☀️ The Nicole Magnusson Newsletter

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📆 Daily Issue 68 | ⏱️ Read time: 2 min

Choosing Joy Over Embarrassment

Have you ever been super embarrassed? The type of embarrassment that makes you want to hide away forever?

Same!

This morning I was thinking of a time I sent a super cringey message to an acquaintance. At the time, it felt light-hearted and funny, but immediately after sending I realized it was pretty socially inept and out of touch.

Usually when I think of that message I wince as I imagine the receiver making fun of what I said with their friends.

But today was different.

Today when I imagined him laughing at me with his friends, I felt a genuine sense of joy emerge. I felt joyful that I had brought laughter into this man’s life.

I wasn’t preoccupied with how I was “supposed to feel” or going down the same well-worn path of shame my mind had chosen a million times.

This moment caught me totally by surprise and really opened me up to the power of perspective.

We can CHOOSE to see the world with joy and lightness no matter the circumstances. There is no rule book telling us which things need to make us feel bad about ourselves and which things are allowed to make us feel good about ourselves.

Overtime, I think it's possible to create an internal world where we ALWAYS choose joy, no matter what happens externally.

I think we can feel our feelings as emotions arise without suppressing negative emotions, but 95% of the time I think we are just practicing familiar feeling states and there is a lot more room for joy than we think.

This simple switch has been so empowering and I hope you’re able to turn your most embarrassing moment into a source of joy as well!

Keep inspiring,

Nicole