Free Your Joy: The Twelve Keys to Sustainable Happiness

by Lisa McCourt

Overview

Bestselling author and creator of Joy School Lisa McCourt outlines her unique formula for sustainable happiness, offering a year's worth of activities, prompts, and techniques that raise your “joy setpoint” so you can cultivate authentic, lasting peace and fulfillment in your daily life.

2024 Finalist, International Book Awards, Self Help: General Category and Spirituality: General Category

Unprecedented global events have left many of us feeling depleted, depressed, isolated, and disconnected from many of the things that made us happy. Lisa McCourt, host of the Do Joy! podcast and founder of Joy School, helps people raise their joy setpoints regardless of what is happening around them.

Learning about joy is one thing, but it’s the doing that actually shifts your energy. McCourt offers a unique approach to joy and emotional wellness, outlining a year-long adventure in happiness that can be started on any day of the year. Joy is not an elusive fantasy to be chased; it is simply a skill to be learned, practiced, and mastered. McCourt takes readers, month by month, through the life-altering principles of vibration elevation that she has taught for 20 years through her Joy School.

Each of the 12 “keys” to experiencing sustainable, authentic joy builds sequentially upon the previous one to create a progressive shifting of the reader's inner landscape to one of joy and ease. As the inner landscape transforms, transformation of the external reality inevitably follows. McCourt offers weekly “homeplay” for the reader to take into their daily experience which, when followed, upgrade their thought patterns and default reactions into beneficial new habits of thought and behavior.

Upon completion of the final key, the reader is invited along the “spiral,” cycling through the keys again from their newly elevated joy setpoint. Our journey toward ever greater realms of joy and personal freedom is never concluded; we can spiral through the steps, year after year, always recalibrating our lives to ever more fulfilling levels.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780757324529
Publisher:	Health Communications Inc.
Publication date:	08/22/2023
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Lisa McCourt has taught joy—in all its many flavors—for over two decades to thousands of learners. Founder of Joy School (at LisaMcCourt.com), Lisa has penned over forty books for adults and children in addition to collaborating with industry leaders such as Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, and James Van Praagh. Combined, Lisa’s books have sold over 8.5 million copies and earned over 9,000 glowing Amazon reviews.

On the secret side of Lisa’s publishing path, she’s been the silent ghostwriter for many prominent thought-leaders, from New York Times bestselling authors to Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated Hollywood stars. Her clients have appeared on Oprah, Good Morning America, Saturday Night Live, The Dr. Oz Show, ABC’s 20/20, The View, The TODAY Show, Dr. Phil, The Doctors, and more.

A podcaster, former popular CBS Radio host, and joyful singer in Michael Beckwith’s Agape Choir, she brings her passion and unique blend of skillsets to an eclectic career path that is ever mysteriously unfolding, just the way she likes it.

Read an Excerpt

Spring

This section will start with an exploration of what springtime symbolizes and why it’s perfect for certain types of vibration-elevation techniques. Themes of rebirth, newness, and freshness will be discussed, along with ways to take action on what was allowed to gestate in winter. Readers will be invited to explore: Where can you add more color to your life, more freshness, more juice and aliveness? What is wanting to be birthed from you right now? What seedlings can you plant and begin to nourish? What pruning and weeding needs to be done?

Spring-themed exercises, action steps, and practices will be offered that readers can incorporate into their lives during this season, broken down week by week with instructions for bringing these principles into their daily lives.

Examples and true stories – from the author’s personal experience with the steps as well as the experiences of her Joy Schoolers – will be included to add extra depth and comprehension.



Summer

This section will start with an exploration of what summertime symbolizes and why it’s perfect for certain types of vibration-elevation techniques. Themes of play, inner-child work, exposing more of one’s true self, stepping into our inherent radiance, soaking up more of what nourishes us, and aligning with our most vibrant, shining, true core essence will be discussed, along with other ways summertime has traditionally been honored symbolically and philosophically. Readers will be invited to explore: Where can you embrace and show more of yourself? Where and how can you shine even more brightly? What needs to be sizzled away?

Summer-themed exercises, action steps, and practices will be offered that readers can incorporate into their lives during this season, broken down week by week with instructions for bringing these principles into their daily lives.

Examples and true stories – from the author’s personal experience with the steps as well as the experiences of her Joy Schoolers – will be included to add extra depth and comprehension.



Autumn

This section will start with an exploration of what the autumn season symbolizes and why it’s perfect for certain types of vibration-elevation techniques. Themes of quieting down, letting go, and shedding that which no longer serves us will be discussed, along with gratitude and other ways autumn has traditionally been honored symbolically and philosophically. Readers will be invited to explore: What is in my life right now, soaking up my valuable time and attention, that is no longer meaningful to me? What components of my experience have reached the end of their natural life cycles and are ripe to be released? What am I truly grateful for right now, and how can I magnify my experience of gratitude?

Autumn-themed exercises, action steps, and practices will be offered that readers can incorporate into their lives during this season, broken down week by week with instructions for bringing these principles into their daily lives.

Examples and true stories – from the author’s personal experience with the steps as well as the experiences of her Joy Schoolers – will be included to add extra depth and comprehension.



Winter

This section will start with an exploration of what wintertime symbolizes and why it’s perfect for certain types of vibration-elevation techniques. It will include themes of cocooning, quiet, stillness, rest, symbolism of the purity of snowfall and the blanketing it creates in much of the country, as well as how in many cultures it’s the start of a new year, so there’s a clean slate feeling. It’s a chance to close the book on the past and start a new chapter (but not in the same colorful, new-life way that spring invites – more in a sheltered, planning/gestation sort of way.) Winter invites hibernation and introspection. There might be a bit comparing the long Covid period to a prolonged winter for humanity.

Winter-themed exercises, action steps, and practices will be offered that readers can incorporate into their lives during this season, broken down week by week with instructions for bringing these principles into their daily lives.

Examples and true stories – from the author’s personal experience with the steps as well as the experiences of her Joy Schoolers – will be included to add extra depth and comprehension.

Editorial Reviews

Wildly applicable, soul-nourishing guidance for flooding your precious life with joy!”

—SARK, author of Succulent Wild Woman, PlanetSARK.com

“Lisa McCourt’s newest instruction manual for living a life of joy is simply incredible. It is so rich with meaningful content and actionable steps! The depth of work presented here is clearly going to change lives, mine included. Lisa’s wisdom is so heartfelt and accessible as she takes readers into a very deep dive into living what I could only imagine was God’s ultimate plan for human beings. I know it was a labor of love that must have cost her on many levels, and I’m so grateful for her dedication to elevating love and joy in the world!”

—Paul Boynton, bestselling author of Begin with Yes and other transformational books and teachings

“Free Your Joy has a clear message: joy is our natural state. This book is like a complete workshop that clearly explains how to remove all the clouds that stand between you and the sun of your natural state. However, it isn’t just philosophy; the book is filled from beginning to end with exercises because, as Lisa puts it, learning joy is a path of doing. What stands out the most is the kindness on each page, as the author is such a genuine and understanding guide. It would be impossible not to change your energy and get closer to who you truly are after reading this.”

—Chris Niebauer, neurobiologist and author of No Self No Problem: How Neurobiology Is Catching Up to Buddhism

“Simply brilliant. This book is a masterclass in creating the life you’ve always wanted. The true genius of it, though, is the way Lisa has distilled a lifetime of substantial spiritual teachings into 12 digestible keys. In the most approachable, playful, and practical ways imaginable, Lisa delivers on her promise to give you all the tools you need to step into a life of sustained joy and happiness. If you trust her, your life will be transformed, and how you see and interact with the world, yourself, and the people around you will be changed forever.”

—Thomas Lloyd Qualls, award-winning author of Happiness Is an Imaginary Line in the Sand and Painted Oxen

“Happy people don't just happen. They often struggle, suffer, and experience loss and defeat before finding authentic joy. With the right guidance and direction, however, they find their way out of the darkness and despair and back into the light. Then they can become a living, loving light for others who have lost their way.

“For millions of people across the world, Lisa McCourt is that light, and this book is that way. Weaving together personal anecdotes with insights from trusted guides and teachers, Free Your Joy provides a practical, step-by-step plan for removing any and all obstacles in your path. Pick up your personal copy of Free Your Joy, rediscover your innate wellbeing, and begin living the life you desire and deserve today!”

—Robert Mack, positive psychology expert, celebrity happiness coach, and author of Happiness from the Inside Out

From the Publisher