BY ISAIAH FRIZZELL
Third Annual Sun Valley Joy Summit
It all starts within. We can’t fix the world unless we can fix our own lives.
Hillary Anderson of the Joy Summit knows this well. The simplest things can quickly change the course of a life and inspire an outpouring of love and well-being that draws those who seek to generate facility and harmony in what seems to be a difficult world.
“I walked into a store in Ketchum, maybe 30 years ago, and I loved the store. You know, it had things I liked but it just didn’t draw me. So I walked in on another day—it was right next to the old post office in Ketchum—and I was, like, ‘Oh my gosh!’ The feeling in the store spoke to me… something was just incredible. I said to the owner, ‘I don’t know what changed, but this place is amazing!’ She told me she had hired a feng shui practitioner. I was transformed from that moment.” Anderson found a calling. This is how it happens. You just feel it.
Practical Arrangement
Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese practice of which there are many schools of focus that involve arranging your surroundings such that they harmonize with the movement and attention of humans to create a sense of well-being. It’s all about balance.
So you’ve suddenly decided to rearrange your living room? Your bedroom? Something was missing, right? Something needed a change. You felt the need for change. Maybe you visited a restaurant or store that just felt strange or even off-putting. There are notorious spots in every city where a business, no matter how well loved or funded, simply won’t work. As the wisdom goes, ‘location is everything.’ This is the macro of feng shui while the internal arrangement of the elements, in the space and in the mind, are the micro of what at least one school of feng shui addresses—the physical arrangement and management that takes an eye and some attention to work out.
Hillary Anderson had an awakening. These moments are potent and when they happen you know it. Anderson devoured every feng shui book she could find and eventually went to BTB Feng Shui School in New York, while living in the Valley. Anderson graduated as a feng shui master practitioner in 2015. “This is different than a master of feng shui. I think that would take, you know, maybe another 30 years.” Anderson laughs, a conversation with living energy takes time.
Finding Joy
The Sun Valley Joy Summit (SVJS) arrives at the newly remodeled American Legion Hall in Ketchum June 11–15, 2025. Fascia instructor Judy Gantz, along with Anderson, fund this beautiful range of speakers, practitioners, music and food, which is in its third year.
“An in-person joyful experience,” as stated in their website, the SVJS seeks to break the spell of fractious confusion and worry, to foster an ember of growing joy that perpetuates itself by its very existence to emanate and embrace expressive peace and joyful harmony. This is an open moment for intentional awareness and balanced love.
Anderson is eloquent, passionate and funny, with a focus on bringing awareness and joy in every way possible. The guests at this year’s summit are many strong names: Cathia Caccia, Shawn Phillips, Clay By Shay, Gary Quin, Ambujam Rose, to mention a few. Each day of the SVJS is well arranged from morning to evening with time in between for socializing or further practice.
On the full moon, Wednesday, June 11, there will be a vegan Mexican dinner by Jorge Castro and Rasberrys. Afterward, there will be vegan marshmallows for s’mores enjoyed around the campfire with light music to celebrate the phase and the day’s workings.
Movement and Bliss
The SVJS is a moment for fresh movement inside and out—the internal aligned with the external. We know the map is not the territory—you remember and grow—and so you must travel. Here you have the opportunity to learn and synchronize with others who have spent time discovering unique nuances of joy and movement to align with empathetic appreciation. Anderson has fostered a resplendent, active community with dance, food, meditation, music and maybe, most importantly, the thought of emanating, through arrangement or your own practice, the generation of peace and harmony.
Learned movement is like reading a book with your body; someone spends the time to discover and reveal moments, you link with them in movement and meditation to embody a cultivation of practice. These become beneficial to harmony within yourself and eventually with others. This is how we power the community. The harmony with self extends to harmony with others and we embolden ourselves through energetic balance, peace and awareness. Being here in the moment while also honoring the past and potential future, the Joy Summit is a beautiful moment, each year, to connect, re-connect or find again your place in that fresh light that only you can beam.
Let’s take a walk through Anderson’s garden.
The Joy Summit takes place:
Wednesday, June 11 – Sunday, June 15
Tickets:
There are options for single classes, entire days or the full spectrum.
https://sunvalleyjoysummit.com/registra tion/
Email: hillary@lovinglifeabundantly.com
Call: (208) 726-5524
