What if no one else matters?

You wanna hear something crazy?

No person, place or thing has power over your joy except Y-O-U.

Let that confound your brain.

I fought against this idea when I first learned it: “No way. Have you met [insert family member, politician, historical villain, ex-boyfriend]?!” For so damn long, we’ve been taught that others can control our inner states. So, it requires a real stretch of the mind to consider otherwise. Think about every rom com where the woman loses her shit over a guy’s behavior, and then marries him (?!?!).

Here are some examples of willingly giving away joy. You may have heard or said the following:
“I can’t calm down until they…!”
“I have to do X. Otherwise she’ll get upset.”
“My anxiety is through the roof after seeing his texts/tweets/face.”

Those statements reflect an outsourcing of our power. We abdicate our joy when we allow someone else to control how we feel.

And remember, when I say “joy,” I mean that deep, contented state of peace within you.

This newsletter started as my “2021 writing challenge,” but it doubles as a way for me to send a not-so-subliminal message about claiming our fucking inner peace. If you believed with your whole heart that the only Ruler of Your Peace was YOU, what would you do differently today?

Your joy is untouchable by anyone else unless you hand over the reins. What would change if you lived by that?

If I have to give you a million reminders so that sinks in, I will. Oh, I will.

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