The Joy Edit #10
- Chloe Markham
- Apr 16
- 2 min read
A regular edit for your joy.
Nervous system regulation tool
Cold Water Face Splash
WHY: Cold water on the face triggers the mammalian dive reflex.It slows your heart rate and pulls you out of fight-or-flight.It's one of the fastest ways to interrupt a stress spiral / reset your energy / get some POW in your day.
HOW: Splash cold water on your face 3–5 times.Don't forget to breathe 😏
Listen: Walking Lightly Radio
A light, easy-listening soundtrack that's brightening my day after a bit of a weird week.Think it'll brighten your day, too.
Read: The Feminist Nervous System
No, we're not hormonal. We're overloaded.Here's some tools to help.
A book I'm loving: Treasure Island
Reading this after falling in love with the show Black Sails (don't tell me how it ends!). This is classic, piratey, and easy-read escapism. Will Jim Hawkins save the day? I'm off to find out.
“Where we are born is arbitrary, but our right to play safely should be fundamental.”
A Londoner has started an organisation that makes play equipment for kids living in disaster zones and refugee camps. Faith in humanity = restored.
Behind the scenes:
I hesitated sharing this but... here we are:
I had a meeting this week that left me feeling a bit shit.
I sat across from a woman who works in women's wellness.
She was warm, she was passionate... and she spoke about pyramids and concentric circles and inner warriors for ages without ever telling me what she does.
Her ancestral guides are helping her write her book.
Her spirit animals are, by all accounts, very involved in her business decisions.
No shade. Do what you love. But I drove home just feeling a bit lonely.
I know how this space looks from the outside.
I know that "women's wellness" is a big, weird, wonderful, occasionally baffling tent, and I know that to plenty of people (hi, my brother), I probably live somewhere near the woo-woo end of it.
I'm a yoga teacher, I meditate, I talk about joy and intuition and magic...
But I'm not that person. I've never been that person.
I'm the one in the corner of the yoga studio reading the studies and calling out any excess woo.
The one who thinks understanding your body is the most empowering thing in the world, and that you deserve information that's actually true.
I left that meeting actually feeling pretty sad because I know there are women out there who are confused, who are looking for real answers, and who might end up in a room full of concentric circles and spirit guides instead.
That's why I work the way I work, and it's exactly why Joy Unplugged is the way it is. The magic is there, your intuition is there, but we leave the spirit animals at the door.
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