Recently Aspire Magazine publisher and best-selling author of A Juicy Joyful Life: Inspiration from Women Who’ve Found the Sweetness in Every Day, Linda Joy, shared what she hopes her readers will learn from her latest creative endeavor with 41 successful women.
“To me a juicy joyful life is living a full life, living an authentic life,” she explained. “A lot of people ask me, why the word juicy? To me it represents squeezing the zest out of life. Sometimes we just get lost in the to-do list of the day. Choosing to live a juicy joyful life means to really honor and cherish every moment that we are given. “
“I wanted our book to be different than a lot of books,” Joy continued, “ and I needed to honor my original intention of everything I do. Because even from the first issue of Aspire five years ago, I’ve always sent out a…, some may call it a prayer or a blessing, I call it setting an intention. I do that with every project I do that is going to go out to the world and it is just a simple prayer that says, ‘May one word, one sentence, one paragraph contain the wisdom that even one woman needs to begin her journey to authenticity.’ So when I knew I was going to publish the book, I didn’t want it to be a book of stories. I wanted it also be a tool to guide women deeper into themselves. And that’s why every chapter is followed by three juicy questions that relate to the spiritual and emotional lessons in the story they just read. So I think women really resonated with that format because they are searching for something deeper.”
Joy defined three important lessons that she hopes every reader will walk away with after reading her book .
“Those are 41 different stories with underlying spiritual messages. One is, something I really, strongly believe in, is that joy is a choice. We can choose to live juicy, joyful lives with our hearts filled with joy, no matter what is going on in the world; no matter what is going on in a given day, you can still choose joy. That was a major epiphany for me, which I write about in my introduction, the day I discovered that I have a choice. That was the day that I started my spiritual and transformational journey. What do you mean I don’t have wear this victim hat? I don’t have to carry all those emotions that hold me down? It was a choice that I was doing to myself. Joy is a choice.”
“The second lesson to learn would be removing the masks. I think as women we all are raised—it doesn’t matter from which background you come— as young children to put on a mask. We’re taught to be the good girl, be the good student, be the good wife. And what happens? I’m noticing especially from 35 years old and up, they wake up one day, and their souls are screaming, and they are wondering why they are not happy in this life they created. It’s because it wasn’t created from their authentic self. It was created from the false mask they were wearing. The second one would be to step forward and start doing the inner work to remove the false mask so you can reconnect with your authentic self.”
“I guess the third would be, the past does not define your future, your actions do. I mean who would have thought that a former welfare mom, battered woman, high-school dropout, would be doing inspirational speaking, publishing, etc. I defined my life. I released the baggage that made me believe that my past defined it.”
“The biggest hope I want to give to women is when you read these stories, you’re going to discover 41 amazing women who did not let their past define them, that they set the paths for their own future. It’s something I’m passionate about, giving women hope, to keep going after their dreams.”
Inspired Living Publishing, founded by Linda Joy, just announced their second book called Embracing Your Authentic Self which will feature 40 women who share a moment in their lives when they realized that they had been living with false masks. They will share that moment where they realized that they could no longer live that way and they stepped forward to make the changes necessary in their lives. To learn more about the upcoming book project along with other opportunities to bring your story to life go to www.InspiredLivingPublishing.com
