June brings us summertime days and nights where time seems to stand more still, where people seem lighter, and the weather is full of the sunshine-filled days we were so craving just a few months ago!

This makes this month a wonderful time to focus on growing this month’s joy feeling of elevation!

Keep reading to learn more about elevation and how to add more elevation into your life this June!

Definitions of Joy

Every single month this year, I am focusing on one of the many emotions that make up joy!

According to a study that was written in The Book of Joy, there are a lot of different feelings that make up the feeling we call joy.

Some of these feelings that make up joy are:

• Spiritual Radiance
• Relief
• Contentment
• Wonder
• and Elevation

For June, we are going to focus on the feeling of elevation; what it is, why June is a fantastic month to focus on it, and ways to grow your inner elevation this month!

What’s Elevation, Really?

One of my favorite parts of these posts is digging deep into each joy-feeling’s definition because I feel like it provides a whole new perspective to these words we use on the daily!

Elevation was no exception!

According to Dictionary.com, “Elevation” can be defined as… “”the height to which something is elevated or to which it rises.”

There is something about this definition that I just love.

I feel like it’s because of the last part of this definition… “to which it rises”.

Elevation, in a joy sense, is all about rising to your highest and best self!

However, this is not some destination… it’s truly a journey! We are ALWAYS growing and evolving as people, so therefore we are always elevating or rising to the next best version of us!

Why Focus on Elevation in June?

June is the month where we officially start summer.

To me, summer is all about thriving— and this is why I feel like June is a great time to grow your own elevation in life!

I want to create a post more about this, but I feel that a lot of people (past me included!) have this real fear of thriving in life. Of truly living a life that brings you a lot of joy and a ton of love for life.

However, in my own journey— I have come to see that thriving is really the only way to approach life!

We have this remarkable gift called life where we are living on this beautiful planet which is floating in one galaxy in a Universe that we really don’t know much about… all of this is to say, why aren’t we thriving???

This whole existence is such a gift and a mystery— so might as well look at life as a chance to elevate ourselves to thriving!

How to Add Some Elevation to Your Life

1.) Get some Elevation—Literally!: I just mentioned this to my friend the other day: how much I love hiking/going up mountains, hills, or anywhere elevated physically because not only do we usually get a great view, but it truly offers us a perspective change! When you want to feel some elevation in your life—on a more mental/spiritual level— try getting some actual physical elevation. Whether that be hiking a mountain, walking up a hill, or going to a scenic outlook—give it a try! I find for myself, actual elevation often gives me a new perspective on where I can add more elevation to my life and allows me to see in what ways I can rise to the next best version of myself!

2.) Release What’s No Longer Serving You: It is certainly hard to elevate when we are being held down by the baggage of old beliefs, thoughts, and feelings, so we need to release those in order to truly experience lightness! This isn’t the most “fun” thing to do, but speaking for myself— I never feel more elevated than after I release things needing to be released!

3.) Reevaluate Your Free Time: How are you spending your free time? Is it filled with things that add to your cup of joy? Is it draining from your cup of joy? Or is it not adding or taking away from your joy cup? How would you like to spend your free time? What could you add or cultivate that would add more to your joy in your free time? For me personally, what adds to my cup is meditating, hiking, walking, practicing gratitude, listening to podcasts, reading, listening to music, working on my purpose, taking pretty photographs, getting a good night’s sleep and spending time with people who resonate with me (see below!). I would like to try out camping, surfing, scuba diving, more paddleboarding, and gardening to see if it increases my joy. Things that take away from my cup are spending time with people who are not in alignment with my values, being in crowded places for extended periods of time, not having enough alone time, people-pleasing, not getting movement during my day (*unless my body needs rest), and scrolling too much on social media. Things that neither add nor subtract to my joy are: watching TV and movies. This is for me, and yours may look entirely different! Once you identify what adds to your joy—try to incorporate those things more into your free time while subtracting what you can that takes away from your joy. For things that neither add nor subtract from your joy, it is entirely up to you whether you want to leave it in your life or change it!

4.) Prune Your Relationships and Atmosphere: When we are looking to elevate our lives—we need to prune (in a sense) our relationships and atmosphere. This looks like really taking a hard look at how you want to live and what values you have (try the I AM exercise from May’s Joy Book post if that resonates with you!), and then take a look at the relationships you have. Who meets this new version of you? Who aligns with your values? Do you need to cultivate new friendships and relationships? This also applies to your atmosphere! Does where you live match this next best version of you? How does who you follow on social media match your values? Where do you like to spend your free time—does it elevate your life? Just as we have to prune our gardens—we need to take the time in our lives to prune what isn’t working in our lives to allow for what is working in our lives to grow and thrive. Much like releasing the stored emotions, this might not be the most fun thing to do in life, but it is truly such a wonderful investment to do because it paves the way for you to elevate your life now and down the road!

5.) Try Bella Lively’s Elevate with Intention: I talk about Bella Lively so much on this space, and I feel that is because she is one of my mentors in life—even though I have never met her! She is someone that I really resonate with at this level of my best and highest self at the moment. Her courses are something that I have started taking this year, and they have been very wonderful tools to help me to keep growing as a person. If you feel like you are a match to her on a spiritual level, give her online course Elevate with Intention a try (Note: She currently offers it as part of her alignment bundle)! This course actually inspired a couple of these ideas listed above! It is all about how to elevate in life which is so fitting for this month’s joy word of elevation!

How can you elevate your life this month more? Let us know below!