Hey, welcome back to Practicing Human.

The podcast where every day we're getting a little better at life.

I'm your host, Corey Muscarra, and in today's episode, we're going to talk about finding the small joys even when things are

difficult.

More to come on that in a moment, but first, let's settle in with the theme of the times, the times of recording, which COVID-19 is in the air. It is most people's reality at this point in time.

But if you're listening at a different time in your life, several years, from this point of recording. Just hear all of this through the

lens of anything that might be difficult. We've talked a lot about holding space

for the different experiences that can arise,

self-compassion, letting it work through you, opening you,

softening you, tenderizing your heart, expanding your heart,

all the things that can come from

being with pain and not shutting down to it.

Something that often gets overlooked

in times of crisis and uncertainty is just remembering to

seek out and appreciate the small joys when they're there. If we're not balancing the depth of pain, confusion, doubt, sadness, fear, overwhelm,

with some positive emotion or pleasure.

We're going to get burnt out so quickly.

We're going to completely deplete.

But we're not very good as human creatures at seeking out the good stuff, especially

during times of fear, when fear is the default response.

Because we have this built in negativity bias,

which is our brain's inclination to scan for threats and to latch on to threats when they're there in our environment.

...