Joie De Vivre, Living With A “Ravenous Thirst For Life”: “Write a list of things that bring you JOY.” With JOY and Dr. Marina Kostina
Write a list of things that bring you JOY.
Do at least one of the things on that list every day.
It might be tough at first to even imagine what makes you happy. We are programmed after all, to focus on how to make others happy. Hoping that some day, it will magically be our turn.
‘Some day’ comes when you make the choice to include yourself in the list of people you love and care for.
It’s not being selfish.
The best gift you can give everyone who cares about you, is a happy you!
Do you ever wake up in the morning feeling unhappy, unfulfilled, unchallenged, and have nothing to look forward to? It doesn’t have to be that way. One idea that I always advice my clients is to “Get Out of your mind and connect with your spirit”. Be creative. I don’t care if you pain over the same canvas, or knit, undo- and knit again, or cook and feed it all to pigeons- I want you to get into the process of creativity as when we create we are out of our mind, we tap into the realm of the spirit and we learn how to manifest!
As a part of our series interviewing experts on how to live a “ravenous life” — a life filled with the passion, pleasure, playfulness and abundance that come naturally to those who dare to be authentic, I had the pleasure of interviewing JOY aka the Wish Granter, aka the Cosmic Ass Kicker. She is a shaman from New Zealand, who teaches how to live more JOYfully and less stressfully in 3 minutes or less; and how to experience JOY regardless of circumstance.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
Actually it was a drunk driver. My brain injuries were such that whenever I became stressed, the soft tissue would swell at the back of my neck, preventing blood from going to my forebrain.
I would have about 3 minutes before I blacked out.
Each blackout caused an oxidative stress wall in my frontal lobes that blocked me from thinking forward or remembering back.
I never knew whether I would wake up from any of those blackouts.
At one point I was blacking out several times a day.
Doctors told me I’d be dead or brain dead by 30 — I was 24.
That’s how I became an expert in clearing stress in 3 minutes or less.
What does it mean for you to live “on purpose”? Can you explain? How can one achieve that?
A close acquaintance with Death will do it.
I walked with Death as my companion for 18 months. He taught me how to live, and the difference between urgent and important.
He had me revise all my priorities.
When you don’t know if you’ll see the end of the day, you get to thinking about what you’ll take to God if you do die that day.
Suddenly the material successes I’d been so proud of, didn’t look so impressive when presented as the sum total of what I’d achieved in my life.
So I settled on something I would be proud to take to God, and founded my life on it:
I make every life that I touch better.
A question that will help you stay on purpose:
If you were to die today, how would you feel about how you lived your life?
Do you have an example or story in your own life of how your pain helped to guide you to finding your life’s purpose?
After the Western Medical Profession gave up on me, I started studying holistic medicine. I’m now certified in more than a dozen healing modalities.
As I journeyed through each one, I uncovered amazing tools and skills, like how to clear stress in minutes, dissolve emotional trauma painlessly, and how to reprogram the neurological pathways of my brain by thinking new thoughts. Doing this I was able to bypass the brain injuries to access different parts of my brain, generating uncommon new perspectives, and abilities.
Instead of being a vegetable at age 30, I had co-created Australia’s first computer software support organization and was the first individual ever to be nominated for an IT&T Award for Excellence in Industry Development.
The priceless skills that transformed my life were squirreled away in esoteric places, that no-one unless they had enormous amounts of money, and a dedicated decade or so could ever find them.
I was in that position, so eventually, to make everything that happened to me make sense, I took the best of everything I learned, and now I share it with the world.
The United States is currently rated at #18 in the World Happiness Report. Can you share a few reasons why you think the ranking is so low?
The culture is brutal :( The societal programming has people believing that unless they look like this, smell like that, own 6 of those, and meet these requirements, they will never be happy, successful or loved.
They spend their lives chasing happiness; unaware that happiness is a choice they can make, not a thing one strives toward achieving.
Too much stress, too few coping skills.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
Lmao the reason I inspire so many people has got nothing to do with the letters after my name or the bits of paper I acquired. It’s because people can look at me and go “Crikey! If she can do it, I’ve got a chance!”
What are your 6 strategies to help you face your day with exuberance, “Joie De Vivre” and a “ravenous thirst for life”? Can you please give a story or example for each?
I have many strategies for that — I collect them :) The 6 I have chosen are:
- Awaken to JOY
When you open your eyes, let the first things you see, remind you of what brings you JOY.
This goes beyond keeping your space clean and tidy, though that certainly helps. It’s about surrounding yourself with what uplifts and supports you:
I am a jungles and rainforest person, living in the high desert. Eek!
So my walls are covered in 3d murals of trees and waterfalls. Everywhere I look I see plants; salt lamps glow in the corners, a little fountain runs 24/7.
Turning my room into a forest makes it possible for me to live joyfully in the desert.
What joyful thing can you place in your line of vision to inspire you?
2. Bathe yourself in Gratitude and Joy
Make your shower, or bath, a time to thank your body! Instead of just cleaning your body, honor each precious part of you as you wash it.
Consider what your life would be like if you didn’t have that body part.
As you bathe it, appreciate it. Thank it for what it will be doing for you that day.
Observe what happens to your body image over a month of doing this.
Here’s an example from the Experience JOY Bathing Project for Ladies Only https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unozKlEG_Jk&list=PLc_CrG0LWOtWTA3QVYUKS3CbcKwqznGAZ&index=5
3. Write a list of things that bring you JOY
Do at least one of the things on that list every day.
It might be tough at first to even imagine what makes you happy. We are programmed after all, to focus on how to make others happy. Hoping that some day, it will magically be our turn.
‘Some day’ comes when you make the choice to include yourself in the list of people you love and care for.
It’s not being selfish.
The best gift you can give everyone who cares about you, is a happy you!
4. Treat your body like a Sixty Million Dollar Racehorse
If you feed it junk food, keep it confined, and fail to exercise it properly, it’s not going to win any races.
Your body is worth a whole lot more to you than a racehorse. And there’s a whole lot more at stake if you don’t take good care of it.
But you can take baby steps, every step counts.
Instead of saying “What do I want to eat” ask “What would nourish me most right now?”
Instead of saying “I have to” try “I get to”
Instead of watching sport on the tele, get out there and play!
Giving your precious, one and only, body what it needs is an important way to experience JOY!
5. Look for the most Joyful thought.
In any challenging circumstance, where my thoughts are scaring or worrying me, I STOP, and look for the thought that brings the most joy.
Some days that’s easier than others, but it’s always worth it.
I’ve come to know that I can’t always control what happens to me, but I can always choose my thoughts about it.
It’s this choice that matters, because it’s this choice that determines what happens next.
If you get stuck for a joyful thought, feel free to use my go to:
‘This is a miracle I don’t understand yet.”
6. Go to bed with Gratitude
Every year create a Gratitude Calendar featuring your favorite inspirational photos.
I have 5 calendars filled with grateful memories. It’s awesome!
Each night I write what I’ve been most grateful for that day.
We all know the power of Gratitude; it’s staying focused on it that’s the trick.
This works better than a Gratitude Journal for me because it’s on the wall, in full view, and the gaps glare at me till I write in them!
If you woke up with a roof over your head, able to write in a Gratitude Calendar, you’re ahead of the game.
When you need more JOY in your moment, flip through the calendar.
Do you have any favorite books, podcasts, or resources that most inspired you to live with a thirst for life?
Conversations with God and The Little Soul and the Sun by Neale Donald Walsh
Louise Hay and her Heal Your Life journey
Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes
Journey to Freedom by Leslie Kenton
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote” that relates to having a Joie De Vivre? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Life is a Daring Adventure or nothing” Helen Keller
HELEN KELLER!!! If she could think of life that way, so can I.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
Thank you for asking! Yes I am www.whitepeacockacademy.com
Practical Magic Education for Lightworkers with Muggle World Challenges
It’s Hogwarts — for real. Created to Connect, Empower and Support those with a Mission of Light in the world.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
Again, thank you for asking. It’s this www.movebeyond.solutions
Free support and Resources for anyone who has ever said #metoo
#metoo has been great for empowering us to break the silence and share our pain
But it’s not enough to share it, we must also heal it! #movebeyond is the movement I would create right now.
What’s holding back my projects is I have taken them as far as I can by myself.
I can see the structure and how it needs to look, but I don’t have the ability to create it beyond what I’ve done.
I have no doubt everything will unfold in perfect ways in perfect time with the perfect people to take them to the next level. That’s how it works
About The Author:
Dr. Marina Kostina is a life and business fulfillment coach. She uses research and energy work to help professional women find their purpose and turn it into a profitable business. Dr. Kostina incorporates innovative marketing strategies and the creation of engaging, lucrative online courses to scale their businesses. As a result they enjoy what she describes as a “ravenous life” — a life filled with the passion, pleasure, playfulness and abundance that come naturally to those who dare to be authentic. Her book “Find the G-Spot of Your Soul” is available January 2018. Download a free gift from Dr. Kostina- an MP3 Meditation Album “Find The G –Spot Of Your Soul” and get unstuck.
