HI!👋 I’m Joy Schulz and its amazing to share some space with you! If we’ve not met yet or swapped stories then you may not have heard the shocking start of my passion project, aka business, Radical Joyfulness. I say shocking because when most meet me now, they have trouble believing I used to be a completely different person or that I’ve healed after years of many appalling and traumatic events. So grab a cuppa, get comfy, and let me tell you a bit of my story and how I got where I am now.
I was watching the famous TED talk a few years ago with Simon Sinek about Starting with Why and it made a huge impact in the way I’ve approached my life ever since.
My Why?!
For reference, my vision is that those of us who’ve been buried under expectations and conditioning of society/religion are given the chance to heal and re-design their life in the way that brings them radical levels of joy and fulfillment. AKA the Dream Life!
Why am I passionate about this? Because I’ve been buried under about as many rules, expectations, and trauma as you can imagine. I grew up thinking I had one major purpose in life; to be a man’s helpmeet (think his servant and muse basically) in life and to raise his babies. That predetermined life path was like a noose around my heart and by the time I was 26 with a marriage ending (ultimate failure for said life path) and moving back in with my mom…well I was a depressed, co-dependent shell of a person. That version of me was about as opposite of the me typing this blog post as you can imagine.
“The most cynical 26 year old I’ve ever met…”
While jade is one of my favorite crystals, being jaded and cynical meant I was on a downward spiral fast if I didn’t turn my life around. After a life of religious (grew up in a cult), emotional, psychological and physical & sexual abuse/trauma — believe me when I looked for the worst or the negative I found loads of it everywhere. Yet at my core I knew that there had to be more to life. Since I’d been married for 4 years, I set a timer of 4 years to fix my broken ass life and heart or I was going to quit it all.
Enter the book Tiny, Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed. If you’re not familiar, its a collection of advice columns written by “Dear Sugar”, yet these are not your normal advice column BS. Here was a collection of raw, vulnerable stories of peoples pain, trauma, and heartache. In response to their letters, Sugar/Strayed shares her own stories. It was the first time I’d seen that others could truly go through shit, heal, and build thriving lives. I felt a ray of hope illuminate a corner of my heart and realized I had the desire to truly thrive. I knew I had to start somewhere yet when you’ve been in control of less than 15% of your life, where do you start? I chose the biggest disrupter of my life at the time — my weight and absolute lack of physical fitness.
The next version of Joy
The following year I threw myself into Crossfit and eating paleo style. For the first time in my ENTIRE life, I was taking care of me first. I lost 100 pounds, got stronger than I ever thought possible for a woman and I found a community for the first time. I finally felt a level of control over my life which led me to start to question the big beliefs i’d inherited. Things like marriage, friendships, work, etc. What they felt like, looked like, and how they “should” operate.
Mind you, at this point I was still running FROM what I hated versus running towards what I wanted. So when I was waking up everyday wishing I could disappear and never go to my day job again, I knew the next chapter was starting. I became a Crossfit coach and massage therapist. Then I hit burnout and adrenal fatigue, was in 4 car accidents in 5years, and had a bad fall down a flight of stairs… the Universe was shouting at me and I simply wasn’t listening. Since that wasn’t enough yet, I lost everything I’d worked so hard for… my dream car, my massage practice, my “life” partners, and my life felt like it was coming to a fucking standstill. I knew there had to be something more, again.
The “sales post” that changed my life
Due to growing up brainwashed into the conservative fundamental Christian church (aka a cult), after my divorce and subsequent leaving of said church, I wanted nothing to do with “god” for several years. However once I kept having all these major life events and my body breaking down, I knew something had to change.
Enter the book The Universe Has Your Back by Gabrielle Bernstein. To be honest, at this point I have zero clue how this book made it into my hands yet as I read it, I felt my heart start to open a smidge and I cried many crocodile tears. The next ray of hope was illuminating a corner of my heart.
After I finished the book I was craving more so i found the facebook group where discussion around the book was being had. The next day (when you’re ready, the Universe moves quick) I saw a post from this chick named Laura about how she’d been depressed with PTSD and yet had turned her life around. I knew deep down that this was a next step. Over the next month as I got to know Laura, be part of her FB group, and participate in a free five day challenge, this knowing got stronger and stronger. When I had the opportunity to hop on a phone call and then start to work with her, I jumped at it!
I AM a POWERHOUSE!
Over the course of the next 8 or so months as I worked with Laura, I began to learn about who Joy truly is and began to unravel the stories I’d been telling myself about how awful I thought I was… I began to journal and get some space between my thoughts and feelings. I began to see that I’m highly intuitive and I could trust it. I started to have an inkling that I am a powerhouse and here to help others see/feel the joy of who they are at their core!
Since I’ve had “tell me your life story” written on my forehead all my life and had always been slightly jealous of those who could just “talk for a living” I decided it was time for my next career to begin and it would be in the coaching industry. I found what I’m supposed to do! Woohoo!
It is a good thing though that I didn’t realize how difficult the next chapter would be as I dove deep into my shadows. Building a business is the biggest personal development project you’ll ever undertake as you have to know and see yourself before others can do the same.
As I immersed myself into learning all the things, finding all the tools for potential clients, and figuring out what my message would be, I heard about this tool called Human Design. Now when I hear about something I’m not familiar with, I instantly go to Google. I quickly realized I was way in over my head and I needed to help to figure this out. A few months later I stumbled across a coach in my area, Amber, who was just starting to do Human Design Readings.
2020 Changed Everything…
Listening to my first Human Design reading on my birthday, right before the pandemic hit, I was blown away by the things that Amber could tell about me from my chart and felt so seen! For the first time, I got a glimpse that perhaps there was an easier way of living my life. I felt truly seen!
However past listening to the reading, I didn’t know how to use any of the information so it fell to the back burner while I focused on squeezing myself into all these business coaches boxes in order to make my business work. Deep down though, I knew this was life changing information, if I could just figure out how to integrate this new stuff into my life.
Over the next two years, I worked on my shadows and befriended the darkness that has been a constant companion. I also finally left the day job that had been sucking the very life from my soul. As my head cleared away the cobwebs in my brain and some trauma left my body, I began to study Human Design in greater detail as I was finally able to construct my life in a way that helped me work WITH myself as opposed to against myself. I wanted to fully understand my own user manual or cosmic blueprint. What I found, blew my own mind again.
My Super Powers
The more I learned about myself and others, the more everything made sense. It was like I found the language for my soul and what I’d been trying to help my clients with for the last couple of years. Coaching based on intuition alone was powerful however now that I had their Human Design chart on hand, the efficiency and effectiveness skyrocketed! All of a sudden I could marry the logical part of my brain and the intuitive part of my heart. The result was the most bespoke coaching and mentoring sessions I’ve ever experienced. I then knew I had no choice but to bring it, and the way I see things, to the world one client at a time.
At the beginning of my journey, my greatest desires were to be able to accept myself and others, to be able to confidently make my own decisions (aka lead myself), and to live a life I didn’t crave escape from anymore. It’s taken me a few years to go through this process and I have to say being on the other side of this work is even more amazing than I dreamed. I see my strengths and ease in certain things, my struggles and lessons, my shiny bits and my shadowy bits, my feminine and masculine, my divine and human… and its all beautiful and I am more than enough!
“The obstacles are detours in the right direction.” - Gabby Bernstein
My personal journey is far from over, however now I’m at a point where I can truly begin to step into my super powers and create a safe container to gain awareness, learn yourself and your tools, and to have the support needed to create the fundamental change you so desire. To be able to create the life you’ve only dreamed of having.
Because I’ve walked this section of the path already, I can guide you through the healing and shifting as you remember who the fuck you are, learn to love YOU, and build the life you’re obsessed with living! It all begins with that first step and I’m living proof it’s beyond worth choosing you, every damn day! No matter whether you work with me or not though, know that
You are the opposite of broken -- You were just taught to someone other than you!
For more resources such as my email list “Sparks of Joy” or to sign up for a custom Taster Reading, check out the Resources page. If you’re ready to dive deep into living your design and want all the info, an Unravel session is probably up your alley so head over to the Work with Me page!
To find out more about this Human Design thing I'm talking about, check out my blog post about it or my YouTube video:
YouTube: https://youtu.be/AA9yZWYVTm4
And always know, if you fancy a cuppa and a chat, heres my link: https://tidycal.com/radicaljoyfulness/coffee
Comments