The renowned play researcher, Dr. Brian Sutton-Smith, said that the "The opposite of play is not work, the opposite of play is depression." There's a lot of truth to that. In this episode, we (Dr. Henry Emmons and Dr. Aimee Prasek) explore how play and having fun is woven into our human nature and why it's so essential for our mental health. We'll even touch on some surprising facts about how old rats can grow more brain cells than younger rats (it applies to humans too!) and why even retirees, who might experience every day as a holiday, report increased happiness on federal holidays. We hope you come away from this episode with more motivation to rest and play. 

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts!

Sources and Notes:

• Joy Lab Program: Take the next leap in your wellbeing journey with step-by-step practices to help you build and maintain the elements of joy in your life.
• Series on authenticity from our Joy Lab podcast:
• Unmasking Your True Self: Exploring Authenticity and Awe [ep. 216]
• Embrace Your True Self: Accepted, Connected, & In The Game [ep. 217]
• The Road Most Travelled: Awakening Through Suffering [ep. 218] 
• Follow Your Bliss: Awakening to Joy [ep. 219]
• The Still Small Voice: Awakening with soulfulness [ep. 220]
• More on Dr. Brian Sutton Smith from the National Institute for Play.
• Merz, J. & Osberg, L. (2006). Keeping in touch: A benefit of public holidays. Access here.
• Rosso, L. & Wagner, R. (2021). Causal Effect of Public Holidays on Economic Growth. Access here. 

View full transcript here.  

Please remember that this content is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide medical advice and is not a replacement for advice and treatment from a medical professional. Please consult your doctor or other qualified health professional before beginning any diet change, supplement, or lifestyle program.

Please see our terms for more information.

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call the NAMI HelpLine: 1-800-950-6264 available Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. – 10 p.m., ET. OR text "HelpLine" to 62640 or email NAMI at [email protected]. Visit NAMI for more. You can also call or text SAMHSA at 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.

Join us (Dr. Henry Emmons and Dr. Aimee Prasek) as we wrap up our Month of Awe by exploring the concept of the 'Still, Small Voice' and its role in authenticity and soulfulness. We'll talk about the importance of turning inward, listening to our inner voice, and forming a relationship with our wisest self. Not sure what to listen for? Thankfully, even though our inner voice is unique to us, there are some universal characteristics to look out for. We'll get into those specifics so you can listen in with more confidence and take action in ways that nourish you and those around you. 

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts! 

Sources and Notes:

• Joy Lab Program: Take the next leap in your wellbeing journey with step-by-step practices to help you build and maintain the elements of joy in your life.
• Related Joy Lab Episodes:
• Unmasking Your True Self: Exploring Authenticity and Awe [ep. 216]
• Embrace Your True Self: Accepted, Connected, & In The Game [ep. 217]
• The Road Most Travelled: Awakening Through Suffering [ep. 218] 
• Follow Your Bliss: Awakening to Joy [ep. 219]
• Mary Oliver (website for her work)
• Parker Palmer and the Center for Courage and Renewal

Full transcript here.

Please remember that this content is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide medical advice and is not a replacement for advice and treatment from a medical professional. Please consult your doctor or other qualified health professional before beginning any diet change, supplement, or lifestyle program.

Please see our terms for more information.

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call the NAMI HelpLine: 1-800-950-6264 available Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. – 10 p.m., ET. OR text "HelpLine" to 62640 or email NAMI at [email protected]. Visit NAMI for more. You can also call or text SAMHSA at 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.

Join us (Dr. Henry Emmons and Dr. Aimee Prasek) as we dig into this idea of 'Following Your Bliss' as a strategy to tap into authenticity and joy, especially by focusing on the small, everyday experiences that spark awe and vitality. We'll draw inspiration from the ideas of Joseph Campbell; we'll bring "joy" back down to the everyday practices we do here at Joy Lab; and we'll also bash the myth that growth has to be full of hardships, monsters, blood, sweat, and tears. And if all of this talk has you thinking that this journey to true self is a selfish pursuit, we hope you come away from this conversation with more confidence that embracing your true self is one of the most impactful gifts you can offer the world. 

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts!

Sources & Notes:

• Joy Lab Program: Take the next leap in your wellbeing journey with step-by-step practices to help you build and maintain the elements of joy in your life.
• Related Joy Lab Episodes:
• Unmasking Your True Self: Exploring Authenticity and Awe [ep. 216]
• Embrace Your True Self: Accepted, Connected, & In The Game [ep. 217]
• The Road Most Travelled: Awakening Through Suffering [ep. 218] 
• The Power of Myth (with Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers)

 Full transcript here.

Please remember that this content is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide medical advice and is not a replacement for advice and treatment from a medical professional. Please consult your doctor or other qualified health professional before beginning any diet change, supplement, or lifestyle program.

Please see our terms for more information.

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call the NAMI HelpLine: 1-800-950-6264 available Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. – 10 p.m., ET. OR text "HelpLine" to 62640 or email NAMI at [email protected]. Visit NAMI for more. You can also call or text SAMHSA at 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.

Join us (Dr. Henry Emmons and Dr. Aimee Prasek) as we discuss strategies for awakening through suffering to foster authentic joy. We'll emphasize the challenges of becoming one's true self, acknowledging that life frequently presents opportunities for awakening. We'll also dig into the concept of post-traumatic growth and the importance of awareness, stillness, and openness in navigating life's hardships.

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts!

Sources and Notes:

• Joy Lab Program: Take the next leap in your wellbeing journey with step-by-step practices to help you build and maintain the elements of joy in your life.
• Portia Nelson: There's a Hole in My Sidewalk (book)
• Tedeschi, R. G., Park, C. L., & Calhoun, L. G. (Eds.). (1998). Posttraumatic growth: Positive changes in the aftermath of crisis.Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.
• Related Joy Lab Episodes:
• Unmasking Your True Self: Exploring Authenticity and Awe [ep. 216]
• Embrace Your True Self: Accepted, Connected, & In The Game [ep. 217]
• Learning to Love Well: Be More Permeable [ep. 23]

Full transcript here.

Please remember that this content is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide medical advice and is not a replacement for advice and treatment from a medical professional. Please consult your doctor or other qualified health professional before beginning any diet change, supplement, or lifestyle program.

Please see our terms for more information.

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call the NAMI HelpLine: 1-800-950-6264 available Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. – 10 p.m., ET. OR text "HelpLine" to 62640 or email NAMI at [email protected]. Visit NAMI for more. You can also call or text SAMHSA at 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.

Join us (Dr. Henry Emmons and Dr. Aimee Prasek) for a conversation about authenticity and the journey of becoming one's true self. We'll first explore how to let go of external masks that keep our true self hidden. How can we do that? Mainly through self-acceptance. We'll then bust the myth that authenticity is an individual sport. The truth is that our authenticity is entangled with everyone and everything around us-- which is a good thing. When we start to work within this space of support, then our life gets bigger and easier. We can go beyond our small self and work in a bigger, more connected space. And on a sports note... we'll get deep into a "basketball is life" analogy that Aimee is super into. Whether you like sports or not, we hope you resonate with the message that we can step out of a defensive way of living and into a more empowered, authentic life.

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts!

Sources & Notes:

• Joy Lab Program: Take the next leap in your wellbeing journey with step-by-step practices to help you build and maintain the elements of joy in your life.
• Related Joy Lab Episodes:
• No Need to Hurry, No Need to Sparkle, No Need to Be Anybody But Yourself [ep. 160]
• Accept Yourself Just As You Are & Then You Can Change [ep. 150]
• How to Change: External vs Internal Motivators [ep. 145]
• Ross Gay's website (his book "Inciting Joy" is fantastic)

Full transcript here

Please remember that this content is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide medical advice and is not a replacement for advice and treatment from a medical professional. Please consult your doctor or other qualified health professional before beginning any diet change, supplement, or lifestyle program.

Please see our terms for more information.

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call the NAMI HelpLine: 1-800-950-6264 available Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. – 10 p.m., ET. OR text "HelpLine" to 62640 or email NAMI at [email protected]. Visit NAMI for more. You can also call or text SAMHSA at 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.

Join us (Dr. Henry Emmons and Dr. Aimee Prasek) for a conversation about awe and authenticity. This is also the beginning of a month-long focus here at the podcast on how to uncover your authentic self. In this first episode, we'll highlight three big obstacles to authenticity. The first is the creation and impacts of a 'false self,' often developed during adolescence and driven by the need to satisfy external pressures. The second is an externally-focused search for the self that if we don't course-correct, always results in an exhausting and endless external search for the self. The last obstacle is that we tend to make this search for our true self into a big, complicated, spiritual pursuit of enlightenment. Instead, we see living authentically as a continuous, ordinary process, integral to achieving joy and contentment. Be sure to listen in for next episode as we dive deeper into authenticity.

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts!

Sources and Notes:

• Joy Lab Program: Take the next leap in your wellbeing journey with step-by-step practices to help you build and maintain the elements of joy in your life.
• Healing and the Mind (Bill Moyers) 
• The philosopher Aimee was trying to remember... Ludwig Wittgenstein and his work Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

Full transcript here. 

Please remember that this content is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide medical advice and is not a replacement for advice and treatment from a medical professional. Please consult your doctor or other qualified health professional before beginning any diet change, supplement, or lifestyle program.

Please see our terms for more information.

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call the NAMI HelpLine: 1-800-950-6264 available Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. – 10 p.m., ET. OR text "HelpLine" to 62640 or email NAMI at [email protected]. Visit NAMI for more. You can also call or text SAMHSA at 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.

Join Dr. Henry Emmons and Dr. Aimee Prasek for a conversation about our motivations for curiosity. We'll start with Albert Einstein's idea that mystery is central to true art and science, and the importance of remaining curious and open to the unknown... which, yes, is easier said than done. To make things a bit easier here, we can engage in a little check in strategy by asking ourselves, "Am I curious to learn or confirm?" When our curiosity is driven by learning rather than a need for confirming, we can see big benefits for our wellbeing and brain health. This episode also sets the stage for our focus next month on the Element of Awe. We hope you'll come away with some inspiration to embrace the (healthy!) discomfort that true curiosity requires and to integrate a sense of wonder into your daily life.

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts!

Sources and Notes:

• Joy Lab Program: Take the next leap in your wellbeing journey with step-by-step practices to help you build and maintain the elements of joy in your life.
• Related Joy Lab Episodes:
• How uncertainty & anticipatory anxiety can keep you stressed out & stuck [ep. 212]
• Worrier? You're Not Alone. Here's Why We Worry... [ep. 213]
• Fast-Acting Strategies to Combat Worry and Anxiety [ep. 214]

Full transcript here.

Please remember that this content is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide medical advice and is not a replacement for advice and treatment from a medical professional. Please consult your doctor or other qualified health professional before beginning any diet change, supplement, or lifestyle program.

Please see our terms for more information.

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call the NAMI HelpLine: 1-800-950-6264 available Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. – 10 p.m., ET. OR text "HelpLine" to 62640 or email NAMI at [email protected]. Visit NAMI for more. You can also call or text SAMHSA at 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.

Join Dr. Henry Emmons and Dr. Aimee Prasek and identify four fast-acting strategies to end worry and anxiety spirals. They'll discuss the mammalian diver's reflex, engaging in physical activities, shocking the senses with intense flavors, and using aromatherapy. If you haven't already, follow this episode up with the previous episode to learn more about "just enough" worrying and strategies to reduce worrying overall. 

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts! 

Sources and Notes:

• Joy Lab Program: Take the next leap in your wellbeing journey with step-by-step practices to help you build and maintain the elements of joy in your life.
• Related Joy Lab Episodes:
• How uncertainty & anticipatory anxiety can keep you stressed out & stuck [ep. 212]
• Worrier? You're Not Alone. Here's Why We Worry... [ep. 213]
• Godek, D, & Freeman, A. M. Physiology, Diving Reflex. (2022). StatPearls. Access here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK538245/
• Jungmann, M., et al. (2018). Effects of Cold Stimulation on Cardiac-Vagal Activation in Healthy Participants: Randomized Controlled Trial. JMIR formative research, 2(2), e10257. https://doi.org/10.2196/10257

Full transcript here.

Please remember that this content is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide medical advice and is not a replacement for advice and treatment from a medical professional. Please consult your doctor or other qualified health professional before beginning any diet change, supplement, or lifestyle program.

Please see our terms for more information.

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call the NAMI HelpLine: 1-800-950-6264 available Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. – 10 p.m., ET. OR text "HelpLine" to 62640 or email NAMI at [email protected]. Visit NAMI for more. You can also call or text SAMHSA at 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.

Are you a world-class worrier? If so, it's not a curse or a permanent state... In this episode, we explore the reasons behind worrying, from evolutionary survival mechanisms to personal past experiences and modeling from adults. We'll dig into the importance of recognizing your own worry patterns and strategies to help reduce how often you worry and how big those worries get. And then next episode, we'll share quick tactics to interrupt a worry cycle when it revs up. 

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts!

Sources and Notes:

• Joy Lab Program: Take the next leap in your wellbeing journey with step-by-step practices to help you build and maintain the elements of joy in your life.
• Related Joy Lab Podcast episodes:
  • Rumination: What It Is & How to Break Free From It (ep. 205)
  • How Uncertainty & Anticipatory Anxiety Can Keep You Stressed Out & Stuck (ep. 212)
  • Imposter Syndrome is a Myth (ep. 175)
  • What Imposter Syndrome Really Is (ep. 176)

Full transcripts here.

Please remember that this content is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide medical advice and is not a replacement for advice and treatment from a medical professional. Please consult your doctor or other qualified health professional before beginning any diet change, supplement, or lifestyle program.

Please see our terms for more information.

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call the NAMI HelpLine: 1-800-950-6264 available Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. – 10 p.m., ET. OR text "HelpLine" to 62640 or email NAMI at [email protected]. Visit NAMI for more. You can also call or text SAMHSA at 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.

Consider this: Stress will likely surge higher when you are uncertain about an outcome compared to when you're faced with a certainly bad outcome. Sounds wild, right?! Think about the scenarios though... Would you rather be told you're going to lose your job next month or have your boss tell you that there's a 50-50 chance you'll lose it during the next month? In those 50-50 scenarios, we can get stuck in a cycling stress response and no clear idea of what to do next to alleviate it. At least if you know you're going to lose your job, you have a clear next step: start job hunting. That's what we're digging into in this episode. We'll explore different types of uncertainty (estimation uncertainty, irreducible uncertainty, and volatility), why we stress over the unknown, and how to navigate these experiences in everyday life.

Sources and Notes:

• Joy Lab Program: Take the next leap in your wellbeing journey with step-by-step practices to help you build and maintain the elements of joy in your life.
• de Berker, A., et al. (2016). Computations of uncertainty mediate acute stress responses in humans. Nat Commun 7, 10996. Access here.
•  Pema Chödrön quote: " To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest. To live fully is to be always in no man's land, to experience each moment as completely new and fresh. To live is to be willing to die over and over again."

Full transcript here.

Please remember that this content is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide medical advice and is not a replacement for advice and treatment from a medical professional. Please consult your doctor or other qualified health professional before beginning any diet change, supplement, or lifestyle program.

Please see our terms for more information.

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call the NAMI HelpLine: 1-800-950-6264 available Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. – 10 p.m., ET. OR text "HelpLine" to 62640 or email NAMI at [email protected]. Visit NAMI for more. You can also call or text SAMHSA at 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.