We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Donna & Claire Thomas a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Donna & Claire, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the best advice you ever gave to a client? How did they benefit / what was the result? (Please note this response is for education/entertainment purposes only and shouldn’t be construed as advice for the reader)

Donna says, “In the coaching space, I consider myself a pilot lighter. The comfort of old patterns of thinking and behavior are strong and real. It’s easier, in the short run, to stay rooted in familiarity. In western culture,
distraction is a menace to awareness and consistency, two qualities that are needed to create change.
My role is then to create a partnership with my clients, to help paint a picture of what their future can look
like, to break down the small steps necessary to shift momentum towards growth, and then to encourage
them to keep showing up on the daily.”

Claire adds, “This also shows up in The Joyful Rebels podcast, where we get to address topics that fall under the larger umbrella of ‘wellness,’ and offer science-backed, easy to implement strategies to work towards, again, those two magic words- Awareness and Consistency. Just because we’ve heard of something, doesn’t mean we’re doing it. And just because it’s easy, doesn’t mean it’s ineffective. We want to explore how we can increase peace and ease for all.”

Donna continues, “At The Joyful Rebels, we believe that we all have a deep, inner wisdom that gets buried as we are bombarded with outside messages, influences, and experiences. We become so hurried and distracted that we aren’t listening and trusting. We look for quick fixes and validation from the outside world. When we celebrate the
smallest of wins, we create momentum that encourages us to continue to engage, stay focused, and
remain a curious participant in our one precious life. This truly is a fun adventure of discovery that
changes us from the inside out.”

Donna & Claire, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Putting yourself first, filling your cup before you fill others, is a rebellious act in today’s culture and society. That is how The Joyful Rebels was born.

Donna and Claire are a mother/daughter team, and together they co-host The Joyful Rebels podcast. The focus each week centers around discussing and reflecting on science-backed tips and tricks related to different wellness topics. These range from awareness, mindfulness, building confidence, flexing your “no muscle,” having a hard conversation, handling procrastination, and more.

One of the missions of The Joyful Rebels is to provide low- and no-cost resources to help as many women as possible to grow, shine their light, and live their best life. Aside from the podcast, there is also a Joyful Rebels blog, a Youtube channel with a variety of free yoga classes + meditations, and an expanding library of books and workbooks, focused on habit tracking, building a meditation practice, and more. (Available on Amazon and The Joyful Rebels Etsy store)

“We strive to provide a balance of evidence and research with personal experience. We are scientists, we are moms, we are yoga teachers, and we are rebels. We are also mother and daughter, so we provide a perspective on topics from multiple generations. Overall, we are looking for ways to increase our peace and ease. Not to eradicate all of our problems, or to live carefree. But what if we can all be a little bit happier? And experience life as a little bit easier? With small, sustainable, science-backed tips, and some consistency, we can all expand, grow, and chase our dreams, together.” – Claire

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Donna shares her story about thriving through 4 joint replacements, and what it taught her about resiliency:

“Sometimes ignorance is bliss. If I had known at the start that I would be having four joint replacement
surgeries in 5 years, I would have curled up in a fetal position and called it a day. But I didn’t know, and
that allowed me to take each surgery/rehab experience as it came, building grit and resiliency that
ultimately carried me through the next surgical adventure.

I’ve been a fitness leader/educator for 3 decades. My body has been my business card. The fitness
industry has not typically been a neutral space for body image issues, smart training principles, and
aging. I like to think it’s changing, but we have a long way to go.

Losing my physical abilities as osteoarthritis overcame both of my shoulders and hips, put me at a crossroads: I could either pack it up and leave the space, or I could tackle my prehab, surgery, and rehab, so that I could help to change the
narrative. What I found is that our bodies are simply miraculous, even when they feel broken.”

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Claire shares of the major pivot she made in her career:

“After graduate school, I found myself working as a marine biologist in The Bahamas. It was a dream job- conducting scientific research, teaching, traveling to international conferences, meeting amazing people from all around the world, SCUBA diving for fun, and basically living outside of my comfort zone.

After 4 years and the birth of my first two kids, it became clear that our family would do best moving back to the States, close to relatives. It was a big adjustment, and I was unsure how to proceed. I ended up taking a teaching position at 2 colleges, sharing my love of biology and environmental science with young and older adults.

Life happened again, and my family moved to another state. I lost my support system, and the opportunity to work in the classroom. It was a true crossroads, where instead of viewing it as a negative, I used the opportunity to assess what I enjoyed and what I excelled at, and how I could be creative to still achieve the two.

That’s when I started working with my mom. She was offering coaching and monthly workshops through Joyful Rebel Coaching, and I began to work on social media and marketing. This role grew, until we reached the point where we realized that if we wanted to expand our reach, we should start a podcast! We were already having interesting conversations every week, so why not record them! Thus, The Joyful Rebels was born.

Now, I get the opportunity to share information, to research, and to teach different topics each week to a growing audience, I get to write and publish this material, and we have plans for expanding into new avenues in the near future.

The point of my story is this- we will all face crossroads at some point in our lives. And if we are able to view it with a growth mindset, acknowledging the difficulties associated with changes while also celebrating the chance to grow in new and exciting ways, we can open and enter doors that we wouldn’t have dreamed of.”

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thejoyfulrebels.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_joyful_rebels/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JoyfulRebelCoaching/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thejoyfulrebels
• Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/TheJoyfulRebels https://www.tiktok.com/@thejoyfulrebels

Image Credits
Sarah Jane Photography