beyond healing: the importance of joy
For the past 9 years, I have delved deeper into a spiritual existence, a practice which now fundamentally underpins my approach to cultivating a joyful life, each and every day.
As part of this exploration, I have dabbled with many different lifestyle changes, from my fitness routines to my nutrition to meditation practices. I’ve dipped my toes into many spiritual communities. In each of these places I have found joy and love … but I’ve also found a lot of pain. A feeling of being lost. And I’ve found a lot of loneliness.
To me, this is really not surprising, but it may be to those who have only witnessed the strain of spirituality portrayed as ‘love and light’ and overwhelming positivity.
In other lines of spirituality, you will often hear the terms ‘doing the work’, or ‘exploring your shadow self’, which sits at the core of living a spiritual existence. It’s basically like therapy – exploring the parts of your subconscious which contribute to reactions or internal beliefs that limit us in our ability to move through the world – except it’s often more driven by the self.
Instead of a therapist pointing out behaviours or beliefs, we use our own reactions to our external environments or channeled messages through nature or meditation to guide us as to what areas we may need to explore and work through.
Like therapy, this can be a devastatingly painful but highly satisfying process. Akin to any form of exercise, you experience a period of pain and discomfort which leads to an overall feeling of greater strength, satisfaction and resilience.
But. And this is a big but. In my mind, there is a downfall here that is too infrequently discussed. There are many spiritual communities who start to think that this cycle of self-exploration and betterment is the only reason for existence. Every cycle of healing precedes a new cycle, with no gap in between, and so the focus is drawn to constantly revisiting hurt and living in discomfort.
When I started travelling, I had a whole bunch of time to do a ton of work on myself. It’s one of the best things about having the freedom to hike for miles constantly on your own, drive for hours and hours with nothing but your brain for company, and spend time every evening meditating and reflecting. I also connected with other souls on a similar journey. And I started to notice a trend. Every single person I met who was on this spiritual journey told me the same two things.
They were incredibly lonely.
Their life would be better ‘when’ … when they completed this round of healing, when the money they were manifesting came in, when they finally found the right place to settle … etc etc.
It struck me that this sort of spiritual existence suddenly wasn’t one I was particularly interested in. So many people wore their loneliness as a badge of honor, as it showed how much healing they had done. But I felt like there was a deeper purpose that was being missed.
I realized this pattern all in one big jolt. I saw it like spiderwebs connecting the experience of so many people I had met, so many conversations I had delved into. And the realization struck me like a lightning bolt.
Because, in my belief, the meaning of life isn’t to heal constantly. Healing is a tool that unlocks the true meaning of life. To experience joy as often as possible, in the smallest and the greatest of things.
And so, that’s why I created the Sunshine Collective. Because I believe deeply in the power of healing, whether it’s through therapy or spiritual/ holistic practices and everything in between. But I believe wholeheartedly that these practices need to be taught, not in a vacuum, but in a way that integrates them into the world we live in. We deserve to be healed in ways that make us feel more connected with the world around us, not less. We deserve to be connected with each other. And we deserve to go out into the world and be happy.
Because Joy. Happiness. Connectedness and Community. These are reasons for living that I can truly get behind. And this is what I want to bring more of into the world.
