My Joy List

August 6th - 11th: getting back on the train, date night in Jordaan, and detours in Amsterdamse Bos

Aug 11, 2025

You’re reading a newsletter from Syd, an NYC-born gal who quit her “golden handcuffs” job and moved to Amsterdam to follow her heart’s calls for a path less traveled. Here, I share the challenges and wins of my own journey from people pleasing & perfectionism to authenticity, balance, joy, & freedom. Beyond this page, I coach fellow high achievers along their own journey. I also share their stories in a podcast, The Path Less Traveled. You may find comfort, empowerment, inspiration, and/or community. Welcome 🫶🏻

Hi my sunshines!

I heard Jay Shetty tell a story about his experience meditating on a train in India.

The gist: he was on a long train journey and struggling to meditate because the train was chaotic and loud. At a stopover, he got off the train to meditate at a quiet part of the platform. When he got back on the train, his monk teacher asked him, “do you think life is going to be peaceful like the stop or chaotic like the train?… That’s why you need to learn to meditate on the train.” Jay summarizes this as, “Don’t look for peace to create peace. Find peace in the chaos because then you’ve really found peace.”

Shortly after hearing that,

Sarah Wood González

shared about her experience at the one month mark of moving back to NYC after living in Madrid + Edinburgh for a few years. The piece described exactly the thing I am most wary of regarding my partial move back to NYC (which is happening this week :o):

How will I, or my lived experience, change when the predominant culture and energy around me changes?

I’ve blossomed in Amsterdam in so many ways over the past two years. I say this often: Amsterdam feels like my souls home. Like I’m an ice cube and Amsterdam is water—we’re the same in so many ways with some little differences. I feel very one with the place: the energy, the architecture, the values, the nature. I haven’t lost all my New Yorker-ness, to be sure (I’m still a little icey ;)), but as I discussed when I shared my story on The Path Less Traveled, Amsterdam makes being, and being me in particular, feel safe.

But I’m getting back on the train.

In terms of the priorities woven into the fabric of the culture, balance will be supplanted by hustle, wellbeing by achievement, simplicity by multiplicity, the eschewal of status signals by the hunger for them. These are generalizations, but by and large, accurate descriptions of my experience in Amsterdam and New York.

I’m excited to be reunited with some of these things in moderation. Like the multiplicity. A and I spent a good chunk of the weekend scrolling through the brand inventory at Pop-up Grocer (our idea of a good time) and I was giddy by the new brands and products I’ve never heard of, and the volume. In Amsterdam, I see a new product on the shelf I’m excited about maybe once per month.

I’m also really excited to write about New York and to share it with you. I’m excited to experience the city in a way that I hope will be somewhat different than I have in the past—like somebody who didn’t grow up there—and I’m excited to challenge myself to continue living by the values that are engrained in Amsterdam’s culture but face headwinds in New York City. It will certainly be uncomfortable, but in that discomfort is an invitation for growth, and that is so exciting to me.

I plan to write a list of promises to myself ahead of the move that captures what I want to maintain and what I want to do differently, and keep the list handy. My future self visualization will be so helpful here. Clarity and intention are two of the most essential ingredients to realizing a dream.

A couple more reasons to listen to the latest episode of The Path Less Traveled:

Doing a guided visualization with Sydney at the Sunshine Table was such a powerful experience. I was able to let my walls down and connect with a version of myself I knew was there but had a hard time accessing. It left me feeling grounded, inspired, and more in touch with who I truly am. - Dani

I was struck that my hopes for my future self were much more “states of mind” than accomplishments. My future self was confident, calm, and smiley. Very happy to report that 1 year later I do feel a lot closer to who I envisioned than I did when I did the exercise. I feel grateful to have done it with syd. - Elizabeth

Listen here (or via Spotify or Apple).

The Pain of Perfectionism article from The New Yorker...

so accurately captures my experience with and views on perfectionism:

“To Flett and Hewitt, the idea of perfectionism as a form of admirable striving is a dangerous misconception… Hewitt, a clinical psychologist, has seen with his therapy patients how perfectionism can be “personally terrorizing for people, a debilitating state.” It’s driven not by aspiration but by fear, and by the conviction that perfection is the only ‘way of being secure and safe in the world.’”

Ok! That’s all. Let’s get into the list! Happy joy spotting :)

Joy spotting: the practice of noticing little moments of joy surrounding us all the time (more)

Rubs standing on A’s lap, kissing his face, at the dining table while I eat breakfast
Rubs’ excitement over trying to catch the bubbles
Filling up my Thrive cart for the bach party
Dad’s text about music
Waking up to tons of dress recs from Als
the way the sun was hitting that purple flower on my walk to the miffy store
The hot pink 3D butterflies decorating the tram stop
Remembering the wonder of seeing amsterdam with unfamiliar eyes as I watched the tourists take photos of the prinsengracht
Writing cards on a bench in the Rijks museum garden

The man who sat on the neighboring bench and smiled at me
Spotting tomatoes growing in the garden
“Beautiful day” coming on as I admired the people sprinkled over museumplein
the phenomenal crushed tomatoes on bread and tomato sauce spaghetti from Fiaschetteria Pistoia
walking through the quiet Jordaan with A finally enjoying the gelato from Monte Pelmo

reuniting with my labneh and poached egg bowl at Little Collins
Waking up to moms’ marriage tips
the child walking past our balcony on a quiet Sunday morning in a fire person costume, carrying a stick longer than their body
The freedom and spontaneity of biking around Amsterdamse Bos semi-lost
The stunning plants and trees and grass everywhere I look in Bos

Amsterdamse Bos <3 a mind-blowing forest just outside the city center!

Rubs swimming out way further than expected for her stick
The creaminess of the labneh at Esh
Composing the perfect bite of pita with falafel, tomato, hummus, and mango sauce at Esh