Episode 415

The Surprising Benefits of Joy for Mood, Immunity, and Heart Health

With Kelly McGonigal

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With rates of depression and mental illness at an all-time high, it’s crucial to take stock of and consciously make time for the things that bring us joy. Joy is an embodied feeling we get when we feel connected to our inner selves, relationships, and the world around us. The question is, how do we create more of it?

Today on The Dhru Purohit Podcast, Dhru sits down with Kelly McGonigal to discuss how to cultivate more joy in our lives using the power of movement, nature, community, and so much more. Kelly shares how movement can help familiarize our bodies with the physical sensations of joy so that it is more easily recognizable. She also discusses how a sedentary lifestyle can rob us of joy and how leading a healthy lifestyle can help us better connect to ourselves to find deeper meaning and purpose that leads us to live a joy-filled life. 

Kelly McGonigal is a health psychologist and lecturer at Stanford University specializing in understanding the mind-body connection. Her mission is to translate insights from psychology and neuroscience into practical strategies that support personal well-being and strengthen communities.

She is the best-selling author of The Willpower Instinct and The Upside of Stress. Her TED talk, “How to Make Stress Your Friend,” has been viewed over 20 million times. In January 2020, Oprah Magazine honored her as the first-ever O! Visionary for her ability totransform scientific data into wisdom” to make the world mean a better future for us all. Kelly’s last book, The Joy of Moment, explores why physical exercise is a powerful antidote to the modern epidemics of depression, anxiety, and loneliness.

Also mentioned in this episode:

For more on Dr. Kelly McGonigal, follow her on Instagram @kellymariemcgonigal and on Facebook @kellymcgonigalauthor, or her website kellymcgonigal.com

This episode is brought to you by Joovv and Rupa Health. 

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I hope you enjoyed this conversation as much as I did.
Wishing you health and happiness.
Dhru Purohit

In this Episode, you will learn

  1. How to create more joy in our lives as we age
    (2:40)
  2. Why joy is so underrated in people’s lives
    (5:28)
  3. Increasing our sensitivity to joy
    (11:00)
  4. What we get from having more joy in our lives
    (20:22)
  5. How being sedentary suppresses our capacity for joy
    (33:33)
  6. Kelly’s background story and how she handles chronic pain
    (42:35)
  7. The Joy Workout
    (53:10)
  8. Kelly’s Joy prescription
    (59:00)
  9. The relationship between friendship and joy
    (1:03:59)
  10. Tips for making friends and meeting new people
    (1:07:24)
  11. The power of integrating movements with relationships
    (1:11:24)
  12. Top motivators for increasing movement in our lives
    (1:17:48)
  13. Tips for cultivating love and compassion
    (1:19:16)
  14. End of the day replay exercise
    (1:29:42)

Guest

 
Dhru Purohit

Dhru is the host of the Dhru Purohit Podcast, a top 30 health podcast with over 30 million downloads.

As an entrepreneur, Dhru is also the CEO Dr. Hyman Enterprises, Farmacy and the UltraWellness Center, a functional medicine based clinic that specializes in treating chronic disease through personalized medicine.

 
Kelly McGonigal

Kelly McGonigal is a health psychologist and lecturer at Stanford University specializing in understanding the mind-body connection. Her mission is to translate insights from psychology and neuroscience into practical strategies that support personal well-being and strengthen communities.

She is the best-selling author of The Willpower Instinct and The Upside of Stress. Her TED talk, “How to Make Stress Your Friend,” has been viewed over 20 million times. In January 2020, Oprah Magazine honored her as the first-ever O! Visionary for her ability totransform scientific data into wisdom” to make the world mean a better future for us all. Kelly’s last book, The Joy of Moment, explores why physical exercise is a powerful antidote to the modern epidemics of depression, anxiety, and loneliness.

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