hey there!

I'm Ayorinde. Welcome to Bright-Eyed Joy!

First and foremost: a little bit about me. I’m a proud Chicago native (South Side ‘til I die). I meditate most mornings, listen to my favorite podcasts on commutes, and read my latest “get your life together” book at night. On weekends you can usually find me brunching with friends, going to yoga, or half-listening to a Law and Order: SVU episode while working in my bullet journal. 

My name, Ayorinde, means “joy walks in" but everyone just calls me Ayo (think eye-yo). Awhile back I made a promise to myself to live up to my name and start delivering the most authentic version of myself to the world. I began to dig deeply into what that means for me and, shortly after, the idea came to my mind that I wanted to create a space to share with others how I'm embarking on my own journey through being introspective, discovering the many layers of who I am, and creating a better life for myself. I'm taking my learnings along the way with the intention of delivering to you all the things that I've found to be most fun, helpful, and life-changing.

I believe that the environment around us creates a lot of distractions from finding our true selves. These may come in the form of technology, physical appearances, societal drama...whatever it takes to distract you from what really matters -- you. When we forget to do this, it’s a lot easier to fall into slumps, attract negative experiences, and not feel as wonderfully fulfilled as we can be.

Bright-Eyed Joy is your place to come to that incites inspiration to take yourself to the next level, mentally and physically. Here you’ll find posts focused on body love, best practices for self-care, and books or podcasts that I’ve found especially powerful on my own self-care journey. I love getting to know you all, so feel free to slide through my DMs or fill out my contact form to get in touch!