Joy is the human capacity to feel uplifted by something that is, at its essence, ‘good.’ Physiologically, joy provides energy and helps you recover from stress. Mentally, joy broadens your perspective and renews optimism. Socially, joy bonds you to others and strengthens relationships. In hard times, joy can be a reminder that life has meaning and that you matter. People rank joy as the feeling they most want more of in life—and also the emotion least under their control.

What if joy isn’t something you have to wait for, but something you can choose? Based on the latest research and insights from psychology and neuroscience, this talk will introduce a fresh perspective on how joy works, and practical strategies for harnessing the power of joy in everyday life.

Stanford alum and Graduate School of Business lecturer Kelly McGonigal is a psychologist whose work shows us how to experience hope, connection, and meaning—even when life is difficult.

She is the author of the international bestseller The Willpower Instinct, The Upside of Stress, and The Joy of Movement.

Through the Stanford Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE), she helped create the Stanford Compassion Cultivation Training, a program now taught worldwide to deepen people’s experience of empathy, self-compassion, and social connection.

Her TED talk “How to Make Stress Your Friend”—which reveals how stress can be a catalyst for courage and compassion—is one of the most viewed TED talks of all time.