Have you ever had a moment or experience, maybe even an entire season of life that was so hard, so filled with struggle and, maybe even, grief, loss and uncertainty, that the very idea of feeling or accessing any kind of big or meaningful or sustained happiness or joy just completely left you? And those well-intended folks around you who tried to refocus your heart and mind on good things and gratitude actually just made you feel even worse because the darkness you were navigating was so far beyond what platitudes can help? Yeah, we’ve all been there on some level.
But, what if, even in those moments where the big happy, or the big joy just isn’t accessible, there was still a way to dip into fleeting moments of lightness, or what my dear friend and guest today, Cyndie Spiegel, calls microjoys? One that gives you just enough of a glimmer of hope and connection, ease and maybe even laughter, that it keeps you going long enough to begin to emerge back into a state of more sustained spaciousness and possibility?
Cyndie is a speaker and best-selling author, founder of the social community Dear Grown Ass Women, a beloved storyteller-turned-writer and an igniter of power conversation who’s been featured in publications like Forbes, Entrepreneur, and Glamour. Her new book, Microjoys: Finding Hope (Especially) When Life Is Not Okay, is a revelation. She first began holding on to what she calls microjoys during a devastating season that saw her mom pass from cancer, her nephew murdered, her brother struggling to recover from a stroke, and her own diagnosis of cancer, all while navigating a global pandemic. It was a seismic pile-on of suffering that completely vanished the prospect of any kind of meaningful or sustained happiness. But that very season also led her to an epiphany about what she calls “microjoys,” the practice of finding and taking note of fleeting moments of lightness, delight, surprise, serendipity, comfort and hope in her life, even despite the pain of it all. That’s what we’re diving into today, both the notion of microjoys, along with myriad ways to access these moments and experiences.
You can find Cyndie at: Website | Dear Grown Ass Women | Instagram
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