What is Pure Joy Wellness? My Philosophy On Living Well Your Whole Life

Welcome to 2022, everyone! I’m so happy to kick off this new year with you and take this Pure Joy Wellness Community to a whole new level! There are so many exciting launches, surprises, and initiatives I have planned for this year, so in light of that, I wanted to do a kind of “reintroduction” slash “here’s what we stand for” blog post to get everyone in our community in alignment. I’ve done so much reflecting on 2021 and there is a lot I want to get across to both the long-time and new members of the PJW crew. This is sort of a thought-dump, but I promise it’s worth the read!! 

Here’s what Pure Joy Wellness is all about… 

Pure Joy Wellness is about owning your age without fear. 

For so long, I’ve tried to put words to this feeling and mission I’ve had inside of me, and this is what I’ve landed on. Pure Joy Wellness is about living without the fear of getting older, with the ultimate goal being to own and love your age. And I’m not talking about the woo-woo notion of “loving yourself at all times” or settling for the body and life that you have now, especially if you’re unhappy with them. I’m talking about not allowing the notion of age to turn your life upside down. For me, aging isn’t about how I look, it’s about how I age. I want to make sure that I have a high quality of life and that I look after my health so I can live life to the fullest. After all these years, we’ve earned it, haven’t we?! 

Pure Joy Wellness is about taking care of yourself. 

Growing up, I watched both of my parents suffer from what I consider preventable diseases and die early deaths because of the lifestyle choices they made. To be honest, that scared the crap out of me as a kid. I didn’t want that to happen to me, and at a very young age, I realized that life didn’t have to be that way. I don’t have to have a hampered quality of life. I don’t have to suffer from preventable diseases. 

By taking care of myself—eating well, exercising, de-stressing, sleeping, and more—I’m doing what I need to on a daily basis to ensure that my body functions properly. When we talk about aging, so much of the conversation revolves around what we look like externally… and while I certainly like to look and feel my best, I’m more concerned about what’s happening internally! Is my digestion working properly? Am I hydrated? Can I bend down and stand back up? Can I move without having pain? What happens internally reflects on us externally. And for our bodies to work properly, we have to take care of ourselves. 

Pure Joy Wellness is about taking the best path to wellness—the simple, straightforward, proven-to-work path. 

The way I see it, the path to wellness is simpler than we make it out to be. It consists of eating well, exercising/movement, sleeping, mental health, and community. Now, let me break these down a bit for you. 

When it comes to eating well, I think many people have a misconception of what that is. I’ve always stood by the idea that if you eat foods with the least amount of ingredients, it’s going to be better for you. Very rarely do I eat processed foods. Instead, I focus on a diet full of high quality protein, lots of fruits and vegetables, lots of fiber, and healthy fats. Everything—your digestion, your movement, your brain—is better when you eat that way. This includes hydration as well, which I’ve written about at length and you can read about here. 

As for movement: If you don’t do it, you risk losing it. As you age, you want to keep your body agile. You want to work your bones and muscles, and maintain lean muscle mass. Sometimes I see people walking down the street and I watch how they move… so many people have difficulty moving. I see movement not as “oh I have six pack abs.” I see it as something I do so I can function every day—so I can carry a bag of groceries, climb a flight of stairs, or run if I need to. There’s no doubt about it: Your life is hampered when you stop moving. 

Sleep is something I’ve been learning to do more in recent years, because as I’ve gotten older, I understand the importance of sleep. When we sleep, our bodies recharge and heal. It’s the one time that our body isn’t addressing something else, like the food we’re eating, the activity we’re doing, etc. Our brain also declutters while we sleep—it forms memories, regulates our hormones, and gets rid of metabolic waste. I’ve written about the importance of getting enough sleep elsewhere on the blog, if you need more convincing. Bottom life: Sleep is crucial and most of us need more of it. 

Finally, the last two pieces of the puzzle go hand in hand: mental health and community. Both of these are absolute non-negotiables. Stress, anxiety, and depression are very real conditions and feelings that the majority of people, especially women, struggle with. Talking to people about our emotions and experiences (think therapists, close friends, etc.) and partaking in activities that boost our feel-good hormones (think meditation, long walks, exercise, yoga, etc.) are just a few of the many ways we can address our mental health. 

On a similar note, in addition to mental health struggles, many women have the added obstacle of negative self-talk, which is something I’ve had to unlearn. The damage that talking badly about yourself and being mean to yourself does is profound. I always say: What you say to yourself, your body hears. We talk to ourselves more than we talk to anyone else, so what we say matters. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve finally reached a place of contentment, and now I know that this is who I am and that’s okay. It’s a feeling of self-acceptance. I want every woman, including you, to feel that and embrace it. It’s the only way to truly “be well.” 

As for community, I believe that surrounding yourself with people who you love and people who make you feel loved plays a crucially important role in how we live our lives. If you are constantly around negative people, it’s going to bring you down. Instead, surround yourself with people who uplift you—and get rid of people who don’t. Toxic energy affects us all, so choose to spend your time with people who love you and who you can be vulnerable with—people who you can share yourself with and who share themselves with you. Trust me, it will make your life so much better. Everybody needs a sense of community. Everybody needs a sense of support. That’s a major reason why I started Pure Joy Wellness: I wanted to create a supportive community. 

My final words

When I first went through menopause, no one was talking about it. Why? Because it meant that you were old and there was a stigma attached to age that I never understood. I created Pure Joy Wellness to offer a safe space where women could talk about what it was that they were dealing with. A place where women could discover that maybe other women were dealing with the same issues too, or they had already dealt with it and could share their experience. I wanted Pure Joy Wellness to offer a sense of support so that women didn’t feel like they were alone. I wanted to take away the shame around aging, because at the end of the day, there’s nothing we can do about it. The PJW community exists to embrace each other, support each other, and to serve as an outlet where women can express their thoughts, fears, triumphs, wins, and losses. There’s nothing more beautiful than seeing women root for other women, and to see them all grow as a result. 

If you haven’t joined the Pure Joy Wellness community yet, or if you know a woman who would love it, I strongly encourage you to join our Pure Joy Wellness Private Facebook Group and follow us on Instagram. This year is going to be incredible, and I can’t wait to keep growing this community with you. 

Xo, 

Renata