You’re Allowed to Quit When the Joy Leaves

Anna DeShawn on grounding, faith, and finding joy in the fight — even now

I’ve been walking on cloud nine since my conversation with Anna DeShawn. The part I keep coming back to — the part that still gives me tingles — is this: The prayer corner, the meditation practice, the taking care of your body and your soul, listening to great music and eating yummy food — that IS the work. Not just the activism or the content. Not the organizing or the showing up or the doing. The inner work that makes all of that possible is where it begins. After all, no one on their deathbed wishes they answered just one more email.

And here’s the thing: THIS is where joy lives. Even now. Especially now. When the world feels heavy, the fight feels long, and you’re not sure you have another round in you — joy isn’t waiting on the other side. It’s available right here, when we do the work of coming back to ourselves.

This episode is for you if:

• You are doing work that matters deeply to you, and you’re running on fumes.
• You’ve been white-knuckling through the news cycle and wondering how anyone stays in this fight long term.
• You left a job — or you’re thinking about leaving one — and you’re scared about what comes next.
• Your faith has been a source of both comfort and complication, and you’re still figuring out what to do with that.
• You know rest is important, but you still feel like you have to earn it.
• You want permission to quit the things that have stopped bringing you joy — and a little push to actually do it.

About Anna DeShawn

Anna DeShawn is a social entrepreneur, storyteller, community organizer, and one of the most grounded humans I know. She is the founder of E3 Radio and The Qube podcast network, plus the host of the Ambie Award-winning Queer News — a weekly podcast where race and sexuality meet politics, culture, and entertainment. In 2023, Anna was inducted into the Chicago LGBTQ Hall of Fame for her unwavering commitment to the LGBTQ community. She is determined to ride media into its next era — and we need her to.

Key Takeaways from This Episode

Burnout doesn’t always look like having nothing to do.

Anna’s breaking point in corporate America came from being completely overwhelmed: working across time zones around the clock. The system burns you out by asking way too much with little regard for your wellbeing.

The inner work is the real work.

Anna’s sacred meditation corner — the one spot in her home where her wife is not allowed to leave her stuff — is not something that’s just nice to have. It’s what makes everything else possible. Grounding yourself spiritually, physically, and emotionally is not preparation for the work. It IS the work.

Joy is a choice, not a feeling.

Happiness is when something nice happens to you. Joy is something you commit to, and return to, over and over again. Anna is clear: The moment joy leaves something she’s doing, she quits it. That is not giving up. That is wisdom.

Reporting the good news is an act of resistance.

Anna deliberately includes culture, entertainment, and community wins in Queer News because hope is not naive — it’s strategic. Culture has always been 20 years ahead of politics. And when we stop seeing the wins, we stop fighting.

Battles and wars are not the same thing.

One school board pulling a song inspired by Marsha P. Johnson is a lost battle. Hundreds of students walking out in protest — and showing up to the school board meeting — is how you fight the war. Anna’s framework for staying in this moment is one of the most grounded things I’ve heard in a long time.

Discoverability is an equity issue.

The Qube is being relaunched as the largest searchable database of Black and Brown podcasts. Brilliant voices with small follower counts get buried by algorithms that serve only themselves. Anna is building the infrastructure to fix that. Go support her work!

Connect with Anna DeShawn

🌐 Website: https://e3radio.fm

📬 Substack: https://queernewspod.substack.com

📸 Instagram: https://instagram.com/annadeshawn

👥 Facebook: https://facebook.com/annadeshawn

💼 LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/annadeshawn

💬 Let’s Keep the Conversation Going

Here’s what Anna said that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about: Joy is a choice — and when something stops bringing you joy, you are allowed to let it go.

So I want to ask you: Where did you experience joy this week? Even a flicker. Even something small and quiet. And is there something in your life right now that you’re holding onto even though the joy has left?

I’d genuinely love to hear from you. There are no wrong answers, and short, imperfect responses are more than welcome.

📩 Email me directly or record a voice message below — it might even make it onto the pod.

Listen, Rate & Review

🎧 Listen to Just Rest: Burnout Tips for Everyday Radicals wherever you get your podcasts: www.justrest.buzzsprout.com or watch on YouTube.

⭐ If this episode resonates, please take a moment to rate and review the podcast. It helps more tired, caring people find these conversations when they need them most.

Go Deeper with the Rest Rebel Collective

Want to sit with this conversation a little longer?

Paid subscribers to the Rest Rebel Collective on Substack receive After the Mic — a reflection and resource post released the day after each episode drops. It’s where we slow down, integrate what we heard, and learn how liberating rest can actually show up in daily life.

✨ Join for $7/month or $70/year

This episode really echoes something I often say – Rest isn’t a retreat from the world. It’s how we build the capacity to change it.

She works with individuals and organizations who are tired of running on empty.

For individuals

Nicole offers coaching for people who need real support with time management, building sustainable rest practices, or just an honest sounding board. Nicole is a lot like that good friend who will always tell you when you have spinach in your teeth — with kindness, and because she actually wants you to succeed.

For organizations

Nicole works with mission-driven teams and leaders who are losing their best people to exhaustion and burnout, struggling with unproductive conflict, or watching miscommunication quietly erode their culture. She helps them build the kind of environments where people can do their best work — and actually want to stay.

Community

Nicole is also the founder of the Rest Rebel Collective, a paid subscriber community on Substack where burned-out changemakers find community and practical tools, and the Calm Calendar Club, a planning and productivity offering for people like mothers in the Sandwich Generation who want put down some of the balls they have in the air.

Her work is grounded in one belief: Rest is not a reward. It is liberation. And it is how we stay true to our core purpose and mission.

Check out all the episodes of Just Rest