Live Happy Now

World Kindness Day is just about a month away, but you the 5th Annual Kindness campaign encourages you to start celebrating it early. This week, host Paula Felps talks with Dr. Michelle Robin and Bayleigh Petty of Small Changes Big Shifts, an organization dedicated to the whole-body approach to wellness and wellbeing. Their Kindness Campaign is a 31-day email series that begins on October 14, and this week they’re here to talk about their mission of kindness, what it can do for you, and how you can be part of it. In this episode, you’ll learn: The relationship between kindness and overall wellbeing. Why spreading kindness is more important than ever today. How to participate in the 5th Annual Kindness Campaign.

This week, we’re sharing an episode of Need a Lift?, a show that focuses on bringing people together during a tough time in our culture. Host Tim Shriver talks to wise guests who have transformed painful moments in their lives into purpose through their spiritual rituals and practices. Guests like bestselling novelist Min Jin Lee on why she creates complicated characters who hold the secret to our transformation, and Olympic athlete Michael Phelps and his wife Nicole discussing the importance of cultivating an inner life in competition, mental health and in their marriage. Need a Lift? is truly the antidote to the hatred and despair we’re all exhausted of hearing, giving us hope that change is possible. In this episode, The Office’s Rainn Wilson explains that we can quiet the world's chaos and deal with our collective sense of overwhelm by believing in something bigger than us. Find more episodes of Need a Lift? at https://link.chtbl.com/needalift?sid=livehappynow

Since the pandemic, there has been a 70% increase in stress-based illnesses. This week, host Paula Felps is joined by Dr. David Clarke, whose practice in internal medicine and gastroenterology led him to explore how stress and emotions create chronic pain. As president of the non-profit Psychophysiologic Disorders Association, Dave is dedicated to educating people about the stress-related, brain-generated medical conditions. He’s here to explain why we’re seeing more stress-related illnesses, how to identify them, and what we can do about it. In this episode, you’ll learn: What’s driving the rise in stress-based illness. Examples of the most common stress-based illness. Strategies for overcoming stress-based illnesses.

When award-winning journalist and bestselling child development author Wendy Lyons Sunshine adopted a difficult puppy, she found that traditional training methods didn’t work on her dog. So she began applying the evidence-based parenting practices she wrote about and found this new approach was life-changing for both her and her dog. In her latest book, Tender Paws: How Science-Based Parenting Can Transform Our Relationship with Dogs, Wendy offers therapeutic concepts designed to meet each dogs’ needs, and in this episode, she tells us why this approach is so effective. In this episode, you’ll learn: What attunement is and how it affects the dog/human relationship. How the essential HEARTS strategy works for both kids and dogs. Why adopting a parenting perspective with our pets can improve our relationship with them.

We are in the midst of a tumultuous election cycle, and that can take a toll on our sleep, our mental health, and our relationships. But the good news is it doesn’t have to be like that! This week, host Paula Felps talks with psychology instructor and resiliency expert Dr. Robyne Hanley-Dafoe, author of Stress Wisely: How to Be Well in an Unwell World. Dr. Robyne offers tips to help us navigate potentially volatile conversations, understand the stress that we’re feeling right now, and learn how to better navigate this unusual time. In this episode, you’ll learn: Why we tend to take political discussions personally. How to stay informed without becoming overwhelmed. Setting boundaries on political discussions at work and home.

Burnout and stress continue to create tremendous challenges at home and on the job, so this week, we’re looking at how we can reclaim our joy and energy. Join host Paula Felps as she talks with clinical psychologist Chris Germer who, along with researcher Dr. Kristin Neff, developed the world-renowned Mindful Self-compassion program. Their third co-authored book, Mindful Self-Compassion for Burnout, looks at how self-compassion can help overcome burnout and offers simple anti-burnout tools to de-stress, recharge, and develop your inner kindness. In this episode, you’ll learn: What self-compassion is and why it’s so important to practice. Why burnout is so prevalent these days — and what’s causing it. How self-compassion can help alleviate burnout.

Mindfulness is known for preventing depression and improving mental health, but how do you create a practice that works for you? This week, host Paula Felps is joined by Willem Kuyken, the Ritblat Professor of Mindfulness and Psychological Science at the University of Oxford in the UK, to answer that question. Willem’s most recent book, Mindfulness for Life, offers three keys to living well through mindfulness and explains how to develop and sustain a mindfulness practice that works for you. In this episode, you’ll learn: How mindfulness affects our psychological well-being. The effect that living a mindful life can have on your relationships. How to start a mindfulness practice that works for you.

Some days kindness seems in short supply, but this week host Paula Felps is joined by Kristina Joy Carlson, founder of the KINDd Method and managing director of global philanthropy at Carter Global. Kristina has turned her personal practice of outrageous kindness into an inspirational campaign that can be practiced by individuals and corporations alike. In this episode, she explains what it means to practice outrageous kindness and how it can change the world we live in. In this episode, you’ll learn: Why listening to people with different viewpoints fosters greater kindness. What the KINDd Method is and how to practice it. How to start looking for ways to make each moment better.

Election season is now officially underway and that means that many of us are already feeling election stress. That’s why Live Happy has partnered with licensed clinical psychologist and author Dr. Lauren Cook to offer a free four-week email course, Overcoming Election Stress. In this episode, host Paula Felps sits down with Lauren to talk about some of the symptoms of election stress and explain how this email course can help get you through the next couple of months.  In this episode, you’ll learn: What we mean by “election stress” and what’s causing it. Practices to help you manage anxiety throughout the election season. How Live Happy’s free email series, Overcoming Election Stress with Dr. Lauren Cook, can help.

If you’ve never thought of cows as intuitive healers, this episode just might change your mind. Ellie Laks is the founder of The Gentle Barn Foundation, a national organization that rescues and rehabilitates abused and discarded farm animals. She is the creator of cow hug therapy and, as she explains in her book by the same name, she has learned amazing lessons from these animals about life, death, and everything in between. She’s here today to share some of those lessons with us.  In this episode, you’ll learn: The origins of Cow Hug Therapy. How farm animals can aid in emotional healing. What we can learn from barnyard animals and why they’re such great teachers.