Journey To Joy

Don’t you deserve a Joyful Life?

If life is a journey, we may as well make it a joyful one. Google defines joy as a feeling of great pleasure and happiness. What a way to live your life—with a feeling of great pleasure and happiness! Isn’t that what everyone wants? However, joy seems to be elusive for many. Living a joyless life is far too common. In a society where stress is a way of life, how do we make room for joy? How can we bring more joy to our lives while we minimize our levels of stress? In Journey to Joy: Insights and Actions for a Happier Life, psychotherapist, Susan Goryeb Simms, LCSW, helps you to find actionable answers to these universal questions and many others. Through professional and personal anecdotes, Susan takes the reader on a journey to joy. She shares wisdom gained through more than twenty-five years of helping individuals of all ages, as well as couples. Susan has devoted her life to helping her clients find their path to a more joyful life. This powerful but accessible book addresses topics like the importance of gratitude, forgiveness, love and compassion as well as the significance of intention and priorities. Each chapter ends with practical “Joyful Action Steps” to help you on your journey. Susan writes with warmth and understanding and acts as a guide as you find your way to joy.


Reviews

This powerful but accessible book addresses topics like the importance of gratitude, forgiveness, love and compassion as well as the significance of intention and priorities. 

Absolutely loved this book! It’s a quick and easy read, with plenty of good tangible suggestions for creating positivity in your life. I’ve read other “self help” type of books, but nothing like this. Recommend HIGHLY!! #gratefultohavereadthisbook1
Journey to Joy helped me during a tough career transition in my life and revealed to me that what seemed stressful and chaotic was “everything falling into place.” Susan is accurate in stating that “something great is always around the corner” so simple, yet so profoundly true.
This book has been invaluable in altering my perspective in so many areas of my life, and I am definitely a more joyful and optimistic person because of it.

Excerpt from Chapter on “Change”

Ultimately, the goal is to recognize the opportunities for growth, beauty, and extraordinary experiences during our struggles. When you get to a point, in the midst of a difficult time, where you can say, “I know this really stinks right now, but I am excited to see what good will come from it, because I know it’s coming,” you are in a great place to live joyfully… 

…Consider how we eagerly await the springtime. Spring is such a beautiful time of year. Everything that was dormant in winter begins to come alive. No matter how hard the winter is, we know that eventually, spring will arrive We are aware of this process with the seasons so as winter wears on we find relief in the knowledge that spring is just around the corner.  Life is much the same way, hard times give way to good times, but we don’t know the beauty or the gifts that are on their way to us while we are struggling. When our lives are dreary and dull, we may not have the same expectation of something good coming that we have for the springtime.

If we always knew that something wonderful was headed our way, the way we know spring is coming, we might be able to feel a greater sense of ease. It won’t necessarily make us less frustrated with our current circumstances (just like we can still be frustrated when there is a snowfall in March) but knowing that there is an end in sight can help to comfort us through the struggle.

If we choose to live our lives with the knowledge that something beautiful is on its way to us, we can live with the same anticipation that we do for spring.


Other Recommended Reading

The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom (A Toltec Wisdom Book)

By Don Miguel Ruiz In The Four Agreements, bestselling author don Miguel Ruiz reveals the source of self-limiting beliefs that rob us of joy and create needless suffering. Based on ancient Toltec wisdom, The Four Agreements offer a powerful code of conduct that can rapidly transform our lives to a new experience of freedom, true happiness, and love. Find it on Amazon 

Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living

by Shauna Niequist LIVE A LIFE OF MEANING AND CONNECTION Instead of pushing for perfection A few years ago, I found myself exhausted and isolated, my soul and body sick. I was tired of being tired, burned out on busy. And, it seemed almost everyone I talked with was in the same boat: longing for connection, meaning, depth, but settling for busy. Find it on Amazon 

Happiness Is a Choice You Make: Lessons from a Year Among the Oldest Old

by John Leland A New York Times Bestseller! An extraordinary look at what it means to grow old and a heartening guide to well-being, Happiness Is a Choice You Make weaves together the stories and wisdom of six New Yorkers who number among the “oldest old”― those eighty-five and up. Find it on Amazon 


Contacts

East Setauket, NY
Phone: 516-946-3495
By appointment only
Testimonials

I am so grateful that we found Susan. She has been a valuable resource to us and a huge comfort to our daughter. She is patient and understanding and is working hard to help our daughter learn skills that will help her thrive and excell through her social challenges. Susan is not a therapist on autopilot, she cares about her patients and is constantly thinking of ways to help them.

Been seeing Susan for just a short time, but already I’m feeling her “magic!” Not only do I feel like a huge weight has been lifted, but this warm, sweet, insightful woman has given me the tools to get through all that ails me.

I came to Susan after a referral from my Employee Assistance Program. My expectations were pretty high, since the EAP counselor spoke so highly of her. Susan put me at ease right away. I felt like she really cared! Her office and waiting room feel warm and inviting. She has been so great to work with. Susan helped me get through a very difficult time and I highly recommend her to anyone.

After being in therapy with many different therapists over the years, I found Susan after being referred by a friend. I immediately felt comfortable with her and I could tell that I finally found someone who could give me the support and guidance I needed. Susan has a much more approachable style that the other therapists I’ve seen and  has really helped me to refocus my life in a positive direction. I am so grateful I found Susan and I have referred her to so many of my friends who have also had wonderful experiences with her. 

Susan has been a life changing force for me. I have spent my entire life, forty-something years dealing with anxiety, panic-disorder and depression. I have been to multiple therapists throughout this time, trying to get to the root cause of these things, to no avail. Susan is different. During the two years I have been working with her, she has served as a catalyst for positive change. She is helping me find and heal the root of my emotional pain, and the reasons for repetitive behaviors in relationships that have continued to cause me pain. In addition, she has an uncanny knack for knowing what I need and where to go for it. I have a hard-time calling her a therapist, because she is far more than that. Susan is the perfect person to help you take a good hard look hard at yourself to find your truth with a counselor who will support you, guide you and care for you through the process. I don’t know how I was so fortunate to find someone like this. The biggest issue I am facing these days is feeling so amazing, I need to search for other things she can help me with. I am living my life in ways I never imagined possible two years ago.

4 months ago

Positive Therapy 4 U
Timeline photosSurrender. Let go. Have faith. So much of our suffering is because of our inability to do these three things. As we accept the present moment without judgement we relax into it. When we let go of the past we allow ourselves to move forward, away from being stuck and stagnant And as we have faith in the future, trusting that all will be well, we release our need to control. In doing this we feel calmer, more positive and even more confident. Ironically, we begin to feel more in control of our lives as we relinquish control. ~ 💜 Susan ... See MoreSee Less
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4 months ago

Positive Therapy 4 U
Timeline photosTrustI have talked to many of my friends and clients about the topic of trust or faith in a better tomorrow. This is easy to do when you are in a good place and life is going your way, but how do you maintain a feeling of stability during times of adversity? When you have a sick child or you lose your job or your husband walks out...How can we feel safe and protected during times like these? The answer is not a simple one. Trusting that things will work out and believing that you are strong enough to handle these times is the clear answer, but it can be so hard during these difficult times. I try to remind these people that I care about of just how strong they are. I remind them of what they have endured before and I let them know that I trust them to have the strength to get through. I remind them of the gifts of previous times like this. How there was always a silver lining. I tell them what I tell myself during times like that, "There is a light at the end of this tunnel" and I encourage them to trust that it's coming. I tell them to imagine the outcome they are hoping for. To picture that light at the end of the tunnel and feel the sense of relief and joy when they get there. I tell them to live in that place for a little while every day...feeling how good it feels to get that great news, to land the next job, to hear that your child will be okay...I ask them and myself to do this work every day to maintain a sense of peace when it feels like the world is crumbling around you. A few minutes every day of peace. We all deserve that, don't we? It feels so good to be in that place that for many this builds to twice a day or more and the feeling in between those times begins to brighten. Try this for yourself. You will notice that things start getting better in your life little by little. Or sometimes all at once. And as that happens your trust builds. Try it and see what happens, you have nothing to lose ~ 💜 Susan ... See MoreSee Less
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