by MarBeth Dunn | Jun 23, 2012 | Uncategorized
I know something about living in joy. After all, I am the “Joy Strategist”! One thing I know for certain is that every day brings the opportunity to live joyfully. Circumstances change, the wheel of fortune turns,
what is today may not be tomorrow. But to live joyfully is something we can choose today, every day, regardless of what’s going on around us. I hope you embrace these suggestions to live a most joyous life!
Be intentional – In the hustle and bustle of everyday life it can be challenging to truly live, let alone live with joy. It can be done; however, you must be intentional about it. There is so much joy we take for granted simply because we are too busy to notice it. Some of the biggest sources of joy are nature itself. Sunrises and sunsets, colorful foliage, a soft breeze or a silky night with bright stars are all joyous and a reason to celebrate, yet we don’t celebrate these enough because we don’t see them. When you are intentional about joyful living, you begin to see things you never noticed before and you start celebrating things you previously hadn’t. Joy is all around us if we take enough time to really see the world we live in instead of just rushing through it.
Our emotional state is ours to manage – You may have heard the adage, “It’s not good, it’s not bad, it just is,” and allowing this to be a guiding mantra through your life will increase your chances of experiencing joy. Situations and occurrences are by their very nature, just things that happen. It’s our human need to label what happens to us as good or bad, and this labeling is usually what produces feelings that aren’t always quite so joyful. When we manage our emotional state, we decide to live from the inside out rather than the outside in. In other words, what happens to you is less important that what is happening through you. Choosing to embrace all that is going on and seeing it objectively, helps you to live in a more joyful state. In addition to eliminating a victim mentality, managing your emotions will help you to see that change is always occurring. Determining whether or not to be joyful based on current events is going to be a bumpy ride at best. Your emotions are the one thing that you can always control, if you choose to do so.
Time is the only currency that matters – Of all the things we strive for, time is the one thing that we are never able to buy or negotiate more of. We also can’t coerce or convince it to do our bidding. Time marches on and once it’s gone it’s gone. People who live joyfully seem to be incredibly clear about this concept, do not take time for granted and make distinct choices on a daily basis about how they want to spend their time. Not surprisingly, the most joyful people are the people who make sure that they spend a great deal of time with the people they love and/or doing activities they love. Joyful people instinctively know that relationships and experiences are what bring a fullness to life and that fullness is what ultimately brings joy.
If you’ve ever struggled with feeling like you should be “happier”, take a look at these three things and ask yourself how you are doing in each of these areas. Happiness is usually achieved as a result of something external. Joy, and certainly true joy, comes from within and can be accessed and experienced deeply and fully every single day.
Here’s to your Joy Strategies!
by MarBeth Dunn | Jun 17, 2012 | Uncategorized
I’ve got a theme going on this week about manifestation and the Law of Attraction. I’ve been in San Diego for the past few days at John Asarraf’s Money2 The Neuroscience of Financial Success seminar… with some wonderful speakers, including Srini Pillay, Mark Waldman, 
George Pratt and Lisa Sasevich. So much wonderful information I can’t wait to put into practice. You may remember John Asarraf from the blockbuster movie The Secret, the about the Law of Attraction. My guest Sunday, June 19th on Joy Strategies radio is the amazing Kristen Howe, the Go Big Coach. Ironically, Kristen’s interviewing me on her Manifest Everything Now training series this Thursday evening!
The “Law of Attraction” is something most of us have heard of, yet may have some uncertainty about how it works or how to use it. Here’s a quick synopsis…
1. Take Inspired Action: One of the misconceptions about the Law of Attraction is that sitting around and thinking about what you want will make it happen. It doesn’t work that way. You must be clear about what you want, and then develop a certain, positive energy around it. Let’s say that you want to go a Mediterranean cruise. You make your intention clear; this is what you want with certainty. Next, you create positive energy around this want, which will open you to possibilities and opportunities that are in alignment with making this happen. Then, act on what seems natural and what feels right. That’s when you’ll notice magic starting to happen, and things start “conspiring” to help you realize your goal. As you stay open to saying “yes” and take action steps that are “inspired”, your ultimate desire begins to manifest itself. This inspired action is the Law of Attraction at work. On the other hand, lack of clarity and a belief that, “it will never happen”, puts out energy that will keep you energetically closed and out of an abundance mindset. When this happens, you may be motivated to work hard to make that cruise happen but it will be difficult because you aren’t attracting anything, you are just chasing it down. When you engage in inspired action, you trust that everything you need will come to you.
2. Get into vibrational alignment: Most everything we want in life is about the FEELING that comes from having that thing, rather than the thing itself. We don’t want the car, we want the feeling that we get when we own and drive it. When you start living “as if”, as if you already have or are doing what you want, you create a vibration that starts attracting what you want and you begin to look for proof that it already exists. This creates an openness and willingness to see things in a new light, and you begin to trust your inner guidance and do things you may not normally do, and notice things you normally wouldn’t. Everything really is energy so what you put out, you’ll get back. Vibrating at a “higher level” or feeling as if what you want already exists, will allow you to attract those very things. If you’ve read anything by Jerry and Esther Hicks, then you are familiar with Abraham. Here is how he puts it: “As you imagine and visualize and verbalize your new story, in time you will believe the new story, and when that happens, the evidence will flow swiftly into your experience. A belief is only a thought you continue to think; and when your beliefs match your desires, then your desires must become your reality.” When your beliefs and desires are in alignment, reality isn’t far behind.
Get happy and everything else will fall into place – One of the biggest mistakes people make is thinking they will be happy “when”. When they get the job, partner, car, vacation, house etc, then they will be happy. Studies have shown though, that people aren’t happy because they are successful, they are successful because they are happy! When you are happy, you’re vibrating at a higher level and when that happens, you start attracting more of what you want because you are more of what you want. You are feeling what you want to be feeling, regardless of your current circumstances. It’s this combination of feeling and vibrating that higher level energy that will give you alignment and when you have alignment, you start taking inspired action rather than motivated action. This enables you to start attracting what you want because you are in a constant state of joyfully receiving, which not coincidentally, attracts more of the same.
Staying happy, in alignment and taking inspired action all work together to bring or attract more of what you want in life. When you learn how to do all three simultaneously, things can’t help but change for the better. You can live the life you’ve always wanted to have!
© MarBeth Dunn June, 2012
what is today may not be tomorrow. But to live joyfully is something we can choose today, every day, regardless of what’s going on around us. I hope you embrace these suggestions to live a most joyous life!
