Why Joy Is Essential for Healing and Reinvention | Finding Laughter in Midlife

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Welcome to this week's Saddle Up segment.

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I am so thankful that you're here.

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And Tuesday's episode

was powerful and fun.

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It was with a Rabbi Bob

Elber, and he's darling.

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He was a rabbi and he became a standup

comedian, and it just helped me

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remember how I have learned recently

how important joy is in our lives.

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And I know this might sound heavy

or weird, if you're going through

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a heavy circumstance, you're like,

how am I supposed to feel the joy?

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I want you to know.

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I get that, and I feel like oddly,

maybe there are degrees of joy or like

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maybe it can be kind of a restful, quiet

period that can then blossom into joy.

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What I am really trying to do, and I

know like what I did, um, you know,

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those years ago when I was, um, going

through hard things, I would try to

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find laughter and Rabbi Bob helped me

remember that he told a sweet story

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about how he had done, um, some work.

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As a standup comedian and a woman came

up to him who had terminal cancer and

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she linked him and she said, for an

hour and a half, I forgot that I had

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this and that I was dealing with this.

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And you guys, it is like a wholly.

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Holy thing to be joyful

and to find laughter.

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I think it's even biblical.

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And here's the thing that we forget about.

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It can reset our nervous system,

and I know that sometimes

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it's hard to find the joy.

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It's hard to find the things that are fun,

but it's one of the most important piece.

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You know, you know me.

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I have been a white knuckler.

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I have been trying to do everything

perfect my whole life and it

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kind of blew up in my face.

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And now I am working to find the joy.

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And here's something, um, that maybe

you can hold onto along with me is

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when I have to do something that

I don't really want to do, I try

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to do something fun along with it.

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Um.

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Okay, like, here's an example.

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My hubby and I are gonna work on our

finances and I'm like, Hey, let's go

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to that cute coffee shop and do it

there and get like a matcha green tea

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because that's adding a little fun.

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To something that doesn't seem so fun.

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So that's one way you can find joy,

other, other ways, or you can find

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comedians, find things to laugh about.

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I have found that when I become aware

of it, I laugh easier because I, I think

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I used to stop myself sometimes from

like judging it or whatever, whatever.

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Now I just laugh.

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Um.

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I laugh at my grandkids laugh when

my husband, you know, tells a joke.

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I used to be afraid that if I laughed,

he wouldn't stop, which probably is true,

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but we have a lot more fun and it is.

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One of the biggest pieces that was

missing from my life was that joy

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that, um, having fun with your friends,

that was the piece that I was missing,

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and I am just starting to figure

out that one piece that was missing,

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you know, I've shared with you how.

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Eaten well, I've exercised, well, I've

even been improving my sleep, but I

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could not get that stress to go down.

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And it's starting to, and I

swear it's adding the fun.

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And then one more thing, I'm gonna

hit you with this If you're a midlife

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woman, I did a lot of research and

I used to be coached on intermittent

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fasting and how that was so good for me.

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Guess what?

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It wasn't not even the intermittent.

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What I've learned is that my stress goes

down when I start the day with a protein.

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I'm still trying to eat really healthy.

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I'm working out a lot, but I'm adding

protein, um, in the morning, not, I'm

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eating between seven 30 and seven 30.

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I'm adding another protein like at three.

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And I am having like restored days

according to this little aura ring.

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So I just had to throw that little

caveat in there because if you're like

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me, we've white knuckled it through so

much of our lives and sometimes that can

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cause more harm then Good a lot of times.

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So I just um, wanna, you know, let you

know, go back, listen to Tuesday's effort.

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Episode, but just don't

forget about laughter and joy.

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It is good for your nervous system.

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It is good for your body.

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It is so good for you, and I'm gonna

keep on searching for that joy.

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So you just email me if you've got

some great ideas on how to find

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joy and laughter in your lives.

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I wanna hear from you.

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Thanks so much.