Chair of JOY® was created from a simple but powerful belief: everyone deserves a place to pause.
What began as a tool for emotional regulation has grown into a movement helping children, families, schools, and communities build resilience through safety, presence, connection, and emotional growth.
Seven years ago, Sheryl Lynn set a yellow chair outside and watched what happened. People slowed down. They breathed. They remembered something they had been too busy to feel. Some cried. Some laughed. Many simply sat quietly for the first time in a long time.
That chair became many chairs. Those moments became a movement. And that movement is now reaching toward 100,000 chairs in communities across America.
The Chair is the vehicle. The people are the mission.
Every Chair of JOY® experience is designed to be simple, accessible, and powerful — available to anyone, anywhere, with no appointment, no cost, and no training required.
It meets people exactly where they are. In a school hallway. A hospital lobby. A workplace break room. A neighborhood park. Wherever people gather and carry more than they show.
Chair of JOY® · About
7Years of Chair of JOY Experiences
40KPeople Impacted
22Community Tours
For seven years, we believed a simple yellow chair could help people reconnect with themselves. More than 40,000 experiences later, we believe it now more than ever.
Built Through JOYELY. Expanded Through Chair of JOY.
Chair of JOY® was born from seven years of research, product development, and real-world delivery through JOYELY, the framework's originating organization. As demand for the Chair of JOY® experience grew, the work expanded into a dedicated nonprofit to bring the experience to schools, families, organizations, and communities nationwide.
Mission & Vision
Our Mission
To empower people of all ages through experiences, education, research, and community initiatives that strengthen emotional well-being, resilience, and human connection.
Our Vision
A world where emotional well-being becomes a shared human language and every person has access to moments of safety, presence, and joy.
JOY Intelligence™
JOY Intelligence™ — also known as JQ — is the practice of developing greater awareness, emotional regulation, communication, and connection through the three pillars of Safety, Presence, and Joy.
As people learn to navigate emotions rather than avoid them, they become more resilient, compassionate, and better equipped to meet life's challenges.
Safety
A grounded sense of being okay, even amid difficulty.
Presence
Being fully here, aware of what we feel right now.
Joy
The lightness that follows when we feel seen and whole.
Why It Matters
Research continues to show that emotional regulation, self-awareness, resilience, and meaningful human connection are among the strongest predictors of long-term well-being.
Yet many people are never taught how to recognize what they are feeling, regulate emotions during difficult moments, or return to a place of calm and clarity. Chair of JOY® was created to help fill that gap with a simple, accessible, prevention-focused wellness program.
40K+Lives Impacted
50+Schools Served
22Community Tours
100KChair Movement Goal
7Years of Belief
Chair of JOY® is part of a broader emotional wellness movement built on emotional regulation, social emotional learning, and community-based resilience building. As a student wellness program and family wellness program, it gives schools, families, and organizations a simple, low-cost way to support emotional intelligence and emotional literacy in daily life.
Many communities use Chair of JOY alongside existing student support programs, workplace wellness programs, and mental health prevention efforts — meeting people exactly where they are, in the places they already gather. Locations are growing across Nevada and Oregon, including Las Vegas and Henderson, Nevada, and Portland, Oregon — extending this emotional wellness movement city by city, chair by chair.
Emotional Regulation
Self-Awareness
Resilience
Human Connection
Not with complicated systems.
Not with more screen time.
Not with endless information.
"But with a simple, accessible experience that reminds people to slow down, breathe, reflect, and reconnect. Because sometimes the most powerful solutions are also the simplest."
Our Belief
We believe every human being deserves a place to sit, breathe, feel without judgment, and remember they belong.
Because emotional well-being is not a luxury.
It is a human need.
Together, we are building a world where safety, presence, and joy belong to everyone.
Real Stories. Real Moments.
These are three of thousands.
A Working Mom
A mom of three teenage boys — and a banking executive — sat down carrying the weight of deadlines, responsibilities, and the beautiful, exhausting chaos of raising three young men. As she moved through Sit. Breathe. Think. Feel., she remembered a day at the beach with her boys.
Her breathing slowed.Her shoulders relaxed.She smiled.
Nothing about her workload had changed, but her perspective had.
"Sometimes a few moments of reflection can help us reconnect with what matters most."
A Family Moment
A young child was running around while her parents were trying to have an important conversation. They sat down in the Chair of JOY® and began to breathe. The little girl watched them curiously — then, in the most natural way, she climbed up, peeked out with one eye, took tiny little breaths of her own, and slowly, sweetly, settled.
Three people.One chair.A completely different moment.
She did not need instructions. She just followed what she felt. And her little body calmed right down.
The energy shifted from frustration to connection — and it started with the smallest person in the room.
Father and Son
A father and his teenage son were in the middle of an argument. Both were frustrated. Both were convinced they were right.
After spending a few minutes in the Chair of JOY®, they each took time to breathe, reflect, and reconnect with how they were feeling. The tension began to soften. The conversation changed.
Soon they were laughing.
"The problem wasn't as important as the relationship. Sometimes the smallest pause creates the biggest shift."
Looking Ahead
100,000Chairs Initiative
Chair of JOY, Inc. is leading the 100,000 Chairs Initiative — working to place Chairs of JOY® wherever people are.
Our goal is simple: create more places where people can pause, reconnect, and remember what matters.
Schools
Healthcare settings
Libraries
Nonprofits
Workplaces
Faith communities
Public spaces
One Chair.
One moment.
One person at a time.
Together, those moments can change families, organizations, and communities.
