Find Out About Our Next Adventure!

The Joy Diet Journey is now complete. Feel free to browse through our posts and follow along in your own pace, in your own time. If you're interested in finding out about more book adventures with The Next Chapter, just sign up for my newsletter and you won't miss a thing!

Friday, October 30, 2009

The Joy Diet: Treats



Treats put me in the mood for sharing, so here are some more treats for you today:
  • Martha shares the extraordinary line from the delicious Mary Oliver poem, Wild Geese: "You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves." The only thing even better is the whole poem and the heartfelt lead up to that line. Enjoy it here.
  • 28 seconds of outrageous cuteness here.
  • If you missed the treat of Martha's message for us, you can hear it here.
  • I hope this song sparks a smile for you as it always does for me. The video absolutely reminds me of all of us joy journeyers. Watch it here.
  • And for being such awesome journeyers and already making it this far, I'd like to offer you the treat of a $10-discount on the inspiration e-pack Your Creative Spark. This treat is good until next Thursday at midnight, when we move onto Play. All you have to do is add the item to your cart and then add the discount coupon "treat" and you will receive the discount.
Enjoy!

Friday, October 23, 2009

A Treat for You!

What a wonderful way to start Treat week. Here's a message just for The Next Chapter from Martha Beck herself!


The Joy Diet: Risk



MP3 File

I'm afraid I've continued to have some technical difficulties, so this week I'm sharing with you an audio instead of a video.

Several people have been mentioning that they feel they'd like to take longer with each ingredient but they don't want to miss out on connecting with the group. One thing you might consider is forming a subgroup, exploring each ingredient for 2 weeks and keeping each other company along the way. That would take you to January 1st.

My eye will have to stay on the weekly participants and I will wrap up on November 27th as planned (in fact, I'll likely hold a Joy Call that day to celebrate the end of the journey and to enjoy Feasting together!), but if the bi-weekly pace feels right to you, please, identify yourselves to one another in the comments and form an EP (extended play) group. You can still post Treats on the Treat post. You'll just know to look out for each other at the 2 week mark. You could even add (EP) to your link so that you can identify one another other easily.

Whatever pace you choose for the journey, I hope this next little bit brings you a taste of joy.

PS Because last week's video was hard to hear, I've provided transcripts here.


Friday, October 16, 2009

Reactions...

I've been reading your posts and many reactions to this chapter are intense! Thank you for so honestly and vividly sharing the struggles, anger, breakthroughs and frustrations you're having. First and foremost, remember that this whole process is meant to be helpful. Martha doesn't have the one right road to joy. You have your own special designed-by-and-for-you road and if these exercises and explorations help you along the way - amazing. If not, tweak them, change them, create new ones or simply say no and know that you have gotten clear on what you are not willing to do, and that's great information. This is your journey.

How about we have a fresh take on creativity?

Brilliant, creative beauties, how can creativity serve you and your dreams?

If you're still struggling to connect to your desires, how can creativity help you uncover what they are? Is it time to make a vision board? Or maybe to do some writing? How about finishing the sentence "What I really want is..." 25 times - no censoring, just letting the pen fly. What about taking photos of moments that evoke your desire? Let creativity help you discover your desire. Getting to know your self and your heart is a beautiful process. Take your time.

And if you know what your desire or desires are, how can creativity bring you closer? What if you brainstormed 50 ideas for making that dream come true? What if you spent a day acting as if it were already true? What if you created a treasure map of the imagined route to your desires? What if you imagined yourself a journalist and asked everyone you talked to, "Hey, if you wanted to be a writer, what's the first thing you would do?"

I know we're working on Risk this week, but I absolutely invite you to try a new exercise, one you adore or that sounds intriguing, and post again for Creativity. We have room :) And if Risk offers the same struggles and reactions, feel free to simply answer the question:

What risk, big or small, will I take this week in support of my desires?

That's it. This is the joy of working through a book this way; we can step off the page and make it our own. I hope this is helpful. If anyone has any questions or wants to talk to me directly about their reactions, please drop me a line at jamie(at)openthedoor(dot)ca.

The Joy Diet: Creativity



Note: I am so sorry about the sound quality of this week's video. I'm not sure what the trouble is but I will be working to resolve it by next week. Thank you for your patience and for letting me know. You can read transcripts of the video here.

In this week's video I talk about Creativity and start to cast forward into our upcoming week of Risk. But here I also wanted to ask you a question about Desire. After spending the week reading your posts about this ingredient, I noticed that many of you knew your desire but didn't name it in your posts and I wondered why. Did it feel tender? Private? Scary to share? What would it be like to proclaim your desire, to say out loud, "I want...."? What's going on in there? I'd love to hear.

And as you step forward into the week of risk, know that all of the energy of this circle is supporting you, that around the world Joy Dieters are getting brave and making a move, creating momentum and opportunity for their desires to take shape on the road to joy!

Thursday, October 15, 2009

The Joy Diet: Creativity Transcripts

The Joy Diet: Creativity
Transcripts from our weekly video

Hey, everybody. Welcome to another week of The Next Chapter and our Joy Diet journey. I’m your host, Jamie Ridler. I’m really excited to be here with you today, and I’m wondering, how was your week with Creativity? What was it like for you to bring your creativity to your desire, to add that as an ingredient in this beautiful concoction of joy we’re creating? I know so many of you are wildly creative with your words, with your paint, with the way you are in the world. And I’m wondering what it was like to bring that creativity to your dreams and start imagining how… how… how could I…? How could I….? What was it like?

Martha gave some great suggestions about how to stretch your brain and how to start to think outside of your own limiting beliefs or the way that you tend to think about things. Because that’s what creativity is, right? It’s stretching beyond and creating something brand new.

And it’s funny because I was actually talking to a client this week about exactly that, that when we want something new, how we have to create new ways of doing things, create new behaviours, create new thoughts and new perspectives. Have you heard that saying – when you keep on doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting what you’ve always got.

And so we have this tendency to want something new but we want to take the approach that we’ve always taken to it because that’s where we feel comfortable, that’s what we’re used to. But that road didn’t lead where we wanted to go. We want to go over there, so now it’s a new road and a new perspective and a new approach and a new you and new possibilities. And that can hold a lot of stuff in it.

I know Martha talks about some of the struggle and the challenges and sometimes it doesn’t work out because you’re trying something new. For me, I try to hold that really lightly and playfully, like this is an experiment. And it’s also one of the reasons why I insist on trying to make each step itself fun, so that even if it didn’t work out, at least I had a good time exploring it, you know? At least it was fun to try that colour, even though, yeah, no, that didn’t work. And that is, again, that is a part of the adventure.

So, I’m wondering what it was like for you. And also, if you did get stuck, I know she gives you all these steps of things you can do to try to expand, and then she says, you know, if you still got stuck or you still want to go farther, one of the things you can do is draw on your friends and loved ones and colleagues.

And so, I invite you to do that with this group. If you want even more brainstorming ideas or more suggestions of “How could I do this?” include that in your post this week. “How can I start a successful Etsy shop? What do you think?” “How can I travel to France?” “How can I get my novel published?” Put it out there and let all of us share our creativity and see if we can come up with some wild and woolly and playful and helpful suggestions. What do you think?

And you know, this is all leading—I keep seeing how this is leading up to something, right? Next week, we’re going to be reading about Risk and so we’ll start to get into action on some of the things that have come up in our creative process.

For now, share what Creativity was like for you. Share what it was like to actually start to use those delicious creative skills on the realization of your desire. And if you’d like it, ask for some input on how, how can I do this, because we want you to get there. I want you to get there. I love the idea that we’re all working towards the fulfillment of our desires. That’s really exciting and beautiful, and I’m so glad we’re doing it together.

So, I hope Creativity was a great week. I hope you’re ready for Risk. I know that you’re courageous. And I know that Risk will be amazing.

Friday, October 9, 2009

The Joy Diet: Desire


As we come off a week of Desire and get ready for Creativity, we've likely also spent this past week reading each other's Truths. Visiting your blogs, I was blown away. What depth and courage and sensitivity you have shared. What heart and what wisdom, what vulnerability and bravery is here. A very special group has gathered for this joy journey. Here's to each of you and to you all. Here's to this precious, unique, glorious joy tribe! May we continue to share our hearts and spirits every step of the way and beyond.

Friday, October 2, 2009

The Joy Diet: Truth


Welcome to Week 3 of our journey! It always takes a little while to settle in, so please, don't sweat it if you're still finding your way or just joining in now. You are always welcome and you'll get your bearings more and more. This week we're sharing our posts on the topic of Truth and getting ready for a week of Desire. How delish is that!

If you were carrying around a little joy-meter, what would you be noticing about the joy in your life? What are you discovering about the relationship of Joy to Nothing and to Truth? Sharing our insights and discoveries brings us all closer to joy!