021. Bringing the Joy with Jessica Janzen: How to Lean into Life’s Nudges, Learn from Pain and Rise up to Your Life’s Purpose…One Dance Party at a Time

Bringing the Joy with Jessica Janzen: How to Lean into Life’s Nudges, Learn from Pain and Rise up to Your Life’s Purpose…One Dance Party at a Time

 

Episode 21: Show Notes.

 

On today’s show, I spoke to the very inspiring Jessica Janzen, author, speaker, coach, and founder of the Love for Lewiston Foundation and apparel company; The Lewiston Label Inc. When Jessica’s second child Lewiston was just two and a half months old, he was diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy and given less than a year to live. Sadly, her dreams of proving the doctors wrong did not come true. While many people let such tragedies destroy them, Jessica found a way to push through the pain, show up, and dance her way through some of the biggest heartbreaks any person can face. Today, she gives us some advice on how we too can cope with life’s challenges. She discusses how life is 50 / 50: “Fifty percent awesome, 50 percent shitty,” and how to find skills to power through the tough stuff. She discusses the course she’s created to empower people to be present, show up and move forward. She also talks about her new book Bring the Joy: How Following the Nudges of Your Heart Leads to an Abundant Life, as well as the success of her foundation, and even her ongoing attempts to contact Justin Timberlake. Equal parts heartbreaking and humorously inspiring, you won’t want to miss this episode!

 

Key Points From This Episode:

 

• An introduction to Jessica Janzen and her many roles.
• The story of her baby Lewiston who passed away from Spinal Muscular Atrophy a few months into his life.
• How Lewis’s first birthday party led to the establishment of a foundation.
• The importance of ‘asking’.
• How to find skills to power through the difficult parts of life.
• Jessica discusses her book Bring the Joy.
• How people should look for and respond to life’s nudges.
• Advice for people trying to ‘bring the joy’.
• An introduction to “Joy starters” - finding joy in the simplest of pleasures.
• How to write a “What doesn’t suck?” list.
• The importance of developing power habits to take care of one’s mental health.
• The importance of overcoming negative thoughts for good mental health.
• The importance of having a core group of people for support.
• The role of a healthy diet in one’s overall well-being.
• The importance of self-care.
• The importance of accepting professional help if necessary.
• Jessica talks about her daily dance parties with Lewiston.
• She mentions her ongoing attempts to contact Justin Timberlake.

 

Tweetables:

 

“We ended up shifting our perspective and making a stake in the sand, and said, ’Whatever we do, we are going to fight with Lewiston on his fight and we will bring the joy to his life, whether it be until he’s 80 or if it’s just until he’s six months.’” — @jsjanzen [0:05:40]

 

“When someone gives you the diagnosis: “Less than a year”, you live those 365 days a whole lot differently.” — @jsjanzen [0:06:29]

 

“And then I’m like, ‘Your kid died, just be present in the moment with your children!’” — @jsjanzen [0:06:46]

 

“I got good at asking rich people for money. And then, people who aren’t rich, I’m like, ‘You got five bucks? You can make a donation.’ I’m just shameless!” — @jsjanzen [0:10:18]

 

“Life is 50 / 50: Fifty percent awesome, 50 percent shitty!”.” — @jsjanzen [0:13:54]

 

“Stop the pity party. Let’s go have a dance party and let’s go live your life.” — @jsjanzen [0:17:30]

 

“A therapist for your past, a life coach for your future.” — @jsjanzen [0:28:11]

 

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

 

Britt Anderson

Britt Anderson on Instagram

Jessica Janzen

Jessica Janzen on Instagram

Jessica Janzen on Twitter

Jessica Janzen on LinkedIn

Bring the Joy: How Following the Nudges of Your Heart Leads to an Abundant Life

Love for Lewiston Foundation

The Lewiston Label