Cultivating Deep Joy (even in hard times)
Can we all just take a big end of the year exhale?
It’s been a year, a tough year for many of us, and talking about cultivating deep joy when there is suffering can often feel fluffy.
But I genuinely believe if we cannot cultivate a deep well of joy within ourselves, we will be overtaken by media, by life, by family dramas and disappointments, by obstacles and pain.
Can you be with the realities of this world, feeling fully the gaps between where you are now and where you want to be, and still have joy?
Deep joy is not looking away from pain, but facing it, and being able to see the truth fully.
When you stay present in your life and start to tell a story where you get to be the creator and have agency over what happens next, you alchemize your inner story to a story of sovereignty.
I have come to see that one of my greatest gifts is to help people cultivate rich and deep joy, even in the hard times life throws them. It is a natural strength, but it’s also a strategy, a way of life I’ve chosen.
As the year closes, I want to share with you why holding joy as your default disposition is so important, and why it must be cultivated if we want to be the creatives, entrepreneurs, mothers, friends and people we are here to be.
The truth is:
We can not sugar-coat our way to deep joy
We cannot buffer our way to deep joy (IE: instagram scrolling, drinking, shopping, netflixing)
We can not “happy” our way to deep joy
We cannot sleep walk our way to deep joy
We must lean into life, lean into discomfort and growth,
wake up to the truth and find joy, even when things are hard.
Because life will life.
If you’ve got a big dream, there will be setbacks, there will be risk, there will be disappointments and contrast. Contrast is a part of it! But who will you be?
Do not settle for a shallow life, a shallow happiness, a cheap cotton candy joy that dissolves and disappears the moment you consume it.
Lean into something more nourishing for your soul.
My prayer for you (for all of us) is that we wake up to the FULLNESS of life, the fullness and authenticity of who we are meant to be and have the resilience to stay with it, to lean into it, to fully engage with it!
Deep joy comes from letting our authentic selves come forward, untangled from the conditioning of unworthiness, so we can show up and receive goodness, unbound from the programming of the past so we can be alive in our Authentic Magic.
When we cultivate deep joy, we start living in delight, pleasure, freedom, joy and worthiness NOW.
We stop waiting for life
to get less hard.
we stop waiting for
others to change.
we stop waiting until
we have permission.
We choose joy - today.
It’s time to wake up and stop HALF experiencing life. If you want fullness, you’ve got to awaken to the FULL truth of your authentic self and see what you can create.
This of course, is the deep work I do in my signature program Awaken Her Soul, but you can start today.
TO-DO:
Over the next week, simply begin to look for proof life is happening for you. Write it down, post about it on insta (tag me!!) and just start to notice how even in hard situations, deep joy is present with you.
Your Authentic Magic arises when you realize you’re made for deep joy. You simply must cultivate it.
All my love.
xx,
-Madison
Ready to begin the journey
back to you?
I always recommend starting with my signature 14-week program, Awaken Her Soul.
It is designed to be the foundational tool in developing self-leadership and along your spiritual awakening journey. It supports you to reconnect to your inherent worth, purpose and potential.