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JOY Unfiltered: Joy is the strategy
Joy Unfiltered is the podcast where joy gets real, grounded, and useful.
Hosted by Rachel Bents, author of Joy Is the Strategy, this show explores joy not as a reward you earn, but as a practical strategy for living, leading, and feeling better in real life.
Each week, you’ll hear honest conversations, solo reflections, and guest episodes that unpack how joy impacts leadership, wellbeing, resilience, mindset, and connection without bypassing hard things or pretending life is perfect.
This podcast is also the heartbeat of two growing movements:
📘 Joy Is the Strategy (the book)
A deeper exploration of how joy works, why it matters, and how choosing it can change your life and leadership.
✨ The Joy Project
A global, joy-first community built on connection, conversation, and collective momentum.
If you’re tired of hustle culture, burned out on forced positivity, or curious what changes when joy becomes the way forward, you’re in the right place.
Joy isn’t the reward.
It’s the strategy.
JOY Unfiltered: Joy is the strategy
Stop Forcing It. Start Living It.
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
What if the reason things feel hard… is because you’re forcing them?
In this episode of Joy Unfiltered, Rachel dives into the powerful shift that changed everything in her life: surrender.
Not giving up.
Not checking out.
But releasing control over the how… while staying committed to the what.
Backed by neuroscience and lived experience, Rachel breaks down why forcing outcomes keeps you stuck in stress, and how shifting into a regulated, open state unlocks clarity, creativity, and aligned action.
This is the work of co-creating your life… without the pressure.
Inside this episode:
- The real definition of surrender (and why it’s not weak)
- What happens in your brain when you stop forcing
- How stress narrows your thinking and blocks opportunity
- The role of dopamine, regulation, and aligned action
- How Rachel lost 40 pounds, shifted her finances, and met her partner—without force
- Why timing matters more than you think
- How this applies to Joy-Led Leadership and leading others effectively
If you’ve been pushing, striving, and wondering why it still feels hard…
this episode will feel like a deep exhale.
Joy isn’t something you earn at the end.
It’s how you get there.
Connect with Rachel
