If you think that conflict is always bad for your relationship, think again. This episode’s guests are CrisMarie Campbell and Susan Clarke, authors of the book, “The Beauty of Conflict for Couples.” As therapists, they’ve helped hundreds of couples reconcile their differences and get their relationships back on track—but they say it’s not about romance. They teach couples that the things we argue about often have the potential to pave the way to greater intimacy…if we learn how to use it properly.
In this podcast, you’ll learn:
Tiffany Shlain founded Character Day in 2013 as a way to recognize and celebrate the importance of character strengths. This year, she’s combining the celebration of Character Day on September 27-28 with the release of her new book, 24/6: The Power of Unplugging One Day a Week. For Character Day, she is encouraging everyone to take the day off from their screens, following the Jewish tradition of Shabbat and using it to find more time, connection and well-being.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
We all have something we’d like to improve about ourselves, and this is the month to do it! September is Self-Improvement Month and that inspired Live Happy Now host Paula Felps and Live Happy editor Chris Libby to dig into the Live Happy Now archives and find their seven favorite podcasts for improving your life. Their seven tips are:
We’ve all heard that when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. But today’s guest actually wrote the book on how to make that lemonade.
Zack Friedman is the CEO and founder of Make Lemonade, a personal finance company that empowers individuals to live a better financial life. His new book, The Lemonade Life: How to Fuel Success, Create Happiness and Conquer Anything, looks at the five internal switches that we can learn to flip to find our purpose, maximize our potential, and—you got it—be happier.
He talks with us about those switches, how we can flip them and what it will do for us.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
You’ve heard the old saying, “Kill them with kindness” – but what if the opposite was true? Kelli Harding, MD, MPH, is assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and author of the new book, The Rabbit Effect: Live Longer, Happier and Healthier with the Groundbreaking Science of Kindness. Her book provides fascinating evidence of how kindness, compassion and human connection affect the body in profound ways—and how they can improve both our physical and mental health.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
While we don’t think much about them, our brainwaves are always busy—and they play a huge role in our well-being. When brainwaves get out of balance, it affects our sleep, our health and our relationships. Dr. Patrick Porter joins us this week to talk about how brainwaves influence our happiness and tells us some of the ways we can help keep them balanced.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
It’s a brand-new season of Live Happy Now, and what better way to kick it off than to sit down with Live Happy CEO Deborah Heisz and talk about what’s new in the world of positive psychology? Deborah recently returned from the International Positive Psychology Association’s Sixth World Congress in Australia. In this episode, she talks with host Paula Felps about how positive psychology is changing – and how the way the world embraces it is changing, too.
If you’re a regular listener of Live Happy Now, you already know that we’re big fans of nature. While we talk a lot about the value of getting out in nature, this week’s guest is all about bringing nature inside.
Summer Rayne Oakes is an environmental scientist and sustainability expert who focuses on health and wellness. Her YouTube channel and website are is designed to help people who live in the city become more attuned to nature, and her new book, How to Make Your Plant Love You, looks at how to bring nature inside for greater happiness and well-being. This week, Summer talks about what houseplants do for our well-being and how we can live in nature…even when we’re indoors.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
If you’re an introvert, you know just how terrifying it can be to do things like talk to strangers, throw a dinner party or—gulp—public speaking. For journalist Jessica Pan, overcoming life as a shy introvert meant going to extremes and living as an extrovert for an entire year.
With the help of “extrovert mentors,” Jessica tackled a daunting to-do list and then chronicled it in the hilarious but heartfelt new book, Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want to Come: One Introvert’s Year of Saying Yes. In this episode, she joins Live Happy Now host Paula Felps to talk about what made her want to overcome her introverted ways and how it has changed her life.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
You’ve heard the phrase, “You’re not getting older, you’re getting better”—but how often do you believe that? After hearing Louise Aronson, M.D., you might realize that the old adage is true.
As a geriatrician, writer and professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, Louise gives us a completely new perspective on aging with her new book, Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life. In it, she describes how we can not only change our attitudes toward aging in others, but begin to anticipate and reframe the final decades of our lives.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
We all have people in our lives that we love and appreciate, but have you ever thought about how good it is for you to show appreciation for others?
A new study published in the Journal of Happiness Studies shows that learning how to show appreciation for others can help you feel less stressed and can even reduce symptoms of depression. Live Happy editor Chris Libby joins us for this podcast to talk about why appreciation is so beneficial—and how you can get more of it in your life.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
Most of us focus on pursuing things we’re good at, but what if you like doing something … and discover you’re really bad at it?
Karen Rinaldi, publisher at Harper Wave—a book imprint she founded in 2012—finds happiness in being able to surf, even though she does it poorly. Learning to accept her “suckitude” on the surfboard, she says, has helped her be more forgiving of herself in other areas of her life. In her new book, (It’s Great to) Suck at Something, she looks at the gifts she’s gained from embracing imperfection and letting go of the need to succeed at everything. She talks to us about how this has helped her find joy in the pursuit of something rather than in reaching an end goal—and how you can, too.
In this episode, you learn:
All of us go through difficult times in life, but what do you do when you find yourself in a funk that you can’t get out of? That’s what Janeane Bernstein, Ed.D., wanted to find out after the death of her best friend from childhood. That tragic event launched a mission to discover how others have overcome their grief and led to creating her radio show, “Get the Funk Out.” She now has a book by the same name and explains why grief can be a springboard to happiness.
In this episode, you learn:
Why the worst thing that happens in your life can become the best thing in your life.
How to use grief to reconnect with your own feelings.
Why it’s important to use your creativity to overcome grief.
Every other year, the International Positive Psychology Association hosts a global gathering of leading researchers and practitioners to share the latest research and best practices in positive psychology. The 6th World Congress of IPPA will be in Melbourne, Australia, July 18-21, 2019, and it offers a tremendous selection of topics on areas including: work and organizations, positive health and wellness, positive clinical psychology and more.
For this episode, current IPPA president and chair of the 6th World Congress Lea Waters, Ph.D., talks about what to expect from this exciting global event.
What do you do if you’ve spent your life building the career of your dreams…but realize one day that you’ve forgotten to build the life of your dreams? If you’re Sheri Salata, you leave your high-profile position as co-president of Harpo Studios and OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network and, along with your BFF, and you start reinventing every area of your personal life.
In her book, The Beautiful No and Other Tales of Trial, Transcendence and Transformation, Sheri explains how she found the courage to leave behind the career she had carefully built and began creating the life of her dreams.
Three things you’ll learn in this podcast: