There are five simple questions that drive all the work we do at Joy, Inc. – for individuals, teams, families, leaders.
They come primarily from a technique called Inquiry, that we learned from the legendary Katie Bryon. The Buddhists call it Looking Deeply.
Whatever the situation, whatever the adversity, whatever the decision, if you look deeply, beyond the appearance and the perception, into what this really is, what it really means, and how you should really respond, you will find your way (through impressions and into the nature of impermanence) into joy.
At every point, inquiry rests on no more than these five questions?
Stage 1:
What am I really feeling?
What am I really thinking?
What am I really doing?
Stage 2:
What is the (unarguable) reality?
What will I do next?
Honest, brave answers to these questions are the entry points into Presence, into a shift into consciousness, and into joy.
As people at our retreats and training often discover: freedom is really as simple as answering these questions.
Our products include:
The Joy LifeClass
”This is not where I’m supposed to be in life!” is the biggest response to survey questions on why young people across West Africa are unhappy in their work and life. We see this every day with young professionals and companies we meet in our work.
The Joy LifeClass is an 8-hour career and life planning class, providing entry-level and mid-level professionals with tools and skills required to see with clarity where they stand, to interrogate their work goals and progress with clarity, and to create a practical pathway to find joy in the moment while building a career path and future that they will love.
Re.Treat.: A weekend in joy
Re.Treat. is a 3-day and 2-nights residential experience that helps in cutting through the clutter and confusion – especially of very busy, highly accomplished people, or those who are on their way there – and helping you find the peace and clarity to make the decisions on what you have to do, how they need to do them and why. It is a series of practical exercises – mediation, inquiry, listening deeply, journaling – giving you the tools and space to walk through pressure, depression, unhappiness, anxiety, and fear.
Re.Treat. creates the safe space to make important decisions by yourself, guided gently, without judgement, and without pressure.
Joy: For Teams
Joy: For Teams is a training programme for companies, not for profits and other organisations concerned about building teams that are happy, positive and high-productivity. It is customized for each team, and based on our Life-Is-Simple (LIS) model and cognitive journaling process. Joy: For Teams typically takes a minimum of four weeks of direct engagement to apply the research on positive educations, flow and motivation to help companies who are determined to solve, once and for all, their issues with staff engagement, staff motivation, staff growth and staff retention. Teams evolve from the program with stronger bonds, clarity and appreciation of other individuals and their environment.
Joy: For Leaders
Joy: For Leaders is a experiential training for senior executives based on lessons we’ve learnt about promoting conscious leadership in organisations.
Joy: For Students
Joy: For Students is a custom-designed program for young people in secondary schools and Universities, based on RULER, an evidence-based approach for integrating social and emotional learning into schools, developed at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. The program helps them build the life skills to face adversity, build self confidence, and a live a happy life daily.
Joy: For Nations
When called upon by nations and governments, we avail ourselves leveraging on insights from our founder’s work across Africa with StatesCraft Inc.
The Daily Vulnerable
The Daily Vulnerable is a daily newsletter helping readers embrace the fullness of their humanity, with its flaws, by tackling the things often left unsaid, especially by the successful – fear, insecurity, doubt, shame, weakness, mistakes. All the things that make us human, and how we can continue to move forward in spite – actually, because – of them.
#WithChude
#WithChude is a special series of targeted multimedia (video, audio, text, event) conversations and investigations that leverage the voice, networks and passions of its host, Chude Jideonwo to underline social issues, raise social consciousness and spark social movements.
It has been on the frontline of movements round sexual abuse, HIV/AIDs and identity and continues to break new ground – unsettling establishments, holding space for the less powerful and helping reset redefining society’s towards diversity, inclusiveness and radical acceptance. It is a project of Joy, Inc. in partnership with Y!.
“We are focused on deploying the evidence to help change the global conversation about acceptable success metrics – in policy, business, economics, education, social movements and government.