My friend Deb shared this idea on Facebook the other day, and it's been marinating in my consciousness ever since. Acttually, what she said was, "The mindbody is a joy factory." What I understood her to be saying was that joy is something we can find in our bodies without having to try super-hard. Joy can be something your body can just...feel. So here's my challenge to you this week(ish): what if you could manufacture joy in your body, right now? What would that look like for you? 

Remember, joy and pleasure sustain us, and are vital to our ability to make change in the world. That doesn't mean we have to deny reality, or be constantly happy in the middle of a revolution and a pandemic. It means our body is the home where we live, and it is worthy of the full spectrum of human experiences, including anger and joy. Liberation is a state of being in which we have access to joy. Or maybe, liberation is a state of being in which we have access to the full spectrum of human experiences--without oppression getting in our way.

There are big things: movement, food, air, light, water, community, solitude, sensuality, rest, the list goes on. But would everything feel less overwhelming, when you're covered in kids or critters or constantly responding to requests for attention, if you noticed, from time to time, how the act of living in a body is a joyous thing?

What if we just start referring to our bodies as "my joy factory"? 

🥰My joy factory is loving this delicious Costco taco plate. 

🥰My joy factory is enjoying this first sip of tea.

🥰My joy factory is celebrating embodiment with a 30-second dance party.

🥰My joy factory is delighting in the sensation of floating in a pool. 

🥰My joy factory loves how this dress I'm wearing feels on my skin.

Joy isn't always a peak experience. It's a transient state that we can access in the space of a breath.

I'm going to try thinking of my body as a joy factory this week. Will you join me? Let's go find more joy, so that we can keep moving toward justice.

10 ways you can notice joy today:

1. first thing you drink in the morning
2. look at something/someone you love for more than a moment
3. take a big stretch
4. the feeling of clean teeth right after you brush them
5. a pleasant texture from clothes, underfoot, etc. 
6. smelling something that smells good to you
7. the feeling of falling asleep
8. being touched by another human
9. clean sheets
10. touching your own body with tenderness

Shout Outs

👀Need someone to help with your social media or brand strategy or annual report or digital marketing or content creation? My friend Rebekah can help with that.

🤔What if doctors stopped prescribing weight loss?

🇺🇸America's twofold original sin: "America was built by the labor of enslaved people. It was also built on stolen lands and the genocide of indigenous peoples." 

🤗For anyone who hasn't subscribed to updates from The Body Is Not An Apology (Sonya Renee Taylor's platform), for the first 30 days, you get an affirmation every day. Here's one I really like: Progress is not linear. It’s normal for me to go forward and then backward, and then forward again. 

In case you forgot.

(I swiped this gorgeous gif from Rachel Ricketts' excellent newsletter.)

PS--Here's a little thought I put out on Instagram the other day. Efficient vs. effective movement. I'll be back on this topic in a future newsletter, I'm sure. But give it a try in your body: reach for something on a high shelf. Then try it by moving more thoughtfully, maybe using candles, maybe keeping your body grounded as long as possible. Can you feel a difference? It's not about always moving effectively. It's about the effective way becoming the most efficient way to get things done. This is the kind of thing we talk about in The Slow Burn!

I live, love, work, and parent on the traditional lands of the Eno and the Occaneechi band of the Saponi Nation.