R.E.S.T
Reimagining Every Season Together
R.E.S.T. is a Joy Lab Inc. initiative created for young women ages 21-30 who are navigating the many transitions of becoming, building, leading, and growing.
From college and first careers to entrepreneurship, graduate school, relationships, caregiving responsibilities, and major life changes, R.E.S.T. creates space for young women to pause, reflect, connect, and build the tools they need to care for themselves before burnout becomes their normal.
Through community activations, workshops, conversations, and partnership-based experiences, R.E.S.T. helps young women develop resilience, confidence, self-awareness, and joy-centered leadership for every season of life.
Because you do not have to wait until you are burned out to learn how to care for yourself.
What Does Rest Offer?
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R.E.S.T. Conversations
60-minute facilitated discussions.
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R.E.S.T. Workshops
90-minute to 3-hour interactive experiences.
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R.E.S.T. Circles
Multi-week small-group experiences.
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R.E.S.T. Community Experiences
Networking, wellness, leadership, and belonging events.
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R.E.S.T. Speaker Series
Featuring women leaders sharing honest stories about success, failure, resilience, and joy.
Outcomes
Participants leave R.E.S.T. with:
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Reclaimed energy and improved emotional regulation
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Greater clarity around boundaries, priorities, and leadership identity
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Increased resilience and leadership sustainability
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Peer connections with fellow women leaders
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A renewed sense of joy, agency, and purpose
R.E.S.T. functions as a preventative leadership intervention, supporting women before burnout leads to disengagement or exit from leadership.
Purpose
R.E.S.T. (Reclaiming Energy for Sustainable Thriving) is a joy-centered leadership sustainability program designed to interrupt burnout before it results in disengagement, diminished effectiveness, or leadership exit.
Women in leadership frequently shoulder invisible labor, emotional responsibility, and prolonged systemic pressure. Over time, this sustained overextension erodes energy, clarity, and capacity. R.E.S.T. exists to restore internal leadership resources so women can continue leading with integrity, discernment, and long-term sustainability.
Rather than positioning burnout as an individual failure, R.E.S.T. frames restoration as a strategic leadership intervention and joy as essential infrastructure for leadership longevity.
WHO'S THIS PROGRAM FOR?
R.E.S.T. is designed for women who:
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Serve in formal or informal leadership roles
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Are experiencing leadership fatigue, burnout, or chronic stress
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Carry responsibility for others while neglecting their own restoration
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Desire to continue leading without sacrificing health, values, or identity
The program is intentionally women-only to foster psychological safety, shared understanding, and honest dialogue without competition or performance pressure.
PROGRAM MODEL
R.E.S.T. operates as a cohort-based leadership sustainability program with two integrated components:
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In-person leadership convening (4 days / 3 nights)
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Six-month applied leadership sustainability pathway
Each year, 10 women leaders are fully sponsored to participate as a cohort. The small cohort size allows for trust-building, deep reflection, and meaningful peer connection.
Program costs—including lodging, meals, facilitation, and materials—are fully covered. Participants are responsible for their own travel to and from the program location.
This model ensures equitable access to leadership restoration while maintaining fiscal responsibility and compliance with public and philanthropic funding requirements.
THE R.E.S.T. EXPERIENCE
The in-person convening unfolds across four intentional phases aligned with the R.E.S.T. framework:
Arrival & Grounding
Participants transition out of urgency and into presence. This phase focuses on grounding, nervous-system regulation, and releasing accumulated leadership strain.
Restoration & Reflection
Through guided reflection, facilitated dialogue, and embodied practices, participants examine how leadership demands have shaped their energy, identity, and decision-making.
Sustainable Leadership Reorientation
Participants reconnect with values, clarify boundaries, and redefine what sustainable leadership looks like in their current season. Peer learning and mentorship circles reinforce collective wisdom and accountability.
Integration & Return
Participants identify practical strategies for maintaining energy, clarity, and joy upon returning to their leadership environments, laying the groundwork for the six-month integration pathway.
MEASURABLE & RESEARCH-INFORMED OUTCOMES
R.E.S.T. functions as a preventative leadership intervention with outcomes aligned to leadership sustainability and retention research. Participants demonstrate:
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Improved emotional regulation and stress management
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Increased clarity around boundaries, priorities, and leadership identity
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Strengthened decision-making aligned with values and capacity
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Reduced burnout indicators and chronic overextension behaviors
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Increased sense of agency, connection, and leadership continuity
Over the six-month pathway, participants apply R.E.S.T. practices within real leadership contexts, reinforcing behavior change and long-term sustainability. Outcomes are assessed through reflective tools, cohort check-ins, and leadership sustainability indicators.
ELIGIBILITY & APPLICATION PROCESS
R.E.S.T. is a selective program to maintain cohort integrity and alignment.
Applicants must:
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Identify as a woman
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Currently serve in a leadership role
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Be experiencing leadership fatigue or burnout
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Be an active member of The Joy Builders Network
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Complete a short written application, including a reflective essay
The application invites participants to reflect on their leadership journey, current challenges, and why reclaiming energy is critical at this stage. Participants are selected based on readiness, alignment, and cohort balance.
FUNDING & ACCESS
R.E.S.T. is fully funded for selected participants through donor and philanthropic support. All program-related costs—including lodging, meals, facilitation, and materials—are covered. Air travel is not included.
This funding model reflects The Joy Lab’s commitment to making leadership restoration and sustainability accessible, particularly for women who consistently give their time, care, and leadership to others.
A REGENERATIVE LEADERSHIP MODEL
Each funded cohort strengthens future cohorts through continuity, stewardship, and shared leadership practices.
Beginning in subsequent years, select R.E.S.T. alumni are invited to return in supported facilitation or peer guide roles, contributing their lived experience to future cohorts and strengthening program integrity. Alumni participation reinforces leadership capacity without creating dependency, ensuring the model remains sustainable and values-aligned.
R.E.S.T. grows through depth rather than scale—preserving trust, intimacy, and impact while expanding its leadership footprint organically.
WHY THIS MATTERS
Women leaders often complete leadership programs restored—but isolated.
R.E.S.T. ensures participants leave connected, valued, and woven into an ongoing leadership continuum. By pairing restoration with long-term integration and peer support, R.E.S.T. transforms a single experience into a sustained leadership preservation strategy.
IN SUMMARY
R.E.S.T. is innovative because it:
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Fully sponsors 10 women leaders each year
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Invests in long-term leadership sustainability, not one-time relief
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Integrates restoration with applied leadership development
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Builds a self-reinforcing leadership ecosystem rooted in continuity
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Demonstrates responsible, regenerative use of philanthropic funding
R.E.S.T. does not simply support women leaders.
It builds the conditions for women-led leadership to last.