Find Your Flow Challenge – Week Two

 

When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.
― Rumi

Hello, Lovelies!

Welcome to Week Two of the free Find Your Flow Challenge. I’ll be posting every Tuesday in September, with activities and rituals to help you get back into flow. If you missed last week’s post you can start that here.

Last week we worked to make more space for ourselves in our lives, and practiced better self-care.

This week our focus is on nurturing joy. Are you ready? Let’s go!

WEEK TWO – NURTURING JOY

Let’s start by recapping what flow is all about.

Flow is a natural state that we are all capable of achieving. When we are in flow:

• we can deeply engage with tasks
• we are aligned with our authentic self and we use our talents and gifts
• we experience a sense of calm and satisfaction
• we have a natural sense of our next steps.

One of the things that facilitates flow is joy.

While joy and happiness are often used interchangeably, there are subtle differences between the two. Joy is a sense of contentment and fulfillment that arises from within. It evokes a sense of peace and serenity, and it can be experienced even in the midst of challenges or difficult circumstances. Joy lights you up from the inside.

Happiness is associated with external factors and circumstances. It tends to be a more fleeting emotion that arises from positive events or outcomes. Happiness is generally linked to specific experiences, achievements, or external conditions that bring pleasure and satisfaction. Happiness can also be easily destroyed by external factors beyond your control. It’s a lot like feeling the warmth of the sun’s rays. If a cloud comes by and covers the sun, there goes your happiness.

Joy is a deeper and more lasting state of well-being that can be experienced regardless of external circumstances, whereas happiness is a more temporary and fleeting emotion tied to specific events or conditions.

Activities For Week Two

1. Reconnecting to joy meditation

To connect to joy more easily now, it helps if we can remember moments of joy that we have previously experienced.

Take a favourite crystal, close your eyes, and consciously slow your breathing, allowing your body to relax. Let your mind to drift back to a time when you felt the emotion of being lit up from within – that beautiful experience of joy. Think of what was happening for you at that time, and any other emotions you may have experienced, such as wonder, awe or love. Perhaps you felt joy at a baby’s smile, or a magical sunset, or while travelling, or from the feeling of freedom. Perhaps it was dancing or listening to music, or being surrounded by people you love, or doing something fulfilling or creative. Hold that feeling of joy in your heart like a spark, and then ask the Universe to send you more of this joyful energy, more of these joyful experiences. Trust that joy can find you again. Give thanks, and in your own time bring your awareness back into your body, and back into the room.

2. Reconnecting to joy card spread

Take your favourite deck of oracle or tarot cards and shuffle them well, while holding the intention that you gain insights into how to become more joyful. Then choose five cards and place them face down in front of you from left to right. Hold your crystal in your non-writing hand or place it close beside you.

1. Turn over the first card. This card shows you What is blocking your joy right now? Spend some time journalling about your insights and intuition into this situation. If it feels right you can draw up to three more cards for this question.
2. Turn over the second card. This card shows you  What can you do to remedy the situation you uncovered in card One? Look back at your first card, and also at what you wrote in your journal in response to that card. Now let Card Two show you solutions to this thing/things that are blocking your joy.
3. Turn over the third card. This card shows you  What can you do to find more joy in life? Write down your insights and intuition about this card. Trust what comes to you and know that your wise self really wants to help you with this.
4. Turn over the fourth card. This card shows you  Where are you leaking energy and life-force right now? We can’t connect with joy when we are stressed are exhausted. Let Card Four show you what needs to change, and then write down your insights.
5. Turn over the fifth card. This card shows you What is your path back to joy? We live in a magical world, and we are deeply intuitive and have the capacity to tune in to the magic all around us. Let Card Five show you how to connect to that magic which sparks joy inside you. Write down any ideas or insights.

When you are finished, take a phot of your cards to remind you of what you learned here today, and then hold your crystal, close your eyes, give thanks for these insights, and ask the Universe for help as you seek greater joy, connection and flow in your life. Be aware of any energies or colours that come to you as you hold your stone.

3. Tend To Your Altar

This week find some small devotional objects to add to your altar. Let these be things that spark joy in you, or that represent things, people or activities that could bring joy to your life. As you do so, keep asking the Universe (or God, Guides, Angels, Ancestors – whatever is your thing) to help you find more balance in your life, and to open you up to finding or creating joy in the world around you, and within yourself. Trust that you are a magical spiritual being, living a human life. Know that you have the power of love, awe and wonder on your side. Make a wish, and allow for the possibility that it can come true! This is sacred work, and you have known how to do this work across lifetimes.

4. Find Five Ways To Be Good To Yourself

Think of five ways to be good to yourself. This could include resting, exercising your body, devoting time to something or someone you love, finishing work early, booking a holiday, going to a movie, or drinking more water. Whatever you choose, choose it because it will ease your stress, help you to feel better about yourself or take better care of yourself, and will nourish something within you. Feel free to do more than five. If you’re up to it, try doing five each day! That kind of self-care can be life-changing.

5. Review Week One of the Challenge

Go back to Week One and review the challenge. Choose something from that week that feels right for you, and that will help you create more space in your life. More space equals more opportunity for joy! And if you haven’t yet, Join our free Facebook Group for extra support and connection. Each week we are moving closer to finding our flow!

Thanks for joining me on this journey towards greater flow. Feel free to drop me a note in the comments or over on Facebook and let me know how you are going. I’m cheering you on!

See you next Tuesday for our third lesson. Much love, Nicole xx