Every generation faces the call to address its greatest challenges. For us, that challenge is the epidemic of disconnection and despair. We stand on the shoulders of pioneers like Oprah, who opened hearts through media, researchers like Dr. Schore who mapped the neuroscience of joy, and countless others who’ve advanced human understanding. There’s still a long way to go, but like all founders before us, we believe deeply in what’s possible.

Visionaries vs. the Voice of “Impossible”

Every revolutionary idea meets a chorus of skeptics at first. History is filled with bold innovators who were told their vision couldn’t or shouldn’t be done – until they did it. In 1879, a renowned scientist dismissed Thomas Edison’s light bulb as a “conspicuous failure,” convinced it could never be practical. Decades later, Hollywood’s own president of Warner Brothers scoffed at the idea of movies with sound, reportedly asking in 1927, “Who wants to hear actors talk?” Even as late as 1977, tech experts doubted personal computers – Ken Olsen, founder of Digital Equipment Corp., claimed “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.”

Each of these pronouncements sounds laughable in hindsight, yet at the time they echoed a prevailing belief: “This new thing you’re proposing? It’s impossible or unnecessary.” Fast forward to today, and we take for granted what once seemed absurd – glowing electric lights in every room, movies that speak and sing, a computer (or three) in every home. The doubters were proven wrong because visionary icons persisted.

Henry Ford proved mass automobile travel wasn’t a doomed fad, despite a New York Times critic insisting car prices “will never be sufficiently low to make them as widely popular” as bicycles. Fred Smith turned a college paper into FedEx, even after a Yale professor didn’t think overnight delivery was feasible and graded his idea with a middling “C.” Steve Jobs dreamed of putting “a computer at a time when nobody realized [they were] necessary” in everyone’s hands – and Apple’s trillion-dollar empire speaks for itself.

These breakthroughs weren’t just technological; they addressed real human needs (light in the dark, connection across distance, accessible information). In each case, the time and conditions were ripe for change, even if the world hadn’t realized it yet.

The Next Chapter: Joy as a Way of Life

Today, building on this foundation of innovation, a new chapter is unfolding: making joy accessible as a way of life. Just as Edison brought light and the Warner brothers brought sound, what if we could intentionally bring joy into people’s everyday lives at scale?

JOYELY, a movement centered on “Joy Intelligence (JQ)” founded by researchers Sheryl Lynn and Bailey Romatoski, aims to do exactly that. Lynn and Romatoski believe that joy is what we’re all after in this world, and that it can be truly available to everyone if we show them the science of JQ and provide them with tools like the JQ Emotions Map. It sounds audacious: making joy a core life skill and accessible resource, as widespread as electricity or the internet.

Can you really systematize emotional well-being and teach millions of people to navigate their emotions toward joy? Skeptics might roll their eyes and say “You can’t tell people how to feel” or “Emotional navigation isn’t a real science.” It’s true, for a long time feelings were seen as too subjective or mysterious to engineer in any way. The idea of quantifying or cultivating joy may strike some as naive.

We’ve also seen missteps that give credence to the doubters: when a famous luxury retailer tried to mandate happiness, it backfired. Tiffany & Co. introduced a “Tiffany Joy” internal app to boost employee morale, asking staff to post upbeat celebrations. Uptake was slow, so management pushed harder – and soon cynical employees derided the app as “Forced Joy.” A Forbes article bluntly titled “Are You Happy Yet? The Dysfunction of Forced Joy and Toxic Positivity” highlighted how overemphasizing cheerfulness can discourage people from voicing real struggles and ultimately hinder true well-being.

So yes, the skeptics have reasons to be wary. You can’t just slap a smiley-face sticker on a struggling workforce or a hurting individual and call it a day. Joy isn’t achieved by denial or diktat. And yet – this is precisely why a smarter, deeper approach to joy is needed.

Learning from Those Who Came Before

The vision to make joy accessible at scale follows a path carved by transformative figures who built new industries around human well-being: Consider how certain transformative figures essentially built new industries around human well-being:

Oprah Winfrey, a true woman leader, turned media into a platform for personal growth and emotional connection, validating feelings on national TV at a time when such openness was uncommon. Her success proved there was a hunger for emotional authenticity and hope. Oprah understood that people craved transformation and the permission to feel deeply.

Tony Hsieh, the late CEO of Zappos, made workplace happiness a business model, showing that caring about employees’ joy could drive profits. Many scoffed at his “Delivering Happiness” mantra initially, but Zappos’ strong performance and culture proved that prioritizing joy can be smart business.

The entire wellness tech industry (think meditation apps like Headspace and Calm) sprang from recognizing modern stress as a massive societal issue. A decade ago, few believed mindfulness sessions or mood trackers could be mainstream; now these companies are valued in the billions, precisely because they addressed a real psychological need at scale.

JOYELY’s focus on “Joy Intelligence” takes this trend a step further. It posits that joy isn’t just a nice-to-have feeling but a fundamental form of intelligence – one that can be learned, strengthened, and applied, much like we train our IQ or EQ (emotional intelligence).

Why the Time Is Now – The World’s Need for Joy

Why push for this work now? The need has never been greater, and the science/technology has never been more prepared to meet that need. We live in an era of chronic stress and disconnection that traditional approaches haven’t solved.

Burnout and Mental Health Crisis: In our always-on work culture, burnout has become a billion-dollar problem. Research published in Harvard Business Review estimates that stress and burnout cost U.S. companies between $125 and $190 billion every year in healthcare and lost productivity. Globally, depression and anxiety result in 12 billion lost workdays and $1 trillion in lost productivity annually.

Public Health and Safety: Chronic emotional distress doesn’t just hurt our feelings; it damages our bodies and communities. The Mayo Clinic warns that prolonged stress disrupts almost all body processes and raises risk of numerous health problems. On a societal level, despair and dysregulation have tragic outcomes: more than 700,000 people die by suicide each year worldwide.

Post-Pandemic Priorities: The COVID-19 pandemic was a wake-up call about mental well-being. Coming out of it, individuals and companies alike are more aware that emotional wellness is not a luxury – it’s essential. Even the Harvard Business Review recently ran “How the Busiest People Find Joy,” signaling that joy has entered the C-suite conversation.

Beyond “Finding Joy”: Cultivating Joy as Intelligence

One important distinction JOYELY and similar advocates make is between forcing or chasing a positive emotion versus cultivating joy from within. As pioneering neuroscientist Dr. Allan Schore’s research reveals, we don’t choose joy, we cultivate it. Joy emerges naturally when certain internal conditions are met.

Traditional advice often said “go find something that makes you happy” as if joy were an item on a scavenger hunt. The newer approach is more sophisticated: treat joy as the output of certain internal conditions like emotional safety, presence, and self-compassion, and focus on creating those conditions.

We know meditation works. Research proves it. Yet most people don’t do it consistently. The Chair of JOY Experience is showing beginning evidence of massive transformation through a simpler approach. Four simple steps: Sit, breathe, think and feel. These steps are lighting up kids through seniors and everyone in between.

Studies show that humans experience authentic joy when we feel safe and present. Neuroscientists like Dr. Stephen Porges explain how our nervous system’s “neuroception” scans for safety; only when we feel safe can we relax into the moment and experience positive emotions.

For example, the Chair of JOY Experience is a quick ritual: sit in a comfortable spot, take intentional deep breaths, recall a genuinely happy moment, and feel those feelings again. In 1-2 minutes, this aligns body and mind into a calmer, more present state. The effect is that joy arises naturally rather than being forced.

Another innovative piece of JOYELY’s approach is measuring Joy Intelligence with multiple metrics instead of a single “happiness score.” The JQ Emotions Map has people rate safety, presence, and joy separately. This yields insight into why joy might be low and how to improve it, without shaming people for feeling “negative” emotions.

An Invitation to Live JOYELY

Critics will say joy cannot solve all the world’s problems. Yet as Dr. Paul Abell, author of “365 Keys to Longevity,” observes: “JOY is the panacea.” Whether it is or not, what do we have to lose by trying?

The work to make joy accessible sounds ambitious, and it is. Like all meaningful change, it will have its detractors. People will say “the world is far too broken for your joy project,” just as they said “movies are fine without sound” or “no one needs a computer at home.”

But look around—rates of burnout, mental illness, division, and despair prove that the status quo isn’t working. Joy is already within us, yet it often gets buried beneath stress and struggle. Cultivating joy and teaching joy is hope in action, a refusal to accept that suffering must dominate our lives and society.

The JOYELY mission is simple yet profound: to LIVE JOYELY. This means not being afraid to feel it all, live it all, and share what you learned while here. The approach doesn’t involve forced positivity or ignoring pain. Instead, it requires the courage to experience the full spectrum of human emotion while staying connected to the underlying foundation of joy that exists within us all.

Imagine a generation that grows up with an emotional roadmap in hand, who learns from early on that feeling upset doesn’t mean you’re broken, it means you have tools to apply to find your equilibrium again. This could profoundly reduce suffering and potentially prevent tragedies from suicides to violent outbursts because we catch the spiral before it plunges into darkness.

To be clear, joy is not a cure-all for the world’s problems. But it is a powerful starting point. Communities that celebrate joy often show higher cohesion and lower crime. Joy is innate in each of us: one person living with joy inspires others to remember their own. In the darkest times, this kind of resilience is what has sustained movements from civil rights to humanitarian causes.

So, consider this an invitation and a challenge. The world needs pioneers of positive change more than ever, and unlike in Edison’s day, we have the science to back up the vision. The call now is for leaders, educators, technologists, and every individual to dare to prioritize joy as a guiding principle, not as an afterthought or reward.

In the words of a Harvard professor who studied life satisfaction: “Joy, along with achievement and meaning, is one of the three keys to a satisfying life.” We often have the achievement and meaning parts down; it’s joy we’ve sidelined. It’s time to bring joy to the forefront.

The skeptics may not understand this movement today. That’s okay. The joy revolution, like all great shifts, will be proven in time by the better lives it creates. Joy is here, now, within us. It’s a capacity to be unfolded every day, not a treasure to be found someday. The time to unfold it, to nurture it, and yes, to build something beautiful with it, is now.

In a world that’s telling us all is broken, choosing to LIVE JOYELY is a bold act of building something new. Let’s build this, together.