February 26, 2019

Joélle Étienne

Determination ❤️

February 26, 2019

Joélle Étienne

One of my favorite words is

'determination'

. Why? Because it not only means

'the deciding of an outcome'

and '

the firmness of

purpose

—

resoluteness!'

, but also because it is a reminder to

NEVER

give up

When I was a dancer, I taught classes; it was so much fun, and I'll never forget the experience. However, when I had the onset of pain from a mysterious injury, I was feeling down. The doctors put me into a big, green cast because they couldn't for the life of them figure out what was wrong with my foot.

Then I was faced with a dilemma: should I quit teaching? I didn't want to even think about the looming possibility of my dancing career ending, so I tried to gather my courage and keep moving forward...

So I taught classes with the cast on my foot. 😉 One of my students was even amazingly encouraging enough to create a depiction of my determination, along with a description (on the left).

It's a treasure, lol. I'm never getting rid of it ❤️. The thing about determination is that it stems from something much more precious—

hope

. This is going to be a huge theme in my blog, running throughout everything I write; hope is very important, and it encourages so many incredible strengths

Once you receive hope— and learn to nurture it— you’ll find that you have so much of it, you can share it with everyone around you. So

BE FILLED WITH DETERMINATION

when something comes your way!

—Joelle :)

What's something you really want to do, but feel like you don't have determination to do it? Comment below, and we can get stronger together!

February 18, 2019

Joélle Étienne

Hello, It's Joelle

February 18, 2019

Joélle Étienne

Happy Monday! I'm not feeling well, so I don't have a deeply thought-out post this week; HOWEVER, I was recently scrolling through my old videos on YouTube (you should check them out!) and stumbled across this lovely gem:

Ironically, I recorded this
song when I had quite the snuffly
cold, so I suppose the theme of
today's blog is don't let your
circumstance back you into a
corner.

As the journalist Germany Kent once said, “It's a funny thing about life, once you begin to take note of the things you are grateful for, you begin to lose sight of the things that you lack.”

Make sure to take care of the big three— mind, body, and spirit— while making sure one is never neglected for another. It's important to take care of yourself in all aspects, especially your spirit: your soul, your love, and your joyfulness.

If I hadn't done something to lift my mood that day, I would have been letting my body overtake my spirit; after I finished recording, I rested for two days after to make sure my body was able to get better, too. I've learned over the years that a lifted spirit and a joyful, grateful heart will do more to heal your mind and body than other, more logical things might. What makes you truly joyful?

Joy isn't the same as happiness, it's a feeling of grateful excitement that comes from within, not from the things around you.

Remember, love yourself.

—Joelle

January 28, 2019

Joélle Étienne

What Is Your Quintessence?

January 28, 2019

Joélle Étienne

Hi. My name is Joelle, I'm 24, and music is the only thing in life that has ever made me quintessentially* ecstatic. I've been told I make very interesting faces at concerts (shrugs awkwardly).

Music saved my life. When I was 16, I had to stop my dance career because of a sustained injury, and I fell into a horribly dark mentality. When I started writing music, my life had meaning again, and now I know that I'm meant to do something with music.

The world needs music; something that transcends language, culture, belief, and opinion-- something that brings people together. And I intend to contribute to that.

Please join me on my journey; I can't do this alone. God has given me the ability to create, and I just wish I knew how to share that. At the moment, I can barely get people to share my two official songs. They listen, and then they forget. I need to figure out how to get the opposite result: sharing, being inspired and thinking and moving forward.
It takes a village; we need to support each other. Is there anything I can encourage you with? Email me or comment below.
Share your dreams and make them stronger!

With encouragement,
Joelle

P.S.
My new braces have moved my teeth just enough that the molars don't currently touch enough to chew, so I now want to impart unto you, my dear reader, the joy for and realization of the extreme under-appreciation that we as a species have for chewing.
Thank you.

* Quin·tes·sence /ˌkwinˈtesəns/ noun.
1. The most perfect example of something.
2. The central, most refined essence of an idea or substance.

January 21, 2019

Joélle Étienne

Who Is Joelle?

January 21, 2019

Joélle Étienne

Since this is 2019, I suppose I should introduce myself for this year. Hi, I'm Joelle. I'm eclectic. I like cats, dragons, green apples, chocolate, and fantasy stories. As a musical artist, I stylize my name as Joélle.

I love music.

I have to get braces in a couple days and I really don't want them, mostly because flossing is already a nightmare and now it's going to be a night terror (at least they're clear?...).

I have a black persian cat named Micia (MEE-chah) who I love most dearly and talk about far too much in regular conversation because she's GREAT and obviously everyone else in the world needs to know just how GREAT she is, too.

I have insomnia, major depressive disorder (MDD), and ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis, a.k.a. chronic fatigue for all of you who are thinking, 'seriously, she's using medical jargon now? I clicked on this 'cause I thought it would be interesting, not another grumblegrum*...').

I have fibromyalgia (muscle + joint pain/weakness), tremors, and finally, the real kicker: neurological auto-immune disease (we think). Now you may be thinking about how sorry you are for me, but please stop and read my wording above one more time.

I HAVE insomnia, and I have auto-immune disease, but they don't have me. Sometimes they pull me under a bit and I need some time to swim back up, but I like swimming. Supposedly, some people want to hear about my life and my thoughts and my perspectives, so I'm going to try to update this blog every Sunday. (Shoot. *Looks at calendar and cringes*)
If you're interested, follow me. :) I hope we can have a lot of fascinating discussions over the year of 2019.

Hugs,
Joelle

*GRUMBLEGRUM [noun.]

Joellenese for the "muttering of unsavory words under one's breath".

today is day one