Finding Joy

It took me a long time to find my Joy. It was a journey of starts and stops, reflection and refocusing.

​Why? Because as a woman, I've been pulled in many directions my whole life. Here's what kept me from focusing on me, my happiness, and what I truly wanted:

• I was busy being busy. That strategy worked for years, until it didn't.

• I was running a business with 11 women doing PR for many of Seattle's architecture and development firms, along with lifestyle brands across the country.

• As an only child, I was caring for my mother through a decade-long decline with dementia.

I was in my 40s when someone asked me a question about me and, honestly, I didn't know how to answer it. My focus was entirely on running a business, being "successful," and, in many ways, running from pieces of myself and how I was raised.

That's when I started putting women's groups together, and the seeds of RevelEleven were planted. It's also when I first started finding my true self, and my Joy.

For many of us, Joy is personal and primal, and sometimes problematic. It seems like it should be simple, but it can be complicated, even elusive. Psychologist Brené Brown's research ties joy tightly to gratitude. Gratitude is what makes joy sustainable. It’s what allows us to stay present in joy instead of watching it slip away.

Last month was hard, for a lot of reasons. When August rolled around, I was still dwelling on how hard it had been, instead of sitting in gratitude for what poet Mary Oliver calls our one wild and precious life.

That reframe is powerful. So powerful in fact, that it immediately shifts your mindset about everything. When you focus on what's positive, beautiful, and right in your life, your energy shifts, your shoulders relax, you sleep better, and the world feels lighter and more JOYFUL again.

Here's to more joy for all of us.

Joyfully,

Joanie Parsons
Founder/Adventurist of RevelEleven