October 23, 2025 • 19 mins
When the world feels heavy, choosing joy can sound naïve. We think it’s the most practical move you can make. In this heartfelt episode, we share how a brutal “year of authenticity” led to a bold decision to claim a “year of joy,” and why that choice reshaped daily life. You’ll hear a reading from Small Pearl’s Big Wisdom titled We Will Have Joy, then we unpack how gratitude and delight fade without tending, and how to bring them back through simple, repeatable practices.
We explore joy as medicine for the soul: the counterweight that steadies your nervous system and expands your perspective during hard seasons. From dance rehearsals that dissolve stress in minutes to tiny present-moment miracles like a dog napping belly-up, we show how nothing outside needs to change for your inner state to shift. Joy doesn’t erase facts; it equips you to meet them with more compassion, creativity, and clarity. You’ll learn how to set morning intentions, close your day with a quick “what was joyful” check, and use movement, nature, and mindful naming to anchor goodness in real time.
This conversation is for anyone who feels stretched thin yet wants a grounded way back to aliveness. We make the case that joy is not a reward for finishing the hard work; it’s the fuel that makes the hard work possible. Walk away with practical tools to cultivate joy now, not “someday,” and a gentle nudge to claim even a few drops on the toughest days. If this resonated, tap follow, share it with a friend who needs light today, and leave a review to help more hearts find their way here.
Tune in next week for a new episode to support and empower your light
--
Your Heart Magic is a space where heart wisdom, spirituality, and psychology meet. Enjoy episodes centered on mental health, spirituality, personal growth, healing, and well-being. Featured as one of the best Heart Energy and Akashic Records Podcasts in 2024 by PlayerFM and Globally Ranked in the top 5% in Listen Notes.
Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wright is a Licensed Psychologist, Spiritual Educator, and Akashic Records Reader. She is the author of Small Pearls Big Wisdom, the Award-Winning Lamentations of the Sea, its sequels, and several books of poetry. A psychologist with a mystic mind, she weaves perspectives from both worlds to offer holistic wisdom.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Aloha, and welcome to Your Heart Magic, an
illuminating space wherepsychology, spirituality, and
heart wisdom meet.
Here's your host, Dr.
Bethane Kapansky Wright,author, psychologist, and
spiritual educator.
Speaker (00:33):
Aloha, everybody.
Welcome to Your Heart Magic.
This is Dr.
Bethan Kapansky Wright, and Iwant to share a few thoughts on
the concept of joy today andfocus on that as a theme for
today's podcast.
I love talking about joy.
It's a topic that I probablyrevisit every couple months
(00:54):
because I think it's so relevantand it's something that we need
right now.
I think it's easy to talk aboutwhat's not right, talk about
grief and personaltransformation and going through
struggles and challenges andhow do we navigate those.
But I think the practice of joyand treating joy is something
(01:14):
that is available to us rightnow.
And being joy seekers is onethat is lovely and fun to talk
about.
It's a little bit lighter, andit's something that I found
really helpful and still findhelpful on my personal journey.
So I wanted to share a littlestory today about joy.
And that is back in the year, Ithink it was 2011.
(01:37):
I had declared that year, theyear of authenticity, and
decided instead of resolutionsor any goals that I was going to
choose a word for the year.
And I did that practice forabout a decade.
I still do it a little bit, butI honestly could not tell you
my word for 2025 right now.
So I haven't attached as muchmeaning to it in the last few
(02:00):
years as I used to.
But in 2011, that was my yearof authenticity.
And I wanted to live moreauthentically.
I wanted to be more real.
I was going through somepersonal changes in my life.
And for whatever reason, Iremember that I really felt that
was a deeply meaningful conceptto me.
(02:22):
And it was an authentic year.
It was a hard year.
That was the year that I endedup going through my divorce.
It was a year of reclaimingmyself and really experiencing
the concept of after breakdowncomes breakthrough.
And I really wasn't expectingthat when I set out into the
year 2011.
(02:42):
I just like the word.
I didn't realize that I wasright on the cusp of this really
profound spiritual awakening atthe time.
So I couldn't have known,perhaps intuitively, I knew a
lot was being shook up in mylife, but I couldn't have known
how big that year was going tobe.
And it was a tough year,beautiful year, but a hard year.
(03:02):
And as I was coming through it,I remember looking into the
year 2012 and being at thevantage point of December of
that year and thinking about myword for the year ahead as we
got closer to the new year.
And I'd really learned by thenbe careful what you intention.
And I say that kind ofjokingly, but at the time I felt
(03:22):
like I am not choosing a heavyword.
I am not choosing somethingthat carries as much weight as
the word authenticity.
And so I decided to choose theword joy for the year 2012.
And some of it was intuitive aswell.
And just feeling that aftersuch a heavy year, I really
wanted to focus on finding joy.
And I was going through so muchchange in my life and still so
(03:45):
much upheaval.
A lot of the worst of it wasover, but more change was to
come.
And so I felt like it wasreally important to rewild my
relationship with joy.
And I was also learning thelessons at the time that no
matter how hard life is, that Istill value finding happiness
and joy.
(04:06):
I value finding good.
I value shifting my focus totry and find what's beautiful
and what I can appreciate.
So I'm sure prior to that thatI cared about joy, but I
remember that being a definitivemoment in my life where I
really wrote in the sand.
I was actually vacationing onKauai for New Year's Eve that
(04:27):
year.
And I wrote 2012, the year ofjoy in the sand, and I was ready
for it and ready for a morejoyful and lighter experience
that year.
So I want to share a passagetoday from Small Pearl's Big
Wisdom.
This is number 266, and it'scalled We Will Have Joy, and
(04:48):
then talk about a few of theconcepts in it.
There are going to be dayswhen, despite our best efforts,
we just can't connect to thatwhich is good.
And that's okay.
Especially when suffering andprocessing loss, it is important
to know the scope of thedarkness so we can learn to find
the stars that guide our way.
(05:09):
But when it is time, and thosestars have led us through the
worst of it, we have to make achoice on how to see this life
and what we choose to nurtureinside of us.
If we want to find what isbeautiful in this world, then
one has to be rather persistentwhen it comes to joy and
gratitude.
(05:30):
These gifts can quietly startto dissolve when we are not
actively tending to them.
Over time, we'll notice a slowcontinental drift where
gratitude diminishes and thatleaves us with only tiny shards
of good.
Every day we are given achoice.
Life asks us the question (05:48):
Who do you want to be in this world?
The way we choose to live isour response.
Our perspectives, attitudes,thoughts, heart energy, that's
all on us.
Nothing external can changethat.
Change is an inside job.
We are the ones who must insiston finding joy.
(06:11):
Even when life has handed us aheap of gritty muck, at some
point we have to choose to findthe gifts anyway.
To see there is always spacefor new ideas, new moments, new
intentions, new loves, newletting goes, new skies, new
experiences, new interactions,new beginnings, new moons, new
(06:35):
creations, new imaginings, newplaces, and new heart spaces.
All are just waiting for us torecognize them, grab onto them
and shape them according to ourenergy, efforts, and intents, so
we can choose to find the giftsof each day, the gifts that
increase joy, love, happiness,and gratitude.
(06:57):
Some days we just need to worka little harder for it, but we
all have the capacity inside ofourselves to do the work, to
change our set points, tochallenge ourselves to be more
than our circumstances, toinsist that in this moment, on
this day, no matter where wefind ourselves, we will have
(07:18):
joy.
I've often thought over thepast few years, for a while now,
when we look at the worldaround us and look at all that
is hurting, all that is broken,all that seems to be wrong, all
the wounds that are bleeding outall over the place in so many
different areas in life, so manyindividuals, that it's easy to
(07:43):
wonder about the relevancy ofjoy and how does joy relate to
all of this?
Is it even relevant right now?
And I think the role of joy ismore important than ever.
I keep coming back to the ideathat joy is medicine for the
soul, that it is this vitality,this vitamin D that we need for
our hearts at this time when weare able to connect with joy and
(08:06):
connect to things that help usfeel appreciative, help us feel
harmonious, help us be in aspace of contentment, help us
focus on what is right and whatis beautiful and what is magical
and miraculous.
Then, as an extension of that,we are a better Us.
It's always easier to makebetter choices when we are in a
(08:30):
good heart space.
We're more readily able toaccess love and compassion and
kindness and positivity,appreciation and gratitude.
All of those things are easierto grab onto and to create from
that space when we are able toconnect with joy.
Joy fills us up.
It helps balance out some ofthe darkness and the heaviness
(08:54):
and some of the challenges thatwe have in our day-to-day life.
It is not easy being a soul anda spiritual being on this human
journey.
Just the act of getting out ofbed sometimes and humaning is
hard.
Some days more so than otherswhen we're really in the weeds
or if we're going throughsomething.
So when we're able to work onfinding joy and work on the
(09:19):
cultivation of joy, it brings aharmony, a wholeness, a balance
into us that we really need.
And it helps fill us back up sowe have more of a deeper wall
to draw from.
I also find joy to be a verytransformative energy.
It can instantly take somethingthat feels heavy or dark or
(09:42):
hopeless, and it can help ustransform our perspective around
it.
It might not change a situationitself.
It might not change what is andthe facts of something, but it
changes us and it changes how welook at something and it helps
us find higher perspective.
It helps us find a biggerperspective.
(10:05):
And so I think joy is a verytransformative energy.
It's the idea of takingsomething that is pain to us and
drawing it out or coloring itout or using creativity that's
transformative.
And when we are able totransform our experience and
bring joy into the mix, it helpsus shift some of the heaviness
(10:28):
inside of us.
It's interesting.
I've talked a little bit on thepodcast before about being a
choreographer and how I grew upa dancer.
And it's a hobby of mine andinterest, something that a lot
of people might not know aboutme if I haven't mentioned it to
them.
But I've been really fortunateto have had some really cool
choreography opportunities overthe past few years for musical
(10:51):
theater in particular.
And I'm working on anotherproject right now, the Rocky
Horror Musical, and we openedthis weekend.
So that's really exciting.
But something that's beenreally wonderful for me to
observe this last season is howI can have a lot of heaviness or
stress that I'm carrying.
Sometimes just the act ofmaking it to rehearsal and
(11:13):
getting through traffic duringrush hour and getting there at
the end of a workday has felt alittle bit stressful, but it
never ever fails.
I can be in the worst of moodsor I can feel super stressed
out.
And the minute that I walkthrough the door and I start to
move and start to dance, thingsstart to shift.
And I've had so manyexperiences when I am dancing,
(11:37):
where I walk into the studio orthe rehearsal space carrying
something really heavy inside ofme.
And I walk out feelingsignificantly lighter.
It's like something not onlychanges in me, but there's this
release that happens.
And some of the heaviness thatI might have been feeling
before, or things that mighthave felt problematic, all of a
(12:00):
sudden shift.
And so nothing changed, but Ichanged.
I changed my being, myresonance, my frequency, and my
vibration.
I changed.
And in changing, everythingfeels a little bit easier, a
little bit lighter.
I usually find that whatever itis that I'm turning on, if
(12:21):
something's on my mind and I wasstressed out by it, I feel a
little bit more equipped to showup and to address it from a
better frame of mind.
And so when we seek joy, ithelps us shift our energy.
And when we do that, it's agame changer.
And for me, dance is probablyone of the number one ways that
(12:42):
I found to do that.
Not everybody's a dancer, butyou don't have to be a dancer to
dance it out and to take a pagefrom Christina and Meredith or
all the Gray's Anatomy fans outthere.
You can dance around your ownhouse if you want to.
But there are other ways tofind joy as well.
That's just the quickest one Ifound and helping shift myself.
(13:03):
But I think anything, whetherit's going and spending time in
nature, doing something thatlights us up, taking a moment of
intention when we're doingsomething enjoyable and
reminding ourselves this is joy.
This is what joy feels like.
Joy is happening right now, andI don't want to miss it.
I have often found that Isometimes have to pause and
(13:26):
remind myself that something isjoyful, especially times where
it's a little bit harder toconnect with those lighter
feelings.
I like to still do the practiceof reminding myself joy is
happening right now and to tryand receive the goodness that I
can from it.
And I've often found that whenwe've been through a real
challenge season in life, itmight be hard for us to receive
(13:49):
something to a full capacity andreally feel that full resonance
with the idea of joy or feelinggrateful or happy in the
moment.
And that's okay.
Do what you can.
There are times as I havecultivated joy practices over
the years and tried to focus ondoing something that brings me
joy or brings me pleasure ordelight.
(14:11):
There have been times where Iam very aware that I'm just not
able to feel something to thecapacity that I would like to
because some form of stress orgrief or something really hard
is taking up a lot of myattention and a lot of my
processing.
And so we just receive what wecan.
When we make a date with joyand we create opportunities to
(14:34):
meet with joy, the idea isn'tthat we have to feel blissed out
and ecstatic all the time.
If we can only have a few dropsof goodness and that's all
we're able to get out ofsomething that day because of
where we're at, I still find ita helpful practice to help
continue to teach our nervoussystems and our brains that joy
(14:55):
is important and that we areworthy of creating opportunities
for joy and reminding ourselvesthat joy is happening right
now.
And that brings me to the lastpoint I wanted to share today.
And that is the idea that joyis meant for the present.
It's not meant for someday whenX, X, and X have happened and
(15:17):
placed an expectation on joy andconditions on when we can feel
joy.
It's not meant for the past.
I think sometimes we look atthe past with rose-colored
glasses and that we all havethese certain memories in our
life that we might go back toand remember as like the good
days or a particularly wonderfultime in life.
(15:39):
And sometimes it's easy to lookback and feel like life was
better then, but joy isn't alivein the past.
It's only alive in the here andnow, it's only alive in the
present.
And I think so often it's foundin the little small things, the
tiny miracles, the tiny magicalthings every day.
I'm smiling saying this rightnow.
(16:01):
I'm making this podcast, andI've got two dogs that are
sitting close to me.
Rosie, our big wolf hound, ison her back and she has her paws
stretched up straight in theair.
And Frodo, our little elderlyblind gremlin dog, is on his
side.
And he's just this little ballof white fluff right now.
(16:23):
And they look so happy and socontent and so peaceful and so
joyful.
And I just happened to noticethem as I was talking about
this, and it flashed in my mind,this right here, this is joy.
It's a gift to be here on thisSaturday afternoon, recording
this podcast, getting to speakthese words and share my ideas
(16:47):
and thoughts with the audience,having these two little
companions by me who aresafeguarding the space and are
just happy to be close by and tobe right by me.
This moment right now, there'sjoy in it.
And if I can take the time tonotice and to pause and to think
about this moment right now,there's joy here.
(17:08):
And if I can pause andappreciate that and receive it,
then that is me being a goodpractitioner of my own words and
receiving the medicine of joy.
I've always been a big believerthat no matter what is
happening, that fighting for joyand insisting on our right to
feel joy, to experiencehappiness, to find what's good
(17:31):
and beautiful and artistic andcreative and bright and lovely
in this world is so important onour soul path.
It's part of our heart magicbecause we're always going to be
aware of what's not right.
The challenges and the growthand the mistakes and the
struggles, all of that is justpart of the journey.
(17:51):
And so we can't help but runinto it.
We don't get to bypass that.
It's just part of what we camehere to do and to learn and grow
and experience as a soul.
That will be there.
But there's joy on the journeytoo.
But when we can keep working onthe act of cultivating joy and
learn to prioritize joy and seeit as something that is
(18:15):
necessary and vital andlife-giving for our soul, I
think it helps give us moregrace and ease and creativity,
resourcefulness, and overallhelps us feel more equipped for
navigating the day today.
So I wish you a week of joywith that.
I think a lovely practice is totake time at the end of a day
(18:38):
and think about what was joyfultoday, what happened, whether or
not I was able to receive thejoy in the moment that I can
reflect on and say, joy happenedin that moment.
And in retrospect, we can lookback and just be grateful for
something that happened thatmight have meant joy for us that
day.
And I think it's a beautifulintention at the beginning of a
(19:01):
day to say, I want to take timetoday to experience joy, to set
that as an intention and seewhat shows up and see how more
mindful you might be and whatyou might notice when you set
that as an intention.
So, with that, I hope you havea wonderful, joyful week.
I will be back next week with anew Your Heart Magic episode.
(19:25):
And in the meantime, as always,be well, be love, be you, and
be magic.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
You've been listening to Your Heart Magic with Dr.
Bethan Kapansky Wright.
Tune in next week for a newepisode to support and empower
your light.
Aloha, and welcome to Your Heart Magic, an
illuminating space wherepsychology, spirituality, and
heart wisdom meet.
Here's your host, Dr.
Bethane Kapansky Wright,author, psychologist, and
spiritual educator.
Speaker (00:33):
Aloha, everybody.
Welcome to Your Heart Magic.
This is Dr.
Bethan Kapansky Wright, and Iwant to share a few thoughts on
the concept of joy today andfocus on that as a theme for
today's podcast.
I love talking about joy.
It's a topic that I probablyrevisit every couple months
(00:54):
because I think it's so relevantand it's something that we need
right now.
I think it's easy to talk aboutwhat's not right, talk about
grief and personaltransformation and going through
struggles and challenges andhow do we navigate those.
But I think the practice of joyand treating joy is something
(01:14):
that is available to us rightnow.
And being joy seekers is onethat is lovely and fun to talk
about.
It's a little bit lighter, andit's something that I found
really helpful and still findhelpful on my personal journey.
So I wanted to share a littlestory today about joy.
And that is back in the year, Ithink it was 2011.
(01:37):
I had declared that year, theyear of authenticity, and
decided instead of resolutionsor any goals that I was going to
choose a word for the year.
And I did that practice forabout a decade.
I still do it a little bit, butI honestly could not tell you
my word for 2025 right now.
So I haven't attached as muchmeaning to it in the last few
(02:00):
years as I used to.
But in 2011, that was my yearof authenticity.
And I wanted to live moreauthentically.
I wanted to be more real.
I was going through somepersonal changes in my life.
And for whatever reason, Iremember that I really felt that
was a deeply meaningful conceptto me.
(02:22):
And it was an authentic year.
It was a hard year.
That was the year that I endedup going through my divorce.
It was a year of reclaimingmyself and really experiencing
the concept of after breakdowncomes breakthrough.
And I really wasn't expectingthat when I set out into the
year 2011.
(02:42):
I just like the word.
I didn't realize that I wasright on the cusp of this really
profound spiritual awakening atthe time.
So I couldn't have known,perhaps intuitively, I knew a
lot was being shook up in mylife, but I couldn't have known
how big that year was going tobe.
And it was a tough year,beautiful year, but a hard year.
(03:02):
And as I was coming through it,I remember looking into the
year 2012 and being at thevantage point of December of
that year and thinking about myword for the year ahead as we
got closer to the new year.
And I'd really learned by thenbe careful what you intention.
And I say that kind ofjokingly, but at the time I felt
(03:22):
like I am not choosing a heavyword.
I am not choosing somethingthat carries as much weight as
the word authenticity.
And so I decided to choose theword joy for the year 2012.
And some of it was intuitive aswell.
And just feeling that aftersuch a heavy year, I really
wanted to focus on finding joy.
And I was going through so muchchange in my life and still so
(03:45):
much upheaval.
A lot of the worst of it wasover, but more change was to
come.
And so I felt like it wasreally important to rewild my
relationship with joy.
And I was also learning thelessons at the time that no
matter how hard life is, that Istill value finding happiness
and joy.
(04:06):
I value finding good.
I value shifting my focus totry and find what's beautiful
and what I can appreciate.
So I'm sure prior to that thatI cared about joy, but I
remember that being a definitivemoment in my life where I
really wrote in the sand.
I was actually vacationing onKauai for New Year's Eve that
(04:27):
year.
And I wrote 2012, the year ofjoy in the sand, and I was ready
for it and ready for a morejoyful and lighter experience
that year.
So I want to share a passagetoday from Small Pearl's Big
Wisdom.
This is number 266, and it'scalled We Will Have Joy, and
(04:48):
then talk about a few of theconcepts in it.
There are going to be dayswhen, despite our best efforts,
we just can't connect to thatwhich is good.
And that's okay.
Especially when suffering andprocessing loss, it is important
to know the scope of thedarkness so we can learn to find
the stars that guide our way.
(05:09):
But when it is time, and thosestars have led us through the
worst of it, we have to make achoice on how to see this life
and what we choose to nurtureinside of us.
If we want to find what isbeautiful in this world, then
one has to be rather persistentwhen it comes to joy and
gratitude.
(05:30):
These gifts can quietly startto dissolve when we are not
actively tending to them.
Over time, we'll notice a slowcontinental drift where
gratitude diminishes and thatleaves us with only tiny shards
of good.
Every day we are given achoice.
Life asks us the question (05:48):
Who do you want to be in this world?
The way we choose to live isour response.
Our perspectives, attitudes,thoughts, heart energy, that's
all on us.
Nothing external can changethat.
Change is an inside job.
We are the ones who must insiston finding joy.
(06:11):
Even when life has handed us aheap of gritty muck, at some
point we have to choose to findthe gifts anyway.
To see there is always spacefor new ideas, new moments, new
intentions, new loves, newletting goes, new skies, new
experiences, new interactions,new beginnings, new moons, new
(06:35):
creations, new imaginings, newplaces, and new heart spaces.
All are just waiting for us torecognize them, grab onto them
and shape them according to ourenergy, efforts, and intents, so
we can choose to find the giftsof each day, the gifts that
increase joy, love, happiness,and gratitude.
(06:57):
Some days we just need to worka little harder for it, but we
all have the capacity inside ofourselves to do the work, to
change our set points, tochallenge ourselves to be more
than our circumstances, toinsist that in this moment, on
this day, no matter where wefind ourselves, we will have
(07:18):
joy.
I've often thought over thepast few years, for a while now,
when we look at the worldaround us and look at all that
is hurting, all that is broken,all that seems to be wrong, all
the wounds that are bleeding outall over the place in so many
different areas in life, so manyindividuals, that it's easy to
(07:43):
wonder about the relevancy ofjoy and how does joy relate to
all of this?
Is it even relevant right now?
And I think the role of joy ismore important than ever.
I keep coming back to the ideathat joy is medicine for the
soul, that it is this vitality,this vitamin D that we need for
our hearts at this time when weare able to connect with joy and
(08:06):
connect to things that help usfeel appreciative, help us feel
harmonious, help us be in aspace of contentment, help us
focus on what is right and whatis beautiful and what is magical
and miraculous.
Then, as an extension of that,we are a better Us.
It's always easier to makebetter choices when we are in a
(08:30):
good heart space.
We're more readily able toaccess love and compassion and
kindness and positivity,appreciation and gratitude.
All of those things are easierto grab onto and to create from
that space when we are able toconnect with joy.
Joy fills us up.
It helps balance out some ofthe darkness and the heaviness
(08:54):
and some of the challenges thatwe have in our day-to-day life.
It is not easy being a soul anda spiritual being on this human
journey.
Just the act of getting out ofbed sometimes and humaning is
hard.
Some days more so than otherswhen we're really in the weeds
or if we're going throughsomething.
So when we're able to work onfinding joy and work on the
(09:19):
cultivation of joy, it brings aharmony, a wholeness, a balance
into us that we really need.
And it helps fill us back up sowe have more of a deeper wall
to draw from.
I also find joy to be a verytransformative energy.
It can instantly take somethingthat feels heavy or dark or
(09:42):
hopeless, and it can help ustransform our perspective around
it.
It might not change a situationitself.
It might not change what is andthe facts of something, but it
changes us and it changes how welook at something and it helps
us find higher perspective.
It helps us find a biggerperspective.
(10:05):
And so I think joy is a verytransformative energy.
It's the idea of takingsomething that is pain to us and
drawing it out or coloring itout or using creativity that's
transformative.
And when we are able totransform our experience and
bring joy into the mix, it helpsus shift some of the heaviness
(10:28):
inside of us.
It's interesting.
I've talked a little bit on thepodcast before about being a
choreographer and how I grew upa dancer.
And it's a hobby of mine andinterest, something that a lot
of people might not know aboutme if I haven't mentioned it to
them.
But I've been really fortunateto have had some really cool
choreography opportunities overthe past few years for musical
(10:51):
theater in particular.
And I'm working on anotherproject right now, the Rocky
Horror Musical, and we openedthis weekend.
So that's really exciting.
But something that's beenreally wonderful for me to
observe this last season is howI can have a lot of heaviness or
stress that I'm carrying.
Sometimes just the act ofmaking it to rehearsal and
(11:13):
getting through traffic duringrush hour and getting there at
the end of a workday has felt alittle bit stressful, but it
never ever fails.
I can be in the worst of moodsor I can feel super stressed
out.
And the minute that I walkthrough the door and I start to
move and start to dance, thingsstart to shift.
And I've had so manyexperiences when I am dancing,
(11:37):
where I walk into the studio orthe rehearsal space carrying
something really heavy inside ofme.
And I walk out feelingsignificantly lighter.
It's like something not onlychanges in me, but there's this
release that happens.
And some of the heaviness thatI might have been feeling
before, or things that mighthave felt problematic, all of a
(12:00):
sudden shift.
And so nothing changed, but Ichanged.
I changed my being, myresonance, my frequency, and my
vibration.
I changed.
And in changing, everythingfeels a little bit easier, a
little bit lighter.
I usually find that whatever itis that I'm turning on, if
(12:21):
something's on my mind and I wasstressed out by it, I feel a
little bit more equipped to showup and to address it from a
better frame of mind.
And so when we seek joy, ithelps us shift our energy.
And when we do that, it's agame changer.
And for me, dance is probablyone of the number one ways that
(12:42):
I found to do that.
Not everybody's a dancer, butyou don't have to be a dancer to
dance it out and to take a pagefrom Christina and Meredith or
all the Gray's Anatomy fans outthere.
You can dance around your ownhouse if you want to.
But there are other ways tofind joy as well.
That's just the quickest one Ifound and helping shift myself.
(13:03):
But I think anything, whetherit's going and spending time in
nature, doing something thatlights us up, taking a moment of
intention when we're doingsomething enjoyable and
reminding ourselves this is joy.
This is what joy feels like.
Joy is happening right now, andI don't want to miss it.
I have often found that Isometimes have to pause and
(13:26):
remind myself that something isjoyful, especially times where
it's a little bit harder toconnect with those lighter
feelings.
I like to still do the practiceof reminding myself joy is
happening right now and to tryand receive the goodness that I
can from it.
And I've often found that whenwe've been through a real
challenge season in life, itmight be hard for us to receive
(13:49):
something to a full capacity andreally feel that full resonance
with the idea of joy or feelinggrateful or happy in the
moment.
And that's okay.
Do what you can.
There are times as I havecultivated joy practices over
the years and tried to focus ondoing something that brings me
joy or brings me pleasure ordelight.
(14:11):
There have been times where Iam very aware that I'm just not
able to feel something to thecapacity that I would like to
because some form of stress orgrief or something really hard
is taking up a lot of myattention and a lot of my
processing.
And so we just receive what wecan.
When we make a date with joyand we create opportunities to
(14:34):
meet with joy, the idea isn'tthat we have to feel blissed out
and ecstatic all the time.
If we can only have a few dropsof goodness and that's all
we're able to get out ofsomething that day because of
where we're at, I still find ita helpful practice to help
continue to teach our nervoussystems and our brains that joy
(14:55):
is important and that we areworthy of creating opportunities
for joy and reminding ourselvesthat joy is happening right
now.
And that brings me to the lastpoint I wanted to share today.
And that is the idea that joyis meant for the present.
It's not meant for someday whenX, X, and X have happened and
(15:17):
placed an expectation on joy andconditions on when we can feel
joy.
It's not meant for the past.
I think sometimes we look atthe past with rose-colored
glasses and that we all havethese certain memories in our
life that we might go back toand remember as like the good
days or a particularly wonderfultime in life.
(15:39):
And sometimes it's easy to lookback and feel like life was
better then, but joy isn't alivein the past.
It's only alive in the here andnow, it's only alive in the
present.
And I think so often it's foundin the little small things, the
tiny miracles, the tiny magicalthings every day.
I'm smiling saying this rightnow.
(16:01):
I'm making this podcast, andI've got two dogs that are
sitting close to me.
Rosie, our big wolf hound, ison her back and she has her paws
stretched up straight in theair.
And Frodo, our little elderlyblind gremlin dog, is on his
side.
And he's just this little ballof white fluff right now.
(16:23):
And they look so happy and socontent and so peaceful and so
joyful.
And I just happened to noticethem as I was talking about
this, and it flashed in my mind,this right here, this is joy.
It's a gift to be here on thisSaturday afternoon, recording
this podcast, getting to speakthese words and share my ideas
(16:47):
and thoughts with the audience,having these two little
companions by me who aresafeguarding the space and are
just happy to be close by and tobe right by me.
This moment right now, there'sjoy in it.
And if I can take the time tonotice and to pause and to think
about this moment right now,there's joy here.
(17:08):
And if I can pause andappreciate that and receive it,
then that is me being a goodpractitioner of my own words and
receiving the medicine of joy.
I've always been a big believerthat no matter what is
happening, that fighting for joyand insisting on our right to
feel joy, to experiencehappiness, to find what's good
(17:31):
and beautiful and artistic andcreative and bright and lovely
in this world is so important onour soul path.
It's part of our heart magicbecause we're always going to be
aware of what's not right.
The challenges and the growthand the mistakes and the
struggles, all of that is justpart of the journey.
(17:51):
And so we can't help but runinto it.
We don't get to bypass that.
It's just part of what we camehere to do and to learn and grow
and experience as a soul.
That will be there.
But there's joy on the journeytoo.
But when we can keep working onthe act of cultivating joy and
learn to prioritize joy and seeit as something that is
(18:15):
necessary and vital andlife-giving for our soul, I
think it helps give us moregrace and ease and creativity,
resourcefulness, and overallhelps us feel more equipped for
navigating the day today.
So I wish you a week of joywith that.
I think a lovely practice is totake time at the end of a day
(18:38):
and think about what was joyfultoday, what happened, whether or
not I was able to receive thejoy in the moment that I can
reflect on and say, joy happenedin that moment.
And in retrospect, we can lookback and just be grateful for
something that happened thatmight have meant joy for us that
day.
And I think it's a beautifulintention at the beginning of a
(19:01):
day to say, I want to take timetoday to experience joy, to set
that as an intention and seewhat shows up and see how more
mindful you might be and whatyou might notice when you set
that as an intention.
So, with that, I hope you havea wonderful, joyful week.
I will be back next week with anew Your Heart Magic episode.
(19:25):
And in the meantime, as always,be well, be love, be you, and
be magic.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
You've been listening to Your Heart Magic with Dr.
Bethan Kapansky Wright.
Tune in next week for a newepisode to support and empower
your light.
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