Mar 09, 2025 Cultivating Joy

by Jennifer Stanchfield

Last weekend, I heard Valerie June’s new song, “Joy, Joy!”, for the first time. I met Valerie at a music festival and discovered that not only is she a beautiful and inspiring performer, but a person who emanates kindness and generosity of spirit. As we stood next to each other, both of us enthralled with Jon Batiste’s performance, I was struck by her humility, her appreciation of another musician, and her willingness to engage in a conversation about the beauty of our surroundings and the positive energy of the Green River Festival. 

All of these qualities come through in her new song. “Joy, Joy!” which resonated with me amidst the stressful news cycle and the darkness of winter. I’ve been thinking a great deal about joy lately and trying to celebrate the small, beautiful things in each day. 

Last fall, I was inspired by an interview with social psychologist Judith Moskowitz on the new NPR segment “Stress Less.” Dr. Moskowitz is director of research at Northwestern Medicine’s Osher Center for Integrative Medicine and has devoted much of her career to a positive psychology approach, helping cultivate stress management through strengths-based skills.

She identifies eight practices:

      1. Noticing positive events
      2. Savoring positive events
      3. Expressing gratitude
      4. Practicing mindfulness
      5. Reframing events
      6. Noticing personal strengths
      7. Setting and working toward attainable goals
      8. Displaying acts of kindness

 

Just this morning, I happened upon a short follow-up to this interview on NPR’s Morning Edition  featuring people who had been integrating these practices into everyday life. I spent the rest of the day thinking about how this approach informs my work as a facilitator and educator. 

Joy in Learning

Joy in LearningI love seeing learners express delight in their accomplishments, connect deeply to the material, or become so engaged in a lesson that they lose all sense of time. Neuroscience research has shown the profound link between joy, motivation, high attention, and productivity. Educational neuroscientist Judy Willis has promoted the importance of joyful learning for years, observing that high-stress instructional practices (think fear or punishment) negatively impact the brain’s ability to synthesize information. But when we cultivate joyful learning–not just having fun, but encouraging a deep sense of accomplishment, pleasure, and positive social connections–we enhance learning outcomes. Middle School Advisory Activities

Practice #7 above—setting and working toward attainable goals—dovetails nicely with Judy Willis’ work on joyful learning and the dopamine effect. Dr. Willis repeatedly talks about setting achievable challenges that are interesting, engaging, and incremental. As learners build on their successes, the neurotransmitter dopamine is released, and they experience pleasure, which in turn improves their ability to store memories. Likewise, Dr. Moskowitz has found that people who embrace practice #7 increase their self-efficacy. 

Joy as a Practitioner

Dr. Moskowitz also emphasizes the importance of noticing the good. For me, this means recognizing small steps forward and noticing and savoring the delightful and funny moments that come up in our teaching and group work. When we intentionally take time to celebrate even small moments with our students, this amplifies joy for everyone. 

Jen Stanchfield's Facilitation workshop for AISD Parent Support Family Engagement TeamI like to use what Dr. Moskowitz calls “positive reappraisal” when things get tough. This means taking the time to reframe the situation and identify the little ways we can change our mindset. Last year, when a school district invited me to facilitate a professional development program for parent educators in the city district’s family engagement program, my colleague from the district and I found out the day before the workshop that the social service agency hosting had an air conditioning breakdown, so we suddenly had no space. Canceling or postponing would have been the easiest option. 

Instead, I took a breath and sat down with a cup of coffee to reappraise before canceling. I reflected on how I had traveled a whole day to get to the city and really wanted the workshop to happen. I had also been cultivating connections in the city for years, so I immediately started to reach out and make calls to my colleagues there to find a new workshop space. 

Joyful LearningMy friend, a school principal, invited us into her beautiful new school space in exchange for sending a few of her team to the session. The day was a wonderful success, and her team members provided terrific insights. The new larger space allowed us to invite more family engagement team educators and community members, all adding a depth of connection and understanding that enhanced the learning experience. Almost two years later, folks in that session have shared that the deep connections they made that day continue. 

There are so many moments like this in my practice. Rather than seeing something  as a failure and scuttling the plan altogether, I take a breath, look around, and see what positive learning is happening right now. Then, I try to identify how I can amplify it and reflect on what adjustments are needed to make the learning experience more accessible. Those adjustments have often led to a favorite technique or variation that I have used years later.

Positive reappraisal links with my passion for reflection. I believe ongoing practitioner self-reflection cultivates a positive reappraisal mindset and the ability to do it on one’s feet. Facilitating regular positive reflection with students/participants also strengthens their ability to apply positive reappraisal in learning and life. To read more about the practice of positive reflection and some active techniques, visit this recent post. Link here.

I will be following Dr. Moskowitz’s work and her studies on positivity and joy. I’ll also be listening to Valerie June’s beautiful music. Let’s continue the conversation online or in person at a workshop on reflection.

How are you finding moments of joy in your life and work right now?

References:

 

Sign Up for the Inspired Educator Newsletter

* indicates required
Tags:
No Comments

Post A Comment