Hi hi friends and welcome to Joyous Now the podcast where we take a psychologically minded look at life. I'm your host, lisa Anderson Schaefer psychotherapist consultant and a resident psych enthusiast. Joyous now is sponsored by listeners like you visit patreon dot com slash lisa Anderson shaper to join the community and become an ongoing patron of the podcast. A special thanks to my Joy patrons along with my sweet affiliate friends at OSHA, the makers of clean seaweed skincare, save 10% on your oc. A purchase with code Joy is now 10 why Joy matters psychology and time. I'm excited to share that. Joy is now turns one this week and to be honest, it crept up on me. I'm not very good at taking pause to acknowledge milestones in my work. There are victories and failures on the daily and much of my time is spent problem solving out of or into one of these states and I love that constant.

I long to put the puzzle together when the last pieces placed. I've already started on the next. More often than not, I like the process more than the product. The questions more than the answers upon reflecting on birthing joy. A year ago I was drawn to consider the first year of life to witness infancy and now be at the precipice of a slightly more independent project that is beginning to have a life of its own. What it has been like to raise an idea and watch it grow and spark experiences. I couldn't have possibly imagined it feels big and it is. I've spoken before about how endings very often evoke beginnings. We witnessed this in nature as we sit in the quiet of winter seeds being buried, dried, floor riding the wind to become next year's vibrant color palette of trees and blossoms where there is birth, there is death, loss gain beginnings and ending. These seemingly opposites lean so closely into each other until they become almost indistinguishable.

And yet we forget this, I forget this. And sometimes life presents us with circumstances where the acknowledgement of a natural cycle of equity seems almost impossible. There is gain and loss in every moment. Hard to imagine. At times I have been there in the depths unable to see the existence of more than one reality. I imagine many of us visited these places this past year. Shit is scary. Life is hard right now and wherever we started from, it's harder now. And while the past year has been unimaginably difficult. It has also existed. That's a time stamp as a gathering of minutes hours, weeks. The time this time never stopped counting. Despite how challenging it has been. Time counts. Whether in celebration or the depths of grief, it all counts. And I guess that in some way this project, joy is now spanning this past year exists as a testament to time. The minutes hours and days weeks, months turning into years where part of us was waiting for things to get better, worry to have to withstand things getting worse and a wondering of when, how and if there is relief, and yet it all counted.

I can see it in my daughters aged face, how her voice sounds older, that she is taller, wiser, different. And the pandemic dog we adopted last July who is now 100% part of our family. She no longer looks away when we hold her, she's learned to trust for the first time in her life that she'll have reliable access to food. And she understands that a pile of skateboards at the door means she will be left alone soon with her older and much wiser doggy brother. And I see it here, enjoys now in these conversations, in the belief that we continue to be curious, vulnerable, and very much alive at a time when death has been all around us. I am so grateful to you, those of you who have joined me here to ask questions, dive deep, explore what we know and what we don't to give space to our fear, anger, grief, worry, and more importantly, not lose sight of our curiosity wonder love delight and joy that deserves equity with our collective trauma.

They say, raising a child takes a village, and no doubt this is true and Joy has taken a village a group of loyal and adventurous listeners tuning in for weekly conversations about what we think and feel at a time when it has been really hard to think and feel the most gracious and brilliant group of guests who signed up to explore. Be curious and sit in not knowing a huge feat when not knowing seems to be a daily practice in a sense, Joy has been a collaboration in the belief that it all counts all the minutes, even when we don't want them to, that there is always something to seek. Even when calling on our own curiosity seems an impossible task. I still don't know where joy is going or even explicitly why I started this endeavor. What I do know is that I am now on a mission to continue. I'm happy to say I have an incredible lineup of guests for the rest of season two And I will begin recording season three in early 2022. There's a brand new patronage support option which you can sign up for at patreon dot com slash lisa Anderson schaefer.

And you can be an integral part of the coming years of joy with access to exclusive content and to say in what future guests and topics I bring to joy under normal circumstances. Perhaps I would have thrown a party filled with music, art and all the joy we could muster. But moving away from normal and forward to better looks like leaning into what we do have and that's each other in person brown. So let's save the in person celebration for next time around the sun to celebrate this birthday. Consider signing up for the weekly newsletter I promise. It's really good. And includes exclusive excerpts from my dealing writing practice that I don't share anywhere else. P. S. There's a link in the show notes to sign up. You can become a patron and support my mission to make psychology friendly and data super sexy. You can leave a review on apple podcasts and share an episode with a friend and if you would like to be a guest or know someone who is down with. Getting curious email me at L. A. S. At lisa Anderson schaffer dot com. I'd love to hear from you about being a guest and all the other things including your favorite dessert.

Know that if I had a Carvel ice cream cake I'd be sharing it with you right now. Thank you for being here And here's to being one. This has been joyous now with me lisa Anderson Schaefer, L. M F. T. You can find me for hire at lisa Anderson schaffer dot com and patronage support for this podcast and the these three things project at patreon dot com slash lisa Anderson schaefer. You can also follow along with my musings at least to Anderson schaefer on instagram. I'd love it if you shared joy with friends and introduced others to joy with a five star rave review on apple podcast. It's quick and easy and feels like a sweet virtual high five see you next time