Choose Joy Anyway

Hello Brave Reader,

There is a great deal of chaos and conflict unfolding around us in the world, and it can be deeply destabilizing to the nervous system. We can feel powerless as we watch the price of the simplest things like vegetables go up. Or the cost of gas rise. It is scary to think where this will lead and how this will affect our daily lives and security. I don’t know about you but security is an important thing to me and worrying about it can send me into a tailspin. I’m a single mum so I feel the weight of my family’s safety on my shoulders daily.

Then I remember that this is life, and that while some things are out of my control there are many things still within my control - like how I react to it, how i breath and how I view the world around me. There is still so much to be grateful for, like the cup of tea I get to make in the morning, or the buds of green bursting from every branch I look at….or the daffodils and tulips sprouting up on people’s lawns. The days are getting longer, and here in the Northern Hemisphere, everything feels like it’s coming back to life. It’s quietly, stubbornly beautiful.

So how about you? How are you doing? What are you grateful for right now? What simple things are currently bringing you joy? I ask because it is such things as lightness, joy and gratitude which can act like a superpower we can access when the swirl of the outside world around us becomes too much for our nervous system or our minds.

There is this amazing Hindu Goddess I often think about when I want to call in Joy and Lightness. Her name is Lalita and it means “She who plays”. One may think she is not that important of a goddess, given her name however she is in fact considered one of the highest manifestations of the goddess in Hinduism and is often venerated as the Mother of the Universe. That is because she embodies the ultimate power that creates and sustains the Universe. It is that imperceptible almost defiant energy that insists on pushing through the darkness, very much like those buds of green that have been gestating throughout the coldest darkest winter waiting to burst forth at the first sign of Spring.

We have that energy inside us too - we just need to activate it.

Lalita’s playful energy reminds us that life is not meant to be heavy or burdensome, but that it is, at its core, a celebration of existence. She teaches us that there are lighter ways to meet challenges: Joy is the best way to combat fear. Play can make us brave and bold. Love and compassion are infinite in the energy they bring us. Creativity enriches our lives, enabling us to express ourselves, solve problems, adapt and connect with others.

We cannot control what other people do or the cruel choices they make or their belief systems - I’m talking about the world around and what we are seeing when I say that. But we have power in choice. And sometimes, choosing joy—choosing lightness—is its own kind of rebellion.

So today, I hope you make space for a little of it. A moment of laughter. A small act of care. Something that feels like you again. Joy doesn’t have to wait until everything feels safe or certain. It can exist right alongside fear and doubt. The work is to hold both—to allow the fear to be there, like a shadow—and to choose joy anyway.

Life will always bring its tests. That’s part of the deal. But you have more power than you think—in what you notice, in what you nurture, in what you choose.

Maybe today, that looks like a little lightness.
So that tomorrow, you can meet what comes.