A Plan for Cultivating Joy

Joy!

This is one of my favorite topics. I mean, not only is it a character in one of my favorite movies, but it’s also the basic theme of my blog. Living a positive live, bringing sunshine into your day, finding happiness in the world around you.

Joy.

Today bestselling publisher Linda Joy released Inspiration for a Woman’s Soul: Cultivating Joy featuring the soul-inspiring stories of 38 amazing women who share their intimate stories of transformation. Cultivating Joy also includes Reflection Questions after each story which will empower you to integrate the vital lessons of each woman’s journey into your own life. As a self proclaimed journaler and life introspectionist (I totally made that up, but it’s now a real thing because I said so) I’m in love with having reflection questions to guide me. Any kind of prompt to get me thinking in the right direction is welcome around here.

For a limited time you can get over 50 transformational gifts with your copy of Cultivating Joy. Grab your copy today at www.CultivatingJoyBook.com

Identifying a Need for Change

I haven’t picked up my copy of Cultivating Joy yet, but I’m already looking at new ways I can begin cultivating joy in my own life. Lately I’ve been thinking I need a change. As many people do, my plate is overflowing and I have to let go of something. I need to simplify; I need to reevaluate my position in life.

It seemed a bit overwhelming thinking about making some big changes in my life until I found the above title image. I need to start honoring myself. It’s exactly what I need and what I’ve been thinking about. Building boundaries and breaking molds. I need to start setting my own limits, and breaking out of bad habits. I’m only contained by the things I allow to contain me. It’s a freeing thought that I can take control of my life, which is a weird thing for me to say considering I have created an identity for myself revolving around control. Over the next year I plan to take a pretty close look at what I self identify as and find a way to make positive use of it in my life.

A Plan for Cultivating Joy

With all of that said, here is my plan for cultivating joy in all of it’s rough draft glory. These are some of the action steps I’ll be taking to start cultivating joy in my life. It’s not set in stone, so my plan might change tomorrow, next week, next month or even next year, but the point is I’m taking an active role in my life to bring in what I want out of it. I’m ready to be the author of my own story.

• I’ll be taking a close look at my life and outline my priorities, strengths, weaknesses, desires, passions, and needs.
• I’ll be taking a more focused approach to reducing debt.
• I’ll be reading inspirational books and articles, such as Cultivating Joy, to ignite a spark in myself to work through the challenges of my journey.
• I’ll be taking steps to simplify my life, making more room for those things that are most important to me.

These aren’t the only things I’ll be doing, and as you can see, this is a rough rough draft. It’s somewhat vague, but at least it’s a framework. A springboard to get me started looking at things in a new way. Whatever cliche you want to use, that’s pretty much where I am now and I can’t wait to get started.

How Do You Go About Cultivating Joy?

I would love to hear how you cultivate joy in the midst of everyday living in the comments below. We all have such a unique take on life, and I know you have some inspiration to share with the community here, as well as to help me along my own journey to cultivating joy.

Be sure to check out Inspired Living Publishing’s much anticipated new book, Inspiration for a Woman’s Soul: Cultivating Joy and grab your copy today at www.CultivatingJoyBook.com  to receive over 50 transformational gifts.