Our 6th installment for this vitally important series with Karyn Lynn Grant completes with In Search of Happily Ever After: Hindsight Can Be the Best Teacher.
Karyn tells me this is not the end of her wisdom and help for everyone. You will be very happy to know that Karyn will begin writing a brand-new series of six articles beginning in January!
In today’s conversation, Karyn shares how a wonderful treatment and talk with a young stylist led to her reminiscing about her years working fulltime as a single mother. In the days and weeks following, with what Karyn refers to as “the Ghost of Christmas Past,” she marveled at how her life had unfolded, because of her continued faith in Jesus Christ.
I want to share below, in Karyn’s own words, how she expressed this story to me. You will see why today’s In Search of Happily Ever After portrays that Hindsight can indeed be “the Best Teacher.”
Before I do, here is a special treat/gift: We have a beautiful inclusion of a song from Karyn’s music on YouTube: “The Broken Doll” song, which, by the way is a song a dear friend, Wanda Lindstrom, wrote for her and allowed her to produce, record and sing at venues through the years, since her divorce from her first husband. You will hear and see how poignant and apropos the words and music are with todays’ topic.
Except for a few interjections, I will let Karyn’s “story” unfold.
Listen to Karyn Now.
Karyn: Recently, I received a wonderful color treatment at a hair salon by a young single mother who’s courage and perseverance rekindled many memories. As we began with small talk, my new friend (in her early twenties) cheerfully unraveled the story of her life as though she was an open book with nothing to hide.
I was impressed with her cheerful buoyant heart as she patiently placed the foils in my hair all the while expressing how her life had been anything BUT a storybook version of “happily ever after”, yet she was happy none-the-less.
Soon, her complicated life history had me reminiscing on my own years as a single mother working fulltime, carting little ones to and from babysitters before and after work, carrying sleepy children up and downstairs to my apartment late at night, only to rise early in the mornings, on cold wintery mornings, and chauffeuring them back to their father’s house for visitation. Day after day, year after year, I tried to stay upbeat and cheerful, doing all I could think of to make my children’s lives as fun as possible.
Trials, pitfalls, even other failed attempts at marriage had come and gone with my trying to recreate a new and better life for all of us, but often times having my hopes of “happily” dashed and broken along the way.
My search for “happily ever after” had been a complicated journey, but as I reminisced on it, I realized that the gift of a resilient heart, mind and spirit had kept me persevering through thick and thin.
Carol: Karyn, it has been quite a journey, no doubt. Where did it all go from here?
Karyn: I knew what it was to suffer from broken heartedness so I had in turn, devoted my life to assisting those with broken hearts and tattered road maps that had become tearstained and nearly illegible, to refashion their lives. My life experiences, after suffering through eight heartbreaks and marital mishaps of my own, led me to my life’s mission of searching to find a way to assist others in that mysterious and illusive journey to “Joy.”
Carol: Curious Karyn. Is that how or when “Joy Coaching America” came to be?
Karyn: Yes. This led to the development of my company.
Carol: Would you share some information for those who may not be familiar with or who are learning about “Joy Coaching America” and Joy Coaching® Sessions for the first time?
Karyn: Joy Coaching® sessions emphasizes the value of redirecting one’s own heart to your Divine Creator by keeping Divine Appointments with Deity by devoting time each day to faith building practices on a daily basis such as:
• Meaningful morning musical meditations with songs I wrote for the heartbroken
• Personal prayerful ponderings about much needed course corrections
• Scripting (journaling) one’s own deep feelings by asking and answering significant and thought-provoking questions that can lead hurting souls to revisit their inner child through guided visualization.
• Visualizing one’s own adult self, offering the hurting inner child gifts of empathy, understanding, tenderness, compassion and praise for all painful experiences endured.
• Exploring the art of forgiveness for self and others by remembering that this life offers lessons so that we might gain wisdom from our experiences to better serve, bless and minister to others, in their times of need.
Carol: If I’m correct, Joy Coaching® became even more extensive. I believe it also included your original music while doing various hands-on therapies? Did I remember that correctly?
Karyn: Yes, in essence. Joy Coaching® also includes giving and receiving my creation of “The Healer’s Touch”™ sessions which combines my original faith-based music, deep relaxation through massage, aromatherapy, guided visualizations, mindfulness meditations and much more for quieting the resulting inner turmoil left in the wake of challenging circumstances, and reconciling the resulting grief in one’s innermost heart, mind and spirit.
