Simple Joys

Tip: Listen, then read. This post is a perfect match for Joy Lab podcast episode 245: Stop Waiting to Accept Yourself: The Truth About Unconditional Self-Acceptance.

Here's a lie many of us tell ourselves: "I'll accept myself after I lose the weight, land the job, quit smoking, make more...

 By Aimee Prasek, PhD

Are you feeling stressed? Overwhelmed? A sense of helplessness? Irritable? Yeah, I hear you. The aim of this [too-long?] post is to provide some information and practices to help make sense of what so many of us are feeling right now and help us take some small actions to feel...

Self-awareness sounds simple enough—knowing yourself. But here's the truth: you're never "done" with self-awareness. It's not a box to check but a lifelong practice of seeing yourself with clarity and, crucially, without judgment.

Listen to the Joy Lab Podcast episode that dives into this deeper:...

Happy New Year! As we step into 2026, we're focusing on inspiration as our Element of Joy for January. Not the kind that requires waiting for lightning to strike, but the cultivatable kind—the experience of being awakened to new possibilities and taking nourishing action because of them.

Listen t...

Have you ever walked into a room and immediately felt the tension, even before anyone said a word? Or found yourself in a terrible mood after scrolling through social media, without quite knowing why? You're not imagining things. Science shows we're constantly absorbing the emotions of those around ...

By: Aimee Prasek, PhD

I've had a few zoom/coffee chats lately with folks who've lost their jobs. I'm sure many of you have had these chats too. All this job loss partnered by conversations about empathy as a weakness and all the judgements being hurled around... it's easy to feel like empty shel...

Gratitude has suffered some bad takes lately. Somewhere between the research lab and our social feeds, this genuinely powerful practice has been dunked in toxic positivity and dressed up in fancy lettering.

But real gratitude—the kind that actually changes your brain and your life—looks quite a bit...