More Joy In Life

Riri’s Story

Too many of us live life in the grey zone. We’re not necessarily unhappy, but we sure as hell aren’t truly happy. Life is OK, but we’ve lost touch with joy. And some people are so out of touch with joy that they rarely experience anything like happiness.

Riri was one such person. For most of her life, she was an extremely successful project manager, who was flown around the world to deal with a range of crises. Outwardly she was bouncy, confidence and a bit loud. Her inner life was the complete opposite.

She had had a number of failed relationships, and by her late ‘50s was on her own and feeling very lonely, fearful of a solitary old age and believed she was a failure. She had no family to speak of, and few friends. She rarely went out, except when she was working. Her life felt joyless and pointless, and she was on fairly heavy anti-depressants.

She still enjoyed her job, but it had downsides. In particular, it was difficult to make friends because she was moving around so much. She had forgotten how to connect with people at a deep level and was too scared to make the first move to build friendships.

‘Why would they want to hear from me?’ was a question she often asked herself.

She doesn’t remember how she first heard about Huna, just that she did, and it sounded interesting. She had tried various personal development approaches to feeling better, including counselling, but none had worked for her. She liked the Hawaiian aspect to Huna.

It took a while before she could start to let the mask drop a little. She found the people in the Huna community friendly and open, which allowed her to be more friendly and open. She started to make friends. Then, perhaps more important than anything else, she felt ready to start reducing the anti-depressants. Huna had taught her tools and techniques for letting go of old thoughts and patterns. She had stopped blaming herself and others, she’d stopped living her life as a victim, and was ready to take control of her life.

It took a while, but after about 18 months she came off the medication completely. She developed a feeling of contentment, enjoying her place in the world as an in-demand expert. She re-learned how to make friends and form those deeper connections that had previously seemed impossible.

As she let go of the old emotional baggage, the anger, the sadness, the fear, the guilt, the hurt, the shame and the blame, it was if layers peeled off her. She felt ready to face retirement, knowing that she was only alone if she wanted to be, that she was truly loveable, and that there were friends who had her back.

The words happiness and joy were well and truly back in her vocabulary.

If you would like help bringing joy back into your life, just register for my free Emotional Wellbeing Webinar or simply book in to talk to me.