Let your love and joy radiate

Intention
Let your love and joy radiate

Inspiration
Let your love and joy radiate. Because what else really matters but love and joy?

Although that hasn’t always been the case for me. To be able to feel love and radiate joy. It’s been a work in progress for me for sure.

For me, joy is not the same as happy. Joy comes from the soul and is sustainable. You can still experience joy even going through a dark time. That’s what has gotten me through some challenging times, finding a spark of joy in those times.

For ten years I owned a domain name called joyjoyunlimited.com. I wanted to create my own business like lifeisgood.com but around joy.

During the first 15 months of Covid, I had a Facebook group called: A Joyful Rising. It was to inspire people to find those sparks of joy, no matter how small or large, especially in really challenging times to help lift them up. And no, it wasn’t about spiritual bypassing.

When I was in Toastmasters, one man always commented on me being “very passionate” when I spoke, and it was not a compliment. I always found it very funny that he himself was always very passionate in describing my joy! LOL.

In networking groups, I would always say I do my best to make working with me a fun (joyful)) experience because why not have a good experience overall? And I could always see the insurance guy and the financial guy rolling their eyes at one another.

Once I paid a lot of money to be in a speaking program, only to find out the head guy liked to mock any woman that mentioned “joy” or “passion” and his little gang of men that followed him would gleefully join in.

Two “business coaches” told me my art was too “light” and didn’t express the darker side and how could people trust me. Listen, I know dark. I know what it feels like to be drowning in darkness, literally and figuratively. I also know that my art helps me, and those that resonate with it, that while both exist, shift to where do you want to focus your energy. Plus, it takes me way too long to create to stay in the dark for that long.

Imagine my surprise when I learned through Human Design/Gene Keys my pearl (my prosperity, what I’ve come to help people with) is actually – get ready for it – inspiring people to express their joy, you know, what lights them up and activates their life force. Feel alive instead of dead living.

Joy has always been a theme in my life. How I have been conditioned to suppress it, how others have mocked me for it, how I was brave and expressed joy, and how I still held myself back because I was often considered not serious enough, and rather trivial for my lightness. I let the bullies, inner and outer, still have the upper say in things.

So, I know joy. The shadow and the gift of it.

But no more. It is something I have really been claiming in a deeper way. I know joy, and love, are part of my mission.

This heart art expression is what’s always been inside of me. When I come from my love and joy, there is always enough. It feels expansive and inclusive. Every interaction is an opportunity to share and make an impactful difference, no matter how small.

Lately I have been contemplating what is my contribution in this changing world. At the core of it, it remains the same: love and joy. They are conscious choices that I choose to focus on. The world needs more love and joy, beginning with us.

Let your love and joy radiate.

Art
Reds, pinks, blues, teal, purples with white and pink background, and gold iridescent accents

Artist
Elaine Callahan

Dimensions
• 22 x 22 fluid acrylic/mixed media original painting on 140 lbs Arches watercolor paper