(above) Photos through the years / Jennifer the owner of JOY (below)
JOY itself is a quality of life that is always present. Blissful, free, and happy by nature, containing depth and wisdom.
JOY is the ability to move into and through the difficult things to allow for the alchemical process of the difficult thing and the beauty of life to marry, merge, and change quality eventually becoming JOY. JOY is a deeply felt and experienced quality of being human.
JOY Studio is an external representation of the quality of JOY. The mission and development of JOY has been focused around community. We gather to practice and in that practice we create a collective energy and we create individual energy and these energies merge and disperse, contributing to collective healing and expanded awareness.
JOY has never been just a yoga studio. Yoga is a portal through which we enter into the deeper parts of life. The beautiful thing is that Yoga is for everyone and every body and this reflects at JOY. All are welcome. We are the most comfortable yoga studio around.
JOY has had over 6000 people walk through the doors for yoga, massage, training, reiki and over 500 graduates from our trainings.
Every body, every soul who enters the space is there with their unique story of what brought them in and on some level a willingness to grow and to show up not only for themselves but for the person next to them and so on.
Jennifer, the owner of JOY has always said that JOY is an entity in and of itself. The name, the space, the mission it carries a life of its own. From conception, JOY represents each of us on this journey of life. This human experience from a yogic point of view is designed to be enjoyed, to explore the deeper meanings, to peel back the layers of generational residue and reveal our true nature. Our true nature is JOY.
Every yogic and buddhist text will break it down to that word.
JOY
JOY is ancient wisdom.
We enter under the premise of said yoga class name but the intention behind the offering goes much deeper. In fact, the yoga sutras remind us to lose our fascination with our bodies. This does not mean let go of working on being healthy. It means that it is time to reveal our JOY through our practice.
The history of JOY
In 2013, Jennifer Charland began creating a business outline for a yoga studio and wellness center. When it came to name it she started with A Journey Om Yoga School. While going through business training she was encouraged to find an acronym within her business name if possible. It was in that moment that JOY stood out to her. She felt an overwhelming sense of JOY and tears filled her eyes. Alone in her house she jumped up and down and celebrated the birth of JOY.
This had been a dream since 2000 when she was in college for Interior Design, designing her senior thesis, a wellness center. The name of it back then was Concept of Light...a pretty good premonition for what JOY represents. Design school nourished and piggy backed on her younger years and her connection with the notion 'God is love' starting at a very young age she wondered what that meant.
In 2008, when Jennifer embarked on 200 hour yoga teacher training, she had already spent the previous 6 years studying and practicing yoga, buddhism, and meditation and held a masters degree in Holistic Wellness and a Phd just short of her dissertation (because the school closed) in Traditional Naturopathy. She was also a Reiki Master since 2003.
When the first YTT weekend came up, her 2nd child was a month old! Living in North Carolina and training in Virginia, the perfect plan because her ex-husband would be stationed in Virginia shortly after he returned from deployment and during YTT. That weekend, together they packed up the 2 kids and headed up so she could nurse between sessions.
Jennifers yoga teacher, Vimala Ren Fields was a master of teaching! At that time she had 40 years of teaching experience under some very prominent teachers such as Sri Swami Satchidananda. The training was in Integral Yoga and Muscular skeletal structure. Integral yoga (what Jennifer integrates into her classes) is:
Hatha Yoga; Postures, breathing, yoga nidra, mudras (energy seals), bandhas (energy locks), and kiryas.
Raja Yoga; The path of concentration and meditation
Bhakti Yoga: The path of love and devotion
Karma Yoga: The path of selfless service
Jnana Yoga: The path of wisdom
Japa Yoga: The practice of mantra repetition
During the duration of that training, she knew she needed to create a yoga teacher training that was about personal and spiritual development and growth that was accessible to as many people as possible. Hence the creation of the JOY 200 hour online yoga teacher training. The first of it's kind!
Upon graduation in 2009 she was given the name Bhavani - Compassion - oversee the living...and from that day on she began teaching and hasn't stopped
In 2011, Jennifer began 850 hours of Massage and Body Work therapy school. This training solidified all that she was learning about yoga, energy, and healing. Upon graduation she passed a rigorous National Bodywork Certification and began incorporating massage, reiki, and yoga into her work. This work led her to run the yoga program at Arizona Western College and eventually to teach at George Mason University.
All the things that led to the creation of JOY - Journey Om Yoga
Other accomplishments include:
Care Giver Training and Volunteer work at The Enso House; home for the dying Whidbey Island WA 2005
Transformation Meditation Teacher certification 2006
Personal Mastery Intensive and True Self Leadership with Pathways Institute 2017-2017
Business training with Marie Forleo and Tony Robbins Business Mastery Program 2013 / 2019
Kirtan and Yoga Retreat 2019
300 Hour Vajra Yoga Teacher Training with Tenzin Robert Thurman and Michele Loew 2022-2023
Immersion in Ram Dass, Krishna Das Retreats and Maharaji path, Kirtan, Buddhism, Bhakti via Hawaii, Yatra to India, Boone NC, 2018 / 2019 / 2022
Caroline Myss: Wounds into Wisdom 2023
Daily Sadhana incorporating the practices through and with family life and business
Jennifer has a beautiful family with 3 children ages 19, 15, 2, and a loving partner in everything Joshua. Joshua is a champion of JOY and is a behind the scenes guy as well as a philosophy teacher at JOY. They embarked on the 300 hour Vajra Yoga teacher training together and enjoy studying, creating, reading, and discussing the many facets of yoga and Buddhism...living yogi's and buddhas!
They met in 2019 on match of all places only to find out that they owned businesses across the street from each other! He owns East Coast Tattoo and Body Piercing and also Moody Clothes t-shirt company. You're encouraged to read the bio's of the people that work at East Coast to get some insight into Josh's humor!
JOY is the ability to move into and through the difficult things to allow for the alchemical process of the difficult thing and the beauty of life to marry, merge, and change quality eventually becoming JOY. JOY is a deeply felt and experienced quality of being human.
JOY Studio is an external representation of the quality of JOY. The mission and development of JOY has been focused around community. We gather to practice and in that practice we create a collective energy and we create individual energy and these energies merge and disperse, contributing to collective healing and expanded awareness.
JOY has never been just a yoga studio. Yoga is a portal through which we enter into the deeper parts of life. The beautiful thing is that Yoga is for everyone and every body and this reflects at JOY. All are welcome. We are the most comfortable yoga studio around.
JOY has had over 6000 people walk through the doors for yoga, massage, training, reiki and over 500 graduates from our trainings.
Every body, every soul who enters the space is there with their unique story of what brought them in and on some level a willingness to grow and to show up not only for themselves but for the person next to them and so on.
Jennifer, the owner of JOY has always said that JOY is an entity in and of itself. The name, the space, the mission it carries a life of its own. From conception, JOY represents each of us on this journey of life. This human experience from a yogic point of view is designed to be enjoyed, to explore the deeper meanings, to peel back the layers of generational residue and reveal our true nature. Our true nature is JOY.
Every yogic and buddhist text will break it down to that word.
JOY
JOY is ancient wisdom.
We enter under the premise of said yoga class name but the intention behind the offering goes much deeper. In fact, the yoga sutras remind us to lose our fascination with our bodies. This does not mean let go of working on being healthy. It means that it is time to reveal our JOY through our practice.
The history of JOY
In 2013, Jennifer Charland began creating a business outline for a yoga studio and wellness center. When it came to name it she started with A Journey Om Yoga School. While going through business training she was encouraged to find an acronym within her business name if possible. It was in that moment that JOY stood out to her. She felt an overwhelming sense of JOY and tears filled her eyes. Alone in her house she jumped up and down and celebrated the birth of JOY.
This had been a dream since 2000 when she was in college for Interior Design, designing her senior thesis, a wellness center. The name of it back then was Concept of Light...a pretty good premonition for what JOY represents. Design school nourished and piggy backed on her younger years and her connection with the notion 'God is love' starting at a very young age she wondered what that meant.
In 2008, when Jennifer embarked on 200 hour yoga teacher training, she had already spent the previous 6 years studying and practicing yoga, buddhism, and meditation and held a masters degree in Holistic Wellness and a Phd just short of her dissertation (because the school closed) in Traditional Naturopathy. She was also a Reiki Master since 2003.
When the first YTT weekend came up, her 2nd child was a month old! Living in North Carolina and training in Virginia, the perfect plan because her ex-husband would be stationed in Virginia shortly after he returned from deployment and during YTT. That weekend, together they packed up the 2 kids and headed up so she could nurse between sessions.
Jennifers yoga teacher, Vimala Ren Fields was a master of teaching! At that time she had 40 years of teaching experience under some very prominent teachers such as Sri Swami Satchidananda. The training was in Integral Yoga and Muscular skeletal structure. Integral yoga (what Jennifer integrates into her classes) is:
Hatha Yoga; Postures, breathing, yoga nidra, mudras (energy seals), bandhas (energy locks), and kiryas.
Raja Yoga; The path of concentration and meditation
Bhakti Yoga: The path of love and devotion
Karma Yoga: The path of selfless service
Jnana Yoga: The path of wisdom
Japa Yoga: The practice of mantra repetition
During the duration of that training, she knew she needed to create a yoga teacher training that was about personal and spiritual development and growth that was accessible to as many people as possible. Hence the creation of the JOY 200 hour online yoga teacher training. The first of it's kind!
Upon graduation in 2009 she was given the name Bhavani - Compassion - oversee the living...and from that day on she began teaching and hasn't stopped
In 2011, Jennifer began 850 hours of Massage and Body Work therapy school. This training solidified all that she was learning about yoga, energy, and healing. Upon graduation she passed a rigorous National Bodywork Certification and began incorporating massage, reiki, and yoga into her work. This work led her to run the yoga program at Arizona Western College and eventually to teach at George Mason University.
All the things that led to the creation of JOY - Journey Om Yoga
Other accomplishments include:
Care Giver Training and Volunteer work at The Enso House; home for the dying Whidbey Island WA 2005
Transformation Meditation Teacher certification 2006
Personal Mastery Intensive and True Self Leadership with Pathways Institute 2017-2017
Business training with Marie Forleo and Tony Robbins Business Mastery Program 2013 / 2019
Kirtan and Yoga Retreat 2019
300 Hour Vajra Yoga Teacher Training with Tenzin Robert Thurman and Michele Loew 2022-2023
Immersion in Ram Dass, Krishna Das Retreats and Maharaji path, Kirtan, Buddhism, Bhakti via Hawaii, Yatra to India, Boone NC, 2018 / 2019 / 2022
Caroline Myss: Wounds into Wisdom 2023
Daily Sadhana incorporating the practices through and with family life and business
Jennifer has a beautiful family with 3 children ages 19, 15, 2, and a loving partner in everything Joshua. Joshua is a champion of JOY and is a behind the scenes guy as well as a philosophy teacher at JOY. They embarked on the 300 hour Vajra Yoga teacher training together and enjoy studying, creating, reading, and discussing the many facets of yoga and Buddhism...living yogi's and buddhas!
They met in 2019 on match of all places only to find out that they owned businesses across the street from each other! He owns East Coast Tattoo and Body Piercing and also Moody Clothes t-shirt company. You're encouraged to read the bio's of the people that work at East Coast to get some insight into Josh's humor!
Before Mel introduces herself I'd like to convey my gratitude for this connection. It was guided and it was meaningful. Since the beginning of JOY I knew I needed a counterpart. While Josh is my partner in life, biggest support and important contributor at and of JOY he is my behind the scenes and is not interested in teaching the physical practice...for now < side note. When I met Mel, she had all the skills and all the energy required for me to ordain her as my counterpart of JOY! Ha!
I know from experience that it is very rare to come across someone like her. Within 5 minutes of her first conversation I was offering her a Studio Manager Position. Within one week we ironed out all the details and the universe reflected by creating the space in our lives for this to work.
As Studio Manager she is co-creator and assistant on the yoga studio side... and will be making her way into the future Reiki Room to see clients as well. She will assist in being an additional primary teacher for yoga classes, yoga teacher training, yoga continuing education classes, and much more behind the scenes that is the major golden nugget of how JOY functions.
I am very pleased and honored to introduce...
Mel Padilla
With Love and Gratitude, Jennifer
Who is the new girl? Who is driving the BIG White Jeep? Ha, well if we haven’t already taken the time to meet. Please do so!
My name is Mel Padilla. You’ve may have been to a few of the new classes that I teach. Or perhaps you haven’t, just yet. I have been buzzing around JOY for a few weeks now and finally have figured out where I belong. Here, at JOY! Duh!
Allow me to share with you a little bit of me.
I have been blessed with having the universe guide me to some fabulous roles in my career. Most of my time spent has been in Higher Education, about 20 years, working in various positions and landing the most magical role which was running a small campus in Lawrence, MA for 10 years! Well, if you are trying to figure out my age, that doesn’t matter! Ha!
I had the honored to work in the Merrimack Valley, truly changed my whole perspective in life. I wanted to do more! To listen to every single story of each person who walked into those doors was the most humbling experience to have ever lived. I’ve met so many souls, the courage for most who didn’t have that support, for those who dared to live in a foreign country and not know a word of English! That was my drive, that was my passion (still instilled).
The most rewarding was being able to help guide about 1200 humans to cross that stage! It didn’t matter what age, where you came from or lived. It was about if you are willing to do whatever it takes, then I will be your “forever cheerleader” and will ensure you gain what you need and then some.
On top of all that, I have three amazing humans that I am raising in Southern, NH. On my spare time, I’ve earned a few college degrees, one being a masters in special education earned back in 2017. That’s a different story for another time. The most recent is back in 2018, I had received my YTT training from Virginia Gallagher, Hot Asana Yoga Studio in NC. My continued education has focused in the areas of YIN, Meditation, Yoga Nidra, Advanced Sequencing, Power, Ashtanga, Hatha and Reiki 2 practitioner. I am going continued my education to completion my 500 E- RYT with Jennifer!
To me, is extremely important. Why, because if I am going to commit, I am going to commit! I am about longevity, growth and happiness. I know that every single human being who has walked in the doors of JOY, has been touched by all of the love for the community and Jennifer. I want to be able to sprinkle a little of Mel, too.
To me, yoga is about spreading the love. I always say, whatever is your expression, I want you to feel amazing! I want you to feel comfortable being you. You are special!
The love of the universe is shined through with the opportunity to come to space like JOY and truly become immersed. Be you. Always. The commitment is showing up. The invite doesn’t have an expiration date. We will still be there. No matter what.
In the meantime, be on the lookout for some fabulous happenings at JOY. I am looking forward to seeing you on the mat, better yet, I am looking forward to the long everlasting friendship. I can’t wait to see what happens next. I am truly humbled and grateful to be in the same room as you all.
P.S.
Jennifer is like a sister I’ve never had. I am really looking forward to all of our laughs and creativity together.
Namaste, Mel
I know from experience that it is very rare to come across someone like her. Within 5 minutes of her first conversation I was offering her a Studio Manager Position. Within one week we ironed out all the details and the universe reflected by creating the space in our lives for this to work.
As Studio Manager she is co-creator and assistant on the yoga studio side... and will be making her way into the future Reiki Room to see clients as well. She will assist in being an additional primary teacher for yoga classes, yoga teacher training, yoga continuing education classes, and much more behind the scenes that is the major golden nugget of how JOY functions.
I am very pleased and honored to introduce...
Mel Padilla
With Love and Gratitude, Jennifer
Who is the new girl? Who is driving the BIG White Jeep? Ha, well if we haven’t already taken the time to meet. Please do so!
My name is Mel Padilla. You’ve may have been to a few of the new classes that I teach. Or perhaps you haven’t, just yet. I have been buzzing around JOY for a few weeks now and finally have figured out where I belong. Here, at JOY! Duh!
Allow me to share with you a little bit of me.
I have been blessed with having the universe guide me to some fabulous roles in my career. Most of my time spent has been in Higher Education, about 20 years, working in various positions and landing the most magical role which was running a small campus in Lawrence, MA for 10 years! Well, if you are trying to figure out my age, that doesn’t matter! Ha!
I had the honored to work in the Merrimack Valley, truly changed my whole perspective in life. I wanted to do more! To listen to every single story of each person who walked into those doors was the most humbling experience to have ever lived. I’ve met so many souls, the courage for most who didn’t have that support, for those who dared to live in a foreign country and not know a word of English! That was my drive, that was my passion (still instilled).
The most rewarding was being able to help guide about 1200 humans to cross that stage! It didn’t matter what age, where you came from or lived. It was about if you are willing to do whatever it takes, then I will be your “forever cheerleader” and will ensure you gain what you need and then some.
On top of all that, I have three amazing humans that I am raising in Southern, NH. On my spare time, I’ve earned a few college degrees, one being a masters in special education earned back in 2017. That’s a different story for another time. The most recent is back in 2018, I had received my YTT training from Virginia Gallagher, Hot Asana Yoga Studio in NC. My continued education has focused in the areas of YIN, Meditation, Yoga Nidra, Advanced Sequencing, Power, Ashtanga, Hatha and Reiki 2 practitioner. I am going continued my education to completion my 500 E- RYT with Jennifer!
To me, is extremely important. Why, because if I am going to commit, I am going to commit! I am about longevity, growth and happiness. I know that every single human being who has walked in the doors of JOY, has been touched by all of the love for the community and Jennifer. I want to be able to sprinkle a little of Mel, too.
To me, yoga is about spreading the love. I always say, whatever is your expression, I want you to feel amazing! I want you to feel comfortable being you. You are special!
The love of the universe is shined through with the opportunity to come to space like JOY and truly become immersed. Be you. Always. The commitment is showing up. The invite doesn’t have an expiration date. We will still be there. No matter what.
In the meantime, be on the lookout for some fabulous happenings at JOY. I am looking forward to seeing you on the mat, better yet, I am looking forward to the long everlasting friendship. I can’t wait to see what happens next. I am truly humbled and grateful to be in the same room as you all.
P.S.
Jennifer is like a sister I’ve never had. I am really looking forward to all of our laughs and creativity together.
Namaste, Mel
Stay tuned for all of our teacher and practitioner pics and bios!