Bust through these Joy Blockers

I’ve had this note to myself sitting on my desk for weeks. It says to write a post about joy blockers.

But the problem is, I’ve been is a place of expansion, intense excitement and optimism, plus waking up every day high vibe and feeling amazing. All of which is what joy feels like.

Every time I look at that note I think, and more importantly, feel “Ew. Nope. I don’t wanna take myself there.”

Because to write about joy blockers, I must slide into their energy and feel them.

That in and of itself is a major joy blocker.

When we give ourselves permission to go there, to wallow, to worry, to sit in a blame-shame self-pity party, or to give up and decide our life is good enough even if deep inside we know we’re meant for something more, it puts a hard stop on joy.

Let’s talk about two things happening at a subconscious level that create those less than wanted feelings and what we can do to shift out of them.

Foreboding Joy

Life is going so good you can’t believe it’s true. But then you start getting nervous. Something always comes up, right? It can’t possibly be this good and this easy. You start waiting for the other shoe to drop.

That’s foreboding joy. It’s an indicator you’ve lost “tolerance for vulnerability. We are terrified of being blindsided by pain, so we practice tragedy and trauma.” (Brene Brown, Atlas of the Heart)

In other words, you create your own mess or keep reliving difficult experiences in your mind and through the stories you tell.

By keeping tragedy and trauma alive, you prevent good stuff from coming in but also protect yourself from potentially losing the good stuff you already have and experiencing more pain and struggle. It becomes an endless, draining loop.

And one that activates the Law of Attraction to bring you more unwanted experiences.

There are ways you can transmute your foreboding joy, but first let’s talk about the

Upper Limit Problem

Sometimes just referred to as ULP, you have a tolerance cap for how much happiness you allow yourself. It backs up the idea that often, what we are seeking out in life is not happiness, but comfort.

If you’re not accustomed to feeling good for long stretches of time, your mind registers that as foreign, and potentially dangerous.

In addition, when you have everything you want, you’re more vulnerable than ever before, because you could lose it all.

Instead of enjoying it, you’ll find yourself becoming more fearful, paranoid, and caught up in the foreboding joy loop. Which crushes joy and drops you into the place of accepting your circumstances as good enough, comfortable, and safe instead of moving through your days with intense excitement and optimism.

You can shift your Foreboding Joy and Upper Limit Problem. Here’s how.

Savor natural good feelings – smile when you notice good things, receive a complement or a gift, and allow the feeling of the smile to slide into your heart. It’s safe to feel good. Expanding your ability to feel positively expands your tolerance for things going well in your life.

Practice gratitude not only at an intellectual level, but also an emotional one. Whether you write in a journal each day or remind yourself of the things you’re grateful for as you wake up or prepare for sleep, take a moment to let yourself feel deep appreciation.

Focus on slow, steady, and consistent growth. Each time you savor good feelings, have a moment of true gratitude, or wake up eager and optimistic for your day, celebrate your success. It all counts as a win.

Don’t go there. It may not always seem like it, but you have a choice and control over which thoughts you think and which stories you tell. If you don’t know how to do that…

Get help. Because both foreboding joy and ULP are stored in your subconscious mind, it can be hard to recognize your own patterns or know which practice to use to shift them. Private intuitive energy reading and healing sessions with me and/or The Joy Academy dive deep into what blocks your joy on a personal level through energy education, healing, and mastery. Both can help you unravel limiting beliefs each time you come across them. And provide the spaciousness for your to be patient and allow time for retraining your brain to consider success and joy as normal and safe.

It's natural and healthy to experience lasting joy, and to expand how much goodness you’ll allow yourself to receive. All of which means  you get to become more fully yourself and for your life to be the stunning success you know it’s meant to be.