Zoë Bishop tells Alex Noel why she started the movement, ‘Blessed Before You’re Dressed’
Zoë Bishop is on a mission to encourage people and inspire gratitude. This is no pious exercise; it’s an integral part of who she is. In fact, her cheerful personality even earned her a nickname at school: “When I was 15, everyone used to call me Little Miss Sunshine”, she says. But it goes further than that, as she recognises it as a spiritual gift from God for the benefit others: “God has given me this gift to lift people up and support them…whether that’s mothers, retired people or experienced professionals.”
Blessed Before You’re Dressed (BBYD) is one outcome – a ‘gratitude mantra’ that Zoë has developed to bring more thankfulness into daily life. It’s all about “feeling grateful as soon as you wake up”, she says. Through it, Zoë aims to solve an all-too-prevalent problem; negative thinking. Statistics show that up to 80 per cent of our thoughts are negative. Expressing gratitude has the power to improve this by stimulating the release of dopamine, the ‘feel-good’ neurotransmitter responsible for enhancing feelings of joy and contentment. And the more gratitude we express, the happier our outlook becomes; it literally creates a positive feedback loop in our brains. It also promotes neuroplasticity, which means we can change the way we think. Through daily practices Zoë has made gratitude a core part of her life, and now extols its benefits.
BBYD is testament, also, to how God has opened doors for her ever since she decided to give freelancing a try in 2019. Inspired by friends who had done it successfully, she wasn’t fazed at all by stepping into something unfamiliar. In fact, running her own business offered much-needed flexibility, and coincided with turning 40 which brought a new perspective on life. It also allowed her to invest in what mattered most to her.
Exploring her passion
With a background in marketing, Zoë initially launched Torchlight Marketing to provide a range of services. However, as she has developed her offering over the last few years in line with what she enjoys most, she has increasingly found her niche: “What I really love is the writing”, she says. She began by focusing on copy and content writing: “At that point [I also] found a really good business coach and mentor”, she shares. Her mentor, Kathryn, introduced her to journalling and some “amazing journal prompts”. These prompts helped Zoë to “think about things differently” while she journalled. As their coaching sessions looked at improving boundaries, mindset and tackling limiting beliefs, Zoë discovered that this type of wellbeing approach made sense for her: “I was just like, ‘This is so me.’”
Zoë attended some ‘positivity courses’ run by her future associate, Jo, and soon realised that writing for the wellbeing industry held the most appeal. It was a logical pivot given her passion for health and fitness (she works out every day), and her love of sports too. She had previously worked for a Premiership football club, and a rugby team, having completed her MA in sport management after her degree in marketing and communications. It even touched on the experience gained in her most recent role for charity Coeliac UK. She felt: “all these things were coming together”.
The more she pursued wellbeing, the more Zoë found a sense of calling. She realised that beyond writing she wanted to “support people and encourage them”. Working with her mentor, they figured out how she could turn this calling into a full-time business.
Encouraging others
Zoë soon coined the title ‘professional encourager’ to encapsulate her new vocation. Then she created the ‘Torchlight encourager programme’, an eight-part course that can be adapted for any setting and any number of people. It’s based on the themes that are “really integral” to Zoë’s life: “consistency, intentionality, gratitude, self-talk, loving yourself, time and habits, reflecting and celebrating. Those are the principles that I try and live my whole life by.”
Gratitude has become especially important. Through networking with others in the same field, opportunities to share her approach have opened up. From being appointed as a gratitude ambassador, to being invited to write an essay for the Gratitude Journey Volume 3 – a book compiled by Chris Palmore (known as the Gratitude Junkie). She decided: “I’m gonna forget everything I know and just write from the heart.” It worked. As she described how gratitude made her feel, one particular phrase she had written, “blessed before I’m dressed” really stood out to Chris. She also noticed that the youngest of her two daughters kept repeating it. Recognising its potential, the idea for Blessed Before You’re Dressed was born. It now fits neatly under her business, renamed Torchlight Wellbeing: “Everything that I do is somehow related to gratitude, or it’s related to wellbeing”, she explains.
At the heart of BBYD is the daily practice of journalling aided by the journal prompts she embraced when she first went freelance. It enables people to turn negative experiences into gratitude: “It’s not about this toxic positivity of ‘everything’s rosy and everything’s great’. It’s not. But it’s being thankful for things and giving thanks in every circumstance”, she says, citing Ephesians 5:20. Reframing disappointment has been key in running her own business: “That’s another great thing that gratitude has taught me [and] where faith comes in.” So, if something doesn’t work out as hoped, she believes: “You will have always learned something.”
Gratitude literally creates a positive feedback loop in our brains
As she says on her website: “I’m basically on a mission to encourage as many of you as possible to be thankful as soon as you wake up!” This desire began to be fulfilled when her associate Jo invited her in June 2023 to take over her daily LinkedIn post, the positivity pause: “God’s timing was just amazing”, Zoë says. Since then, her emphasis on encouraging gratitude and feeling blessed before you’re dressed means that her daily post on LinkedIn goes out every morning at 7am: “It just makes your brain think, ‘OK, I’ve got this.’”
Zoë was also invited to do a regular feature on Yowah Radio, a ‘wellbeing and happiness’ station. This soon translated into another opportunity at the station: “I now have a show called ‘Feel-Good Friday’.” Zoë’s on the air from 11am to 1pm every Friday and her upbeat show naturally includes a BBYD slot, and other segments to encourage listeners to celebrate their ‘wins’, such as getting out for a run, submitting a project on time or anything else that feels like an achievement: “it could be big or small”, she says. Although it’s a secular station she plays music by Christian artists like Rend Collective, Guvna B and Natalie Lane, so that their songs: “will touch those people who need to hear [them]”.
Zoë has launched a range of BBYD merchandise too, available to buy on Etsy. Every colourful product inspires gratitude and includes thank you cards, notepads, journals and journal prompts: “It’s the most amazing thing when you see someone using your card, or it’s up on their fridge…that’s why I do it, because it’s making an impact in someone’s life.”
Why not try it yourself? For some morning gratitude Zoë suggests: “As soon as you wake up, think of one thing you’re grateful for – whether it’s a new day, cosy slippers by your bed or the promise of a cup of tea.”
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