Chronically Joyful

A concept I have been focusing on in recent months is the idea that wonderful things are still in motion behind the scenes when life feels like it’s frozen still. As someone who really values stillness these days, I am first to admit that this poses a fairly major challenge for me because I love to see tangible proof of my efforts fast. Patience is something I continue to develop and work on, it is not something that I was naturally born with LOL. 

While you could also frame this as a general practice in patience, I like to think of it as “invisible motion.” My favorite example of this is the standard method of weight loss or maintenance; it doesn’t occur overnight, but is the result of a series of actions over time. Your measurable progress will eventually become visible and your results tangible, but this is not an immediate process – it takes time. 

As someone who loves instant gratification (this has been such a challenging aspect of my journey on this planet to date), when I don’t see something change when I’ve taken the steps toward it within 2-3 days, I have the tendency to slip into catastrophic thinking. Oh yes, despite my standard sunny disposition, I wasn’t born this way and have only maintained this state predominantly over time through a ton of practice. You’ll hear people talk about the importance of relaxation and it can often sound like a dream as opposed to a reality, but it is a gateway to something so much bigger than what we perceive in our waking life. 

When we truly relax and relish in the stillness, we plant and sow the seeds of our internal mental garden. While I am still in the deep work of accepting that patience is the answer and instant gratification can only last so long, that place of stillness is where I continue to return in moments of doubt or sadness, or when I’m lacking in the hope department. Something that is slowly but surely proving itself to be true in my life is the fact that nothing is impossible and these moments have only revealed themselves because they began inwardly first. Allow me to provide a real-life example of what I mean – 

I officially am a believer that nothing is impossible anymore because within the last 30 days (it is February 20, 2026 when I write this), I was informed that my cost of rent decreased by $33 per month when I re-signed my lease. For additional context, my initial lease had a written clause I’d signed and agreed to stating that a renewal would come with a whopping 7% price increase should I choose to remain in my rental home, with a cost of rent that was already stretching my lifestyle thin. I knew the time to re-sign was quickly approaching (though I was surprised they’d reached out ~ 3 months earlier than I expected), so a lot of the time I spent in my meditation and stillness practices, I focused. I focused on a deep belief that I would be offered the exact same cost of rent I had been paying through 2025 (for those of you familiar, yes, I was practicing my skills in manifestation & newfound interest in Quantum Physics). I wasn’t super focused on this during my waking life, mainly because I knew I could manage whatever was thrown my way thanks to resilience. When the email came through with my proposed 2026-2027 lease attached, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I opened the attachment, but felt mentally prepared enough.

When I reviewed ALL of the fine print, did the math about 147,000 times and then rinsed and repeated AGAIN, I immediately started laughing and crying simultaneously. In the world of renting from property management companies, this is practically unheard of and has been proven by everyone’s reaction I’ve shared with so far. 

Anything is possible.  

Despite leaning more towards practical solutions for most of my life, I do believe in a little bit of magic, especially now! In moments of doubt or fear, I make it an intentional point to pause and fall into stillness to not only identify where those feelings are coming from, but actively counteract them. As I’ve said in many blog posts before, I am NOT recommending toxic positivity; every emotion has a time and a place and exists to be felt because they are the radar our intuition communicates through. My best friend recently heard me out during a phone call and asked me a question that caused me to pause and brought a smile to my face – “how did that moment feel in your body?” The reminder was much appreciated. 

One warning I will give in all of this comes down to the base topic of this entire post – while I firmly believe that everything truly does cultivate first from within, the success of it all ultimately comes down to patience. Patience and intentional stillness; when the world seems to be at a standstill, like nothing is really moving in one direction or another, more often than not it isn’t the case. Things are always in motion, even when it doesn’t appear to be so. 

A principle I try to remember to live my life by is to enjoy the journey. More often than not, the destination feels good for a fleeting moment, but the true joy of any circumstance lies within the path to get there. 

So whether or not I lost you at the mention of Quantum Mechanics, take this nugget with you as you lovingly live out the remainder of your day:

Cultivate a safe, stable environment in stillness; trust the process, even when it seems slow; live every day as present and in the moment as possible. Worst case scenario? You regulate your nervous system and ultimately experience a decrease in symptoms, even without that sprinkle of extra magic!