Joy Is the Fullness of Your Being: An Invite to Embrace Your Passion

Discover the Freedom of Living Fully

Joy Is the Fullness of Your Being

These simple yet powerful words accompanied me through the last few months of the year just gone. On a particularly wet day, as I slowly walked in the rain while the world rushed past me, a quiet realization struck me. We spend so much of our lives seeking approval—chasing the elusive permission to simply be who we are. When that approval doesn’t come, we shrink. We begin to believe, wrongly, that our existence has little value unless others see and acknowledge it.

This belief makes us hesitant, weary, and unsure. We tell ourselves we can’t fully enjoy the things we love unless they are first validated by the world around us. We wait for the thumbs-up and the applause before we allow ourselves the joy of simply being alive. No wonder we grow sad.

That day in the rain, this realization felt just like an unexpected yet life-changing encounter. And for weeks after, it quietly reshaped how I saw myself—and the world.

I began to ask difficult questions: Did I ever diminish myself to fit into spaces I was never meant to occupy? Was I toning down my passions or silencing my voice to keep the peace? Had I been second-guessing my intuition, even when it stated the obvious?

What I came to see was a little hard to digest. I had unknowingly built mechanisms to survive—conniving little ways to stay safe, to avoid rejection, to remain unseen in a world that often feels too unforgiving. We tuck ourselves away and dim our light so as not to upset others. And in the process, we lose joy.

But joy is a private affair. It has nothing to do with how others perceive us and everything to do with how we allow ourselves to be.

Joy Is Your Birthright

I waited a long time for the world’s approval. I waited patiently, believing that had I become brighter or more worthy in some invisible way, those closest to me would see my value. And joy would naturally follow.

But it didn’t. Instead, I became troubled, restless, and deeply sad. I couldn’t see why the joy I was full of as a child felt now so distant, even as I tried so hard to invite it back into my life.

Children have an incredible ability to make themselves invisible when they no longer feel safe. Their survival instincts are brilliant, even if heartbreaking. They retreat, folding into themselves, becoming smaller and smaller so as not to upset the delicate balance of their world. To the unaware eye, these children may appear fine—even cheerful. But the truth is, in their solitary confinement, they are disconnected from their joy.

As adults, we often carry this same mechanism forward. We don’t outgrow the tendency to shrink when we feel unseen or undervalued. We learn to hide in plain sight, burying our true selves beneath layers of adaptation and approval-seeking. And in doing so, we lose the largeness of our being—the vast, uncontainable joy that is our birthright.

Reclaiming the Largeness of Your Being

But what if we chose to stop shrinking? What if we allowed ourselves to take up the space we were always meant to occupy—not out of arrogance or defiance, but out of a deep and quiet knowing that we belong?

The truth is, that joy doesn’t come from being seen, accepted, or validated by others. It comes from seeing ourselves fully and doing what moves our hearts. Whatever that may mean, we must rediscover our passions unfazed by how and if those around us will ever perceive them.

Reclaiming our joy is a committed practice, a series of small, courageous acts. It might start with putting the world on hold for a moment as we savor a quiet pause. Or it might be as simple as saying 'no' to something that diminishes us, or 'yes' to something that brings us alive.

A Personal Revolution

For me, this act of internal liberation has been many things. Bittersweet at times, yet greatly treasured. I’m slowly rediscovering & honoring the joy that I felt existed within my younger self—untouched by the opinions or expectations of others. I’m learning that joy was never something I needed to earn or prove worthy of; it’s something I already carry, quietly and powerfully, in the fullness of my being.

And as I write this, I wonder: What would happen if we all stopped waiting? If we stopped hiding and shrinking into spaces too small to contain our bigness? Can we make 2025 the year when rediscover what makes us feel alive and become its fierce custodians?

Beloved friend, may joy become your intimate companion. May you allow it to arrive uninvited and stay as long as it wishes. And when the world feels hostile, may you remember that in your home you are never alone.