The Return to Joy: A Soul Memory

Many of us are walking through life carrying burdens we were never meant to bear and disconnected from joy, from lightness, from the parts of ourselves that once knew how to feel free. This is a story about remembering.

There was a time in my life when joy came easily.

Even when the world around me felt loud and unsettled, I'd step outside, and everything would soften.

Barefoot in the dirt, talking to trees, feeling the wind move across my skin, I felt alive.

The elements of nature surrounded me, giving me the strength to go on.

I could feel the magic in the air, the water, the earth, and the spirit.

Something ancient was holding me. Something joyful. Something real.

The chaos didn't disappear, but the earth reminded me of something more profound.

A frequency I now recognize as my soul.

How I Lost It

Somewhere along the way, I lost that connection.

The joy I once knew as a child was something we all once knew.

Over time, we were taught to put it away.

We tucked it into the corners of ourselves to be accepted, to feel safe, to survive.

For me, this shift began early.

My mom was young and struggling with her mental health.

My dad was away at sea, gone for years at a time.

There wasn't much space for magic in our home.

I learned to read the room instead of the trees.

I became careful, quiet, and hyper-aware.

I silenced my joy and tried to make myself smaller.

I carried emotions no child should have to hold.

I disconnected from the part of me that still believed in wonder, in lightness, in magic.

To survive, I became who I thought I needed to be.

The cost was steep.

I forgot how to feel at ease in my skin.

How I Found My Way Back

The return to joy was not dramatic.

It came gently, in whispers—through beauty, through breath, through the small moments that cracked my heart back open.

It began with the simple things.

The warmth of my dog curled beside me.

The feeling in my body after yoga.

The light that broke open in me every time my child smiled.

Joy returned like a quiet tide, just enough to remind me that it was still there.

This healing was not fast.

It took me years.

In truth, I did not fully feel joy again until my 40s.

There was so much I had to unlearn.

There are so many layers to soften through.

During those years, I began clearing my subconscious mind.

Layer by layer, I released the beliefs that told me joy was naive, unsafe, or undeserved.

Each time I let go of an old pattern, a little more light returned.

Joy never asked me to be perfect.

It asked me to be present.

Why Joy Matters

We live in a world that has forgotten joy.

Yet joy is not frivolous. It is sacred. It is deeply healing.

Joy softens grief. It restores energy. It reconnects us to the truth of who we are.

Joy is the medicine of our future.

To remember, it is an act of reclamation.

It lives in the breath.

In movement.

In stillness.

In your child's laughter.

In the quiet moment after a long cry.

In the space between forgetting and remembering.

Where Joy Lives in the Body

In the chakra system, joy flows through the Solar Plexus, which governs personal power, emotional freedom, and embodied presence.

Joy also moves through the Heart Chakra, where innocence and compassion live, and the Sacral Chakra, which holds our creativity and playfulness.

When these centers are blocked by fear, trauma, or limiting beliefs, we often lose access to joy.

As we begin to clear and awaken them, joy naturally rises.

It does not need to be chased. It simply reawakens.

How to Begin Finding Your Joy Again

You do not need a breakthrough to remember joy.

You need space.

You need softness.

You need truth.

Here are a few ways to begin:

Notice the small things.

The warmth of the sun on your face. It's your favorite song. The way your body exhales when it feels safe.

Joy often whispers before it sings.

Move your body with care.

Joy is energy that longs to move.

Stretch, dance, walk barefoot. Let your body remember what freedom feels like.

Clear the old stories.

You may be carrying beliefs that say joy is unearned, unsafe, or irresponsible.

Ask yourself: Whose voice is that? Is it still true?

Let joy be enough.

You do not have to earn it or explain it. Let joy exist in its own right.

A Gentle Reflection

What small moment has made you smile lately, even just a little?

Was it a breeze, a memory, a dog's tail wag, or a song you forgot you loved?

Let that moment be a doorway.

Joy does not have to be big. It only needs to be real.

A Loving Invitation

If you are walking the path of remembering,

If joy feels distant or buried beneath years of survival,

Know that it has not left you. It is waiting.

Through The Healing Portal, I hold space for the return to joy.

For the soft reunion with the self that still remembers.

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Your joy remembers you.

It is not gone.

It is simply waiting.