How to Prime Your Brain For Joy—with Dr.Wendy Suzuki

Take a moment to recall one of your most joyful memories. 

Now, close your eyes and relive it. Where were you? Who were you with? How did you feel? 

Focus on your senses. What did you see and hear? Smell and taste? 

Spend a few minutes reliving this memory. 

How did this mini-meditation make you feel? 

This is a practice called Joy Conditioning, created by Dr.Wendy Suzuki. Since learning it, I’ve started my morning meditation by reliving my beautiful moments from the day prior. This simple ritual transformed my energy; Inspiring feelings of awe, abundance, and appreciation to start the day. 

Dr. Suzuki is an author, the Dean of Arts and Sciences at New York University, as well as a Professor of Neural Science and Psychology. Her research focuses on brain plasticity. She’s done pioneering studies on anxiety, meditation, exercise, and memory. Still, the heart of her work is how we can prime our brains to experience more joy. 

The first step? Cultivate an activist mindset. This is the throughline of Dr.Suzuki’s work: In illuminating our agency to change our beliefs, she empowers us to transform our energy. As she writes in, Good Anxiety: “When you believe that you are able to adapt, you will feel yourself thrive as you adapt.” 

We explore these tools to do so in our conversation…

• The impact chronic stress has on your brain and how to reverse it 

• Identifying and freeing yourself from anxiety triggers

• Exercise as the most powerful tool to promote brain plasticity and preserve your memory 

• How to change the stories you tell yourself and adopt new beliefs (in a surprisingly playful way!) 

• Why joy is essential to flow and high performance