Your Gift Is You: Finding Joy Beneath the Shoulds

What if the path to more joy is not about doing more, but learning to pause, listen, and reconnect with who you truly are?In this heartfelt conversation, Monick sits down with author, educator, and transformational teacher Shajen Joy Aziz to explore how our gifts, passions, and lived experiences can guide us toward a life filled with greater joy, fulfillment, and aliveness.Shajen shares how profound loss and adversity shaped her deep empathy and lifelong commitment to helping others feel seen, safe, and supported. She reveals how serving children became part of her own healing journey and why some of our greatest gifts can emerge from the hardest chapters of our lives.Together, Monick and Shajen discuss how to recognize the gifts that already live within you, especially the quiet ones that do not need to be monetized or turned into another achievement. They explore why joy can coexist with grief, pain, and uncertainty, and how simple practices like dancing, spending time in nature, creating space for stillness, and honoring your truth can bring you back to yourself.Shajen also shares the inspiration behind her new book and journal, Discovering the Gift of Joy, along with a powerful reminder for high-achieving women: your work in the world may not be to do more. It may be to learn how to do less.In this episode, you will discover:• How adversity can reveal unexpected gifts• Why your greatest gift may simply be who you are• How to identify the activities that naturally bring you into flow• Why rest and quiet are essential for creativity and joy• How children model presence, authenticity, and play• Why joy does not disappear during difficult seasons• How focused action can turn inspiration into transformation• A simple inner-child experiment to help you reconnect with funYour Fun Spark for the week: Ask your inner child, “What brings you joy?” Listen to the first answer without editing it, and then go do it.Because joy is not something you have to earn. It is already within you, waiting for space to emerge.