Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Harrington.
Hi Jessica, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
There are a lot of reasons my business got started. My first thought is thinking back to grade school. In school you are taught, “Keep your hands to yourself” and “You are in control of your actions”. Growing up, I took this rule and understood it as I am in control of how others see me. Growing up, I chose to act “happy” and “bubbly”. When you are happy and bubbly, no one asks “What is wrong?”—So no one knew the truth that the addiction and divorce in the household were truly affecting me.
I took this mindset with me—through my jobs, my broken hearts, my relationships, college, and so on until the day I crashed and realized that the face I put on wasn’t getting me anywhere.
Today I quite literally made my life journey into a job, I am the owner of Journey to Yourself,
As a public health educator, I educate others about stress by telling her story of growing up with addiction and mental health in her family leading her to start her career in the drug and alcohol field.
I also realized through my career and education, that we all have a common issue—everyone, at some point or another, struggles with handling stress. I went to school and got her Master’s in Public Health, where she started her first business educating moms about stress.
Through my own personal heartbreaks and life struggles I had to learn how to practice what I preached. I learned that it is easy for us to put others’ needs and wants first, creating our own stress and unhappiness. After some time, and some healing, I then started Journey To Yourself. Today I focus on educating others about stress by creating awareness around their own stress and helping create personalized habits they can use on a daily basis to help relieve stress.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
No defiantly not smooth road. I can be super cheesy here and tell you how grateful I am for the hard times, but let’s be real the hard times are hard. Hard times hit hard and fast. I will say the biggest struggle was confidence and sharing my story. I struggled knowing what I could offer, I had the degree, the experience, and the one people called when they needed stress/self-love support and I still could not wrap my head around that I was good enough for what I wanted to do.
Telling my story, this was a big one for me. As an entrepreneur, we are taught that we have to tell our story. We have tell our why, well my “why” still hurt. My why still kept me up at night. How was I supposed to tell a story that I was still processing? I had to learn a few things, talk about your scars, not your wounds. Tell the stories that make you have healed from, sometimes we get narrowed focused on the stories that still hurt, we forget about stories we have healed from.
We’ve been impressed with Journey To Yourself, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Public Health Educator. I educate about stress, how to create a different perspective, and what habits you can start today to help decrease stress. When I first started with Journey to Yourself (previously named Mindfulness Matters), I focused on mom groups. I was implementing groups at libraries, doctors’ offices, and in women’s homes. I also focused on college students at universities and community centers. Today, I am proud to support my clients by providing 1:1 coaching. My programs are to help you start working on yourself. You will meet yourself where you are today, and focus on bite-size goals to help you get where you want to be.
I also provide workshops for your blue-collar or customer service-based team. You will learn how to create work-life balance and teamwork. You will define stress, symptoms of stress, and habits you can start today to help relieve stress. Some habits are self-love, mindfulness habits, environment, acceptance, and communication.
I can speak to your clients to focus on change starting with you. You will define stress, symptoms of stress, and habits you can start today to help relieve stress. Some habits are self-love, mindfulness habits, environment, acceptance, and communication.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
Hmm, even as Miss. Positive over here I am going to say bad luck played a part in my business. I know a lot of us would prefer if things went easy. I honestly would have not learned half the things I learned if it was full of good luck. I think of things such as MailChimp. I struggled a lot of the small factors when building my MailChimp. Today, I now know how to do things that maybe some people would hire someone for.
Contact Info:
- Email: Jessica@JourneyToYourself.net
- Website: https://www.journeytoyourself.net/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/journeytoyourself101/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JourneyToYourself101/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj977TKZZ5HLcVajCeQZqWg
- Other: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/stress-less-with-me-jess/id1544649628
Image Credits
Marikate Venuto
