Hey Reader!

In a twist of events, for the first time in maybe ever, I actually had an email scheduled ahead of time to go out. 🤪 And then the past week and a half happened.

Suddenly, talking about how much my joy levels have increased because of my recent digital organization spree felt trite, irrelevant, and grossly inappropriate. There’s been so much pain, grief, terror, and heartache to process that it has felt irresponsible to do anything other than bear witness, mourn, and try to understand.

And I've thought all week about what I could write that could help or soothe or inspire, but what I tend to talk about - showing up in your life, prioritizing joy, building a life that feels important and inspiring - has felt like a “nice to have” rather than a light through pain.

But, here’s what I know.

If you are in active trauma, you are going to be hard pressed to feel joy. Your response will be based in “fight or flight” so please just give yourself the space to feel.

But, for the rest of us, who are shaken but standing, we need joy. Perhaps now more than ever.

You see, happiness and joy are two totally different things in my book, and they are easily confused.

Happiness tends to be externally-based and fleeting - you feel happy when your boss tells you “Good job” or your kids finally learn a life skill or you go to a funny movie. It comes and goes and doesn’t usually change your life or who you are at your core.

Joy, on the other hand, is deep. You feel it in your bones. It’s the feeling you have when you spend time with a friend who really gets you and you know you belong. It’s when you volunteer and create bonds over time and know you’ve made an impact. It’s when you look at your kids and are proud of the people they are becoming.

And it can change you. You might feel more confident because you have people in your corner, you might feel connected because you are taking part in your community, you might feel purposeful because you are affecting others in a positive way.

But, joy’s real superpower is that it’s practically impossible to feel joy and not also feel optimistic and hopeful.

And I can’t think of any emotions more important in this moment right now.

We can’t lose our hope that change is possible. We need to remain optimistic that we have the wherewithal and courage to speak up to fix these big problems facing us. We need to feel a sense of connection to others around the world to realize we’re all in this together.

We can’t throw joy away for the bigger, louder emotions of grief and fear.

And I’m not saying it’s easy. But, last night, after I snapped at my kids for something that was not their fault AT ALL, I realized I can’t stew in my pain soup any longer.

I put together a list of what I’m going to do differently so joy can show up - feel free to add your own or ignore if they don’t work for you!

👉 Take action. I think we all feel helpless right now, watching and waiting. The antidote is action. You can call your senators, donate money, find a local organization that speaks to you.

Personally, I am going to focus on our local community, where I know there are people in need. We’re taking a bunch of $25 Target cards to the school today, the kids are making bags for some unhoused people in our neighborhood, and I’m going to help a friend get a car. I feel better just taking action today, even if they're small.

👉 Let fear and grief have their moment. Stuck emotions aren’t helpful so let yourself cry, rage, scream, be really pissed off about everything going on. You are a human being, not a robot.

👉 Listen. There are a lot of people who need to be heard right now. One of the best things we can do is to give space and strive to understand.

👉 Practice joy. Joy is a muscle and the more you use it, the easier it becomes to access. Give yourself the time to engage with things that fill you up. Put down your phone and connect with people you love. Call a friend and take a walk. Head outside and feel the sun.

If you have the gift of joy in your life, don’t squander it.

👉 Put down your phone. The Internet is excellent at cultivating grief and fear, but not so much joy (it tends towards quick hits of happiness). You can stay informed while not needing to stay up-to-the-minute so take time off your phone and give your joy room to breathe.

👉 Talk to real people in your life. Online, right now, is big emotions. Yet, when I talk to the actual people I know in my life, we talk in civil, curious ways that lead to learning and understanding. Personally, I want more of that.

Plus, it's fun to see people IRL. Last night, I stopped by one of my besties' and ended up doubled-over in laughter multiple times. MORE PLEASE!

And, listen, I know I’m a pie-in-the-sky kinda gal.

I have excellent optimistic bounce-back and a situation that supports it. Rather than feel ashamed of this, what if I used my powers for good? To keep the light shining when others aren’t able?

That’s my plan because, right now, we need optimists. We need joy seekers. We need hope cultivators. We need people to hold the vision of what is possible.

I’m sending you so much love (and, yes, joy) this week.

xx. Kara

🤩 Big-ish News! 🤩

I’m moving this newsletter to Substack!

Substack is a newsletter network that allows commenting and more engagement. I love all of your emails back to me, but I’m looking forward to more back-and-forth and (hopefully) creating an optimistic, supportive community.

YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO ANYTHING! 🎉

I'll still have this list to talk about challenges and classes I’m running, but weekly newsletters will come from Substack. If you want to opt out of hearing about upcoming challenges and classes, click here and you’ll be removed (but will stay on the newsletter list!). But, I should warn you, I have A TON of fun stuff coming up very soon!

Finally, I’m going to divide out the Substack into two emails a week. Wednesdays will be a mid-week pep talk to help you show up as your amazeball self while Saturdays will have fun links to remind you make time for joy. I know I have A LOT OF WORDS so hopefully this will keep things more readable. 🤪

And, as always, it’s an experiment! It feels like the right move, but WHO KNOWS? We’ll try it and see!

Let me know if you have questions and thanks so much for being here!

You into this newsletter format?

Let me know below!

• ​🤩 Yes! More of this, please!​
• ​😐 Meh. I could take it or leave it.​
• ​🥸 I've got some suggestions.​