Joy is not a reward.
It’s your compass.
A practical way to design emotional wellbeing — where joy isn’t something you wait for, it’s something you practice.
So What Is Joy by Design?
Joy by Design is a grounded, practical framework that helps you reconnect with yourself, regulate your energy, and move through challenges with more ease.Joy isn’t fluffy—it’s functional.
It’s emotional education: real skills for thinking clearly, communicating better, and staying steady when life gets unpredictable.
I spent over a decade studying what helps us actually feel better, drawing from Buddhism, neuroscience, yoga, design thinking, and the best of modern therapy. I wanted to understand why joy can feel so elusive—and how to make it easier to live.
I built this work to survive a hard season in my life, and it changed everything. My marriage healed. My parenting softened. My work became joyful again.
Now I teach what I learned through simple, visual tools that help you shift your energy, reconnect with what matters, and design a life that feels like you.
Because joy isn’t the reward. It’s the practice.
Joy Studio
A design lab for emotional wellbeing.Part curriculum, part community, part creative lab—Joy Studio is where you learn to steady your mind, lift your energy, and design what’s next.
We combine practical tools, design methods, and real-world experiments that make emotional growth easier to understand, and easier to live.
Every Joy Studio explores the same framework but through a different doorway.
Find the one that fits where you are, and start designing your next chapter.
This Winter at Joy Studio: Three Journeys for Renewal
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Designing What Is Next
A Joy Studio for people navigating change
Opening in January 2026
When life pivots by choice or by circumstance, it can be hard to see the road ahead. This Studio helps you reset your energy, rebuild confidence, and design your next chapter with clarity and creative momentum. -
Parenting Through the Launch Years
A Joy Studio for navigating mental health, boundaries, and belonging
Opening in February 2026
When someone you love is struggling, it’s easy to lose your balance. This Studio helps you stay steady, hold healthy boundaries, and rediscover your agency and joy — even in the midst of uncertainty. -
The Practice of Connection
A Joy Studio for people in relationships
Opening in April 2026
Connection gets easier when you make it playful again. This Studio helps couples and partners rediscover curiosity, laughter, and teamwork so you can feel closer, communicate with ease, and bring more joy into everyday life.
A (free) Joy Studio Micro-Pilot
If you’ve been running on low battery, this is your pit stop to recharge and reset.
A creative lab for emotional clarity, designed to help you feel better on purpose.
In two 60-minute live sessions, you’ll try Joy by Design tools that help you get unstuck, regulate your energy, and approach what’s next with clarity and optimism.
No pressure. No perfection. Just practical tools, fresh perspective, and a reminder that joy is something you can design—right here, right now.
Dates: December 4 & 11, 2025
Format: Two 60-minute sessions on Zoom
Cost: Free (limited spots)
The Joy By Design Framework
A wisdom interface for emotional growth.A set of simple, visual tools that make emotional intelligence usable in daily life. Each one helps you shift your energy, see what’s beneath the surface, and reconnect with joy—not as an escape, but as a design practice for living.
These tools form the backbone of every Joy Studio experience—and they’re just the beginning.
The Roadmap
The roadmap is a handy desk reference that shows the roadblocks and way stations that affect our journey.
A snapshot of how your energy moves through the day—and a simple way to find your way back to joy when you’ve drifted off course.
Energy Gauge
A deeper companion to the Roadmap that helps you understand emotion as data, so you can navigate challenges with more intention and less overwhelm.
Emotional Atlas & Guide
Guided Experience
Every Joy Studio includes a guided workbook with practical exercises that help you put insights into action and make the learning stick.
Notes from the Studio
Real stories. Honest reflections. Practical joy in motion.Joy by Design isn’t just a framework — it’s a lived practice. In Notes from the Studio, I share the real-world experiments, insights, and moments that bring this work to life. These stories are part field notes, part reflection — glimpses of what it looks like to design a more joyful, resilient life in real time.
→ Follow along on Substack to get new reflections, sketches, and tools delivered straight from the studio.
The Day I Stopped Living Inside Everyone Else’s Life
What happens when you start protecting your own emotional energy.
When I Decided Feelings Were the Problem
For anyone who’s ever tried to think their way out of feeling.
Start Here: Welcome to Joy By Design
Where it all began — how a creative practice became a roadmap for joy.
About Justine.
Mom. Maker. Meditator. Creative rebel. Student of joy.I’ve worked at a shipyard in Taiwan and an embassy in West Africa. I’ve had a maker studio at the Smithsonian and sold art nationally through Pottery Barn Kids. I once lived in Mombasa researching prostitution (yes, really). I’ve studied French, Swahili, and a little Mandarin—just enough to get lost and find my way back.
I’ve created magical museum experiences, reimagined learning spaces for kids, and helped leaders rediscover what’s possible.
I grew up between New York City and a sheep farm in Maine. Raised three incredible, complicated kids. Meditated in silence. Cried a lot. Kept going.
Along the way, I changed my emotional setpoint—from fear to trust, from shame to curiosity. I cast off old patterns and chose a different path.
This work is the after to a very real before.
I believe play is sacred, creativity is medicine, and joy isn’t a reward—it’s a way home.
Joy by Design is where it all comes together: the soul, the strategy, the mess, and the magic.
If you’re craving more, you’re not alone. We’re just getting started. Join me.
Be First To More Joy.
Joy isn’t a destination—it’s a practice.
And as you move from having → doing → being, you need new tools, deeper insight, and a little bit of magic.
Sign up here to get first access to the Resilient Optimism Roadmap (FREE!), Joy Studio, and the other tools under development.
Zero commitment. Opt out anytime.
