The Art of Finding Joy with Jessica Janzen
Jessica Janzen is trying to solve the problem of people living in survival mode, carrying burnout, grief, and negative mental habits without a practical way to move forward. Her work reframes joy as a discipline rather than a feeling, and in this episode she shows listeners how to stop reacting to the heaviness around them and start bringing a better energy into their lives, relationships, and leadership.
In today’s conversation Jessica Janzen explores how joy can become a deliberate practice even in the middle of grief, uncertainty, and pressure. She and Dr. Wells discuss the lived experience that shaped her work after the loss of her son Lewiston, and how that pain became the foundation for a new philosophy of resilience, service, and energy. The conversation moves from radical acceptance to practical tools for protecting mental health, choosing powerful thoughts, serving others, and creating moments of joy on purpose. It is a deeply human conversation about how to lead yourself well when life does not go to plan.
You will learn why Jessica believes joy is something we bring rather than simply choose, how radical acceptance creates the starting point for resilience, why brain health and mental health are tied to what we consume physically and emotionally, how movement and community can shift our internal state, and why service and simple acts of encouragement can change the emotional temperature of a room. You will also hear practical language she uses in real life, including how to challenge unhelpful thoughts, how to stop feeding negativity, and how to create more intentional energy in your day.
You will discover that joy is not passive, soft, or reserved for easier seasons. Jessica’s core insight is that joy becomes available when we stop waiting for circumstances to improve and start taking responsibility for the energy, thoughts, and actions we bring into the moment we are in.
This episode helps solve the challenge of feeling emotionally buried by stress, grief, burnout, or negative momentum. Jessica gives listeners a more usable framework for moving from victim energy and reactivity toward agency, perspective, connection, and meaningful action.
Key take aways:
Joy is a discipline.
Radical acceptance comes first.
Powerful thoughts drive powerful actions.
Move your body with others.
Set the room’s temperature.
“I’m not going to respond to the temperature in the room. I’m going to be the one that sets the temperature in the room.”
Today’s Expert Guest is Author Jessica Janzen
Jessica Janzen is a keynote speaker, executive coach, bestselling author, and philanthropist whose work centers on joy, resilience, leadership, and mental health. She describes the The Hard Work of Joy™, as being forged through the loss of her son Lewiston to spinal muscular atrophy, an experience that led her to found Love for Lewiston, a national foundation that has raised more than $3.4 million and helped drive newborn screening change for SMA. Her site also notes that she has spoken globally for close to a decade and has been recognized with the Doc Seaman Generosity of Spirit Award, and the Dr. Katie Manders Courage to Inspire Award.
Jessica’s work stands out because it is grounded in lived experience, but delivered with practical language that organizations can actually use. Her message is not abstract optimism. It is a performance and leadership framework built around the idea that joy can be trained as a discipline, especially under pressure. That combination of personal loss, sharp humor, directness, and immediately usable tools is what makes her message land so powerfully for teams and leaders.
One ACTIONABLE TAKEAWAY: Start by changing the emotional temperature you bring into a room. Jessica’s most practical advice in this episode is to stop passively absorbing the stress around you and deliberately contribute something better, whether that is a compliment, a better thought, a moment of service, or a simple act of presence with another person.
You can follow Jessica Janzen on Instagram & Linked In.
Check out her website.
This podcast contains advice and information relating to health and wellness. It should be used to supplement rather than replace the advice of your doctor or another trained health professional. If you know or suspect that you have a health problem, seek your physician’s advice before embarking on any medical program or treatment. All efforts have been made to assure the accuracy of the information contained in this podcast / interview / article as of the date of publication. The author and publisher disclaim liability for any medical or other outcomes that may occur as a result of applying the methods suggested in this material.
