The Joy Test - Check-in with Your Joy Response
Are you inadvertently resisting happiness and joy in your life?
Join Heather Masters on this insightful journey as she delves deep into the reasons behind our self-sabotage when it comes to embracing joy.
Reflecting on the lessons learned throughout the year, Heather encourages you to confront your beliefs about happiness and uncover the thoughts that may be holding you back.
With practical exercises and thought-provoking questions, she invites you to explore your past experiences and recognise the patterns that influence your current mindset.
As we approach the new year, it’s time to commit to feeling good and living joyfully—because you deserve to have life go well all the time.
The Detail:
Heather Masters takes listeners on an insightful journey into the realm of happiness and self-discovery, emphasising the often-overlooked barriers that prevent individuals from embracing joy.
The episode unfolds with a call to action, inviting listeners to reflect on their beliefs about happiness and to engage in exercises that reveal their authentic desires for joy.
Heather emphasises the significance of understanding the patterns of self-sabotage that can arise when individuals feel unworthy or undeserving of happiness. By revisiting moments of joy and analysing the elements that contributed to those experiences, listeners are empowered to shift their perspectives and narratives surrounding happiness.
This engaging discussion not only highlights the importance of self-awareness but also offers practical tools to cultivate a joy-filled life.
As the new year approaches, Heather encourages her audience to commit to a mindset that prioritises joy, illustrating how this commitment can lead to profound personal transformation and a richer, more fulfilling life experience.
Takeaways:
- Happiness and joy often require deep self-reflection to uncover potential self-sabotage.
- As we approach 2025, it's essential to actively choose joy and well-being daily.
- Identifying past joyful moments helps us understand the elements that create happiness.
- Self-worth plays a significant role in our ability to embrace joy and happiness.
- By contrasting positive and negative beliefs about joy, we can shift our perspectives.
- Practicing awareness of our immediate responses allows us to choose joy more often.
Chapters:
- 00:09 - Resisting Happiness: A Deep Dive
- 00:49 - Reflecting on Happiness: Key Learnings and Insights
- 07:17 - Understanding Joy and Self-Talk
- 10:29 - Choosing Joy: A New Perspective
- 12:35 - Embracing Joy and Choice
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Transcript
Hello and welcome to the Choosing Happy Podcast.
Heather Masters:In this week's episode, we discuss all things joy and happiness.
Heather Masters:And it's not a light subject.
Heather Masters:It's about going really deep to see if you are resisting happiness and joy in your life.
Heather Masters: ore you start the new year in: Heather Masters:So stay tuned for this and more in this week's Choosing Happy Podcast.
Heather Masters:Hello and welcome to the Choosing Happy Podcast.
Heather Masters:I'm your host, Heather Masters.
Heather Masters:And this week it's Boxing Day and I want to take a moment to reflect on happiness, to reflect on the podcast over the year and some of my key learnings for the year, but also to invite you to go really deep into checking out why you might not be as happy as you like and why you might be self sabotaging yourself around allowing joy and happiness into your life.
Heather Masters:So let's get started.
Heather Masters:What I'd like you to do for this episode, first of all, is to grab a paper and a pen or pencil and be ready to make some notes and be ready to take some time for reflection.
Heather Masters:Obviously, if you're driving a car, you might not be able to do this, but you can go through it in your head and do the exercises when you have the space and the time.
Heather Masters: ference to how you show up in: Heather Masters:Happiness and joy are one of the key reasons that we self sabotage, that we, we stop ourselves from going to the next level.
Heather Masters:There's often that feeling of not being worthy and we sometimes don't relate that not being worthy or not being enough to happiness and joy.
Heather Masters:So to begin with, today I want to invite you to just sit, take a deep breath, relax, and I want you to notice your response to this sentence.
Heather Masters:I'm willing to feel good, feel joy, and have life go well all of the time.
Heather Masters:So do you believe that your life can be joyful the majority of the time?
Heather Masters:What's your response to that?
Heather Masters:And that's your initial without thinking, without rationalizing what came of up for you, what was present?
Heather Masters:If you close your eyes and really get present to that, what were the statements that came up?
Heather Masters:What were the beliefs behind that?
Heather Masters:What were the supporting arguments or the arguments against that being true?
Heather Masters:What were the flashes of past experiences that came up for you?
Heather Masters:Were they supporting it were they against it?
Heather Masters:What was present?
Heather Masters:What was were the elements behind that?
Heather Masters:What was absent?
Heather Masters:What were the thoughts?
Heather Masters:And just to note all of them down.
Heather Masters:And I'd like you to take a moment after you've done that, maybe pause this and come back.
Heather Masters:I want you to think about the last time you were truly feeling joyful and that life was going your way.
Heather Masters:I want you to go back to that moment, close your eyes, really take yourself back there so as if you're seeing it through your own eyes, so your presence to that time, and feel what you felt, see what you saw, hear what you heard, even smell what you smelled and taste what you tasted and feel what you felt inside and out.
Heather Masters:So what did you feel on the outside physically, for instance, the wind against your skin, and what did you feel on the inside?
Heather Masters:What were the emotions that were present?
Heather Masters:I want you to sit with that, that joyful feeling, that joyful place for a moment.
Heather Masters:And then again I would like you to notice what's present, what's helping you feel so joyful and what is absent.
Heather Masters:What are the elements that make this moment so special?
Heather Masters:What are the thoughts that are reinforcing this moment?
Heather Masters:And again note these down so that you can go back to this moment and you can notice what's present, what is truly for you, a joyful moment, what comes up for you.
Heather Masters:And coming back to the statement, I'm willing to feel good, feel joy, and have life go well all of the time.
Heather Masters:If this was a New Year's resolution for you, what comes up for you?
Heather Masters:What are you telling yourself about the statement that would make it true for you?
Heather Masters:What are you present to what may you not have noticed before that's coming up.
Heather Masters:What's been revealed from that statement?
Heather Masters: st sit with that statement in: Heather Masters:What's there for you?
Heather Masters:What's the story you're telling yourself about that statement?
Heather Masters:What's the story you're telling yourself about believing you can be joyful, feel good, and have life go well all of the time?
Heather Masters:Again, take a moment to write it out, make it conscious and sit with it and keep asking yourself what else?
Heather Masters:What else is coming up for me and what else and why is that important?
Heather Masters:It can be really quite revealing.
Heather Masters:I did this for myself today and I noticed some very negative self talk around being joyful all of the time, or believing we can live our lives being joyful and having things go well.
Heather Masters:Of course we get what we focus on if our first thoughts when we go to do something new that should be joyful is this isn't going to work out, I'm going to get hurt, whatever it is, then notice that and choose something different.
Heather Masters:Choose that being joyful and having things go well is safe for you, if that's what's required.
Heather Masters:And notice that you can choose something different.
Heather Masters: different choice as we enter: Heather Masters:Once you've written your stories out around all of this, ask what's true for each of the statements.
Heather Masters:Ask what is true for you and then ask when it wasn't true.
Heather Masters:Come up with some statements around why it's not true for you.
Heather Masters:Once you've got what's true and what isn't true, provide some evidence for both.
Heather Masters:Go back to events which back off both and find three, three pieces of evidence for both.
Heather Masters:What do I mean for that?
Heather Masters:If I'm looking at the statement I'm willing to feel good, feel joy, and have life go well all of the time, I might come up with three times in my life when that wasn't true.
Heather Masters:Things don't work out for me.
Heather Masters:Things, things always go wrong, people get hurt, whatever it might be.
Heather Masters:And I will have evidence somewhere in the back of my mind because that's what my unconscious is telling me to try to keep me safe.
Heather Masters:So I'll have evidence somewhere from the past of when that was true.
Heather Masters:Now I might also have occasions where things did work out, where things were joyful and did unfold and go well all of the time.
Heather Masters:There might have been a period in my life where that was absolutely true, even if it was way back as a child or, you know, when I first fell in love or got married.
Heather Masters:But I have that evidence there.
Heather Masters:So I can list those three events and I can provide the story and the evidence behind them.
Heather Masters:Again, it's about contrasting and looking at what was present, what were the elements that made those situations special, what was absent from each?
Heather Masters:And what was the thinking, the feeling?
Heather Masters:What were the beliefs I had around each of those events at the time?
Heather Masters:You know, if I take myself back and think of those beliefs, those events, what were the beliefs, what did I see, what did I feel?
Heather Masters:What was going through my mind?
Heather Masters:When we notice these and when we look at each of the contrasting beliefs, we can see that we have a pattern for joy and for happiness and for things going well.
Heather Masters:Now, obviously there are times in our lives where we aren't in control, but we're always in control of our response to a situation, and we can always choose our perspective on something.
Heather Masters:There might be areas of our lives where we are naturally skeptical, for instance, and other areas where we're naturally joyful.
Heather Masters:So as a parent, I might be more naturally inclined to find joy and happiness with my children than maybe I do with aspects of my work.
Heather Masters:It's about knowing and becoming aware of these, because in the knowledge and the awareness, then there is choice of perspective and response.
Heather Masters:And that's the gift I want to offer you to have the opportunity to try on some of these exercises, to be able to contrast what works, what didn't work, and notice the difference and identify where you have the choice, where you have some control over what happens.
Heather Masters:Begin to notice the immediate responses and choose something different.
Heather Masters:Choose to believe that you can have joy, life can feel good, you can choose happiness and have life go well all of the time.
Heather Masters: you're committed to that for: Heather Masters:Because when you're feeling good, when you're living fully in the full expression and aliveness of yourself, embracing the joy of everything, think of the gift that that is for everyone around you.
Heather Masters:I hope you've found some value in today's short podcast.
Heather Masters:Thank you so much for listening.
Heather Masters:Thank you so much for listening throughout the year and thank you for being a subscriber, for being a fan of the podcast.
Heather Masters: u all the best for an amazing: Heather Masters:Thank you for listening and I'll see you again next week on the Choosing Happy Podcast.
Heather Masters:Thank you so much for taking the time to listen to this week's episode.
Heather Masters:If you enjoyed it or think it would be valuable to others, please do share.
Heather Masters:And if you really enjoyed it, please leave me a review.
Heather Masters:It really helps the podcast.
Heather Masters:All of the links are in the show notes and I look forward to seeing you next week on the Choosing Happy Podcast.
