Joy is not a reward.
It’s your compass.
Learn the emotional operating system that helps you feel alive, courageous, and connected.
This is the emotional operating system you should’ve learned at 13 — not 43.
Not because your life is falling apart, but because you’re tired of carrying a whole universe on your back while pretending everything’s fine.
Most of us were never taught what to do with the inside of our lives. We learned how to show up, how to be responsible, how to keep everything running — but not how to handle the fear, the stress, or the invisible pressure that comes with adulting.
Here’s the truth I wish someone had told me years ago:
your emotions aren’t problems to solve — they’re signals.
Signals of depletion.
Signals of misalignment.
Signals that something in you needs care or courage — or both.
And once you learn how to read and respond skillfully to those signals, things change in a way that feels delightful and surprising.
- You spiral less.
- Decisions sharpen.
- Momentum returns.
- Life feels a little lighter.
Who Joy by Design Is For
Joy by Design is for people who have carried something heavy:
burnout, parenting breakdowns, job loss, reinvention, or simply the quiet, relentless weight of holding everything together for years.
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.
Find Your Doorway
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Joy Studio for Job Seekers
A five-session small group for the human being doing the job search
Starts October 28
Losing a job can feel like losing yourself. This Studio gives you practical tools for the fear, shame, and stalled days of a search, in a small group of people who are in it too. -
Steady Ground for the Holidays
A live workshop for parents of adult children who are struggling
Tuesday, November 17
When your grown child is struggling, the holidays can be the hardest time of year. In this guided workshop you’ll learn practical tools for steadying yourself, and leave with a plan for the moments you dread. -
Personal Design Lab
1:1 design work for highly capable people running on empty
Three founding spaces open now
You are capable and reliable, and you keep going. Somewhere along the way, joy went quiet. Over eight weeks of private sessions, you learn how your emotional system adapted under pressure and practice new ways to respond.
Joy isn’t a mood - it’s a practice.
And it changes everything.
Joy by Design is the roadmap.
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.
Energy Gauge
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.
Emotional Atlas & Guide
A deeper companion to the Roadmap that helps you understand emotion as data, so you can navigate challenges with more intention and less overwhelm.
Guided Experience
Every Joy Studio includes a guided workbook with practical exercises that help you put insights into action and make the learning stick.
What Becomes Possible
From a steadier place, purpose stops feeling out of reach.
You can hear yourself again.
You take brave steps without blowing up your nervous system.
And you show up better — not because you’re trying harder,
but because you’re coming from coherence instead of chaos.
Why I Built This
I built this work while rebuilding myself — through burnout, separation, financial collapse, parenting in the dark, and the long climb back into joy.
I remember thinking:
Why is this so hard to learn?
Why weren’t we taught this sooner?
We learn so much about achievement, responsibility, and performance — but almost nothing about how to feel steady, safe, or connected on the inside.
So I created Joy by Design to make it easier — and to make it repeatable.
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 is 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.
