Oxytocin & Pool Days
In this episode of Joy Moments, we explore how finding small moments of joy can help us regain a sense of control in our lives. We share beautiful submissions from our community, including how a massage therapist helped a 39-week pregnant woman find peace through understanding hormone regulation, and how reframing even the most difficult "S sandwich days" can help us appreciate the good moments.
We dive into the connection between control and joy, discussing how redirecting our natural desire for control toward spotting joy moments can transform our daily experience. Our co-host Lacey shares her personal joy moment of family pool time and the feeling of "being exactly where I need to be."
Transcript
Foreign.
Speaker B:Hi, welcome to Joy Moments.
Speaker B:I'm Sarah, here with my co host Lacey and her dinosaur on her hip.
Speaker A:Baby Violet, my dinosaur daughter.
Speaker B:We're here to amplify all the joy moments.
Speaker B:We're taking time to stop and appreciate those moments of joy throughout the day.
Speaker B:That happens because when we can share in those moments, it feels good.
Speaker B:It feels real good.
Speaker A:So these are moments from Sarah and I, but also members of the joyful support community.
Speaker A:And our hope is that you can take these and have a little bit more joy in your life.
Speaker A:Well, we have a submission from our friend Teresa.
Speaker A:She was on season two of no Shame in the home game.
Speaker A:She also just has become one of my favorite people in the world.
Speaker A:How delightful and lovely she is.
Speaker A:And so I've got her joy moment that I would like to read for us.
Speaker A:Gotta get in my reading zone.
Speaker A:I had the privilege of providing a massage to a mama to be at 39 weeks pregnant today.
Speaker A:She was understandably mentally restless and uncomfortable in her body.
Speaker A:I helped her with her mindset.
Speaker A:In the first few minutes of the massage, I focused on her breathing and on the muscles that could move.
Speaker A:And then taught her about the hormone oxytonin or oxytocin.
Speaker A:Yeah, I combined two there that serotonin and okay, and it's regulation.
Speaker A:I use my new tool explaining how the body works and how massage works.
Speaker A:It was the first time I explained hormone regulation to a client as guided imagery, succinct language for my new endeavor.
Speaker A:I'm writing a book and this came in so handy today.
Speaker A:My very pregnant client rested and visual.
Speaker A:Visualized the oxytocin, the set points, and she rested.
Speaker A:She rested, she slept and her muscles relaxed.
Speaker A:It made me so happy.
Speaker A:She appreciated and accepted her body.
Speaker A:She seemed to trust everything in her body for at least one hour.
Speaker A:I had so much joy helping her as a woman who was pregnant four months ago.
Speaker A:And in this place, you need that right by.
Speaker A:Yeah, we were.
Speaker A:We were uncomfortable to.
Speaker A:To be able to like, visualize that and just to be comfortable for an hour at that point.
Speaker A:That's beautiful.
Speaker A:And then for Teresa to be able to see her work in action.
Speaker A:Oh, I love it.
Speaker A:Love everything about it.
Speaker B:And I love that joy.
Speaker B:Because the mama got to experience joy.
Speaker B:Teresa got to experience joy.
Speaker B:And now we're rippling it out.
Speaker B:Violet is experiencing joy.
Speaker A:She might be getting a little mad, but that's okay.
Speaker A:I'll pick her up here in a second.
Speaker B:That is a beautiful joy moment that is shared.
Speaker A:I love it.
Speaker A:I love it.
Speaker A:Now I want a Massage.
Speaker A:So putting that out in the universe.
Speaker B:So I also have one from a friend, and my friend said I could share it.
Speaker B:He did not say if I could share his name.
Speaker B:So I'm not gonna say his name.
Speaker B:But I was really excited because I was explaining to him about this Joy Moments podcast, and he listened to.
Speaker B:And then that same day.
Speaker A:That's the dinosaur.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I could just listen to her all.
Speaker B:Day as my joy.
Speaker B:So my friend was grasping the concept of what we're doing with the three steps and joyful support.
Speaker B:And he listened to our Joy Moments podcast.
Speaker B:And then that week, he sent me a message.
Speaker B:And he said, yesterday was an S sandwich sort of day and not even ketchup would sweeten it up.
Speaker B:Then I remembered that I spent the first hour of the day on the beach drinking coffee and watching surfers.
Speaker B:So he was able to find that moment of.
Speaker B:It was.
Speaker B:It was an S sandwich day.
Speaker B:We can't avoid those.
Speaker B:But then he reflected back on a joy moment he'd had that day.
Speaker B:And so that feels special because I feel like he was doing that for the first time.
Speaker B:The joyful support steps.
Speaker B:It's so.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And I love that he's like, this was a S sandwich day.
Speaker A:This joy has nothing to do with the S sandwich.
Speaker A:But I just found the joy so I could continue on.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:And so that's so beautiful, because sometimes we can stop and reflect back on our day, or sometimes we can look forward and try to spot a joy moment that's coming up.
Speaker B:There's no one way.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I wrote in a previous newsletter about how I'm learning that parenting and all that stuff has really made me to release control.
Speaker A:And that control is something that I'm always trying to go for, that maybe if I take that need for control, I can focus in on the joys like we said, and use that control need or energy to.
Speaker A:To do finding Joyce, because I can control that.
Speaker B:That is very.
Speaker B:What you just shared is very stoic philosophy.
Speaker B:One of the core tenants is not focusing on the things that are out of your control, but rather focusing on what is in your control.
Speaker B:And that's very much to my friend's thing.
Speaker B:It was an S sandwich day.
Speaker B:It was probably something out of his control.
Speaker B:But what can you control?
Speaker B:Spotting joy moments.
Speaker B:And again, we're bringing it all to the table.
Speaker B:It's not all one or all the other.
Speaker B:It's bringing them both to the table.
Speaker B:And that's what we're doing with.
Speaker B:With joy moments.
Speaker A:And I will say another piece of it for Me is that previously my control, if I couldn't control something, my solution was to research the crap out of it.
Speaker A:Like, well, if I can't control it, I'm going to understand every piece of it so that when I can control it, I'm in it and that kind of stuff.
Speaker A:And to some extent that has been a very helpful coping mechanism for me.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Because then I have the tools moving forward.
Speaker A:But I also recognize that's not always the healthiest way to go about it.
Speaker A:So adding joy as a piece of control is, is a big part of it that I, I do want to continue to work on.
Speaker B:And I would say that's a yes, Amy.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:Research, that is something you can control and you can also take control by finding joy moments.
Speaker B:So I think both, because I too find comfort in research and I think that is, I think that is a.
Speaker A:Healthy tool to an extent.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:Every.
Speaker B:Everything within an ex.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:Everything can go too far, including research.
Speaker A:I am the.
Speaker A:I'm the master of a little too much, as my, my husband likes to lovingly say.
Speaker A:Especially like with kids.
Speaker A:Sometimes I come in real hot with my excitement.
Speaker A:I'm like, hi.
Speaker A:And they're like, no, I get it.
Speaker A:That was too much in that moment.
Speaker A:I'm gonna calm down for you.
Speaker A:Oh.
Speaker A:Wanna share a little joy moment that I had yesterday?
Speaker A:Just to, to top us off, we're at my parents pool.
Speaker A:They have a pool and it's fantastic.
Speaker A:But there was a moment where me, Joe and Isaac and Iris, so all five of us were in the pool.
Speaker A:I was pulling Violet around and I just had this moment of like, like completion or just like, oh, I am in the exact moment that need to be right now.
Speaker A:I am at my best.
Speaker A:Being in or near water is always something that brings out the, the best in me.
Speaker A:I have a feeling Vi is the same way because she is.
Speaker A:She loves being in water like me.
Speaker A:And so it just was this beautiful moment of clarity and I got to have like a little moment with each of the kids and I, I just really appreciated and enjoyed that moment in.
Speaker A:In what could be the mundane, but was very, very special for me.
Speaker B:Neil, thank you for sharing that.
Speaker B:It made me happy to picture that.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And I mean, Bob and Carolyn's pool is beautiful too, so I'm sure you can imagine.
Speaker B:I imagine it's immaculate.
Speaker B:There's so many flowers sparkling clean.
Speaker A:So many flowers.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Well, thank you for joining us in joy moments today.
Speaker A:Appreciate you.
Speaker A:And we hope that you can take this joy and spread it out beyond just you, me, Sarah, the person who submitted, just way make those ripples ripple.
Speaker B:Those are our joy moments for today.
Speaker B:We appreciate you being here and sharing in these joy moments.
Speaker B:That is what's helping us to amplify.
Speaker B:We say if we can just make 1% difference and by you listening, that is happening.
Speaker B:So please savor these joy moments that you have heard and throughout the day, focus on what you can control, which is spotting your own joy moments.
Speaker B:And then come back and share those joy moments with us.
Speaker B:And it's just that living ripple of joy, which is what what we're doing here.
Speaker B:Go to joyful support movement.com joy moments and submit all of your moments of joy and we will share them on our next episode.
Speaker A:Well, thank you, Sarah.
Speaker B:Thank you, Lacy.
