Live Happy Now

Intentional Holiday Spending for Greater Joy with Bright Dickson

The holiday shopping season is here, and for many people, that creates stress and anxiety. This week, host Paula Felps sits down with Bright Dickson, co-host of the Money and Mindset with Bright and Brian podcast, to talk about how we can change our approach to holiday spending for less stress and more joy.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
Some of the things to consider before you start buying presents this year.
Why setting an intention about how you want to feel can help in your gift-buying decisions.
The power of choosing experiences over gifts.

Finding Strength in Your Struggles with Dr. Robyne Hanley-Dafoe and Deborah Heisz

Resiliency plays a crucial role in how we recover from setbacks, solve problems, and navigate our personal and professional relationships. This week, we’re sharing an episode of our sister podcast, Built to Win, from the leadership team at Neora. Live Happy CEO Deborah Heisz, who also is co-CEO at Neora, sits down with Dr. Robyne Hanley-Dafoe — an author, speaker, and educator who specializes in workplace well-being — to tell us how to cultivate everyday resiliency and what it can do for us.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
Robyne’s inspiring personal story that led her to discover resiliency.
Practices we can use to become more resilient.
The important role hope plays in weathering life’s storms.

Coping with Election Outcomes With Dr. Lauren Cook

By now, most people have a good idea of what outcomes they want from this year’s presidential election. But what happens if it doesn’t turn out as you had hoped? This week, host Paula Felps sits down with Dr. Lauren Cook, who created Live Happy’s Overcoming Election Stress email series. She’s here to offer tips on self-care this election day and how we can use the outcome to build resilience and lasting connections.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
What you can do on Election Day to minimize anxiety.
How to respect the emotions of others if your candidate wins.
Signs that you might need help managing your emotions about the outcome.

Why Halloween Makes Us Happy with Casey Johnson and Paula Felps

This week, we’re celebrating Halloween, but did you know that in addition to being fun, Halloween is good for you? In this episode, Live Happy’s Casey Johnson sits down with host Paula Felps to talk about why participating in Halloween traditions has a positive effect on our well-being and how this holiday offers a playful way to approach personal development.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
Why we need Halloween — especially now!
How to use Halloween-themed affirmations to improve your self-talk.
How to participate in Live Happy’s #HalloweenHappyActs.

Reclaiming our Wild Side With Vanessa Chakour

We intrinsically know that animals and nature have a lot to teach us, but this episode’s guest takes that education to a whole new level. Vanessa Chakour is an author, naturalist, and former pro boxer whose new book, Earthly Bodies: Embracing Animal Nature dives into the parallels between our human struggles and the experiences of our wilder neighbors. Looking at 23 wild animals, from wolves to sea lions, Vanessa explores how developing empathy for wild animals can help with our own understanding of humanity and see just how interconnected we are with the planet.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
What rewilding is and why it’s so valuable to the human experience.
How discovering empathy for wild animals can help us better understand our humanity.
What we can learn from spending time in the natural world and what that will do for us.

Navigating Body Image in the Age of Social Media With Dr. Charlotte Markey

Body image is a struggle for many people, but for tweens and teens in the era of influencers and social media, it has become even more challenging. This week, host Paula Felps sits down with Dr. Charlotte Markey, a best-selling author, professor of psychology, and chair of the Health Sciences Department at Rutgers University. Charlotte has devoted much of her career to helping adolescents sort out the complex issue of body image, and with her new book, Adultish: The Body Image Book for Life, she brings her empathetic sensibilities to a slightly older demographic. Listen as she explains the important role adults play in helping them learn to take care of their mental and physical health while fostering greater self-acceptance.  
In this episode, you’ll learn:
How the pandemic and social media have affected body image for young people.
The importance of media literacy to improve body image and how to cultivate it.
How to curate a social media feed to support body image and positivity.

Creating Connections That Matter With Dr. Adam Dorsay

We live in a world where we’re connected to our devices 24/7, but how connected are we to what really matters? This week, host Paula Felps talks with Dr. Adam Dorsay, a licensed psychologist, executive coach, and host of the award-winning podcast SuperPsyched. In his new book by the same name, Adam explores four types of essential connections that we all need but might not be getting in our busy, distracted lives. Join us as he explains why each type of connection is so important and, even better, tells us how we can create each one in our own lives.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
Why connections are essential to our well-being.
What the four types of connections are — and which one is most important.
How to start building authentic connections.

Join the Kindness Campaign With Dr. Michelle Robin and Bayleigh Petty

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.

Special episode: Rainn Wilson Finds Unity in Spirituality, from Need a Lift?

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

Ease Your Stress for Better Health With Dr. David Clarke

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.