Gaining Confidence in the Pillars of Joy at the Temple University Women's Networking Brunch

Gaining Confidence in the Pillars of Joy at the Temple University Women’s Networking Brunch.

When I started Chasing Joy almost 8 ears ago I did not know anything about the Pillars of Joy. I just knew that I liked to write and thought maybe writing about joy would help me feel happier. It definitely worked. Without a doubt this is one of the happiest times in my life.

It did not happen over night. It took years of therapy, blogging, and allowing time to heal. Blogging was key. It helped me to be introspective and to keep track of the areas of my life that I had focused on and improved in. These areas were gratitude, self-care, relationships, goals, faith, and giving back. When it came time to live my testimony, pay it forward, and help other women be happier I labeled these areas the Pillars of Joy.

As I now work more purposefully to continue my growth in the Pillars of Joy and help women to do the same I am so excited when I come across influential women who have developed strength in the same areas. That is what happened yesterday at the Temple University Women’s Networking Brunch.

The key note speaker Dr. Debra Blair spoke about her experience being a diversity advocate and professor at the Temple University School Of Hospitality Management. She talked about why she felt called to work advocating for disability, gender, race, sexuality, and age diversity. As Dr. Blair shared her experience and participated in the Q & A with brunch attendees she talked about 4 of my 6 Pillars of Joy.

#DoWhatYouCant!

Dr. Blair told us about the below inspiring Ostrich commercial and charged us to #DoWhatYouCant. That sounds like setting big goals. She told us about her woman cave and how she looks at her calendar to schedule in her me time. Her self-care practice is strong. Dr. Blair encouraged us to give back and share our knowledge and experiences with the younger women in our lives. Lastly, when a question came up about the use of pronouns (he, she, etc.) with our quick changing environment related to gender / trans gender equality, she encouraged us to focus on developing relationships with people rather than focusing on which pronoun to use.

https://youtu.be/hjKd24UCPYY

As I listened to Dr. Blair I was encouraged to think more critically about diversity and my experience with it. I also gained confidence in my own path of finding and sustaining happiness through the Pillars of Joy as she exemplified so many.