Becoming a Champion of Joy! E-Book

Eulalia Codipietro

• Herausgeber: WS
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 164

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

On September 2, 2022, following a doctor's visit where I was given some ominous news about my health, something clicked in my life.

I stopped looking for happiness, and refocused on the person I was before the series of events that had turned my life upside down. In this way, I rediscover the confident person I was before, able to unfold my unlimited potential and activate my primary driving force: joie de vivre.

This guide explains the keys to joy that I've collected along the way. It also shows how, by correcting my mistakes, I rediscovered the red thread of my authentic essence and came to live fully in joy.

Weaving together episodes from my personal life and my professional experience, it presents the mechanisms underlying personal development towards joy and the essential keys to understanding and overcoming life's challenges.

This book is for you, Champion of Joy: you, too, despite the circumstances that currently overwhelm your life, have the power to come to terms with your past, to return to your unlimited potential, and to realize your full potential!

Leseprobe

Eulalia Codipietro

Becoming a Champion of Joy! How to quit despair, embrace fulfilment and become your greatest heroine

My keys to transform your difficulties into a championship of joy

© Eulalia Codipietro, 2024

ISBN numérique : 979-10-405-5961-0

www.librinova.com

Le Code de la propriété intellectuelle interdit les copies ou reproductions destinées à une utilisation collective. Toute représentation ou reproduction intégrale ou partielle faite par quelque procédé que ce soit, sans le consentement de l’auteur ou de ses ayants cause, est illicite et constitue une contrefaçon sanctionnée par les articles L335-2 et suivants du Code de la propriété intellectuelle.

To you,

To your will, strength, courage,

resilience, perseverance and power to bounce back

back to Joy

"When you find joy within yourself,

you discover that the whole world is full of beauty" - Rumi

PREFACE

"Welcome, Champion of Joy!"

Yes, I'm talking to you, even if you can't see it yet!

Okay, if right now you:

feel desperate, overwhelmed by deep sadness

or downright depressed

doubt yourself and your abilities, you have lost your confidence,

feeling discouraged by your life challenges

feel small and like your life is not worthwhile or that you are not worth anything or

you feel worthless and useless

are frustrated because your life is not the way you'd like it to be,

and you deal with the feeling of failure

sometimes feel vulnerable, unable to cope with certain situations or

feel weak and powerless

or even,

feel alone looking at the face of a mountain to climb that seems too big and steep

for your abilities, and

feel unable to overcome obstacles that stand in your way

feel like you are stagnating and not making any progress in your life

feel you are in a subordinate position in life, or do circumstances seem to dominate you

feel demotivated in your projects

feel down, with no energy or motivation to keep going…

…Joy may seem like a mirage to you.

A few years ago, I was all those women too. Life seemed to bring me down, in a brutal knockout. I got back up, and won my challenges, one after the other, by continuing to invest in myself and in my personal growth. I focused on my passions and my dreams. I cultivated my personal way of living in joy.

If things are not going well for you right now, my words may seem hard to believe. Even more so, if the difficulty you are experiencing is health-related. Then becoming a Champion of Joy may appear like a distant utopia. That is why I have decided to share with you episodes from my life, including illness of seriously ill family members, and the health-related challenges that I had to face it.

If you are ill, or if you are close to someone who is ill, you will see that my path to joy is non-linear, nor it has the scent of euphoric excitement.

Besides illness, I have also experienced the challenges of a "healthy" life: the stress of a first job, professional ambition, separation, motherhood, career transition, building (and deconstructing) a home, financial worries...

In this guide, I share with you some of the keys that have enabled me to return to my equilibrium, and reach a state of mental stability and ease, which I call lasting inner happiness. Aka Joy.

Through the pages I offer you a few episodes from my personal history: it is a real effort in overcoming my own vulnerability and ordinary reserve. I offer you a glimpse into my soul, and I ask you to take care of it as much as I hope it will help you on your way.

As you begin reading these pages, I'd like to ask you first of all to believe in yourself and your unlimited potential to rediscover your joie de vivre, and to entrust me in guiding you to take your first steps along the path of joy. In physical re-education, it is said that there are two key moments that show if a person who stopped walking because of an accident will start to walk again. The first one, is when this person is able to stand up again, the second is when the first step is taken. I hope this guide will inspire you to bounce back and walk again towards your personal joy in confidence.

I will be waiting for you on the next page, Champion of Joy!

Eulalia Codipietro

ABOUT ME

Before leaving you to the guide, I would like to introduce myself: my name is Eulalia Codipietro, mindset and self-empowerment coach @move.to.joy. I coach career-oriented women, and also organizations, who have understood that women an invaluable source of creative and leadership power, and that joy is serious business!

I'm here to help you rediscover your joie de vivre and achieve personal success, with passion and determination!

As part of the key activities in my coaching, I help women discover their passions, align their values and set and reach inspiring goals. I guide them in creating a realistic and exciting action plan to achieve their authentic aspirations. I firmly believe in the power of joy to fuel self-esteem, self-confidence and resilience in order to overcome obstacles and unfold one's full potential.

My coaching clients appreciate my personalized, non-judgmental support, active listening, probing questions, ability to help them reformulate their thoughts, and a structured yet creative approach that enables them to think outside the box and gain greater awareness.

In their journey of personal growth, they step out of their comfort zone, having to confront their vulnerability. Facing this kind of discomfort in order to evolve is an act of courage on their part: I support them in this transformation, ready to encourage, motivate and guide them all the way, so that they achieve the success they desire.

Through my previous work experience in project management and risk management where I have been consultant on complex transformation projects, I have developed skills in organization, planning and decision-making that are now major assets in my role as a coach.

Who am I in my essence, beyond my role? A bubbly person who radiates joy and loves life. If you take a look at my Instagram profile @lalie.dipietro (my alter ego), you will discover an authentic, positive and energetic person. I sincerely believe that happiness and success are not destinations, but states of mind to be cultivated every day, and these are the teachings I pass on to my daughter. As far as my creative practices are concerned, you will find photos of a few privileged moments when I go Argentine tango dancing, others of my watercolours and a few of my writings.

Ready to move towards a fulfilling life?

Let's go!

With joy and love,

Eulalia Codipietro

INTRODUCTION

"The importance of joy"

"Joy is the music of the soul

who dances to the rhythm of divine love"

Rumi

Often, when the subject of joy is broached, the general feeling is that it is a silly, childish state, halfway between the face of a clown and the unrealistic nonchalance of artists, far removed from the serious world of business and responsible adults. It is as if the latter, responsible adults, had frozen their evolution as human beings once they reached the age of majority. For twenty years I was one of them, by the way.

Because of this image of "lack of seriousness”, joy for some people does not deserve attention. This belief is unfortunately widespread and can limit our ability to cultivate a joyful attitude in our daily personal and professional lives, to realize our full potential, and to flourish.

And yet, everyone is looking for happiness, often outside themselves. We want more, all the time. And if we don't get what we want, we get frustrated. Many people don't understand that to achieve more of what we want, we first have to be more. Becoming more. Just as an athlete with potential who wants to win a major competition must train more strategically to achieve his or her goals, so must everyone do what is necessary to achieve their life goals. The role of the coach (sports, life, career or business) is to accompany the individual in order to focus the points to be trained and achieve results in the most effective way.

Should we be more cheerful then? What would be the point?

When happiness is sought outside oneself, it fails to satisfy the individual in the long term: an incessant search for external "objects" ensues, as the pleasure derived from their consumption is temporary, leaving the individual in a state of constant dissatisfaction. On other occasions, this happiness is not stable over time: since the search for this external happiness is not accompanied by the reformulation and new implementation of positive habits, the person cannot have developed the capital of joy, self-esteem, self-confidence and resilience that would allow to stabilize the results over time.

Old habits (also known as mental patterns) persist, self-sabotage (the sum of limiting beliefs, internal obstacles, internal conflicts and negative emotions) is easily triggered, fuelling destruction of all that had previously been achieved. Awareness of one's own internal mechanisms in pursuing habits and self-sabotage is an essential, foundational step on the path to personal development.

Focusing on joie de vivre means focusing happiness within ourselves. On the subject of joie de vivre, research has demonstrated its importance for our mental, emotional and physical well-being (M.L. Kringelbach, K.C. Berridge; M.A. Bishop).

Firstly, studies have shown that joie de vivre is both a source and consequence of better mental health. Research by positive psychologists has revealed that people who cultivate joie de vivre have greater resilience in the face of difficulties, greater life satisfaction and a reduced risk of developing mental disorders such as depression and anxiety (M. Warner, C. Coursey). Other studies have also demonstrated the physical benefits of joie de vivre. Research in psycho-neuro-immunology has shown that positive emotions, such as joy, can strengthen our immune system, reduce inflammation and promote better overall health. In other words, joie de vivre can actually contribute to our physical well-being (Dr. A.K. Bjardwait, Dr G.Agrawalz; D. Fancourt).

In addition, brain science has revealed that joie de vivre activates the parts of the brain associated with reward and pleasure, positively impacting our mood, motivation and ability to cope with stress. The practice of gratitude and mindfulness, which promote joie de vivre, has also been shown to bring about positive changes in the brain, increasing emotional resilience and positive perception of life (M. Warner, C. Coursey; K. Subramaniam, S. Vinogradov).

In short, scientific research supports the fact that joie de vivre is far from insignificant. Cultivating joie de vivre can have a profound impact on our mental, emotional and physical well-being. So it is important to challenge the limiting belief that joie de vivre is not serious business. On the contrary, it is an essential approach to nurturing our inner happiness and personal fulfilment.

This guide, which I have written with you in mind, Champion of Joy, will take you step by step on a journey of personal transformation and realization. By choosing to obtain and read this guide, you are making a promise to yourself: to become your own heroine and achieve lasting happiness.

Life brought me to studying and experimenting with the different facets of joie de vivre, and I am convinced that it is the heart and thread of any fulfilling life journey.

Through my personal and professional experiences, I have learned that resilience and joy are essential assets for overcoming the difficulties and challenges that life presents us with and that are deeply intertwined. For I myself have been confronted with difficult situations, which you will discover throughout the chapters of this guide: each difficulty has been a springboard for acquiring new skills, knowledge to overcome the difficulties - sometimes very heavy - that were presented to me. As a result, turning obstacles into opportunities for growth has become second nature to me.

The intensity of the events in my life has been such that the usual reaction from family and friends is always: "But how do you manage all this?"

Although the answer is often "I do what I love and I do it with joy!", it is true that this has not always been the case. There have been times when events were sadly impactful and I lost my way to joy, and at times I did not know how to get back to the joyful state of mind that had characterised my university years. As luck would have it, a series of consecutive shocks in my life in the last years, and my appropriate reaction to them, helped me to find my way back to the red thread of joy. In my childhood and adolescence, I had developed an intuitive approach to staying joyful in spite of what was happening around me; with adulthood and difficult event piling up, one after another, it was necessary to develop an approach that was both structured and creative, enabling me to make happiness stable and lasting, whatever the circumstances. And most importantly, I had to make the decision to give priority for my own well-being and self-realization.

In this guide, I would like to share with you the knowledge, tools and essential strategies I have unearthed over the past fourteen years to help you cultivate joie de vivre and become your own Champion of Joy. Throughout these pages, you will discover techniques for identifying and overcoming the limiting beliefs and internal obstacles that keep you from moving forward. You will learn how to challenge these beliefs and free yourself from learned helplessness, and will understand the role that self-confidence and self-esteem levels play in the pursuit of your life goals.

We will also explore the power of gratitude and mindfulness in the pursuit of everyday happiness. You will discover simple practices for developing a positive, optimistic attitude, as well as concrete ways to integrate joyful activities into your daily routine. Joy in life does not have to be reserved for rare, special moments; it can be cultivated and nurtured every day.

Then we will talk about inspiring goals, and how to link them into an action plan to make your dreams a reality. I will share with you effective strategies for making decisions and evaluating options, as well as techniques for overcoming obstacles and persevering in the pursuit of your projects.

Finally, we will explore emotional management and personal development. It is common to often focus the attention on the end result, and fail to concentrating on the process, and the system for getting to the expected outcome. Impatient for the reward, we lack perspective on the key point that leads to lasting results: effective training, and, even more so, the training method.

The type and variety of activities proposed and, just as much, the sequence of performing these activities. In sport, warm-up and conditioning activities are carried out prior to performance or competition, and the same goes for life. In the end the recipe for achieving your goals boils down to:

80% positive, focused mental habits + 20% specific, planned action.

Whether it is fitness training, diet, lifestyle changes or career, it is all the same, for one simple reason: human brain functions globally with the same neural reflexes, independently from the field of application. This comes from the fact that the programmation of reflexes is linked to the"human" specialization in history and have been encoded in our brains. In the course of this guide, I will often refer to neuroscience or etiology research to explain certain concepts.

In these pages, you will learn how to understand negative emotions, as well as gain insight into emotional regulation techniques for maintaining a positive state of mind. You will also understand the essentials principles about using creativity as a powerful means of personal development and fulfilment.This guide is designed to give you the first essential tools to transform your life difficulties into a true championship of inner lasting happiness.

The key words of each chapter are detailed at the end of each section, and a self-assessment form is provided to help you foster awareness of different key points (for example, about your limiting beliefs and internal obstacles). Taking the time to reflect and answer these questions will help you to understand the blockages in your personal development journey, and move forward to overcome them.

You can access the assessment form online, the link to which is in Appendix 2. By completing it directly online, you have the option to send it to me: you will receive advice on your current state and the next steps to consider in your specific situation.

Wishing you an inspiring and enriching read!

CHAPTER 1

"Understanding and overcoming learned helplessness"

"Despair is the shadow of joy" - Rumi

Personal history

"Form is the visible soul of matter" - Aristotle

During the first term of my fourth year at the Maths and Science Gymnasium, I was analysing Aristotle's philosophical thought, while my attention was focused on a major and critical problem I had at the time: mathematics.

Negotiations with my parents for a different course of study had failed miserably. I loved the arts, dancing, singing and acting, reading, writing and foreign languages. I would have liked to attend an arts college, which earned me a dry "no" from my parents. I tried again to study languages, but the result was the same: my parents had given me a second, insurmountable "no", on the grounds that such a course would not allow me to be properly prepared and would jeopardise my future, which was uncertain because of my father's health problems. Safety was all we had to strive for. Make wise choices and avoid risk-taking. We reached a compromise for a maths and science high school with language options (French and English). The time I spent learning the latter, together with the hours I spent immersed in the visual arts, Italian literature and philosophy, compensated for the wavering confidence associated with the challenges I experienced in maths and physics.

Mathematics was an area where my panic appeared in my mind in the form of fluorescent red letters with intermittent flashes, my thoughts fixed on a recurring display: "I won't do it, I'm too bad".

At the same time, I was manifesting a total denial of my deep feelings, because, yes, I was lying to myself at every evaluation: "Come on, Eulalia, this time you will do it!" I uttered these words without any conviction, trembling inside every time my eyes crossed over a new sheet of evaluation instructions. Sometimes, by a stroke of luck, this exhortation to myself would help me pass a test whose difficulty was in line with my meagre knowledge. Which would not happen very often!

That afternoon, my mind was trapped in the recurring thought of my recent failure in mathematics: I had just scored a 3 out of 10 in a written exam on 'limits'. And yet I had studied. I remember sitting in the back seat of my mother's car in the late afternoon before that fateful exam, studying the subject on my handwritten notes in my A5 ring binder, under the back and forth light of the lamp posts we passed on the way to the hospital where my father had recently been taken.

I'd repeated the definition at the top of my lungs, but nothing: the words didn't fit together in a way that made sense to me: