Take Your Joy Seriously
“Spring Was Never Waiting For Us, Dear”, or Was It?
As I watched Alysa Liu showcase her Macarthur Park Suite routine at the 2026 Winter Olympics, I was so moved by her love for what she does. Her joy throughout the routine and also after as she’s relishing in her expression of her craft. I found myself in tears, feeling empowered, inspired, and liberated by her commitment to her authenticity and sincerity – how she valued her enjoyment and experience over the winning of a medal. In this moment, I re-connected with impassioned facets of myself, and I hadn’t even realized how long it had been since I intentionally lived from those parts of me.
Systemic Injustice and Severance from Ourselves
Living in a capitalistic and white supremacist culture, we are constantly defined by our production and output. These oppressive structures and systems uphold performing work the “right” way and manufacturing the “correct” outcome, often separating us from our complex, human experiences. It is difficult to recognize the value of being in process, learning, messing up, growing, following our desires and passions, getting to know yourself just as you are along the way, and connecting with others in their humanity, as well. Because of this inappropriate guilt and shame imbued in our society, moments of struggle can feel like failure and inadequacy. It can be easy to forget that your journey is valuable simply because it is, because you are here and living it.
Additionally, with work and production taking up so much space in one’s life, there can be little capacity and room left for otherwise; this is an injustice within our systems, not a fault within ourselves. We are coerced to detach from joy, fulfillment, and passion as driving forces in our lives, our interests, and our work. I’m on my own journey of reclaiming these life-forces and understanding and valuing their power. In this journey, I also find myself reckoning with how struggle intertwines with fulfillment and joy.
Reclamation
In this reflection, my intention is not to perpetuate a “toxic positivity” about struggle or to bypass and erase the existence of injustice that causes the struggles of many. I want to honor the genesis of empowerment that can only come from moments of struggle. I believe there can be an erasure of the resilience, strength, integrity, community, and courage we discover through these experiences. We become more intimate with and trusting of ourselves.
In these challenging moments, you can believe in your ability to weather the storm. You can reach for community and support that help you find your way through it. In the midst of it all, maybe you even find yourself revelling in the rainfall. Your connection with yourself in these moments is magical and radical. As you re-calibrate your inner compass to be more of your own, you are de-colonizing your inner world, further empowering you in de-colonizing the world around you.
Aligned with integrity and a reverence for one’s experience of their life, there is a reclamation of the self. One can refuse to spectate themself from the dehumanizing gaze of capitalism and perfectionism, guided on this narrow path by towering walls built from fear. These external concepts of “success” do not have to become your own. You have the ability to see the falseness in these walls and to let your experience expand beyond them as you discover what uniquely fulfills, inspires, and nourishes you.
As someone inspired by authenticity, earnestness, connection, love, joy, and whimsy, some recent experiences that have nourished me are: delighting in walking past a fragrant wall of jasmine because I had to walk a longer route I’ve never taken before, sending birthday cards to my friends and decorating their envelopes with doodles, going to community spaces that are new to me and participating even though I feel nervous, repeating an inside joke with a friend so much it loses its meaning and instead takes on a new one, writing this blog post right now, experiencing tender and powerful moments with clients, clumsily re-connecting after moments of rupture with loved ones, and being on a continuous journey of embodying my authenticity and devotion to social justice in my work as a therapist, especially when it feels vulnerable.
Thank You
To those who are weathering a season of struggling and have not reached a satisfying triumph in some time, I hope you know you are good, worthy, and powerful just as you are. You deserve to celebrate yourself and all it took for you to be here.
To my fellow jesters, tricksters, artists, lovers, and more, thank you for your bravery and fervor. Thank you for taking your joy seriously.