The theme of this episode is Love. Not the rom-com version of love, but the genuine deep connection that we all long for. And even though love is all around, it's easy to close our hearts to love, in fear of becoming vulnerable and getting hurt. So how do we open ourselves again, and how do we keep our hearts open? Tune into this episode to learn the five lessons on loving well and how we can keep our hearts and minds open to love.

Key bits from this episode:

• Love is always there. We just need to keep our hearts open so we can let it in.
• When learning how to love and let the love in, we need to learn how to love ourselves first.
• Many of us still believe that if we want to be happy, we need to weed out all the flaws, which is a never-ending quest. Instead, we need to find the balance between self-improvement and self-acceptance.
• Everyone is doing the best they can, at any given moment. See that innocence in yourself and others.

Links and Sources:

• Resilient Community Find lots of resources to support you and you'll join a crew of inspiring people who are building their resilience and joy while also helping to keep our Joy Lab podcast in existence!
• Joy Lab Program (step-by-step practices to help you build and maintain the elements of joy in your life)
• Go deeper: More pods on the Lessons of Loving Well:
• Joy Lab Podcast episode #21 (Love Yourself First)
• Joy Lab Podcast episode #22 (See the Innocence in Others)
• Joy Lab Podcast episode #23 (Be More Permeable)
• Joy Lab Podcast episode #24 (Listen Deeply)
• Joy Lab Podcast episode #25 (Create a House of Belonging)
• More from Stephen Levine

Full transcript and links mentioned available at: https://www.naturalmentalhealth.com/podcasts/joy-lab-podcast/episodes/2148133655