After a melt down on live television, ABC News’ Nightline anchor Dan Harris knew he needed to make a change in how he approached his career and his overall happiness. Dan joins this episode of Live Happy Now to share how he has learned to become just 10% happier at a time, how he reduced stress without losing his edge and found self-help that actually works.

Shawn Achor is a New York Times best-selling author of Before Happiness and The Happiness Advantage. He is the winner of more than a dozen distinguished teaching awards at Harvard University, where he delivered lectures on positive psychology in the school's most popular class. Shawn has become one of the world’s leading experts on the connection between happiness and success.

In this episode, Shawn talks with Live Happy COO, Co-Founder and Editorial Director Deborah Heisz about how happiness fuels success and how you can capitalize on the Happiness Advantage as well as his two-part O-Course Experience on Oprah.com.

Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D. is internationally known for his work as a scientist, writer, and meditation teacher engaged in bringing mindfulness into the mainstream of medicine and society. He is Professor of Medicine emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where he founded its world-renowned Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Clinic (in 1979), and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society (in 1995).

What you'll learn in this podcast:

• How to live life with intent
• The minimum amount you should spend being mindful or meditating
• How to create a love affair with your own life

Her groundbreaking book, Reviving Ophelia, psychologist Mary Pipher changed the way we looked at girls and adolescence. Now, with her 10th book, she is doing for aging what she did for adolescence, providing a wise and heartfelt guide to happiness in later life. Women Rowing North: Navigating Life’s Currents and Flourishing As We Age provides an engaging and uplifting examination of how to thrive in life’s later stages and how the struggles we face can help us become the people we’ve always wanted to be. 

In this episode you’ll learn:

• How the end years of life can be the happiest time
• The role of humor and gratitude in later life
• Why mercy is a valuable quality to develop

Bestselling New York Times author Gretchen Rubin has spent more than a decade exploring what makes us happy. And, she’s found, one of the simplest ways to improve our well-being is to clear the clutter around us. Her latest book, Outer Order, Inner Calm offers more than 150 different ways to get rid of the clutter around us and create more order. In this episode, she explains the relationship between decluttering and happiness, and gives tips on how to make lasting changes.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• What achieving outer order does for our happiness
• How to stop hanging on to what you no longer need
• Quick tips for clearing your space

We’ve all heard about the principles of visualization and manifestation, but to many of us, it might sound a little too good to be true. Today, we’re talking to a neuroscientist who guides us through the science of visualization and tells us how it can help us reach our goals and live happier lives.

Dr. Tara Swart is a neuroscientist, psychiatrist and senior lecturer at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. She works with top executives all over the world to help them achieve mental resilience and peak brain performance. Her new book, The Source: The Secrets of the Universe, the Science of the Brain, shows how you can actively change the way your mind works to train it for happiness.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why it’s critical to take control over what we’re thinking about.
• How we can make dramatic, positive changes by changing how we think.
• The science behind vision boards — and how to put it into practice.

Sasha Heinz, Ph.D., MAPP, Developmental Psychologist and life coach, is an expert in Positive Psychology, lasting behavioral change and the science of getting unstuck. Through her private practice, she helps women feel as good as their life looks. A graduate of Harvard University and a working mom, she’s lived life on the frontline of the battle with perfectionism. So she can help you with that, too.

Gretchen Rubin is the author of several books, including the New York Time best-sellers Better Than Before, The Happiness Project and Happier at Home. Her newest book, The Four Tendencies, is about a personality framework she devised that divides people into four personality profiles.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• How to understand yourself better
• How to understand other people better
• How to create change more effectively

Founder of Live Happy, Jeff Olson, shares insights to small actions you can take every day to achieve happiness. Over the past 30 years Jeff has helped hundreds of thousands of individuals achieve better levels of financial freedom and personal excellence. 

If you’ve ever felt that your fears are holding you back from creating the life you love, you’re not alone! This week, New York Times best-selling author Ruth Soukup and host of the Do It Scared podcast, joins us to talk about her new book, Do It Scared: Finding the Courage to Overcome Adversity, Face Your Fears and Create a Life You Love. She explains how all fear is not created equal and identifies the seven different Fear Archetypes that determine how we respond to fearful situations—and how to use our fear as a stepping stone to courage.

In this episode, you’ll learn:  

• Why each of us respond to fear in different ways
• How understanding your Fear Archetype can help you overcome your fears
• The quickest way to overcome your fear

Ora Nadrich is a Certified Life Coach and Mindfulness Meditation Teacher and author of Says Who? How One Simple Question Can Change the Way You Think Forever. In Says Who, Ora Nadrich has created an incredibly easy to follow method to get rid of negative thoughts, taking away all their power over us. It will work for anyone. It starts by realizing that we are in control over our own thoughts, and we get to decide who stays.

What you'll learn in this podcast:

• 7 questions to ask yourself to help banish negative thinking
• Why most of our negative thoughts don't even belong to us
• Why we find negative thoughts so comforting

Do you have something you’d like to change about yourself? If so, are you giving yourself the tools you need to make those changes? In this episode, Susan Hyatt—author of the book BARE and host of the Bare Podcast, looks at how the way we approach making changes has a lot to do with how successful those changes are. Whether it’s losing weight, changing jobs or committing to healthier relationships, she’ll give you a new way of thinking about creating your best life.

In this episode, you learn:

• Why finding pleasure might be better for you than willpower
• How discovering what gives you pleasure affects your physical and mental health
• Three things you can say “yes” to today

We are spending most of our time at home right now, and no matter how much you love the space you live in, or the people you share it with, some days it might seem like it’s the last place you want to be.

This week’s guest is an expert at turning our homes into our happy places. Interior designer Rebecca West, author of Happy Starts at Home and owner of Seriously.Happy.Homes, believes in putting the “om” back in home. To do that, she takes a holistic approach to discovering what you need from your home and how to make the most of the space you have. Listen in as she tells us how to make our surroundings support what we need—both physically and emotionally—during this time.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How to create space for everyone—and everything—in your home.
• How tidiness makes a big difference in how you view your space.
• Simple improvements you can do both inside and outside of your home.

Mithu Storoni is an author, physician, and researcher. She qualified in Medicine from the University of Cambridge and trained in Ophthalmology before undertaking research at the National Hospital of Neurology and Neurosurgery, London where she was a Clinical Research Fellow before relocating to Hong Kong.

What you’ll learn in this podcast:

• One behavior that can dramatically reduce the impact of a stressful moment
• Why you need a pleasure ‘piggy-bank’
• Why chronic stress is the price we pay for having a plastic brain

Psychiatrist, author and farmer Drew Ramsey, M.D., is one of psychiatry’s leading voices when it comes to using nutrition as a form of mental health interventions. An assistant professor of psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and chair of the American Psychiatric Association Council on Communications, Drew also is founder of the Brain Food Clinic in New York City, which offers treatment for depression, anxiety and emotional wellness concerns by relying upon the latest in brain science, nutrition and mental health research.

While we don’t think much about them, our brainwaves are always busy—and they play a huge role in our well-being. When brainwaves get out of balance, it affects our sleep, our health and our relationships. Dr. Patrick Porter joins us this week to talk about how brainwaves influence our happiness and tells us some of the ways we can help keep them balanced.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How connecting with nature (grounding) can help you find balance.
• What lack of sleep does to our brainwaves.
• What biohacking is and how you can use it for your own well-being.

Have you ever felt like the stress and busyness in your life is never-ending? Being overwhelmed can make you feel like your life is out of control and that isn’t good for your mental or physical health. Samantha Brody, ND, author of Overcoming Overwhelm: Dismantle Your Stress From the Inside Out, shares her insight on how we can restore more balance in our lives by preventing stress from turning into overwhelm.

We’re all looking for a little more happiness in our lives, and author Alli Worthington’s new book is designed to give us the map to find it. In this episode, Alli—a business coach, podcaster, speaker and mother of five—tells us how to find greater happiness through simple practices.

Three things you’ll learn from Alli:

• How to create your own happiness trigger
• Why busyness is such a threat to our happiness
• The importance or relationships in happiness

World-renowned developmental psychologist Thomas Lickona, Ph.D., joins the Live Happy Now podcast to discuss his latest book, How to Raise Kind Kids: And Get Respect, Gratitude, and a Happier Family in the Bargain.

Wouldn’t it be great if kids came with a handbook? Well they don’t, so How to Raise Kind Kids may be the next best thing. Join us for this episode of Live Happy Now as we talk to Thomas and tackle issues such as reducing screen time, developing positive attitudes and what to do in challenging situations.

All of us go through difficult times in life, but what do you do when you find yourself in a funk that you can’t get out of? That’s what Janeane Bernstein, Ed.D., wanted to find out after the death of her best friend from childhood. That tragic event launched a mission to discover how others have overcome their grief and led to creating her radio show, “Get the Funk Out.” She now has a book by the same name and explains why grief can be a springboard to happiness.

In this episode, you learn:

Why the worst thing that happens in your life can become the best thing in your life.

How to use grief to reconnect with your own feelings.

Why it’s important to use your creativity to overcome grief.

Anxiety is something that many of us are familiar with—particularly now. But have you considered embracing it? This week’s guest, Karla McLaren, makes the case for delving into this emotion and using it as a force of energy. Her book, Embracing Anxiety: How to Access the Genius of This Vital Emotion, takes a completely new look at how anxiety can benefit us. This week, she talks about how important it is to recognize what anxiety can do for us and learn how to use it for positive effect.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How anxiety can help us prepare for the future.
• Why procrastination is actually considered a form of anxiety.
• The difference between panic and anxiety.

Even before the coronavirus pandemic, Dr. Lise Van Susteren was noticing a new phenomenon: patients were often plagued by worry, disturbing and intrusive thoughts, sleep disruptions, grief and more. She identified this trend as a condition she calls emotional inflammation, and along with health writer Stacey Colino wrote a book by the same name. As it turns out, Emotional Inflammation: Discover Your Triggers and Reclaim Your Equilibrium During Anxious Times is exactly the book we need for our current situation. This week, she talks about how the pandemic has only heightened our emotional inflammation — and what we can do about it.  

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• What is emotional inflammation and what does it do to us?
• How does controlling the flow of information in your life help cool emotional inflammation — and how do you do that?
• What is the difference between being a bystander and an upstander?

If you’ve ever had a sudden feeling of distress that triggers your fight or flight response, then you know what it’s like to have your emotions hijacked. And if that’s something you’ve experienced recently, you’re not alone. This week, clinical psychologist and mindfulness expert Dr. Shauna Shapiro returns to talk about how current times might be affecting your emotions and what practices you can use — both individually and as a family — to regulate them.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• What an “amygdala hijack” is and how to manage it.
• Why identifying your emotions can help bring calm to your life.
• Simple practices to help regulate your emotions.

All of us have lost something this year, and that’s affecting us whether we realize it or not. This week, we’re joined by Erin Wiley, a clinical psychotherapist and executive of The Willow Center, a counseling practice in Toledo, Ohio. She’s here to talk about the many ways our losses could be affecting us and our loved ones, and to give us tips on processing grief and coping with the changes brought by the pandemic. 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why it’s important to feel your grief as it arises
• Tips for coping with grief and loss
• How to discuss and manage loss as a family

If there was ever a year that needed a soothing soundtrack, it would be the year that we’re in now. Music has powerful healing properties, and nobody knows that better than this week’s guest. Dr. Sandi Curtis is an internationally trained music therapist who specializes in working with women and children survivors of violence. She helps survivors navigate their way through recovery with help from music, and this week she’s here to talk about how all of us can use music to help us through this challenging year.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why music is such a powerful healing tool.
• What brain entrainment is and why it’s good for your mental health.
• How the music you listen to can change your state.

As an Emmy-winning reporter for ABC News, Adrienne Bankert has covered some of life's most tragic moments, but it has never made her lose sight of her desire to find the best in people. Her experience interviewing inspiring people, from wounded warriors to high-profile celebrities, helped her want to understand more about one of her life’s guiding principles: kindness. This week, she talks about her new book, Your Hidden Superpower: The Kindness That Makes You Unbeatable at Work and Connects You with Anyone, and explains why practicing kindness is so good for us.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How kindness makes anyone unbeatable.
• The difference between being nice and being kind.
• Simple things you can do every day to practice kindness.

Since the release of his first hit single, The Remedy (I Won’t Worry), in 2002, Jason Mraz has based his musical career on sharing positive, uplifting music. On June 19, the two-time Grammy winner is releasing Look for the Good, an album that encourages us to find hope, optimism and gratitude despite the turmoil we’re experiencing this year. In this episode, Jason explains how this collection of songs came about, what he learned in the process of writing and recording this album and what he hopes every one of us takes away from it.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why he believes it’s so important to look for the good in every situation.
• How music can help soothe and heal us.
• The power of remaining positive.

At any given time, everyone is going through something in their lives. But rarely do we have a situation where so many people are collectively going through such trying times. The good news is, we’re going to get through this, and we can use this time to build new habits and be stronger than before.

This week, we talk with Aneesh Chaudhry, founder of the brain health clinic SoulPhysio Lifestyle, where he works with a team of doctors, psychologists and other healthcare professionals to take a whole body approach to mental and physical wellness. He’s here to talk about how to manage our energy and deal with such negative emotions as grief, loss and anxiety.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• The importance of learning and practicing acceptance.
• What energy management is and why it matters.
• How to work through negative feelings during difficult times.

Imagine living in a world that has been plagued by great tragedy. The world as you knew it is gone, all the stores are closed, and you can’t see your friends. Sound familiar? Interestingly enough, we’re not talking about real life right now; we’re talking about Shadow’s Edge, a mobile game and lifestyle platform that was created to help teens and young adults build resilience.

This week, we’re talking with Rosemary Lokhorst, one of the creative minds behind this innovative platform. Let’s listen as she explains how this game has helped teens and young adults deal with chronic illness, anxiety and now, a pandemic.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• What narrative therapy is and why it’s so effective.
• How we can all stay a little more connected and mentally strong through these tough times.
• How families can use Shadow’s Edge together.

Today’s world has become increasingly challenging, so it’s fitting that this week, we’re talking about simplicity. How do you find more simplicity in a complex world? Well, it’s complicated.

This week, author and social commentator Julia Hobsbawm looks at how we can live a simpler, more creative and productive life.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• What the infobesity epidemic is and how to overcome it.
• How to use Hexagon Action to simplify your tasks.
• How to become one of the “focused few.”

By now, most of us are aware of how important it is to be able to use tools like mindfulness and meditation to help create inner calm. But as tough as it can be for adults, imagine what it’s like for a child to master it.

This week’s guest has found a way to teach children things like meditation, mindfulness, yoga and more with the help of some very cute ninja bunnies. Kamala Alcantara is co-founder and chief content officer of Ninja Focus, an app that helps young children learn breathing techniques, mindfulness and emotional regulation. Her goal is to help strengthen families and motivate children to be kinder, more compassionate and happier. Let’s hear how Ninja Focus can help them do that. 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why learning breathing techniques is so valuable.
• How teaching mindfulness to children benefits them later in life.
• How to use Ninja Focus as a family.

Tapping into your creativity is a proven way to increase your personal well-being. It can put you in a positive mood, give you a sense of purpose, promote problem solving and reduce stress and anxiety. But sometimes, we get so busy with our lives that we lose touch with our creative side. 

This week’s guest is an expert in tapping into creativity. Martha Alderson is an author who also works with bestselling authors, Hollywood directors, artists and performers all over the world to tap into their creativity. Now, you can try this at home! Martha’s new book, Boundless Creativity: A Spiritual Workbook for Overcoming Self-Doubt, Emotional Traps and Other Creative Blocks, can walk you through the steps back to discovering your creative self. 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• What the Universal Story is and how it relates to you.
• The spiritual value of connecting with your creativity.
• How working on creativity as a family can help build communication and solve problems.

For many of us, right now it seems a little bit harder than usual to find the good in the world, and finding things to be optimistic about can seem like even more of a chore. If you’re having struggling with that, you’re in the right place. 

This week, Live Happy CEO and co-founder Deborah Heisz talks about how we can look for what's good in these trying times to find positivity and optimism—and make the most of this most unusual time.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How to use the gift of extra time that we’ve been giving.
• Ways to interact with others in a time of social distancing.
• How to spend time evaluating what’s important to make the right decisions for your future.

If ever there was a time to take a deep breath, it’s right now. And this week’s guest is uniquely qualified to walk us through how to do that.

Victoria Albina is a functional nurse practitioner, certified breathwork meditation facilitator, life coach and host of the Feminist Wellness podcast. She not only understands the mind/body connection, but she has great tips for helping us use our breath to calm our stress response, boost our immune system and enjoy each moment just a little bit more.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How your automatic nervous system and vagus nerve are affecting your reactions.
• How to restore and replenish yourself after experiencing substantial stress.
• How breathwork can calm your body and also improve your immune system.

With so much going on in the world today, you might have hit the point of asking “why bother?” A lot of situations feel pretty grim right now and some days it’s hard to find the energy and enthusiasm you need. 

Today’s guest knows exactly what you’re feeling, and, even better, she has incredible insight to share on how to navigate these crazy times. Jennifer Louden is a personal growth expert and author of the new book, Why Bother? Discover the Desire for What’s Next, and she has a lot to say about why we should bother, how to discover our next steps and even how to enjoy the journey.

In this podcast, you’ll learn:

• Why asking the important question, “Why bother?” is a good thing.
• Why your desires matter.
• The importance of self-care and self-forgiveness.

We are spending most of our time at home right now, and no matter how much you love the space you live in, or the people you share it with, some days it might seem like it’s the last place you want to be.

This week’s guest is an expert at turning our homes into our happy places. Interior designer Rebecca West, author of Happy Starts at Home and owner of Seriously.Happy.Homes, believes in putting the “om” back in home. To do that, she takes a holistic approach to discovering what you need from your home and how to make the most of the space you have. Listen in as she tells us how to make our surroundings support what we need—both physically and emotionally—during this time.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How to create space for everyone—and everything—in your home.
• How tidiness makes a big difference in how you view your space.
• Simple improvements you can do both inside and outside of your home.

This is a time when all of us are thinking about healing and recovery. We have a lot of questions about wellness, and this episode’s guest offers unique insight into healing and well-being.

Dr. Jeffrey Rediger is on the faculty of Harvard Medical School and medical director of McLean Hospital Southeast adult psychiatric programs. He’s a board-certified psychiatrist with a master’s in divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary and his new book, CURED: The Life-Changing Science of Spontaneous Healing, provides a fascinating look into well-being and how changing our beliefs about ourselves can change our outcomes.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• What the four pillars of healing are and why they’re so critical.
• How to improve your immune system.
• The importance of reducing inflammation in your body.

Now that most Americans find themselves self-quarantined, we’re learning to negotiate a completely different daily routine. Whether that includes a roommate, spouse, children or other family members, being in close quarters can create challenges for every relationship.

That’s why we talked with CrisMarie Campbell and Susan Clarke, who are therapists and co-authors of the book, The Beauty of Conflict for Couples. They offer some helpful tips for managing relationships and learning how each person can create space for themselves. 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why it’s important to identify what you need from others in the home.
• How to create time and space for yourself.
• The importance of taking a dance break … and other secrets to a happier, healthier self-quarantine.

There’s no question that we are experiencing a chaotic time right now, and many people are feeling overwhelmed by situations that are out of their control. We’ve heard so many concerns from people who are worried about COVID-19, about the financial toll it is already taking and what this means for the future. We’re all learning how to manage this new normal that, frankly, doesn’t feel normal at all.

This week’s guest, Erin Pickney, is a Nashville-based therapist specializing in recovery from anxiety and depression. She offers a few suggestions on how we can decrease our anxiety and increase our sense of well-being.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How to manage some of our current anxiety.
• How to connect with others while practicing social distancing.
• How to make the most of time spent in self-quarantine.

This week’s episode looks at something we all know about, we all know we should do … but we often have trouble finding time for in our busy lives. Meditation has incredible healing value for both our mind and body, and this week’s guest is on a mission to get the whole world meditating.

Neuroscientist Ariel Garten is a psychotherapist, mom, former fashion designer and the founder of the tech company Muse, which is designed to make meditation easier. She has spoken about the benefits of meditation on stages around the world, ranging from TED talks to MIT to SXSW. This week, she talks about the benefits of meditation, how we can master the art of meditating and how to find ways to fit it into our hectic lives.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why meditation is so important.
• How to make meditation part of your daily routine.
• Ways to make meditation easier.