How to Choose (and Use) Joy with Elena Sonnino

Fit is Freedom with Kelly Howard

Episode Summary

This week, I’m joined on the Fit is Freedom Podcast with Elena Sonnino. She is a life coach, yoga teacher, and author of Inhabit Your Joy: A Book of Nudges. Join me as we discuss her journey to joy, how little changes lead to great changes, and how we are the keys to unlocking our own joy. She will also outline her 3 ingredients of embodying joy, which are…

• Getting Rooted
• Getting Curious
• Getting Alive

More about Elena

Elena Sonnino is a life coach, yoga instructor, and speaker who focuses on helping women uncover their own radiance. Her book, Inhabit Your Joy: A Book of Nudges, does just this along with inspiring others to focus on the good while embracing your true authentic self.

Elena’s Journey to Joy

After having battled Hodgkin Lymphoma in her early 20’s, her doctor informed her that she would never be able to conceive, and if she did, the pregnancy would not be viable. Knowing this, she took steps to find an egg donor. When she was a mere weeks away from becoming the mom she’d always dreamt of being, she was completely shocked to receive a phone call from her doctor sharing that she was, in fact, already pregnant. In this moment of uncertainty, her doctor shared something that would stick with Elena for the rest of her life. Her doctor stated, “You can grieve or you can celebrate until the day you can’t.”

This one phrase launched Elena into becoming the person she is to this day. From that moment forward, she experiences a seismic shift in her being. This allowed her to focus on the present and learn to celebrate the joys in her life no matter the circumstances.

3 Keys to Unlocking Joy

Elena Sonnino developed 3 keys to unlocking joy: get rooted, get curious, and get alive. Through these three interchangeable keys, she believes all can find their true and joyful selves.

• 1. Get Rooted

Getting rooted can take form in a variety of ways. Elena shares that it can be as simple as bringing awareness to your breath, moving your body, or decluttering the mind.

• 2. Get Curious

Once you’ve come into the present and become rooted, Elena shares that you can then get curious about what’s going on around you. You can start evaluating your life, looking at what is going well. You could even do something as simple as creating an “Evidence Jar”, documenting the good you are seeing and observing around you.

• 3. Get Alive

Oftentimes, when you think of joy, you think about how you must be happy all of the time, but that’s not the case. Being alive is experiencing the full spectrum of life. It’s about appreciating the darkness because you know the sunrise isn’t far away. It’s about loving yourself completely and accepting life in its fullness.