Neal Samudre - Start from Joy: Trade Shame, Guilt, and Fear for Lasting Change, a Lighter Spirit, and a More Fulfilling Life

There are no better guides for joy out there than Neal and Carly. As they share their own story with profound simplicity and vulnerability, they highlight a practical approach to emotional wellness. Start from Joy is a proven recipe for living a life that matters.

BETH AND JEFF M C CORD

In our noble attempts to live purposefully, many of us have forgotten how to experience joy. This biblically based, scientifically sound book provides the antidote. Written by two of the most joyful people I know, Start from Joy is a book I highly recommend.

JORDAN RAYNOR

Like money and happiness, joy is not something to be approached directly. Rather, it is a byproduct of living well. Heres your guide to living in such a way that joy shows up every day!

DAN MILLER

Neal and Carly are two of the most joyful people Ive ever met. After reading Start from Joy, I finally understand why. Packed with intriguing science, captivating stories, and endless applications, this is the emotional-wellness book written for times like these.

JEFF BROWN

Every week I coach individuals who are stuck, frustrated, and hopeless on the road to positive change. Though I give them the strategies to succeed, theres an invisible barrier that barricades greater achievement and fulfillment in their lives. I couldnt put words to this barrier that is, until now. Start from Joy is the book we all need to read if we want to create lasting positive change in the world.

BRIAN DIXON

What a joy! Neal and Carly have given us a gift in this timely reminder of the power of joy to energize positive change in our lives.

JOSH SPURLOCK, MA, LPC

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Visit the authors online at https://enjoycowellness.com.

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Start from Joy: Trade Shame, Guilt, and Fear for Lasting Change, a Lighter Spirit, and a More Fulfilling Life

Copyright 2022 by Neal and Carly Samudre. All rights reserved.

Edited by Stephanie Rische

Published in association with the literary agency of Legacy, LLC, 501 N. Orlando Avenue, Suite #313-348, Winter Park, FL 32789.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked ESV are from The ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Tyndale House Publishers at , or call 1-855-277-9400.

To protect the privacy of our clients, the names and details of our case examples have been changed. All names are fictional, and any resemblance between the composites and real people is coincidental.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

ISBN 978-1-4964-6665-5

ISBN 978-1-4964-6667-9 (ePub); ISBN 978-1-4964-6666-2 (Kindle); ISBN 978-1-4964-6668-6 (Apple)

Build: 2022-12-18 19:39:42 EPUB 3.0

To our son, Jude.
You are the best teacher of joy.

How you start anything matters.

Starting your day at a frantic pace paves the way for greater stress, anxiety, and exhaustion as the day goes on. Starting a road trip with the wrong directions will likely lead to frustration and wasted hours of travel. Starting your workday with the steady drip of news and notifications from your phone will probably lead to less productivity and few results at the end of the day.

The same is true when it comes to our journey to positive change. As we embark on our quests to move our lives forward in meaningful, productive ways, it matters where and how we start. It can determine whether we get to where we want to go.

As professionals dedicated to helping individuals enjoy positive change, weve seen this truth lived out time after time. Moving our lives forward should be a fun and enjoyable experience. Yet people start their journeys from places that sabotage the good they want to accomplish. Instead of going to the gym for the fun of it, we treat it as a chore a necessary evil in order to lose weight. Instead of starting new relationships with passion and excitement, our past baggage taints the thrill and poisons the hope of something new. Instead of crafting our own definition of parenting, we fear well be repeats of our parents who hurt us, which makes parenting even more difficult. In our work, we help people find a new starting point in their quest for positive change so they can reclaim the joy that leads to lasting, fulfilling results.

No example illustrates the power of starting points more clearly than this tale of two entrepreneurs.

The first entrepreneur was starting a business that should have been a raging success. It was in a booming industry, and he was addressing a clear felt need with his services. Yet he believed that to be a success, he had to keep the chip on his shoulder. He grew up watching big-time entrepreneurs point to a certain pain from their past as the launching pad for their endeavors. He, too, believed that he had to prove the world wrong. All this did was feed his shame of not being enough, his fear of messing up, and his guilt over not being more available for his family. This strategy worked... for a while. He was able to bulldoze his way into achieving some results. But the change didnt last. The desire to prove the world wrong turned into patterns of burnout, frustration, and hopelessness. Eventually, his business ended, crippled under the weight of shame, guilt, and fear.

The second entrepreneur had a different starting point. He didnt feel like he had anything to prove. In fact, his future felt full of hope, possibility, and wonder. His business was starting in an industry with various complications and regulations. On top of that, this was an entirely new industry for him. But this didnt deter him. With his energy and excitement, he inspired others to follow his vision, and he was able to build something thats still growing.