Live Happy Now

After a busy holiday season, we all could use a bit of stillness in our lives. This week, host Paula Felps is joined by Jeanine Thompson, a former clinical psychotherapist and Fortune 50 executive whose new book, 911 From Your Soul, is all about how to learn to listen for what you need and discover your greatest potential. Today, she’s here to talk about how important it is to learn to do nothing and listen to the lessons that are waiting for us in the stillness. And then she’ll teach us how to do that. In this episode, you’ll learn: What stillness is and how you can add it to your life. The five main benefits of creating stillness. How stillness can help you live more of your true potential.

It’s a brand-new year and we’re all thinking about creating new habits, so … why not make yours a fun one? This week’s guest is Mike Rucker, PhD, an esteemed organizational psychologist and author of the new book, The Fun Habit: How the Pursuit of Joy and Wonder Can Change Your Life. His research shows us how prioritizing fun can make us happier, more productive, and more energetic. In this episode, you’ll learn: The difference between happiness and fun. Why the pursuit of happiness may make us miserable. How to assess your daily activities and design your day for fun.

While many people are thinking about their New Year’s Resolutions, others are taking a different approach to the new year and setting an intention. To do that, choosing one word to focus on throughout the year is a helpful and effective practice, and this week’s guest is here to tell us how to do it and how it works. Matt Derrenbacher is a fifth-year rabbinical student at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati and has served as a chaplain candidate for the U.S. Air Force and a Jewish educator. He explains how using a single word can help us set an intention for the year and help us stay on track in the months to come.  In this episode, you’ll learn: Why choosing one word to focus on throughout the coming year can help guide your actions. Why many people find it more effective than setting a resolution. How to decide what your word should be—and how to remind yourself of it regularly.

With her bestselling book, Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, psychotherapist, author and podcast host Lori Gottlieb taught us more about how therapy can change our lives. Now, she has created a guided journal based on the feedback she received to that book, which is designed to walk users through 52 weekly sessions that will transform their lives. This week, she talks about how to use it to create positive change in the coming year. In this episode, you'll learn: How regular guided journaling can help work through challenges. Why small incremental changes are the building blocks of big transformations. How to use journaling to help make the new year happier and more fulfilling.

The sounds of the season are all around us, but have you thought about why holiday music makes us happy? This week, Paula Felps sits down with sonic strategist Steve Keller to find out how holiday music is tied to nostalgia and what happens in our brains when we listen to it.   In this episode, you'll learn: Why even melancholy holiday music can make us feel happier. What role dopamine plays in the memories involving music. How to use holiday music to boost your mood throughout this busy season.

Grief and loss are something all of us experience throughout our lives, but they can be more difficult to manage during the holidays. This week’s guest, Julia A. Nicholson, shows how reframing that loss can help us navigate it better. As an executive leadership expert who has made it her mission to help others transform the way they view and manage grief, Julia drew upon the immense losses of her past to create a new framework that she shares in her forthcoming book, Move Forward Stronger. In this episode, you’ll learn: How the holiday season may amplify feelings of loss — and how to manage those feelings. Why the traditional stages of grief often don’t apply. How to change our neural pathways to create a more positive approach to grief — while still honoring our loss.

Navigating difficult emotions are challenging for all of us, but that’s especially true for children. This week’s guest, Nadine Levitt, has turned even our most complicated emotions into a magical adventure. The author, educator, music artist, lawyer, and parent wanted to change the way children learn about their emotions, so she created Emotion Wonderland: a magical place where all our emotions coexist and we get to meet them, befriend them, and better understand them. In this episode, you'll learn: How Nadine created the Emotion Wonderland — and why it was so important to her. The many different tools children can use to learn to express their feelings. How approaching our emotions differently can change the way we process our feelings.

December 1 marks Women Supporting Women Day, and this week, author, speaker and coach Caroline Miller is here to talk about why it’s so important for women to start looking out for one another. Her concern about women’s failure to support one another led her to write the ebook, #IHaveYourBack, which is about creating mastermind success groups for women. This week, she shares what she’s learned about why women don’t support one another, explains what it’s doing to our culture, and then tells us what we can do about it. In this episode, you'll learn: Why women consciously and subconsciously fail to support each other’s success. The importance of having a group of women that support you. How to show support for the women in your life.

As the holiday season begins, getting caught up in the frenzy of buying gifts is easy. But this year, decluttering expert Tracy McCubbin is asking us to take a step back and become more intentional with our shopping. In this episode, she explains how we can approach the holidays differently to create more joy, focus on giving ourselves rather than giving gifts, and shift the focus from shopping to sharing the spirit of the season.  In this episode, you'll learn: How to be more mindful as you shop for holiday gifts. Why experiences can be more meaningful than “stuff.” What to keep in mind as you begin shopping.

When you hear Snoop Dogg’s name, the first thing that comes to mind probably isn’t social emotional learning. But with his latest venture, Doggyland, Snoop has teamed up with producer Claude Brooks and recording artist October London to create a very special learning project. On this episode, Claude sits down with host Paula Felps to explain how Doggyland was created, what they want to accomplish with their songs and how they’re using music to change the way children view themselves — and the world around them. Let’s take a listen. In this episode, you’ll learn: How they use music as a learning tool. Why music and rhyme is a great way for children to learn acceptance of themselves and others. How they are working to make sure this message is available to everyone.