Enjoying Joy
A nervous system framework for feeling safe in your own aliveness
Welcome to Enjoying Joy, courses in joy, play, awe, and wonder, created for the adults who learned to survive everything, but never learned how to let the good stuff land.
Joy isn’t childish. Joy is capacity.
And capacity can be rebuilt.
No forced positivity. No “just be happy.”
Just slow, nervous-system-safe pathways back to yourself.
The Problem
Most adults don’t feel safe in joy.
Not because they’re broken, and not because they’re ungrateful,
but because their nervous systems were wired in environments where joy wasn’t reliable, safe, or allowed.
When you grow up in survival mode, your body learns to track threat, not delight.
It sharpens vigilance. It tightens. It prepares.
And anything that feels good (joy, play, awe, wonder) gets registered as suspicious, dangerous, or fleeting.
So you don’t relax into it.
You brace for the moment it disappears.
This isn’t a mindset problem.
It’s physiology.
It’s patterning.
It’s the very natural outcome of a life spent managing pain, conflict, chaos, or overwhelm.
But here’s the truth most people never learn:
Your body can relearn safety with the good.
Your nervous system can build capacity for delight.
Joy can become something you hold, not something you flinch away from.
This work exists because adults deserve a second chance at aliveness.
Not the loud, performative aliveness sold on social media,
but the grounded kind.
The steady kind.
The kind that lets you feel present, connected, and here for your own life.
This is post-survival education.
A reclamation of everything you didn’t get to feel the first time around. A chance to move from a survival shell to embodied fullness.
And it starts small.
With curiosity.
With permission.
With learning slowly and safely how to receive what is already good.
Ok, but why?
Why joy, play awe & wonder are necessary for healing
Most people think healing is about digging, processing, and understanding.
And yes, those things matter.
But they don’t build a life.
A regulated, embodied life is built from the other direction:
through joy, play, awe, and wonder.
The nervous system doesn’t expand through suffering.
It expands through safety.
Through moments where your body receives the signal:
“I’m allowed to feel good.”
This is why joy matters.
Not the bubbly, performative kind, but the quiet, steady kind that lets your body unclench for the first time in years.
Joy is capacity.
It teaches your system that pleasure doesn’t have to lead to pain.
That goodness isn’t a trick.
That you can stay open without being blindsided.
Play is repair.
Real play, the adult kind, the exploratory kind, rewires patterns of vigilance.
It loosens rigidity.
It returns you to curiosity, which is the nervous system’s first step out of survival mode.
Awe is perspective.
It widens the frame.
It gives your brain moments of spaciousness, humility, and connection that interrupt looping fear.
Awe is the fastest way science knows to quiet the ego and soften shame.
Wonder is medicine.
It dissolves certainty.
It lets you step into your life with gentleness instead of self-judgment.
It reintroduces mystery, which trauma steals.
Together, these four states create the conditions where healing can actually land, not as a concept, but as an experience your body recognizes as true.
This is why the work you’ll find here isn’t about chasing happiness or forcing positivity.
It’s about rebuilding your internal capacity to feel alive in a world that once taught you to go numb.
Joy. Play. Awe. Wonder.
These aren’t luxuries.
They are the nervous system’s original language.
And returning to them is how we remember who we were before survival took over.
Joy Curious
Learning to feel safe
in the good
(4 Weeks)
Most adults don’t need louder joy.
They need safer joy.
Joy Curious is the entry point into this work, a four-week foundation for people who want to experience more goodness in their lives but don’t yet trust it.
This course is gentle on purpose.
It’s built for nervous systems that have lived in vigilance, for people who can hold pain with both hands but flinch at pleasure, and for anyone who has ever felt suspicious of feeling good.
The structure is simple:
Short teachings.
Tiny nervous-system-safe practices.
A slow, steady reawakening of curiosity about what your life could feel like.
Joy Curious is for you if:
- You want more life, but the idea of “chasing joy” feels exhausting, childish, or impossible.
- You don’t want to go deep into trauma, you want to learn how to build capacity for the good.
This is the doorway.
Investment
Supported: $97 *limited spots available
Standard: $197
Sustainer: $347
Review the next section for more about this adaptive pricing structure.
In Joy Curious, you will:
Build micro-capacity for positive states without overwhelm
Learn why joy triggers contraction (and how to unwind that pattern)
Explore adult play as a regulation tool
Reintroduce awe and wonder as body-based experiences
Practice receiving small moments of delight safely, without bracing
Develop language and literacy around good feelings (most adults don’t have this)
Adaptive
Pricing
https://www.meganmargherio.com/courses#adaptive-pricing
A shame-free, sustainable way to make this work accessible to all.
Money should never be the reason someone can’t learn to feel safe in joy again.
And at the same time, my work is labor-intensive, (emotional, intellectual, and energetic) and it deserves to be supported.
Adaptive pricing honors both.
You choose the tier that fits your current resources.
There are no applications, no explanations, and no proof required. You’re trusted to choose what’s appropriate for your life.
This is accessibility without shame, and sustainability without burnout.
How it works
Joy Curious has three pricing tiers.
The content is the same for everyone, the only difference is what you’re able to contribute right now.
Choose the tier that aligns with your reality:
TIER 1: Supported
For those with limited financial resources.
Choose this tier if paying more would add stress, require sacrifice, or strain your basic needs.
This tier exists so cost doesn’t become another barrier to feeling alive again.
TIER 2: Standard
For those with stable financial resources.
Choose this tier if you can meet your needs comfortably, participate in extras (like eating out or small treats), and pay for the course without hardship.
This tier sustains the bulk of the work and keeps the entire model thriving.
TIER 3: Sustainer
For those with abundant or flexible financial resources.
Choose this tier if you are able to pay more as a way of supporting others in accessing the work.
Your contribution offsets the reduced-rate Supported-tier spots and also allows me to offer this work at no-cost to those in partnering women’s shelters.
This tier is generosity in action; a quiet act of community care.
A Note About Choosing Your Tier
There is no “right” choice.
There is only the choice that honors your reality.
You won’t be asked to justify your tier.
You won’t be asked to disclose anything personal.
You won’t be treated differently based on what you pay.
Pick the tier that lets you participate without stress, guilt, or pressure.
You’re trusted to know what that is.
Why I Offer Adaptive Pricing
Because healing (real, grounded, nervous-system healing) should not be reserved for people with disposable income.
Because survivors and sensitive souls often carry financial wounds from the very histories that made joy feel unsafe.
Because accessibility matters to me and sustainability matters for the longevity of this work.
This model allows both to exist together.
No shame.
No hierarchy.
Just a clear, compassionate way to meet people where they are.
FAQs
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No.
This work is part of healing.
You don’t need to be in a perfect emotional place, you only need to be willing to start small and go slowly.
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No.
This is not a replacement for therapy or mental health treatment.
Joy Curious focus on nervous-system capacity, not trauma processing.
Many people take this work alongside their therapeutic support, though it is not required.
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Most people find this work regulating, not activating.
Everything is designed to meet your nervous system gently, with choice points built into every step.
That said, any work involving the body and emotions can stir things up, which is why the pacing is slow and supportive. Should something trigger a deeper emotional wound or traumatic experience, I recommend contacting a therapist for further support.
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Not in the traditional sense.
There are short practices, reflections, or invitations you can try throughout the course, all designed to be manageable, even on your most overwhelmed days.
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You won’t be behind.
You work at your pace.You will have lifetime access to the lessons, and you can revisit them whenever you need.
Your nervous system sets the timeline, not the calendar.
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Then you’re exactly who this work is for.
Joy Curious was created for adults who find good feelings overwhelming, suspicious, or inaccessible.
You don’t have to feel joy to begin.
You only need to feel curious. -
Not at all.
Play here has nothing to do with personality or performance.
It’s about exploration, loosening tight patterns, and giving your nervous system moments of freedom.
You can be quiet, thoughtful, reserved, and still benefit deeply.
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This work is specifically designed for sensitive, overstimulated, or shutdown nervous systems.
Short lessons. Simple practices. No pressure.
This is healing for the over-functioners, the overthinkers, and the quietly exhausted.
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Think 1–2 hours, depending on how you engage.
The core lessons are intentionally short, and the practices are small enough to weave into real life.
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Yes, as long as you’re not in an active crisis requiring immediate clinical support.
This work is built for tender seasons, slow seasons, transitional seasons — times when you’re craving gentleness, grounding, and reconnection.
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Yes.
You don’t need prior experience with somatics, mindfulness, or embodiment.
You’ll learn everything step by step.
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No.
The work is rooted in nervous-system science with room for meaning, awe, and inner truth, but without religious or spiritual doctrine.
Who Joy Curious is for
(and not for)…
A clear, gentle guide to help you know if this work is right for you.
Joy Curious isn’t for everyone and that’s okay.
It’s designed for a very specific kind of nervous system, a very specific kind of life history, and a very specific longing.
Here’s how to know if this is your space:
This work is for you if…
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You hold pain easily, but good feelings slip through your fingers or make you tense.
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You’re not doing anything wrong; your nervous system just learned early that “the good” wasn’t safe or reliable.
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You know how to be responsible.
You don’t know how to be at ease.
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You might feel moments of lightness, but they vanish quickly or send you into self-protection.
You crave a different way of living, but you need it to feel grounded.
No hype.
No spiritual bypassing.
No pretending you’re okay when you’re not. -
Your inner world is rich, but often heavy.
You’ve spent years working on your trauma, but joy still feels out of reach.
You’ve done a lot of “processing.”
Now you want to learn how to actually live.
No pretending you’re okay when you’re not.
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Not massive lifestyle overhauls.
Not morning routine pressure.
Just simple shifts that feel possible.
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Someone with depth, rigor, and tenderness, not performance.
If any of this sounds like you, you’re in the right place.
This work is not for you if…
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This isn’t crisis stabilization or trauma processing.
Please contact 911 (US) or text 988 for support.
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This work is slow, somatic, and paced with your nervous system, not a hype-based transformation program.
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I won’t push you, perform for you, or overwhelm you into breakthroughs.
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Play here is adult nervous-system repair, not childhood nostalgia or cosplay.
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You’ll learn things, but the real change is in lived, embodied experience.
What You’ll
Leave With
Not a new personality. Not a forced positivity.
A deeper, steadier relationship with your own aliveness.
When you step into this work, you’re not signing up to become a different person.
I won’t promise overnight change. This is nervous-system work. It takes time.
You’re learning how to come home to yourself in a way that feels safe, steady, and real.
Here’s a realistic expectation for what you’ll carry with you when the course ends:
A belief that your nervous system can tolerate (and trust) good things.
Maybe you’ll stop waiting for when life gets better to let the good in.
Maybe you’ll stop waiting for the other shoe to drop.
But no matter what, you will walk away from this course knowing you are capable of staying open when something feels good, instead of always bracing or pushing it away.
A vocabulary for good feelings, not just difficult ones.
Most adults can name every flavor of pain, but almost none of the flavors of joy.
You’ll relearn the language of delight, ease, warmth, playfulness, and awe so you can recognize them when they rise. Recognition is the first step to acceptance.
Small, repeatable practices that fit into real life.
Nothing that requires waking up at 5am
or reorganizing your entire world.
Just tiny, nervous-system-safe shifts that build real capacity over time.
A changing relationship with your inner world.
A little less self-judgment.
A little less tightening.
A little less second-guessing every good thing that comes your way.
In exchange, you’ll feel a little more gentleness.
A little more curiosity.
A little more room to breathe.
Permission to feel joy without guilt, fear, or contraction.
You don’t have to earn joy.
You don’t have to justify it.
You don’t have to perform for it.
You get to let it meet you exactly as you are.
A steadier sense of self.
Not a perfect self.
Not a constantly happy self.
Just a self that feels a little safer being present, a little more rooted, and a little more open to the goodness already happening in your own life.
And maybe most importantly:
You’ll leave remembering that your aliveness was never gone, it was just buried under years of preparing for the worst.
This work is about uncovering it, gently, and learning how to hold it with both hands.
Ready to
Get Started?
If something in you feels ready, even a little, I’d love to walk with you.
Join the Joy Curious waitlist to be the first to know when new cohorts open.
No pressure. No rush.
Just an open door when you’re ready.