Juicy Joy – A Personal Development Book of Authenticity and Self-Love

I’m celebrating Louise Hay’s birthday with her this weekend. What a deliciously wonderful sentence to get to write. For millions all over the planet, Louise has been the catalyst to a vastly improved existence. How must it feel, at 85, to look back on a life so abundantly well-lived?

Most of us in this New Thought community (a community we have Louise to thank for, in large part) are dedicated to spreading messages of love and compassion with the intention of raising the consciousness of humankind to a more peaceful, connected level. But how many of us can even imagine creating the kind of global infiltration of juicy goodness that Louise is personally responsible for?

Her goal in establishing Hay House—now the largest, most active publisher of New Thought material in the world—was obviously to uplift and inspire as many people as she possibly could. So the question becomes: Did its success surpass her wildest dreams? My guess is no. My guess is that it matched her dreams precisely.

Louise has achieved her miraculous legacy steadily and gracefully, by consistently applying one simple principle. It’s the principle she built her career upon: belief. She’s bestowed the invaluable gifts of clarity, joy, and desperately-needed self-love upon millions of people, simply by believing, unwaveringly, that she could do that. (“I Can Do It,” said Louise.) Imagine how much we, together, could achieve if we too maintained that kind of pure, unfaltering faith.

One of her many popular affirmations goes, “I know what I send out comes back to me.” If that’s true (and it is) then Louise Hay is without any doubt the most love-wealthy soul walking this earth. I can’t wait to see what she does next.

I’ve been spending some quality time with my vision board today, and I’m moved to share with you a clipping from it that instantly evokes the rich essence of Juicy Joy:

O, to take what we love inside,
to carry within us an orchard, to eat
not only the skin, but the shade,
not only the sugar, but the days, to hold
the fruit in our hands, adore it . . .

There are days we live . . .
from joy
to joy to joy, from wing to wing,
from blossom to blossom to
impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.

– Li-Young Lee, from “From Blossoms”

Feel that?

Every fall I reflect on this D.H. Lawrence quote. It’s a tiny bit unsettling . . . but mostly juicy joyful, I think. Liberating, even. The only thing we can count on not to change is the truth that things will always change! When we resist change, we block our creativity. Our lives are constantly in flux, we’re constantly evolving and growing, and all that newness, all that FRESHNESS, that’s what creativity feeds off of. We fear change because we believe the conditions in our lives determine our happiness. We form relationships with things, with people, with conditions, and then, when the dynamics of these relationships change, as they must, we blame the change for our unhappiness. But our experience of lost joy has never had anything to do with joy itself withdrawing or withholding its goodies from us. We fear change when we view the limitations of our present moment as being the extent of our possibilities. If you let JOY be defined by some pleasurable condition over which you have, at best, temporary command, FEAR of losing that joy will run you. You’ll feel constant pressure to work diligently to keep prevailing conditions in place. This, of course, means you’ll resist any movement that threatens your status quo. Creativity cannot exist without movement, and creativity is the key that unlocks Juicy Joy!

Eleanor Roosevelt said: “You must do the things you think you cannot do.” I believe she was talking about overcoming our resistances to living authentically and passionately — living in Juicy Joy. I mean, there’s really no point in doing a bunch of stuff you think you cannot do unless those things will expand you and propel you toward your dreams. These “things we think we cannot do” are the obstacles that keep us from our Juicy Joy. And it’s hard to force ourselves to do them! Sometimes it feels impossible. When that’s the case, it’s time to ask: How committed are you to living the richly textured life you crave? Do you believe, deep down, that you deserve that life? If not, why don’t you deserve it? Nothing good can come to you until you first believe that you deserve to have it. So if you can’t yet bring yourself to “do the things you think you cannot do,” take an honest look at your beliefs about how much joy, abundance, bliss, and adventure you deserve. Getting clear on that is one of the most powerful steps you can take toward claiming your Juicy Joy and stepping into your glorious, gutsy self. (Today is definitely a day for “teaching what I need to learn” about Juicy Joy.)

A client of Zig Ziglar’s once complained to him, “Zig, all this motivation stuff is great, but it just doesn’t last.” And Zig said, “Neither does showering. That’s why we do it every day.” It’s true. Anyone who’s experienced genuine life transformation will tell you that small, regular doses of inspiration can add up to rock-your-world, juicy-joyful benefits. My visionary friend, Dr. Clint Steele, has developed a brilliant program around this concept, and I’m thrilled to be a part of it. If you’re looking for maximum personal development results from a minimum investment of time and money, you’ll want to check out 2 Minutes to Greatness: www.2minutestogreatness.com