5/24 Celebrate Beauty: "What Is Beautiful?" Ep #47

How do you define beauty? What is it like to experience beauty? 

May 2024's Monthly Theme is "Celebrate Beauty" 

Find all the resources and content on the website. 

website: www.makeitjoy.com

What's Your Joy Style Quiz? https://ivlv.me/wqQxbNew 

**What do I use to record my podcast? (affiliate link, thank you for using it!!)

https://alitu.com?fp_ref=caroline84

Thank you for listening! It is a pleasure to bring you free content and encouragement. Would you like to support Make it Joy? Make A Donation

[00:08] Caroline Busick: Hi, I'm Caroline Busick and I'm a certified life and spiritual coach and I love to help women live life with more joy. My job is to completely and wholeheartedly believe the best in you and believe the best for you. I think that life is meant to be enjoyed and we're meant to live with passion, purpose and fun. In this podcast, we will talk about all things joy, what brings you joy, you from joy, and how to just enjoy life more in general. You are uniquely and wonderfully made and you are who you are and how you are for a reason. My hope for you is that you will adore being you build a life you love, soak up as many moments as you can and enjoy the heck out of life. Welcome to the make it Joy podcast.

[00:58] Welcome to the show. I have missed being with you. I've been off creating content and trying to get ahead of what is our new schedule, which is every month at the start of the month, we're going to have monthly themes at make it Joy and there will be blogs available, resources on the website available. I've got some freebies available for you probably every month. I don't know, we'll see. And some podcast episodes that are based on the theme that are all about what we're talking about on the website. So I'm trying to create kind of a, a world you can step into, if you would like, and, and just be immersed in, in what we're focusing on for the month and this month. Oh, it's a good one. It's a great one. And it is celebrating beauty. And the funny thing about this is I had another topic picked out, which we will get to probably towards the end of summer or the middle of summer, but I was halfway through the month and was. I went to a conference at, it's a conference called the Grove and it is in Atlanta and it's from Passion City church and it's, oh, it's all women and singing and getting talked at and talked to and with and praying. It was just. It was great. And when I walked in, you can read this on the blog, by the way, also. But when I walked in, I saw a sign that said vibrant beauty. And I immediately was struck by it. That phrase was so. It was powerful to me. I've always been moved by beauty. I think beauty is, it is an essential part of a full soul and a joyful life. And it's really, man, it's just a great freaking gift that we get to have. There's just so much beauty everywhere. It's infinite. We can just, you can see beauty anywhere. And if you shift your focus and open up to beauty, it grows like, you become infinite in your, in your, like, in your reception to it. That sounds a little woo woo, but what I mean is, like, if you open up to it, then suddenly you see it everywhere. It's like that time that you had a boyfriend and he drove a Honda civic that was silver, and then you broke up and you'd never noticed any Honda civics. And then suddenly, after you break up everywhere, everybody's driving Honda civics that are silver. And so you think you see him everywhere. That's not a personal story or anything. But anyway, I think that some, a lot of us might identify with this. Once you put your attention on something, suddenly you see it everywhere and no longer see civics, by the way. All right, so I want to talk a little bit about, well, what beauty means before I do that, though, just because this is our first month doing this, go to, just a few instructions, if you would like. Go to makeitjoy.com and there's going to be a, like a tab on the menu up at the very top, and it'll say monthly theme. And so you click on that little tab and it will take you to a page on the website and it will have all of the resources, all of the podcast episodes and blogs and the freebies or downloads that you, it'll be the links to all of those things, just all on one page. And so there's everything that you're going to need for the month right there. And I, I don't know yet. I guess we'll see how the inspiration goes, but possibly more things will be added through the month. I'm not sure I do know that it, it helps me. The way I can do this is to have the bulk of the content at the front of the month, like at the beginning on the first or second of the month, and then maybe add some more things. But anyway, so on that page, you'll find what you need. You'll also find an option to subscribe to the email list if you are not on it, and the email I'm going to send. And you can pick which emails you want to get, by the way. But there will be a weekly email just reminding you of what's going on and showing you the links again. And also, I'm going to probably throw in a few resources here and there, but it'll just be a short little email full of inspiration about the month. So just to give you a little boost in case you're losing a little bit of momentum. So, yes. So go to the website. That's where you want to start, and then just have fun, have a great time with this, and let this be your. Your starting point, you know? I mean, this is to inspire you and support you and encourage you as you take your own journey to find your joy and your beauty in your life. So let this be a springboard for you, and then you just follow where the wind takes you. That's great life advice. The wind, right? Full of wisdom, huh? Okay, so when we're talking about beauty and what it is, now, I've got a blog about this that goes into a little bit more detail, but I want to go over some of this with you, too, plus throw in a little bit of extra talky talk. So when we are talking about beauty, there are a lot of other words that maybe we could swap out for beauty, like cute or lovely or attractive or pretty. And those words are. Those are great words. They're positive words. I think it would be great to have any of those words said about any of us. I think that would make us all feel nice. But there is something that makes beauty different. And what I have gathered through my life is that beauty is. It's an experience. So when something is pretty or when something is attractive or good looking, those are wonderful words, as we've said, but they don't impact me on a, like, a soulful level. I don't have an experience when I'm with something that's pretty. But when something is beautiful, I am moved by it. So that, to me, beauty is something that you see with your soul. It is an experience. And that, I think, is what sets it apart. And so when you are going through this beauty experience, you know, I've got some steps for you. Step one. I've broken it down into, like, what happens to us when we see beauty and when we're feeling something stirring in us. And so. Okay, let me see. I've written them down. I don't want to forget them. Ready? Here we go. The first thing that happens when we encounter beauty is there's a natural stop. There's a pause that happens. And this may not be a physical stop, because sometimes beauty is in movement, or we chase it, or we have to get quick to follow it. Like, I have been in the car before and seen a gorgeous sunset, and I've followed it with my car. I've driven after it. But there is something internally or externally that gives us a pause. And we stop. It stops us in our tracks. It arrests us. There's a stillness that happens and a quietness that comes over us. And this is a. If you'll think of times that you have seen or experienced beauty in your life, this is involuntary. It's this involuntary. Maybe your breath is taken away a bit or, oh, wow, you're walking, and then you just stop and look at something, or you are with someone else, and then you just grab their hand because you're experiencing beauty. And so when you have this involuntary stop, stoppage, pausing, don't miss it. Follow that. Don't push past it. Yield to that natural stopping. That is clue one, that something beautiful is afoot. All right? So. And then step two, the next thing that happens is we wait. You just wait and you watch it. And beauty. Beauty has a pace, and it's usually. It can be fast, but it's usually not our pace. It often is much slower than us, and so we can't rush it. Like a rose that wants to bloom, we wait several days from when we see the bud and we watch it just slowly open and become beautiful. Or if there's a beautiful thing happening inside of you, like if God is working inside of you or you are changing or you are learning to become more humble or more compassionate, that's a beautiful thing. That is definitely not something that happens overnight, by the way. Watch out for praying for being more humble. That's a tough one to ask for. I remember I was in 17, I think I was in high school, and I said, lord, I want to be more humble. Teach me about humility. And then I broke my toe the next day. I know that's not how it works, but it sure felt like it was at the time. I was like, great, God, I'm on crutches now. I feel so humble. I just sort of, okay, so when you are, once you have stopped and you have seen this beauty, wait for it, watch it and just surrender to its rhythm and see what it does. And then the third thing that happens next from there, while you're waiting, what happens is open up. There's something in us that just opens up to the beauty, to the experience, and we grow wider. We don't criticize the beauty. We don't want to change it or shape it. We just, like, open up and we absorb it. We take it in to who we are. When you're looking at the ocean and it's just like, vast gorgeousness, I have never thought this ocean is so beautiful, but I think I'll change this or this. No, like true, pure beauty, we accept it as it is and we just take it and love it for what it is. And a note on that. When we're like, some of the beautiful things that we're going to talk about this month are, they're not all sight things. They're not all things that we can see with our eyes or gardens and oceans. Those are beautiful things. But like we've said, compassion, humility. There are beautiful things that happen in life, and sometimes beautiful things have an ugliness to them or a ruin to them or a brokenness to them. Like sometimes, and usually the older we get, we all have a brokenness and a beauty in our story and in our life, in, in the whole tale of who we are and how we've become who we are or in a relationship. And while we're going through it, it may not feel beautiful, but once we're at the end of it and we can look back and we can find the beauty in it over time and we open up to this broken ruin filled with joy and highlights and love, you can see that beauty. It's. It can be a really mixed bag. It can be something that can have a lot of sadness to it, but there's still beauty in it. And so as you look back on your own life, as you look back in spots in your life or experiences that you've seen or experiences with other people, part of seeing the beauty is accepting it for what it is and how it was and not shaping it, just letting it be beautiful in its own right, in its own love and brokenness. There is. I don't mean the entire story is beautiful, but there are parts of it that are beautiful and moving and that are changing, that stir our souls in a powerful way. So once we have opened up to it, the next thing that happens is we. We're moved by it. We are, our soul is moved. We feel connected. We feel joy or peace. And, you know, if you heard the prayer that I did, a prayer for may, I think, is maybe what it's called. But in that prayer, when I was praying, I realized, I mean, I knew this, but as I was talking to God and to you, it just came out of me. That God, man, when we see beauty, we are seeing God. He is so beautiful. The way he is, the way he works, what he creates. He is full of wonder and beauty. And so anytime we see beauty in our lives, we are seeing God. We're seeing the face of God. It's like we're seeing a little bit of heaven here on earth. And so this being moved by it, the beauty is where pretty. It's pretty and it's a lovely thing and it's a nice thing to see with beauty. It is a, it goes into another realm. It's a very spiritual thing. It's a multi dimensional thing. It's something that is, it's wild and live and it can't be captured. And it's like bigger than us and it's bigger than this earth. It's what, it's when our souls come alive. And it's when there is divinity on earth, when there is a divine presence or something divine happening in front of us. That's why we stop. We stop in front of the divine. But there's something spiritual about beauty and something that moves us on the inside. And then the last thing that happens is, man, we appreciate it. We just are so thankful for it. We feel peace and gladness in our hearts. We, I often will just stand and be still and look, I've written about this multiple times in my book already because it's one of the most beautiful places I've seen. So in Australia, there is, and pardon me, my australian friends, in case I get fuzzy on some of the geography here, but it is, there's a place called the great Ocean Road. And it is near Melbourne. And at the end of the great Ocean road, or somewhere along the great Ocean road, there is a very famous spot called the Twelve Apostles. And it is where the, like the edge of the continent. I mean, this is the end of, like the end of the earth. The end of Australia. An edge. Edge is a better word. The edge of the earth. And there has been, and there's the ocean and the wind and the waves and time have come and they've just battered the rocks. And so there's the edge that you're standing on and then a bit away, there are these pillars in the ocean of where the land used to be. Like where it used to all be connected, but it's all been weathered. And now there are these twelve apostles that you can see, although there are not twelve anymore. I don't know if there ever were, but, um, maybe there are seven or six that needs a fact check. Will you do that for me? Will you google that for me? But they, they are continuing to be weathered, but they are so striking in this grand ocean in frickin Australia with. I went at sunset and I remember when I was there, I thought I would pay to come just here and stand here for an hour and just be with this beauty. It was majestic. It was majestic. That's divinity speaking to me, stopping me in my tracks and my way of appreciating it was just standing there with my jaw on the floor, but just standing there and watching it and looking at it. And I was with my dad and we, it was a special trip that we took and a dream trip for him. And I was younger, I was somewhere in the twenties, late twenties, I think. And I said, yeah, man, if we're doing it, let's do it. So he did it. But anyway, we, we just stared at it. We just looked and took it in and we were moved by it. And then the appreciation of beauty, the stillness that comes, the opening that comes this being stirred and being moved on the inside is pausing. That's all a part of the beauty experience. So as you travel through your month, this month, I want to encourage you to open up to the beauty experience. And when you feel that involuntary pause, surrender to it. When you feel moved, let yourself be moved. When you feel open, just open wide. And as much as you can, surrender. Surrender to the beauty. Surrender to this awe and wonder and appreciate it. Take it in. And I do like this word of surrender, just letting the beauty be the beauty. And you are just. Man, aren't we just so I guess lucky or I don't say blessed much, but I guess blessed. Isn't it such a joy? Isn't it a joy and a gift to be able to experience beauty in our life and do have, gosh, such an abundance of it everywhere in action, in sight, through things that we hear. Man, if I hear the cello, I'm a goner. So this month, look everywhere. Open your eyes wide and your heart wide and start looking for your beauty. Honda civics everywhere. Open wide to beauty and be on the lookout. Anything can become beautiful when we have the posture of openness, of receiving it. But just, just see what strikes you and man. Have a good time doing it. This is such a gosh. It's a fun gift. What a fun gift to just say beauty everywhere. All right. Okay, that's it from me, that is your kickoff to your month of beauty. Remember to go and find extra support through the newsletters, through the emails, through the website. And it won't all be my stuff either. I'm going to give you some resources from other places that I think are helpful, but, man, have a ball with this and just let yourself be moved. Go on a little beauty scavenger hunt. Okay, I'm going to do the same and I'd love to hear beauty that you find. I'd love to see any photos you have of beauty and okay, have a great time and hey, I'll catch you on the next one. Ta ta.

[21:31] Caroline Busick: Okay gang, that's it for today. Thanks so much for listening. I hope you've been inspired, encouraged and have had a great time. If you'd like to know more about working with me, having me as your own personal coach, check out my website www.makeitjoy.com. You'll also find all of my resources, recommendations and freebies on there as well. If this podcast is your kind of thing, I would so appreciate your support. Please leave me a five star review and help spread the word. If you'd like to say hello, I would love to hear from you. Send an email to carolinekeitjoy.com. I will read it and I will get back to you. I love the make it joy community. Y'all are a really beautiful, lovely group of people and I appreciate you all so much. Enjoy being you. Enjoy your life and go make it joy.

[22:18] I'll see you next time.