When my sisters and I were young and getting excited about something, my mother would often pull a face and say, don’t tempt fate! She had the idea that if we showed the world, we were happy then the world would hit back.
In a similar vein, Brene Brown says that human beings find joy to be the most terrifying of experiences. She describes the feeling that she has when she watches her children sleeping and rather than savouring the moment, imagines all the catastrophes that could assail them. She calls this foreboding joy—the way in joy can make us feel vulnerable and so we dress-rehearse tragedy to try and protect ourselves.
But if we continuously protect ourselves from joy then we also lose out. We numb ourselves to the numerous everyday moments that can nourish and sustain us in bringing meaning into our lives.
This workshop aims to correct this misunderstanding by examining how joy works and exploring how it differs from happiness. We’ll focus on joy as a state of being, rather than a transient emotion that relies on everything going well before we can experience it. On a practical level we’ll look at methods we can use to cultivate joy, as well as avoiding the behaviours that undermine it.
This two hour workshop consists of talks, video extracts, exercises, sharing and discussion. Participants will receive a PDF workbook with all the main quotes, charts and exercises.
Learning Objective Participants Can Expect From This Event
- To gain a more complete understanding of how joy functions.
- To learn practical ways in which we can cultivate joy and also how to avoid undermining it.
- To realise how important joy is to wellbeing and stability.
Who is This Workshop Appropriate For?
- For colleagues who are interested in supporting their clients to grow in confidence in their ability to relax into joy.
How May This Workshop Impact Your Practice?
- The aim of this workshop is to help participants increase their range of methods and skilful means to enable themselves and their clients.
