The Joy You Make - Steven Petrow

Design Your Future. Embrace Your Freedom. Early Bird discounted registration is now open for our next  Designing Your New Life Group Program - with a Thursday group and a Friday group beginning in January. Each group is limited to 10 participants and only four spots are still open in each group. Learn more ____________________ Who wouldn't sign up for more joy? Steven Petrow, author of The Joy You Make:Find the Silver Linings–Even on Your Darkest Days, rejoins us to share what he's learned about joy - and how to cultivate more joy (and gratitude) in your life. Steven Petrow joins us from North Carolina. ____________________ Bio Steven Petrow’s new book is The Joy You Make: Find the Silver Linings–Even on Your Darkest Days. He first joined us in 2021 to discuss his book Stupid Things I Won’t Do When I Get Old. Steven Petrow is an award-winning journalist and book author who is best known for his Washington Post and New York Times essays on aging, health, and civility. He’s also an opinion columnist for USA Today,  where he writes about civil discourse and manners. Steven’s 2019 TED Talk, “3 Ways to Practice Civility” has been viewed nearly two million times and translated into 16 languages. He is the author of five other books, including Steven Petrow’s Complete Gay & Lesbian Manners. He’s a much sought-after public speaker, and you’re likely to hear him when you stream NPR or one of your favorite  —  or least favorite  —  TV networks. Steven also served as the host and executive producer of “The Civilist,” a podcast from Public Radio International and North Carolina Public Radio WUNC. He is the author of five other books, the most recent of which is Steven Petrow’s Complete Gay & Lesbian Manners. He’s a much sought-after public speaker, and you’re likely to hear him when you stream NPR or one of your favorite  —  or least favorite  —  TV networks. Steven also served as the host and executive producer of “The Civilist,” a podcast from Public Radio International and North Carolina Public Radio WUNC. _______________________ For More on Steven Petrow The Joy You Make: Find the Silver Linings–Even on Your Darkest Days Website _______________________ Mentioned in This Podcast Episode Helen Dennis podcast conversation Successful Aging - LA Daily News Three Good Things -  Gratitude practice - Martin Seligman __________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Edit Your Life – Elisabeth Sharp McKetta Are You Living Gratefully? – Kristi Nelson My Last Bad Day – Michael O’Brien Living Like You Mean It – Jodi Wellman _____________________ Wise Quotes On Joy "And as I did research and talked to experts and scholars and regular people, I came to understand that joy manifests in many different ways and has broader ways to show up in our lives. And so that helped me to see that joy can be serene, joy can be loud, and can be beautiful. It can coexist with sorrow. But the intrinsic thing that I think defines joy is that it is about connection and gratitude. And so you can be happy. You can be happy by yourself in a way. You get a new car, I'm happy. You get a job promotion, I'm happy. It's fleeting, but you get the dopamine hit at the time. Joy kind of requires this interaction with others to make that connection, to sustain a connection. And in that way, joy is a state of being rather than a reaction to something else. I say happiness is about you, - and joy is about you and me. So that's a real important part of it. And then the other is that it just shows up in different ways in our lives, other than in the big ways that we think." On Learning to Cultivate More Joy "Lady Gaga said, you're born this way or not. But fortunately, neurologists and other scientists have been showing that many of these emotions can be learned. We're not stuck in our default settings for our lives. In a sense practice makes perfect.