Making conscious choices to find joy in everything we do is hard work, but in Carissa Stanton’s experience, it’s worth it. In my conversation with Carissa on the Live Purely Podcast, more widely known through her Instagram account @broccyourbody, she talked about how when she first started her food blog, she was trying to do what everyone else was doing because that’s what people seemed to gravitate towards online. After a while, she realized her community cared less about how pretty the recipes looked and more about how the food they were eating made them feel. They didn’t care about the aesthetically pleasing photos, but were genuinely interested in whatever Carissa felt like making that day and how they could recreate for themselves.
After changing her philosophy around food, Carissa realized that cooking brought more joy into her relationship with eating, which eventually trickled down into other areas of her life. Below, we dive into her top 3 ways to consciously bring more joy into your own life.
-
FOCUS ON POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS
“Surrounding yourself with good people is the most important thing you can do for your health.” This is what Carissa told me during our conversation and I couldn't agree more. The people who you choose to spend your time with have a huge impact on how you experience joy in your relationships, and by extension, your life. Choosing to spend time with people who encourage and uplift you is key to your mental health.
-
REDEFINE YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH EXERCISE & FOOD
Carissa shared that in the beginning moments of starting her @broccyourbody page, she was heavily focused on being health-conscious, not only with her food but with her relationship to exercise as well. She wasn’t focused on how the workouts she was doing made her feel, but instead she was doing them because that’s what she thought she “should” be doing to stay healthy. After she started working on her relationship with food, she noticed that she was becoming more in tune with the way what she was eating made her feel. This is when she started making recipes that made her feel good and more energized to tackle her busy schedule.
At the same time, she started focusing more on what type of exercise brought her the most joy, which led to moving her workouts outside rather than going to a high-intensity gym and incorporating weight lifting into shorter segments throughout the week rather than for an hour a day everyday. Incorporating these small changes over time has led to a happier, more joy-filled life for her, which has rippled out into other areas of her life.
-
APPRECIATE WHERE YOU ARE NOW
In our conversation, Carissa also touched on the importance of your environment on how you experience joy in your day-to-day life. Showing gratitude for where you’re living, even if it’s not perfect or your ideal situation, can allow you to feel more joy for what you do have. Fill your space with things that make you happy and incorporate important elements that contribute to your joy.
If you’re curious to learn more from Carissa and what she’s up to at Brocc Your Body, listen to the full episode below!
