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Pam King: Hello, With & For friends and listeners, Pam here.
It’s hard to believe that this whirlwind of a year is drawing to a close, but this is just a part of natural rhythms of life. It’s a time to reflect and look back, a season of thanks, of joy, and of generosity, and celebration, and a time to finish strong and prepare with hope for what’s to come.
This is also the season of charitable giving. And before today’s episode, I’d like to invite you to partner with me and the Thrive Center.
If you’re still considering how to direct your year-end tax-deductible donations, I’d ask you to think about supporting our work on a monthly or annual basis.
Everything we do is funded by an operations budget we raise, whether by grants or gifts, from like -minded people just like you. We’d love to have you partner with us. So your gift today ensures that we continue to bring you these episodes of with and for, along with providing so many other psychologically and spiritually informed resources for cultivating a life of meaning, purpose, and thriving.
Making a gift is simple. If you love what we’re doing, just head over to thethrivecenter.org/contribute. Thank you, my friends.
Pam King: I’m Dr. Pam King, and you’re listening to With & For, a podcast that explores the depths of psychological science and spiritual wisdom to offer practical guidance towards spiritual health, wholeness, and thriving on purpose.
Jill Westbrook: Hello, dear listeners, Jill Westbrook here, and we’re in the third week of our Advent series exploring hope, peace, joy, and love. This week is on joy. If you light Advent candles in your home, then today is that rose pink candle, aka the shepherd’s candle, symbolizing joy.
And wow, we’re only three weeks away from the launch of season two, and we’d be overjoyed if you would help us spread the word. Sharing an episode, telling a friend, giving the show a rating, an honest review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, anything helps us bring with and for to new audiences.
To this point, we’ve offered two very practical exercises that help us pay attention to our bodies in new ways, guiding us toward the virtues of hope and peace.
In today’s episode, Dr. Pam King continues the series with a reflection and meditative practice to cultivate joy. Joy is so much more than a feeling. In Christian spirituality, joy is a virtue. A habit of wisdom and celebration. Thanks for listening today.
Pam King: The third week of Advent focuses on joy. Joy is central to Advent. Advent is an important season to practice joy, to attune to it, to become aware of it, to align our lives to it, and to activate through joy. Within the Christian tradition, joy is actually a virtue. Joy is more than a feeling, and it is something we can cultivate. And it often occurs when we encounter who or what matters most to us. Joy is associated with our life’s deepest yearnings and connection. Take a moment and pause. Where does your joy come from?
Let’s ponder this question for a moment. We start by attuning to feel sensations of joy in our bodies. Close your eyes if you’re comfortable. And take a deep breath. One big inhale through your nose and then sigh that breath out through your mouth. You are breathing in the breath of God and you are in the loving and joyful presence of God.
Settle into a pattern of deepening your inhales and extending your exhales.
Breathe in God’s joy.
Breathe out what needs to leave you.
Become aware of sensations that exist within you. Pay attention to how you might be experiencing joy in any specific places in your body. Notice, is there a lightness, a glimmer? a tingling feeling of joy anywhere in your body? Hone in on these feelings of joy.
What are these feelings of joy saying to you and about you? What emotions come up for you as you consider joy,
consider what these feelings say about what prompts joy for you,
or what might be blocking or preventing joy for you
in this very moment. What gives you a sense of joy?
Although joy is often associated with connection and celebration, sometimes
a lack of joy can create malaise or even feelings of anger. What do your present feelings and ideas about joy say about your deepest desires and perhaps what God desires for you.
For many, joy opens us up to creativity, to connecting, to moving forward. What is one thing that stands out about what you might have learned about yourself from considering
now we align and set our intentions to pursue
joy. Do these feelings of joy give insight into what you value, large or small? How is your day planned or how is it unfolding in ways that actually align you with joy? What does joy say about your deepest beliefs? What matters most in life?
Consider how you might align your day with sources of joy. How might pursuing joy inform who you spend your time with?
Or what activities or situations might you pursue? in the coming weeks of Advent.
Now, we take action to pursue joy. How can you take one step towards living into more joy today? Are the activities or people who bring you joy part of your normal routine? Or does pursuing joy require stepping out of your routine?
Are there beliefs about life and faith that you might want to reflect on? And what can you do to give joy to another?
In closing, share your thoughts, longings, and joys with God. And may God be with you and bring you joy this week as you anticipate the birth of Christ, the coming of God this Christmas.
Jill Westbrook: Thanks for being with us. We’ll be back with our final advent reflection and practice on love next Sunday, December 22nd. Until then, you can find a wealth of practices and resources on our website, thethrivecenter.org. If you haven’t already, subscribe to With & For, wherever you listen to podcasts, and don’t miss the launch of our second season on January 6, 2025. Thanks for listening.
Pam King: With & For is a production of The Thrive Center at Fuller Theological Seminary. For more information, visit our website, thethrivecenter.org, where you’ll find all sorts of resources to support your pursuit of wholeness and a life of thriving on purpose. I am so grateful to the staff and fellows of the Thrive Center and our With & For podcast team.
Jill Westbrook is our Senior Director and Producer. Lauren Kim is our Operations Manager. Wren Jeurgensen is our Social Media Graphic Designer. Evan Rosa is our Consulting Producer. And special thanks to the team at Fuller Studio and the Fuller School of Psychology and Marriage and Family Therapy.
I’m your host, Dr. Pam King. Thank you for listening.
Pamela Ebstyne King, Ph.D.
Pamela Ebstyne King is the Executive Director of the Thrive Center and the Peter L. Benson Professor of Applied Developmental Science in the School of Psychology at Fuller Theological Seminary. Her life’s purpose is to help people thrive. To this end, her academic work focuses on psychological and theological perspectives of human thriving and social flourishing. Her psychological research focuses on spiritual and moral development; the role of transcendent beliefs, narratives, and emotions in virtue development; and environments that promote thriving for diverse people. TheThriveCenter.org translates research into resources that promote wholeness, thriving, and spiritual health, and she is the host of the With & For podcast.
Episode Summary
Joy is more than a feeling. It’s a virtue. And it’s something we can cultivate. We live into joy when we encounter who or what matters most to us. It’s associated with our life’s deepest yearnings and connection.
This December, we’re celebrating Advent with you by offering four guided meditations by Dr. Pam King—considering how to cultivate the Advent virtues of hope, peace, joy, and love into our lives this year.
We’d be grateful if you considered the Thrive Center in your year-end giving. To make a year-end tax-deductible gift, visit thethrivecenter.org/contribute.
Don’t forget that Season 2 of With & For launches with all new episodes on January 6, 2025!
Show Notes
- The Shepherd’s Candle—symbolizing joy
- Joy is more than a feeling. It’s a virtue.
- Cultivating joy through encountering who and what matters most to us
- Breathing practice
- Loving and joyful presence of God
- How are you experiencing joy in your body?
- Joy’s insight into our values, opening us up to creativity and connection
- Does pursuing joy require you to step out of your normal routine?
- What can you do to bring joy to another?
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