When you become more ‘present’ in your life, you begin to see the world with new eyes. Instead of focusing on what is wrong, you start to notice the good things around you more often. If everything isn’t perfect, which nothing really is, you start to release your judgement and become more accepting. When this happens, your brain begins to create new neural pathways around positivity and you, in turn, begin creating more joy in your life.
This book is designed to first discuss strategies that you can use to be more joyful, including mindfulness strategies, getting in touch with your feelings, saying “yes” to yourself more often and cultivating compassion. It then discusses why these strategies work, backed by modern scientific research. At the end of each chapter, you are provided with tools (exercises) that can be used to move yourself closer towards living a life of joy and wonder.
Unlike other books, this isn’t about happiness training. Happiness doesn’t stick around very long, but joy is different. Joy is way of living, not just a fleeting feeling. It’s about getting back in touch with your true, compassionate and loving self – the part that often gets buried under negativity and unhelpful learning. It’s about letting go of the old, outdated strategies that no longer serve you and discovering ones that do. And it’s about being empowered enough to choose joy, not just waiting around for it to come to you.
Gianna De Salvo is a Cognitive Hypnotherapist, Neurolingustic Programming (NLP) practitioner and Meditation teacher. Suffering from panic attacks and generalised anxiety disorder as a teenager and into young adulthood, she began exploring ways in which tools and techniques could be used to change thoughts, feelings and perceptions of herself and the world around her in a positive way.
Her goal as a complementary therapist is not to dictate to people how to change, but to provide them with the means to empower themselves to tap into their own inner resources. She believes that there are too many therapeutic approaches that overcomplicate basic human issues and that through breaking things down, getting back to the basics, and exploring the evidence behind how our minds work, people will be able to begin to make ground-breaking changes that fit into their already busy lives. She draws from current research that is being generated in the fields of psychology, neuroscience, mindfulness, compassion-focused therapy, meditation and other present-moment awareness techniques in her research and practice, as well as her own personal experience.
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