The Joy of Lent (that's what I said...): An introduction to the idea behind The Re/Joy Project

A yoga sadhana is a practice meant to transform you.

TRANS. FORM.

Make you into a new form.

Often a dedicated sadhana will last 40 days, and so we come to lent.

Like any religious practice, lent is only as effective and meaningful as the energy we’re willing to put into it.

First we have to decide that this time is more than just an excuse to diet (don’t do that regardless…). And second, we have to decide to reclaim it from the toxic Christianity that has overtaken the truth and beauty of what Christ actually intended.

It’s no accident that lent takes place during this time when we’re all feeling the weight of winter and a deep desire to awaken to more light and warmth. (And my god… as I re-read that sentence… all we’ve been through and all that is currently happening… it surely takes on even more meaning than I even first intended.)

In the Northern Hemisphere, the body of Earth herself is awakening over the next 40 days. By the time we get to the end of lent, most of us will be seeing a profusion of (or the start of a profusion of) tulips, daffodils, green buds, returning birds, pea shoots, thawed bodies of water, warmth in the air, sun that penetrates to bone.

Are we not meant to go through the same process?

Alas, lent ends in a death, you protest, so how can it be included in this more pagan view of rebirthing/awakening things? Regardless of resurrection (or instantaneous reincarnation, as I like to think of it), that death was meant to remove the final veil of fear so that we might live in these bodies “free of all anxiety.”

This time of year is meant for us to shed all the darkness of winter, but more than that, it’s meant to take us through processes that help us to shed the idea of body as burden.

Perhaps we can take on a different sort of lenten journey in which we awaken the body to the light and warmth of our own love for ourselves and thus deepen our capacity to love “other.”

I challenge you — during this very serious time of the year and this very serious time of all of our lives — to be less serious and more joyful.

For lent, I am consciously working on “giving up” my existential despair as a default coping and protection mechanism.

I am consciously working on “giving up” disbelief in the wonder and beauty and magic of life.

I am consciously working on embodying the joy of Peony the Cat.

Would you like to join me?

To start, I will be spending more time cataloging things that bring me joy.

Cataloging can look like written lists but also photos. #DailyJoy

I’ll be paying extra attention to noticing every bit of earth awakening right around me.

I’ll also be spending more time moving in ways that bring me a deep sense of connection to the joy well that already exists within me but that I tend to disregard when things are going badly in the outside world.

What might you add to this list? #therejoyproject

Joy List

This selfie photo series about rebirth in that Phoenix way is freaking AH.MAZING. Taken at the perfect spot… an active volcano in Iceland. (Done safely as is pointed out.)

This habit tracker app is my favorite I’ve ever used. SO SIMPLE and clean. It’s really upped my movement and meditation. And though I just purchased premium for super cheap, the free was working just fine.

One of my greatest joys this year has been my renewed obsession with great novels, and wow… I just keep reading one amazing work after another. I’m focusing mostly on works by women of color to fill in the hole in my literacy created by undergrad/grad work that, of course, focused on the traditional white man canon. ((Extreme rolling of eyes.)) My most recent fave was this (though it’s hard to pick).

I’m starting to obsess over paint colors to redo some of the spaces in our new to us very old Victorian home. And I’m especially loving this green for the kitchen. I mean… even just the name!

While I’m walking, I usually — or lately — listen to happy happy music, but I’ve started inserting a bit of Sadhguru here and there for the first part of my work to work on some mindset issues I’m having and this is extra good.

When I go to a cafe to think and write, I’ve started listening again to this Max Richter. It makes my brain work at a higher level, I swear!

Roses. I keep finding more roses that I want in front of our house. Here are two frontrunners: this and this.

And finally these silly little messenger figures… so silly but they bring me so much delight to even just look at them. Which one would you love to have on your desk?

I would love to hear from you! What books/movies/music are you really geeking out over right now?

Joy Gem in the City & The Function of Memory in a Happy Life

I’ve written about this idea that I use in movement classes called “joy gems,” in which I ask you to remember in great sensory detail a happy moment from any time in your life. This stuff is important for healing trauma on a neurological/biological level. You can read more details about how this works here.

This is a share of a joy gem of my own with some thoughts on memory…

Moving into this house in this part of this city has felt like a string of miracles or coincidences or whatever you want to call it.

So much had to go right, had to be just right.

Now if you weren’t around during this or if you just didn’t hear me talking about it, when we walked into this house, I knew it was for us. Immediately.

But later it struck me that I knew that because it had the energy of one of my favorite houses of my whole life — the house of my GreatAunt Ardelle in Erie.

She was a special human. (Some day, she deserves a book (or two) written about how special and all the things she taught me, whether knowingly or unknowingly.)

One of my favorite things when I was very little was getting to spend the night at Ardelle’s. I would sleep on her davenport right off of her bedroom. The front of the house was visible as the whole thing was quite open and the front big window opened onto what was one of the busier roads in Erie.

I would lie there, not sleeping, watching the lights drift across the ceiling as cars drove by.

When I was little, there was something so very thrilling and also so very soothing about this.

The other night, here, in Columbus, 52 year old me could not sleep, so I made my way to our front room and laid on the couch, facing the big window that looks out toward the street.

Suddenly, the car lights were washing across the ceiling…

I had not noticed this before. I hadn’t thought about it as a possibility.

And there it was… like a beacon from little, 4 year old me…

As I was getting ready to write about this, I decided to look for a quote about memory and one of the first to pop up was this, by one of my favorite authors:

“I can only note that the past is beautiful because one never
realises an emotion at the time.
It expands later, and thus we don't have complete emotions about
the present, only about the past.”
― Virginia Woolf

There is so much truth in what she says.

If you doubt, just think back to a day that was uber special — a wedding, a birth, anything of great significance — and think about how difficult it can feel to be truly present to it. How it’s so very overwhelmingly wonderful that it can almost feel like you are missing it as it is happening.

But later, LATER, looking back… there it is.

It’s this looking back at these sorts of moments that can heal us. And I think it’s a large piece of the puzzle of healing that can be missing, as we take so much time to “unearth” and “understand” and “process” the difficult things that have happened to us, which is important, but not more important than this… the work of constructing a memory edifice of light and love.

Choosing Joy: It's not trite

This is taking ultimate responsibility for our lives. It's hard and sometimes I just want to throw a temper tantrum and say NO! I'M EXHAUSTED!

Sometimes the reality of this power we hold as individuals just makes me mad... why can't someone else do it!?

Choosing joy is not trite. It’s not about giggles or excitement, though it can be.

It’s something so much deeper.

If you’ve suffered from any sort of depression or anxiety, all of this can feel even more difficult and almost… cruel, right? Like how do we DO THIS in light of those mental health challenges especially?! When we barely have the energy to get out of bed, how do we choose joy?!

In light of those challenges, it’s actually more important that we become conscious of the fact of this choice.

In bed, when we are struggling, can we look around for even a hint of joy that could motivate us?

If you’ve known me for more than five minutes, you know that would be the sight of my cat, Peony.

When I’ve been in some of my darkest moments in this human form, the thought of that cat… the purrs of that cat, have saved me.

Joy has saved me.

“Do not look for rest in any pleasure, because you were not created for pleasure: you were created for spiritual joy. And if you do not know the difference between pleasure and spiritual joy you have not yet begun to live.”

— Thomas Merton

#DailyJoy: Skin Care

I don’t get anything from anyone when I write about stuff like this. If that changes, you know I’ll be transparent about it.

I’ve always taken decent care of my skin, and before I start talking about product, a little reminder that the best skin care is an inside job.

My skin looks freaking AMAZING when I drink ALL the splish splash (or water…whatever…I prefer this name given by Donnie Quinn one day in a class), when I eat massive amounts of fruits and veggies, when I sleep well, when I move well, when I laugh a TON.

That said… I love me some good skin care and the picture to the right is a small sample of my current favorites.

My routine is to switch things up a lot. Your skin doesn’t want the same shit put on it every single day from here to eternity… just like your muscles don’t want to be doing the same freaking yoga or whatever routine. Change is good and healthy.

I do this changey thing on a macro level — always looking for new products — and a micro level — daily cycling through different products.

Every morning, I do a gentle scrub with one of a few scrubs at hand. Every evening, I do a toner with one of a few toners at hand. And I am constantly using different day and night creams.

Onto the goods… these are my current OH MY GOD THIS IS AMAZING favorites:

(Note: I have skin that rarely gets a pimple and it’s normal to dry…never oily. Just so you know that these things are geared toward that.)

I got this Glazen Face Glow from Butter of London as a sample when I ordered some nail stuff (LOVE them for nails) and WOW. Like, I cannot say enough about this stuff. Makes my skin feel baby butt soft and then it also makes me look like I bothered with makeup. HA! It comes in different shades.

I love LUSH (and so does my husband, if you have a man in your life who likes good smelling stuff). Right now I’m obsessed with their Cup O’Coffee face mask. I do it once or twice a week and it always looks like I got an expensive facial, especially if I follow it with Magical Moringa Beauty Balm. I also smell so good, you might want to eat my face.

Speaking of baby butt soft faces, this one is new to me this week and again, OB.SESSED. Vitamin C Skin Boost Instant Smoother is everything its name says and more. I really can’t describe it.

I am also loving the Body Shop’s Petal Soft GEL Toner. (For some reason I couldn’t find it on their site but I just bought it at their store.)

And finally, I happened upon this last one by pure luck at a local organic grocer. Acure Radically Rejuvenating Facial Scrub with rose oil is just gentle enough to use every day. Or every other, as is my case.

I could go on forever but would love to hear what you’re loving lately.