Growing Joy

For years, I struggled with my self-image and how to make my dual pursuits of faith and fitness fit together. Maybe you can relate. Everything changed one day when I decided I was tired of looking in the mirror and started looking solely toward God. What he showed me is that true strength - physical, emotional, and spiritual - starts from the inside out. When you're staying connected to God, you'll find that eating well and exercising regularly will be so much easier. Your faith, food choices, and fitness will all just naturally flow together as part of your healthy and whole life.

Some of the most profound growth of our lives can happen in the home stretch, the years after age 60 or so. It's a time when we can finally crystallize the meaning of what we've been and done so far and fully expand into the self we've always intended to be, guided by the voice of the soul. But, says psychologist Charles Garfield, that can only happen if we first loosen the grip of the life we've led so far, the one that's been focused outwardly - on activity, achievement, and the idea of success - and let our souls lead the way.

The spiritual path is a journey into joy. In joy, life flows freely in us and we flow freely in life. We do not learn to live in joy overnight; it is a lifelong process. Joy is not found merely by smiling and thinking positive thoughts, but by releasing our blocks and opening, a step at a time, to our soul. Pain is a message that something is wrong. We can grow by constructively dealing with it, but when we live with consciousness and skill, we minimize pain and increasingly grow through joyful means rather than the “school of hard knocks.” Growing Through Joy can help you experience ...

Step into "The Joy of Herbs," a comprehensive and enlightening journey for those seeking to embrace the natural wonders and enriching traditions of herbalism. This valuable resource will captivate your senses and guide your green-thumbed ambitions as you traverse the fascinating realms of herbal lore and practical gardening wisdom. Delve into the historical tapestry where the roots of herbology are deeply entwined with our ancestors' way of life, exploring a treasury of health benefits and culinary uses that have stood the test of time. Cultivate your herbal haven with ease using insights ...

Dive into the enriching world of personal growth and thriving happiness with "The Seeds of Joy" - your guide to blossoming well-being in the digital age! Immerse yourself into the groundbreaking realm of Positive Psychology with this transformative eBook that provides tools to not only understand the science of happiness but to actively nurture it in every facet of life. "The Seeds of Joy" is a carefully curated journey through the core dimensions of well-being that shape our lives, from the cradle to the golden years. Embark on a voyage of self-discovery with Chapter 1, as it unveils the ...

Oregon teenager and tennis champ Jeff McKenzie can’t wait for summer vacation. But when he decides to take his Bronco for a joyride on the Hamptons’ farm land, he gets into real hot water. As punishment Jeff is ordered to work on the farm for the first few weeks of summer. Getting up early and working with Mexican immigrants just doesn’t appeal to him. The only thing he looks forward to is seeing the Hamptons’ eldest daughter Alexa, who he is quickly falling for. Gradually he comes to appreciate the hardworking people....

It takes just a short browse through the dictionary to spot how it is filled with negative words. But Susie has searched far and wide to unearth happy and uplifting words and phrases that, in some cases, have been long-forgotten and, in other cases, have only just been discovered. This is the perfect book to lift you out of your mubble fubbles (a slightly sad mood), make you grin like a gigglemug (someone who never stops smiling), and have you chortling (laughing) away in no time. This joyous collection of 100 positive words will show listeners young and old just how wonderful language can be.

There are many misconceptions about what it means to be humble. Some think that being humble means hiding your talents and abilities or being weak and inauthentic. But the Bible paints a different picture—defining humility as a self-forgetfulness leading to joy and explaining that it is a life-giving virtue that frees you from the restricting needs of your ego. In Humility: The Joy of Self-Forgetfulness, Gavin Ortlund encourages listeners that humility is not just an abstract virtue but a mark of gospel integrity.

Ryan Hart is caught in the middle. She has an older brother and a new baby sister, and she’s in a friendship tug-of-war with two friends who both want to be her best best friend. How can Ryan think about being kind to a classmate who is relentless with his teasing? Or be her signature sunny self when her brother, Ray, pulls the ultimate prank? But even when it seems like nothing is going her way, Ryan still looks for a way to see the bright side of things, refusing to let anything steal her joy, and finding ways to share it with everyone she meets.

The Joy Thief is a story that helps children and adults to discover more about a subject that is often difficult to understand. Demonstrating the subjectivity of trauma, The Joy Thief highlights how a seemingly ordinary occurrence can have a significant impact upon the well-being of a child, particularly if left unaddressed. Challenging the idea that trauma occurs only during more "serious" incidents, The Joy Thief leads us to conclude that such occurrences, or rather our responses to them, may be more significant for children's mental health.

When twins Lydia and Marco are approached to be on their dance studio's jazz team, Lydia is thrilled. She and Marco both love to dance and used to have fun dancing together as kids. But lately, it seems their relationship has grown more distant. Lydia can't wait to dance with her brother again, but Marco is worried. He's used to hip-hop and will be the only boy on the team. And when bullies start mocking Marco for doing "girl dances", it could spell trouble for the whole team.

From 17 acclaimed Black male and nonbinary authors comes a vibrant collection of stories and poems about the power of joy and the wonders of Black boyhood.

In 2018 I lost my partner Clayton to a terminal illness just 10 months after my father passed away. The storm of the first 2 years led into a pandemic and I was trapped alone in my widowed world. I could feel the loneliness and depression sinking in. Watching others post about their pandemic grief sounded just like I did at the start of my journey. I could just give in or I could take hold of the gift we all have inside - The ability to generate my own joy. I quickly learned I could use that gift to fight the darkness so I started to dance on social media. At the same time, I began to share...

Ageless Joy: Funny Affirmations for Seniors embark on a delightful journey filled with humor, wisdom, and the power of laughter. This heartwarming ebook is tailored to seniors who know that age is just a number and that a joyful spirit is timeless. Life is an adventure, and as we gracefully age, there's no better way to embrace it than with laughter and positivity. Within these pages, you'll find a collection of hilarious affirmations tailored for seniors who love to see the lighter side of life. Whether you're lifting your coffee cup in your daily exercise routine or showcasing your tech ...

The Storm Dragons will harness the incredible powers of thunder, lightning, and snow to help defeat a brand-new villain the Magic Forest: The Chaos Queen. Hana the Thunder Dragon doesn't like bullies. So she's determined to stop the Chaos Queen from causing trouble all over the Magic Forest. All she needs is a little help from her friends—and a lot of dragon magic!

Everyone deals with fear. It saps our joy and stalls our progress. It robs us of the abundant life promised by Jesus Himself. Our sole solution to the problem is not mustering courage, but walking in faith. Not gritting our teeth and mustering forward, but walking in the endless grace and strength of God.

Three sisters listen to their grandmother recount a mesmerizing childhood memory on a rainy afternoon. The long complex story, filled with danger and excitement, relates what happened when Ying-ying was seven and celebrating the Moon Festival in China. On that long-ago night of the Moon Festival, she encountered the Moon Lady, who grants the secret wishes of those who ask.

Jojo has everything planned out for the perfect first day of middle school, down to her outfit and hairstyle. But when Mom, distracted by her new live-in boyfriend, Paul, forgets to wake Jojo up, she oversleeps and has to make do with leggings, a t-shirt, and her brother’s hoodie. The day still goes okay until Jojo realizes that she has a hole in her leggings thanks to Purrito, the kitten Paul “gifted” her. Because Paul isn’t just Paul; he’s Mr. Meow, a mega-famous cat-fluencer.

In their only collaboration for children, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu use their childhood stories to show young people how to find joy even in hard times and why sharing joy with others makes it grow. The two spiritual masters tell a simple story of how every child has joy inside them, even when it sometimes hides, and how we can find it, keep it close, and grow it by sharing it with the world.

During her own year of transition—a milestone birthday, a wedding anniversary, the emptying of the nest—Walrond, in the buoyant and luminous style her listeners have come to love, does a deep dive into dimensions of getting older, including health, beauty, spirituality, connection, adventure, and meaning and purpose. Through conversations with social workers and neurologists, activists and clergy, Walrond satisfies her curiosity about why the dominant culture treats aging as a time of dwindling capacity.