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Hi, Friends! 🌸
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It’s February, and I’ve heard a lot of people talking about how long January felt to them. With so much heartache in the world, war, the LA fires, new administration transition, it's been A LOT! The world seems more chaotic than ever, and here's what I want to share...
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​Protect Your Peace. And let JOY be your guide.

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Hear me out.
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Most people postpone joy, and that included me until very recently. Many believe joy needs to be earned:
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“I’ll feel joy when I get through this project,”
or
“I’ll celebrate after I achieve this goal,”
or
“I’ll have time to pursue joy when my kids are out of the house.”
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Sound familiar? I get it. But what if joy isn’t something to wait for? What if it’s the antidote to life’s toughest times? 💖 Stick with me through the research...

Cultivating Joy

Joy reduces anxiety and depression​
Studies from Harvard show that positive emotions, including joy, significantly lower cortisol levels (the stress hormone) and decrease the risk of developing clinical depression.

Joy builds resilience​
A study published in Emotion found that individuals who experience frequent moments of joy recover more quickly from stress, showing increased mental and emotional resilience.

Joy boosts longevity​
Research by the University of California found that people who report higher levels of happiness and joy live up to 10 years longer on average!

And yet, most of us put joy on the back burner. Why? Because we’ve been conditioned to believe joy is a reward for enduring hardship—not a tool to help us through it.
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🌈🌈
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Joy doesn’t erase pain, loss, or rage, yet it does give us the strength to face them, and feel through the healing required to feel more settled in our own skin.

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When joy becomes part of our daily lives, it can:

✨ Ease anxiety and quiet the mind.
✨ Improve relationships by helping us connect authentically.
✨ Foster clarity and better decision-making, even in a crisis.

The entire purpose of creating The Global Joy Project is to educate as many people as I can about the simple, no-cost way to access joy as a conduit for healing and deeper connection among us across this beautiful world.

How to Start Chasing Joy

🌟 Celebrate small wins. Don’t wait for the big promotion or perfect vacation. Celebrate the little things—moving your body, a nourishing meal with farm-fresh ingredients, or a cuddle with a furry friend while watching something that makes you smile.

🌟 Create joyful rituals. Whether it’s a 5-minute dance party in your kitchen, journaling at sunrise, or calling a friend who makes you laugh, find and create your own pockets of joy.

🌟 Rethink challenges. Ask yourself, “What can this teach me?” When you shift your perspective, you invite hope—and joy—into the messiest moments. We are not our thoughts, and how others treat us is always more a reflection of who they are, not who we are.

Build Joy Practices

Over the coming months, I will take it back to basics and introduce my framework around joy, along with more practical tips. For this week, reflect on this:
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​What would it look like to prioritize joy today? This week? This year?

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Don’t wait until life gets easier—because, as anyone who’s lived for a while knows, life will keep life-ing. It’s up to us how we show up for it.

Start now. Chase joy. You won’t regret it.
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With so much love and appreciation,
​Gabrielle 💐​
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P.S. Want to make joy a daily practice? Join my beta group, the Joy Incubator & Community, launching in March 2025. Let’s create a joy-first life, together. Click here for more information. 🎉

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P.P.S. In March I am riding in my 14th year supporting Cycle for Survival a charity event raising money for rare cancer research for Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. This year, as always, I will ride for Beth and Nu (RIP), Liz, Lauren and my Dad who are fighting the bravest fights, and for every unknown human in the throes of cancer. I ride for you. Please consider a donation of any kind, Click here to learn more.

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