. building a values based business where you can reach your version of success where you can have your own meaningful life where you can create your purpose, align with your purpose and your passion and help to build the world that you want to see. And one thing that I think is essential for the world we all want to see, without knowing exactly what you're working towards, is joy. Because really what are we doing it for if there's no joy? if there's no spaces for that., and I'm really purposeful and I'm often purposeful about language but purposeful in using the term joy to me joy is happiness connected to contentment and it's happiness grounded in connection. Happiness I find a bit fleeting sometimes I find it a bit too high energy for my introverted ways. Joy is like a feeling to me, how I describe it so we can start from a place of shared understanding, is contented happiness. Feeling joyful is about having, it can be moments of pleasure and also it can be moments of alignment. moments of connection. moments of, for me particularly, showing up in my values. And that brings me joy. And so I really encourage you to think about what joy means to you maybe you like the word happiness more. Go for it, rock on, use that word.
So thinking about how you define joy, what that means, what that looks like for you, and thinking about building your values based definition of it, but also the values based I suppose markers of success and enough that create joy for you. your values based markers, your values based definitions of success. and I have talked about building your values based different definition of success and I'll link to that one in the show notes. And I've also talked about finding your place of enough and using that as a space to ground into success, to ground into that version. but also as a space to find your contentment and to find your joy. And so I'll link to that one in the show notes too. So starting there can be really helpful. so if you don't know what feels joyful to you, I'd really encourage you to think about that. And maybe have a listen to those episodes if you feel like they would be supportive to you.
But for most of us we can think of what feels joyful, what feels, what fills us up with a feeling of pleasure and enjoyment, but also like yeah, that real feeling of alignment. Joy feels like a sustained, kind of like a sustained, contented happiness to me. And so thinking about what brings you joy. and maybe it's writing a list. I do like a good list. So I would encourage you to write a joy list, and Shante Cofield the movement maestro, she talks about actually I think it was somebody who follows her on socials made this comment and she's even done a whole podcast episode on it and i'll find that and link that too about diversifying your joy portfolio. So finding all these different ways that you can bring joy into your life and finding all these different things that bring you joy and maybe it's experimenting with a few things. You know, I think as we you know become adults, quote unquote, adults. As we get sucked into the day to day, maybe pulled along by the urgency of the culture that we live in the perfectionist, the you know, all of the things that can drag us down and distract us from connecting to what is joyful. It's easy to get pulled along with that. And I think focusing on this or refocusing on centering Joy. Centering in your joy, is something that can take conscious and concerted effort. And if we're thinking, it's what I encourage, of creating a human centred business, if you're thinking of building a human centred business, one of the humans that should be centred in your business is you. And one way you can centre yourself and one way you can create space for you to be centred, acknowledged and celebrated is in finding your joy.
And sharing your joy. And what I love about sharing joy is you know, think about it yourself -when you see someone who's experiencing joy, people sharing their joy - it makes you feel joyful, makes you feel connected. But also I think the power of sharing our joy or sharing that is creating, not that people need our permission, but it creates and kind of plants a seed of 'maybe I can do that too' for humans. And I'll share an example for me so one of the things that I share, my daily piece of joy is my iced coffee time. I've talked about my iced coffee time here and if you follow me on Instagram, you know about iced coffee time. My iced coffee time is a symbol but it's also actually literally sitting down and drinking an iced coffee because I think it tastes delicious. And aside it's the only way I can actually drink coffee because hot coffee for whatever reason, if coffee is hot does not sit well in my digestive system. So aside there for you, TMI. but my iced coffee time is joyful because it's just enjoyable. I love food and I like eating and drinking tasty things and it is that, so there's that piece of it. But it's also enjoyable because it's a time where I prioritise myself, where I actually sit and stop and where I create a space of modelling that for my kids as well. My kids know about iced coffee time and I'll tell you a little moment that really did spark joy and a lot of warmth in my heart was one day I can't remember if I've shared this on the podcast before, and one day I was sitting down to iced coffee time and sometimes my kids do hang around like it's it's seriously I don't want to create the illusion that iced coffee time just happens smoothly and everyone just goes and does everything and I never have to get involved. Doesn't happen, some days occasionally. Anyway, well, this particular iced coffee time I was sitting down and the kids had to kind of be encouraged to go off to do their own thing. And then one of my kids went over to one of the other kids and asked if they wanted to play and that child said to the other one 'No, I need my own space. I'm having my iced coffee time' This child is seven, almost eight and so she wasn't having any iced coffee because she doesn't have coffee. But she used it, she recognised the symbol that iced coffee time was -a space for her. And so that brought me joy.
So iced coffee time is something that brings me joy. Me personally in many ways. But also what has become really joyful around it is when other humans tag me in videos, tiktoks they find about somebody talking about their iced coffee. when people tag me when they're sitting down for iced coffee and let me know that maybe I would enjoy it. when humans share their moments of when they've prioritised themselves. so you know, when I see other entrepreneurs, other business owners sitting down and having a cuppa or having a coffee or whatever it might be, and maybe sometimes I comment on it and I remember one person commented they were sitting down they're a mom too, sitting down to a moment and I said 'yes Excellent. I'm so glad you're taking that time for yourself.' And they replied back that part of it was, not that I gave them permission or we even interacted directly over it, but part of it was because they saw me doing it regularly and that kind of created a space for them to then take that space for themselves. So I share that because when we share our joy, it kind of gives people, like I said, plants the seed for people that then maybe start thinking 'I can do that too. Maybe I can take that time, maybe I can do those things that are joyful.' Another experience where I had was somebody that I follow was sharing their joy around watercolours, like they were doing some watercolour painting, and I looked at that and I was like, hmm, I used to really love painting as a kid. I loved, loved doing that loved getting creative, and I actually ordered a set of watercolours which never arrived because they let me order them and then tell me that they were out of stock. So it's still on the plan to get the watercolours but so I haven't experienced the joy of sitting down with my watercolours yet, but I did fall down a rabbit hole of looking up botanical watercolour paintings. But I saw somebody else sharing their joy about a particular thing, which then planted the seed for me of how I'd like to get back into that.
So finding your joy is great for you. You know, making time and space for your joy, but also sharing your joy creates permission, not really permission for want of a better word. plants a seed for other humans to consider what is joyful for them and where they could find more joy. And so that's what I wanted to talk about today. There's not that much extra to say about this topic and if you are catching this around this time of year, it could be busy. It could be time when you've got other things going on. So I won't keep it too long. I'll probably say that and then talk for another five minutes, but you know me. So I really encourage you to find joy, not just this time of year (if it's a joyful one for you) but all the year, every day if you can. and yes, absolutely, not every day is bloody joyful. But having those moments and pockets help. every day, nearly every day I have my iced coffee doesn't matter the temperature. in the middle of winter I stoke up the fire, grab my Nana rug, put on my layers and sit down with my iced coffee, wrap my blanket around myself. Create an environment where I can have my iced coffee without turning into an icicle. But what you can do is or what I tend to do is like yeah, here's that. so even on the days where things are hard I've got that little pocket, that little moment of something joyful, and it makes a big difference for me. So I really encourage you to think about what brings you joy, and where are you creating opportunities to experience that? Have you got it in in your day?
So depending on how you roll, maybe write a big old list, a joy list, maybe schedule it in your diary 'Joy time' or whatever it might be, or just creating, just making the decision to do it, to prioritise your joy, to find your joy. And then I really encourage you to share it because sharing Joy creates more joy and it creates opportunities and plants the seed for others to find their joy so I will really leave it with that. And I hope that this finds you in a time of joy. I hope that if it's not joyful for you, then at least you could be taking care of yourself wherever you might be in taking care of your nervous system. And whatever's going on for you. If you do celebrate Christmas I wish you a Merry Christmas and I hope that if you celebrate other things, I wish you a happy festive season and enjoy the time ahead. As a minimum. I hope that you are having a bit of a break or space over this time of the year and giving yourself time to hopefully find some joy. Okay. I will be back next week for the final episode of the podcast for the year. Yeah, only like a week to go till the end of the year or just over. How about that if you are looking at you know, planning and pausing and celebrating the wins I've just been doing a couple of episodes to talk about that. So go check those out. If you are wanting something to listen to maybe you're on the drive somewhere. Or maybe you need an excuse to pop some headphones on or slip your earbuds feel free to enjoy the podcast and I will talk to you again next week. Until then. Bye for now.
