Do you love to try new things, and want to feel joy and happiness every day of the week? If you do, you’ll just love my ‘Joy Seeker 1 Week Challenge’. 

The Joy Seeker Challenge is a follow-up from my previous blog ‘Joy is yours for the taking everyday!’, where I explain a little about joy, what it feels like to experience it, and how you can feel it every day of your life. I thought now might be a good opportunity to transition from reading about it to you actually experiencing it for yourself every day, for just one week. 
​
In preparation for this challenge I will highlight joy seekers characteristics, give you the low-down on the benefits to you becoming a joy seeker, and expand upon ways to experience and cultivate joy. Then you’ll be fully equipped with all the tools and knowledge you need to actively participate in my one week joy seeker challenge. 

Joy seeker characteristics
Joy seekers often go about their daily business, happily mingling throughout their communities, wafting happiness, optimism and generosity of spirit over you as they pass by. They exude positive energy. Joy seekers come in all shapes and sizes. They can have a calm, quiet, discerning manner about them, or they may be gregarious and enthusiastic. They are very likely to be dependable, determined, purposeful, spiritual and charitable. They are proactive in seeking out joy for themselves. Joy seekers live mindfully, are resilient and accepting of themselves. They prefer to spend more time concentrating on the present, rather than living regretfully in the past or anticipating what the future may or may not bring.
They have an abundance of self-awareness. They’re usually observant, and are not afraid to explore new experiences for themselves. They love to share their joy with others wherever and whenever they can. They prefer to bring sunshine into people’s lives, rather than dowsing you with rain. They find lessons to be learnt and opportunities to be gained from unfortunate situations, rather than dwelling despairingly on their misfortune. You may well be one of these people yourself or may certainly be aware of people like this in your own life, as their presence is often highly visible.

Why become a joy seeker?
When you are open to receiving and sharing joy there are a significant number of benefits to you and your personal health and well-being, not to mention your productivity. 

1. One of the most significant factors is that joy can create a more positive outlook. A positive attitude often reduces that nagging, negative self-talk, that works hard to sabotage your joys, ideas, dreams and aspirations. 
2. A positive attitude helps us to manage stress and deal with those day-to-day small crises more effectively.
3. Joy has the power to revitalise and invigorate you, restoring your energy levels, and in turn creating greater clarity and fresh perspectives, helping you to be more creative.
4. New evidence in neuroscience is discovering that savouring positive emotions is actually a key component to psychological well-being.
5. It is well documented in science journals that positive emotions increases our physical health and well-being.
6. Scientific research indicates that sharing our positive experiences with a supportive listener, enhances our satisfaction with life, creates more optimism, and decreases negative attitudes such as anger, envy and materialism. 

Exercise your five senses

As you’re probably aware we have five different senses to perceive the world around us. These are; vision, smell, taste, sound and touch. In order to make the most of your joyful challenge week experiences, you will need to utilize all these senses. The most effective way of doing this is to be in a mindful, calm and present state. You can find lots of information online but these are the main attributes to a mindfulness life, which is a life full of joy.
o Take time and pay close attention to the environment around you
o Look for the little things, the everyday things, the ordinary moments in our lives
o Avoid focusing on anything negative (for this challenge)
o Acknowledge your appreciation for the moment 
o Be mindful of the senses that bring the joyful moment about
o Explore your emotion in detail – what emotions are you feeling – where do you feel it?
o Be non-judgemental about what emotions you are feeling, just acknowledge they are there
o Give the feelings a colour that will help intensify those joyous feelings and emotions 

The Joy Seeker 1 Week Challenge
To take part in the ‘Joy Seeker 1 Week Challenge’, email me at info@asterialifecoaching.co.uk requesting the free one week challenge template. Then complete the challenge sheet fully as you go through the week, and take photos, as this really does help to reflect on your joyful experiences, allowing you to relive it time and time again, whenever you desire.  Record at least one joy you’ve felt each day. You may experience more than one joy throughout your day. If you do that’s great!  You’ll probably find the more open you are to experiencing joy, the more self-aware you become, and the more opportunities arrive each day for experiencing joy. Alternatively, if you would prefer to add it to your daily journal entries, that’s fine too, but either way it would be great if you could email me at the above address, to let me know how you did or are doing with the challenge. I really would love to know what joys you experienced during the week. Remember to be as detailed as you can, as this brings colour and helps create a stronger memory of your joys, which in turn helps you to recall more easily that joyful feeling whenever you need a little lift in your day.

​Enjoy this joyful challenge.

I look forward to hearing back from you soon.
​
Julia

I would love to hear your feedback on this blog. If you’re not taking part in the 1 week challenge, perhaps you have a moment of pure joy you'd like to share?​

Hands up all those that want to feel joy any minute of the day, whenever or wherever you choose?

In this blog I’ll explain a little about joy, what it feels like to experience pure joy, and how you can feel it every day of your life.

No this isn’t some crazy gimmick, or inducement to buy into the next feel good gadget that will cost you a week’s wages. The truth is, joy is yours for the taking and you can feel it every day, whenever or wherever you are. Imagine that. Joy on tap! Now that really would be something worth celebrating and something worth showing gratitude for, wouldn’t it?

​Joy often comes unexpectedly into our lives. It can also be recalled by choice, as it evokes such intense emotions within us that the memory can last a lifetime, creating long term benefits for your physiological health and mental well-being. 

Joy has no time constraints. Joy never really leaves you. It can sometimes lay dormant, for days, weeks, months, even years, but when you knock on its door, it’s always there, waiting, ready to welcome you back with open arms. It’s not anyone’s to give, nor can it be taken away from you. It’s your joy, your precious place, which costs you nothing, but remains priceless.

Joy can also be shared with others. Researchers at the Utrecht University in the Netherlands have discovered that you can actually smell joy and happiness. Their research has revealed that humans can pick up whether a person is feeling joyful through their smell. Apparently this is a phenomenon known as chemo signalling. They explain that Chemo signals act as a sort of channel through which people can become 'emotionally synchronised', outside of their conscious awareness. Which means that when you experience an emotion, you can project that emotion onto others, not only in how you act or sound, but by the scent you radiate. This suggests, feeling joyous isn’t just an enjoyable experience for you, but it also has the power to be infectious, through your hearing, sight and sense of smell. So if you want to experience joy more often in your life, it’s important to keep positive, joyous people around you. 

No one can really tell you what your joy is.  It’s subjective. It’s like a fingerprint, it’s completely unique to you. What might be your joy, may not be another person’s joy. The best way I can describe joy is by telling you how it makes you feel.

So what does joy feel like?
Joy comes from your heart, and circulates throughout your whole body, so it’s full to overflowing. It can consume you. It has the power to relax, sooth or re-energises you. Your spirits are lifted, you feel great about yourself, possibly even euphoric. Joy isn’t necessarily just one emotion.  It's more often a collection of emotions that happen simultaneously. To feel a joy, you'll be aware of powerful emotions. Here’s just some of my favourite emotions; Love, elation, happiness, comfort, relaxation, delight, gratitude, relief, inspiration, enthusiasm, optimism, freedom, hope, power, enlightenment, self-worth, excitement, courage, awe, tranquility, contentment, serenity and harmony. 

How to receive joy into your daily life
To experience joy everyday requires self-awareness, a presence of mind. Being actively positive, and consciously aware of your emotions, your environment, even the people around you. You'll need to be willing to receive gratitude into your life, no matter how great or small it is.  Joy requires an open heart to receive it. Then acknowledge it and just let it in. 

You’ll know when you’ve found joy, in maybe a sudden smile that appears on your face, your eyes brighten, your heart feels fuller, and there’s an overwhelming sense of positive abundance within your entire body. You can receive joy in many ways, and it’s very often the little things that bring the greatest sense of irresistible joy.

Unexpected joy – requires no effort on your part for it to appear. Suddenly hey presto there it is! Your only conscious effort is that joy is in your heart and joy is your present state of mind. This could come from a kind word that you didn’t expect, or relief, gratitude and surprise that a situation you thought would be fraught, actually ended up friendly, good-natured and enjoyable. Maybe you listened to a sweet birdsong on your way to work? Perhaps like me, you hear a song come on the radio that just takes you back to a special place. Or the exhilaration, amazement and power of a sudden lightning storm flashing across the night sky. 

Recalling your past joy – Try to think back to a time you felt an overwhelming, and intense sense of joy. It could be watching the early morning sun rise. Hearing your baby giggle with delight. Or was it seeing them walk to you for the first time, as you encourage them to come to you? Possibly you walked past a scent, which immediately transported you back to a time in your childhood. A place where you felt security, warmth, innocence and pleasure. How about that challenge or exams you smashed, and those feelings of success, euphoria and sheer exhilaration? 

These are just some examples of what triggers our feelings of joy. So hold on to them, value, cherish and record them, either in your heart or document in a journal, detailing as much of the memory as you can. Think about where you were, who you were with, what time of day it was. Was it cool or warm? What scents surrounded you? Which emotions did you experience? 

If you can do this, then joy will be yours for the taking, not just in the moment, but time and time again, whenever and wherever you choose.  

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog. I wish you joy wherever you are, whatever you’re doing.

Julia

If you want to discover your star potential and think I may be able to help you, then please call me 07752565740
​
Are You Ready for a Complimentary Coaching Consultation?
See how coaching can benefit you!
Sign-up here

Do you fight with the thoughts of self-doubt and lack the confidence to move on with your life? Do you say to yourself “How can I take action to eliminate negative feelings?” “How can I get back to feeling confident and start living the life I dream of?”

This blog explains why you feel this way and offers 12 ways to claim back your confidence and self-esteem, banishing negativity and self-doubt once and for all.

We all ask these questions of ourselves from time to time. When you are feeling stressed, insecure and vulnerable and your confidence and self-esteem are at a low, it’s important to take some positive action to manage negativity.

​These feelings are a complicated affair as they stem from many reference points. Psychotherapist Suzanne Lachmann, Psy.D, cites 10 sources for low self-esteem which can be deeply embedded in our conscious minds. These experiences can bring about powerful negative thoughts as the mind seeks out evidence to prove these thoughts to be true, seriously impairing our belief that we can achieve our personal goals.

Daniel G. Amen MD helps us to understand why our brains default to Automatic Negative Thoughts or ANT’s.  Without going into too much detail, ANT’s occur when the Limbic System, where our emotions related to our instincts and memories are thought to be controlled from, becomes overactive, and induce negative thought responses. It’s the brains primitive natural response or defence mechanism when we feel threatened.

While this defence mechanism was once a life saver in our modern day existence it’s often detrimental to our mental health and ability to be self-actualised people, that’s living life to one's full potential.   

A key step, is to reset your brain’s default from negative to positive mental behaviours. Employing a Life Coach is also a great way to keeping you motivated and achieving personal goals that you want to achieve.
​
Here are my top 12 tips I’ve put together to improve your mental health and grow in confidence.


1.  Positive thinking
Identify negative thoughts and replace them with positive thoughts.  For example when bad things happen, think what lessons you have learnt from that experience. Try to think of one thing that you can take away from a bad experience and see a way of turning it into positive thinking. For example learning from a mistake or seeing that painful experience has taught you empathy for people who have experienced this.

2.  Set yourself challenges
Start with small challenges that are relatively easy to achieve. Perhaps a personal development goal, fitness, something that makes you feel proud of yourself for achieving. As your confidence grows you take on more challenging goals which require a greater level of confidence to achieve, thus slowly restores your self-esteem.

3.  Practice forgiveness
Don’t let past hurts eat you up inside. Let it go, show compassion and forgive them (or yourself), allowing you to focus on what’s important in the here and now and in your future.

4.  Acknowledge your gratitude
Acknowledge what you’ve got that’s good in your life and show gratitude for it, don’t take them for granted. There’s always someone worse off than you. Write  down 5 things you’re grateful for. This promotes good mental health, as well as an overall sense of wellbeing and happiness.

5.  Helping others
When you can see that others need your help, support them if they need help, not to the point it hurts you to do so or you become intrusive. The act of giving is a powerful thing, leaving you with a sense of raised self-esteem, social connection and happiness.

6.  Spend more time with morale boosters
These are the people that make you feel good about yourself. Spend time with a positive friend or someone who always makes you laugh. Try to dodge the negative sponges who drain you of your energy and happiness; the moaners, pessimists, the glass is half empty type people.

7.  Avoid playing the victim
​Playing the victim and playing the blame game feeds negativity. Remember this is your life to live, so take responsibility for it. It will empower you all the more and your self-esteem and confidence will be boundless.​

​8.  Practice mindfulness and meditation
Mindfulness exercises and meditation are a great way of calming the mind and reducing anxiety. Practising these regularly will restore your self-awareness by being present in the moment.

​9.  Eating a nutritional, healthy, balanced diet
What you eat really can relieve you of negative thoughts and offer clear benefits to our mental wellbeing. Although research is in its infancy, there’s mounting evidence which suggests what we eat affects the function of our brains. See this article published by Community Food and Health (Scotland), ‘Food, mental health and wellbeing’. A word of advice though, speak to your GP before making any changes to your diet.

10.  A regular exercise regime
I can vouch for this claim for its powers in suppressing negative thinking. Regular exercise hugely supports a positive frame of mind. The NHS urges that we should ‘Get active for mental well-being’.

11.   Reconnect with nature
Experience the outdoors. Take a walk in the woods or a place that makes you feel joy, happiness and fully alive. Immerse yourself in the environment. I like to walk with my dog around the local park near Twickenham in West London or go for a ramble around Richmond Park.
​
12.   Earthing yourself
This is the simple act of connecting our bare feet or body to the earth, ideally on a daily basis for around 15 minutes a day. If you want to learn more about earthing I urge you to read the book by Ober, Sinatra and Zucker (2010) Earthing: the most important discovery ever? I’ll also be writing an article about this in one of my future blogs, as well as other life coaching tips, so keep an eye out on my page ‘Julia’s Journal’.
 
You now understand the sources of low self-esteem and confidence, why they occur and some great tips of how to improve your self-esteem and confidence, allowing you the freedom of mind to live the life that enables you to reach your star potential.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas for beating the blues, so please leave your comments after reading this.
​
Julia