The Woman’s Book of Joy: Listen to Your Heart, Live with Gratitude, and Find Your Bliss (Positive Outlook Book for Spiritual Meditation and Spiritual Healing)

By Eileen Campbell

Experience Serenity and Hope Daily

“The Woman’s Book of Joy is like a comforting friend supporting us in our struggles.” —Mandy Keast-Southall, therapist and yoga teacher

When you learn to tap into the deep wellspring of joy that is within you, nothing is impossible.

A book of joy. Women have a great many challenges to deal with in their lives. Among the most ubiquitous of those challenges is self-care. Too often, we are focused on caring for others and not ourselves. Low self-esteem, anxiety, and depression are all too common when our lives are less fulfilling than they could be. Yet deep within, women have a tremendous spiritual resource―a capacity for real joy that is not dependent on anything external. It is always available, regardless of circumstances.

Find your inner spirituality. Many self-help books can lead people into further self-judgement. Instead, The Woman’s Book of Joy encourages and inspires women to care more deeply for themselves and to face life’s challenges with courage and joy. It’s a practical motivational book for accessing inner wisdom, enhancing self-esteem, overcoming sorrow, and deepening relationships.

Thinking deeply. The meditations and affirmations in this book will provide you with the opportunity to contemplate a wide range of topics, including:

• Developing awareness
• Letting go
• Believing in your dreams
• Living in the now
• Finding your true purpose
• Practicing kindness
• Being optimistic
• Trusting the universe
• Appreciating life’s blessings

If you found joy in meditation books and inspirational books for women like I've Been Thinking…, Journey to the Heart, and Each Day a New Beginning, you’ll be encouraged and uplifted by The Woman's Book of Joy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Conari Press
• Release date: May 24, 2022
• ISBN: 9781684810840

Eileen Campbell

Eileen Campbell is a writer of inspirational books, including a successful series of anthologies described by the media as “treasures of timeless wisdom,” which sold collectively around 250,000 copies. She has studied with a variety of teachers from different traditions and brings a wealth of knowledge and life experience to her books. She is known for her pioneering and visionary career as a self-help and spirituality publisher, and has also written and presented for BBC Radio 2 and 4. She currently devotes her energies to yoga, writing, and gardening. She lives in England. Visit her at www.eileencampbellbooks.com.

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Praise for The Woman’s Book of Joy

This profound book reveals a nugget of inspiring wisdom on every page. Eileen Campbell’s writing, steeped in her own experiences, offers readers a fresh perspective on how to live life more abundantly.

—Deike Begg, therapist, astrologer, and author of Synchronicity: The Promise of Coincidence

"The Woman’s Book of Joy is like a comforting friend supporting us in our struggles. It is an inspirational handbook for our times which helps us change the energy of any situation we find ourselves in."

—Mandy Keast-Southall, therapist and yoga teacher

Eileen Campbell has written a book of poignant truths that will help you remember who you really are and what you really want. Each chapter of this book is a powerful meditation that calms your nervous system and helps you reconnect with your grace.

—Tama Kieves, author of This Time I Dance! Creating the Work You Love, Inspired & Unstoppable, and A Year Without Fear: 365 Days of Magnificence

This book is full of bite-sized treasures. Grab a cup of tea and let the affirmations sink in and nurture your soul A comforting and life-affirming read.

—Laura Berman Fortgang, author of The Little Book On Meaning and Living Your Best Life

"The Woman’s Book of Joy is a wonderful, intimate companion, to be cherished and to travel with you everywhere. It inspired me to stop, take a moment, and to re-think at all turns on my journey. Eileen Campbell is immensely self-aware, her voice vibrant and warm, and she shares her insights with thoughtfulness and indeed joy."

—Belinda Budge, mixed media textile designer and maker, RCA

"The Woman’s Book of Joy addresses ways our inherent capacity for joy can be dampened or even deep-sixed for a while. Thankfully, the book’s helpful suggestions and affirmations give readers many guidelines for inviting joy to reign in their hearts again. I especially appreciate the author’s reminders to be gentle with ourselves as we heal and move once again toward joy."

—Sue Patton Thoele, author of The Courage To Be Yourself and The Woman’s Book of Confidence

Eileen Campbell’s beautiful book skillfully opens the door to every woman’s trust. Opening to the dream, step by step, we learn that the joy we yearned for lies within us all.

—Caitlín Matthews, author of Sophia, Goddess of Wisdom and Psychic Protection Handbook.

"As a long-term explorer of the inner dimension, with a lifetime spent helping others navigate this often unfamiliar territory, Eileen Campbell brings personal experience and knowledge to this inspiring guide to finding inner joy. Anyone who reflects on the timeless wisdom offered in The Woman’s Book of Joy and sincerely follows the practical advice provided will be rewarded with greater self-knowledge and deeper happiness."

—Erica Brealey, yoga teacher and author of The Spirit of Meditation, Meditation Ten-Minute Stress Relief and Ten-Minute Anti-Ageing

the

woman’s

book of

JOY

listen to your heart,

live with gratitude,

and find your bliss

Eileen Campbell

Coral Gables, FL

Copyright © 2020, 2022 by Eileen Campbell.

Published by Conari Press, a division of Mango Publishing Group, Inc.

Cover Design: Megan Werner

Layout Design: Deborah Dutton

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The Woman’s Book of Joy: Listen to Your Heart, Live with Gratitude, and Find Your Bliss

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: 2022935884

ISBN: (p) 978-1-68481-083-3 (ebook) 978-1-68481-084-0

BISAC: SEL016000, SELF-HELP / Personal Growth / Happiness

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

Preface

Introduction

n

i. Finding courage

1. Recognizing our fears

2. Taking risks

3. Daring to be ourselves

4. Facing emotional pain

5. Finding a path back to life after tragedy

6. Embracing change and opening to possibilities

7. Seeing crisis as an opportunity for growth

8. Celebrating aging rather than fearing it

9. Dealing with illness and recovery

10. Transforming our perception of dying

11. Daring to embark on the spiritual journey

n

ii. Developing awareness

1. Slowing down and creating space for ourselves

2. Paying attention

3. Taming the unruly mind

4. Adopting mindfulness

5. Practicing meditation

6. Finding a place to retreat to

7. Knowing ourselves—the journey inward

8. Listening to our intuition

9. Revealing ourselves in our closest relationships

10. Showing respect in all our relating

n

iii. Letting go of negative emotions

1. Dropping our emotional baggage

2. Accepting what we can and can’t control

3. Realizing we don’t have to be perfect

4. Managing stress

5. Becoming aware of the Shadow

6. Cultivating healthy expression of anger

7. Eliminating envy

8. Banishing guilt and shame

9. Forgiving ourselves and others

10. Healing and becoming whole

11. Surrendering our expectations

12. Decluttering our lives and minds

13. Facing up to our addictions

n

iv. Cultivating optimism

1. Accepting life’s challenges

2. Changing negative and limiting beliefs

3. Working with the Law of Attraction

4. Getting out of the rut

5. Retraining our brains

6. Making the changes we want to see in our lives

7. Acting as if

8. Maximizing luck

9. Reclaiming our power to heal our bodies

10. Flourishing and developing resilience

11. Creating a better future for all

n

v. Believing in our dreams

1. Knowing what we want/knowing who we are

2. Realizing our passion

3. Using imagination to create our vision

4. Practicing creative visualization

5. Making the commitment

6. Awakening our intuitive abilities

7. Using dreams to bring us closer to our goal

8. Unlocking our creativity

9. Underpinning with discipline

10. Going with the flow and releasing attachment

n

vi. Practicing kindness

1. Being gentle with ourselves

2. Opening our hearts and making kindness a habit

3. Nurturing our most intimate relationships

4. Having realistic expectations of others

5. Listening and communicating with kindness

6. Appreciating our parents

7. Giving of ourselves as mothers

8. Deepening our friendships

9. The healing balm of kindness

10. Understanding those who cause pain

11. Widening the circle of our kindness

n

vii. Trusting life’s process

1. Keeping our hearts open

2. Having faith in ourselves and others

3. Accepting the seasons of our hearts

4. Learning the dance of life

5. Heeding the messages

6. Letting the path be our teacher

7. Surrendering attachment

8. Receiving grace

9. Reassessing and rebuilding our lives

n

viii. Living in the present moment

1. Changing our perception of time

2. Looking in the right place

3. Bringing conscious awareness into our lives

4. Moving beyond compulsive thinking

5. Restraint and keeping things simple

6. Practicing silence and solitude

7. Developing our capacity for patience

8. Creating ritual and sanctuary

9. Living each day as if it’s the only one we have

10. Accepting things as they are

n

ix. Appreciating life’s blessings

1. Giving thanks on a daily basis

2. Seeing the bigger picture

3. Having enough and realizing nothing is lacking

4. Being appreciative of ourselves and others

5. Asking and receiving

6. Opening to wonder and miracles

7. Rejoicing in small things and celebrating the big

8. Increasing our generosity

9. Realizing how even loss can be a blessing

n

x. Finding our unique purpose

1. Asking the right questions

2. Trusting our unique purpose is unfolding

3. Connecting with a power greater than ourselves

4. Following our own path—the heroine’s journey

5. Harnessing the power of intention

6. Making a difference through the work we do

7. Recovering the soul

8. Enhancing our lives now

9. Linking our purpose with that of the whole

You are…

About the Author

Preface

Since The Woman’s Book of Joy was first published in 2016, the pace of change and resulting upheaval in the world has increased exponentially. It’s hard not to feel destabilized by everything that’s happening, and anxiety and fear can overwhelm us. For women, it has been particularly challenging—trying to deal with all the issues that face us has left many thinking there has to be a better way of living.

Life is always unpredictable. It’s impossible to prevent the unexpected and control what’s happening, however hard we try. What we think and feel, however, and how we react to events, is always within our control. We don’t need to get caught up in the chaos. Instead of allowing our minds to run riot, or wearing ourselves out with frenetic activity (often a ploy to avoid painful emotions), or collapsing in a heap because we feel unable to cope, there is another way.

We can choose to take care of ourselves, in the fullest sense, by nurturing ourselves. Too often as women we tend to put others’ needs before our own and have little time for self-care. We don’t always get the help we want and need from family and friends and so often feel alone. When we choose to make time each day for ourselves—turning inward for as little as ten minutes, focusing on our breath—we begin to feel more at ease, less stressed.

At the heart of our being, we connect with what’s real and discover who we truly are. We find we can believe in ourselves and our dreams, and we feel strong and powerful, because we’re connected to the pulse of life that flows through all things. We can let go of unrealistic expectations and surrender to the moment. Once we do, we can experience real joy that is not dependent on external circumstances. We can trust life’s process and believe in a future of abundance and bliss.

Things may well fall apart around us and in our lives, but out of chaos something new is always being born. When we are open and flexible in the face of change, we can more readily appreciate life’s daily miracles and feel grateful for them. If we can learn to view life as a dance and trust the life-force within us to show us the way forward, then joy is always the result.

I hope this new edition will inspire women everywhere to get in touch with our inner wellspring of joy, reclaim our power, heal the hurts and overcome the doubts, so that we can live lives that absolutely overflow with joy!

Introduction

Deep within us exists a vast reservoir of pure joy that we have all on occasion probably experienced, but that we’re generally disconnected from, so that it’s like we’re tuned to the wrong station when trying to listen to a specific program on the radio.

We long for a harmony of life, work, and relationships, but we all inevitably have to grapple with difficult issues of one kind or another and often feel fragmented because of the contradictory tensions and distractions in our lives. In times of difficulty when fear or despair seem to overwhelm us, or when we feel inadequate, this reservoir is exactly what we need to access, for it can help us through our troubles.

We need to remind ourselves that it is always available to us no matter what is happening. When we’re crippled by doubt and anxiety, we don’t always think of turning inward for help. Loving arms, gentle words, and patient listening by family or friends can help enormously when they are available, but all too often we find ourselves alone in our crises. It’s then that the inspiring words of others can help point us in the right direction—to look within ourselves.

Many years ago, when I was consumed with pain and sadness, I began to keep a book of inspirational quotes. Every time I came across some uplifting words or something that resonated with how I was feeling, I jotted them down. I consequently found that whenever I felt low, just ten minutes or so of reading inspiring words helped me in my journey of understanding, and made me more able to bear what I was experiencing. I realized that through the process of healing, I was learning more about myself. I developed greater strength to weather future storms, and I also began to feel a sense of expansion, connecting with a power greater than myself. As a result I experienced feelings of real joy.

What I offer here comes from my own experience and what I’ve learned from others who have opened my eyes and inspired me. I hope to encourage women everywhere to feel that there is a way out of the despair they sometimes feel. We all have the capacity to heal ourselves. Using The Woman’s Book of Joy, by reading and reflecting on a section and adopting an affirmation and working with it, we can begin the process of healing.

Although we can’t always control what happens to us in life, we can choose to seek a different way of looking at things, and however difficult the situation, we find that things begin to change. Over time we come to realize just how precious this Source of joy is that we have deep within us. Accessing it, we can appreciate how strong we really are and can live more authentically, in touch with our true selves. We naturally become more loving because we feel more whole and are in tune with our purpose. We can be more confident about a future that is fulfilling and exciting, and find ourselves radiating joy to all those around us.

May your life be full of joy whatever the challenges you face!

Chapter I

Finding courage

n

To have courage for whatever comes in life—

everything lies in that.

Saint Teresa of Avila

It takes courage to be fully human, to wake up to life’s possibilities, and to grow and mature. When we take a step from the known to the unknown, whether it’s our first day at college, embarking on our career, or starting a new relationship, there’s always a degree of trepidation amidst the excitement. It takes even greater courage to deal with the challenges that are part of everyone’s life sooner or later.

Fear is something we all feel, and unexamined fear can cause a great deal of our suffering. Life rarely turns out the way we want it to, and we have to find the courage to deal with the disappointments, losses, or tragedies that we encounter, and not be held back by our fears. We may try to protect ourselves from suffering by building defenses, but we have to learn to face the painful feelings instead of trying to avoid them. When we do, we find that pain has a useful function—it ultimately enables us to have a greater capacity for joy. In his poem The Guest House, Rumi, the thirteenth-century Persian Sufi poet, points out how we can welcome in the painful feelings because there is much that we can learn from them:

Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,

who violently sweep your house

empty of its furniture,

still treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you out

for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,

meet them at the door laughing,

and invite them in.

We need to be open to