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

I’ve long been a student of the science behind personal breakthroughs. What causes them to happen for some people and not others? Are there any foolproof methods for leading people to generating significant breakthrough shifts in their lives? As you know, I’ve gathered up a kickass toolbox for bringing my clients to genuine, lasting joy, and I’m always looking to expand it. Some friends of mine have put together a model I’m going to be exploring, so I thought I’d invite you to explore it with me.

According to the creators of Final Breakthrough 2012, breakthrough comes from the building of momentum in your life, which literally “pulls in” unexpected opportunities and life-changing occurrences. They describe it as being in the “zone” when you’re completely on top of your game. The secret to reaching this zone comes from the careful management of your agreements — agreements you’ve made with others, or with yourself.

The Final Breakthrough process begins October 1, 2012 and if you follow the steps, you are guaranteed to get a breakthrough before this year is over. All the information is here. See if you’d like to join me!

It’s my birthday, and this is what my calendar screams at me each Sept 2: “Hey, Dummy! Your precious, beautiful life is happening! What the frig are you doing with it?” In recent years, I’ve always had a saucy, self-lovin’ retort ready. After all, joy, authenticity, and self-love are my gig. I’ve got to walk my talk. Model my wares.

But today I find myself at a loss to respond. It’s been so much limbo. I’d planned for this year to bring enormous shifts – professionally and personally – and it’s turned out to be something quite different. A year of dipping my toe into stream after stream, never jumping in. A rudderless year of perpetual anticipation.

It’s like I’m on an island, and all my end-goals are on another island. I start building a bridge to take me over there, and then that bridge doesn’t feel exactly right. So I abandon it and start building another one. But then I get the idea for a third bridge, so I start building that one instead. What do I have to show for this year? A kickass collection of half-built bridges. And I still haven’t touched that destination island. (Thanks, Gia, for inspiring the bridge metaphor.)

But has it been a bad year? Not in the least. I’m beyond blessed to have the phenomenal friends, family, and opportunities I have. I wake up profoundly, through-the-roof grateful every single day. And maybe that’s all I need to do right now – just keep being full-force grateful for the mountains of love I’m in the position to give and receive, even as I struggle with career crossroads, a dying mom, and all the personal mini-escapades that cause my life to feel like someone’s pushed the cosmic pause-button on it.

I trust that Universe is behind all of this. I trust that the pause-button has its divinely perfect purpose in the grand scheme of what I’m here to do. I know that if I just keep waking up each day sincerely asking Source how I can most passionately and effectively deliver the gifts I’m here to give, that eventually the play-button will get pushed again. And from that inevitable future perspective, I’ll look back and see, with chuckle-inducing clarity, how everything – including all my half-built bridges – has been a necessary stepping-stone toward that exquisitely sweet moment.

In some ways then, the cycle will probably start all over again. As it should. But in answer to my calendar’s impertinent question about what I’m doing with my precious, beautiful life . . . this time I have to respond, “I’m being it. That’s all.”

I wasn’t pleased with Hurricane Isaac when he caused the cancellation of my Juicy Joy gig for 500+ joy-seekers in Naples today. I was totally psyched for a weekend on the other coast and it killed me to think of those 500+ people going another second without the benefit of my sage Juicy Joyful tutelage! Time to do some joyifying on me.

Of course, I started by recognizing that in the grand scheme of unwanted circumstances caused by hurricanes, my complaint was utterly picayune. Downright itty bitty. Besides, the change of plans meant I could spend the weekend with my two favorite people in the universe – the ones I happened to have given birth to. And to be honest, we’ve always totally loved hurricanes. I say this with the utmost compassion for anyone who’s been less fortunate, but for us, hurricane memories are nothing but fun.

We snuggled up at the window with warm bagels to watch nature have her way with our backyard. We’re off to the right of Isaac’s direct path, which basically means just lots of heavy rain and dramatic, exciting wind. When my kids were young, we had a rainy-day habit of throwing on bathing suits and running out to dance wildly in the elements – especially on warm days and especially when it was a real soaker. Tuck and Kate are 14 and 10 now, so it’s been quite a few years since we’ve indulged that tradition.

Kate was the first to say it. “Mom, can we rain-dance?”

Within seconds we were spinning, giggling, howling, and crazy-leaping through raindrops so dense they kinda hurt and wind that actually made it impossible to stand up straight. It was freakin’ amazing. Goosebump-inducing! Free, free, free! How indescribably juicy to wholly surrender . . . to playfully merge with such a wild, exhilarating, rare expression of nature’s power!

After a while Tuck noticed that Isaac had transformed our pool into a wave-pool worthy of water-park status. Irresistible! We splashed and surfed until the regrettable first boom of thunder coaxed us back inside to our toasty-warm huddle by the window.

I was looking forward to my Juicy Joy workshop in Naples today. But I wouldn’t have traded these rain-soaked, memory-making hours for anything. The workshop will be rescheduled. And those lucky joy-seekers will now get an even more practiced re-framer and a more genuinely joy-fortified me.

Once again, dear Universe — thank you, thank you for my “unwanted circumstance.”

We’re having us some fun at the free Juicy Joy Community. Here’s an example of the sage wisdom I’m sharing (hee-hee). A beloved and bedraggled member posted the question, “Why do we need Juicy Joy? We’re so busy just trying to get through each day…jobs, family, community obligations…we hardly have time to sleep….?”

My answer: “I feel you, G! You are so speaking to me right now (she says with the sleepless slur of a manic pre-conference week). But all that busy-ness just makes us need Juicy Joy even more. Know why zombies are so hot right now? Let me tell you my theories: Society embraces what it’s subconsciously relating to. Vampires were all the rage for a while because so many of us were walking around DENYING our wants, RESISTING our natural thirst for life, and PRETENDING to be satisfied with far less than actually satisfies us. Now, it seems as a culture we’ve moved onto zombie mania, which to me just means we’ve collectively given up. We’re tired of thirsting after a life that always seems just outside of our grasp, so we’re learning to numb ourselves. We walk around in an implicitly-agreed upon fog of apathy, not even noticing that our faces are falling away and our limp limbs are dangling by a vein — (analogy gone amuck? okay, but you get the point, right?) WE NEED JUICY JOY TO PREVENT THE INEVITABLE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE THAT’S UPON US!

Join the free Juicy Joy Community and you, too, can participate in such lofty banter. C’mon. You know you want to. www.juicyjoy.ning.com.

Hey, all you LOA fans — Do you know about this awesome magazine?  It’s full of topical, insightful articles by Bob Doyle, Mike Dooley, Jack Canfield, Neale Donald Walsch, Don Miguel Ruiz . . . and ME!  Get the brand new Law of Attraction magazine at Barnes and Noble, Target, Safeway, Walgreens, Kroeger, Books-A-Million, Walmart, Giant, CVS, SuperValu or Costco.  Or you can buy it online at http://www.shop.absolutelovepublishing.com/main.sc  Kudos to Sue Elliot for using the LOA to bring this stunning, quality publication into fruition!  It’s the perfect tool to counter-balance all the negativity we’re all subjected to in our day-to-day routine. Just skimming through it will give you a juicy-good burst of brightness!