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Hello Workbench Friends! Today’s episode is one that my dear friend and WB contributor Lyn has been wanting to discuss for some time, and it’s on the topics of Joy and Loss. We hope you enjoy this wide-ranging conversation about the existence and intersection of these two seemingly opposite experiences and can deepen your own thinking about what brings you joy, and how you can best keep it present in your life, even during the difficult times.
Before we get started though, here’s an update on the plans I have for the Workbench. Season one is winding down – next week’s episode will be the 10th and last installment for 2019. Join me next week in a looking back | looking forward episode.
Season Two will return on Monday, January 13th, and I am looking for a few people who want to share their stories on building | creating. Wherever you are on the continuum of building something in your life – the Workbench is here to help define and design the way forward. So, if you have a project or goal in mind and are willing to share your journey with our audience, get in touch. And if you have any ideas on topics you’d like covered or know of others doing interesting work, email me at au.kristina@gmail.com.
Now…on to a conversation that gives voice to these topics that we often don’t discuss, and the richness of thinking and experience that comes from living and loving.
Show Notes
- The theme of the episode is introduced, Lyn talks about her efforts to keep joy in her life in the face of difficult news.
- We talk about how often we fall into either/or thinking, when reality can encompass dichotomy and paradox. How do we make peace with that?
- The word Bittersweet – an easy way of conveying complex emotions or situations.
- Loss can derail us in life on many levels and in many ways.
- The importance of awareness: staying cognizant and not losing moments of joy; Lyn shares a critical moment in her life where she consciously decided to not let go of joy in the face of her sister in law’s diagnosis.
- We talk about how we often feel that we have to pay an emotional toll and can’t allow ourselves to feel happy without feeling guilt, how to bring these emotions into focus and let them go.
- The conversation touches on the way our culture deals with loss and grief now; the avoidance of embracing the feelings that loss brings.
- Idea: can’t really understand joy until you’ve experienced loss (which sucks!)
- Getting derailed or thrown off course; how your first go-around with real grief can take you out for an extended period of time.
- Our cultural tendencies to numb around this type of pain.
- Simple pleasures and why they matter to me.
- How we mature in our thinking and gain clarity and focus from life experience.
- Values: the importance of consciously defining them for ourselves, and the freedom this brings to our thinking, allowing us to define and design how we want to live.
- On a lighter note, we move into talking about other forms of loss and their impact; Lyn shares a story about her battle with losing internet and what brilliance came from a day without being able to plug in.
- Final thoughts: celebrating our lives as they are right now and giving ourselves permission to feel the seemingly conflicting feelings.
For more Workbench content, please subscribe at kristinaau.com or check out the Facebook page here.
Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash