Solving For Joy

The Science of Expressive Writing: How Words Heal the BrainWhat happens in the brain when we put what we’re carrying into words?In this episode of Solving for Joy, I’m joined by pediatrician, writer, and author Dr. Carolyn Roy-Bornstein to explore the science of expressive writing and why putting our experiences on the page can be so powerful.We talk about writing through trauma, what research tells us about the brain and emotional processing, and how reflective writing can help physicians and other caregivers navigate burnout, reconnect with themselves, and make meaning from what they’ve lived through.In This EpisodeThe science behind expressive writing and the brainHow writing can help us process trauma and difficult emotionsReflective writing as a tool for physician burnout and self-compassionA simple 15-minute writing practice you can try todayChapters:00:00 How Writing Can Help Us Heal00:50 Reflective Writing for Trauma and Grief05:06 How Sharing Our Stories Creates Connection07:37 The Science Behind Journaling and Reflective Writing10:04 Writing for Self-Compassion10:52 Reflective Writing for Physician Burnout14:48 Narrative Medicine and Healthcare17:11 How Writing Helps Us Process Emotions19:13 How to Start Journaling When You’re Burned Out23:31 The Science of Joy and Positive Emotions26:38 Finding Meaning and Joy Through Writing31:26 Sacred Moments in Medicine32:11 A 15-Minute Reflective Writing Exercise35:36 Connect with Dr. Carolyn Roy-BornsteinConnect with Dr. Carolyn Roy-BornsteinWebsite: www.carolynroybornstein.comBook: A Prescription for Burnout: Restorative Writing for Healthcare ProfessionalsAbout Dr. Chrissie OttDr. Chrissie Ott is a multi-board certified integrative physician, Professional Certified Coach (PCC), speaker, and founder of Joy Point Solutions. Through Solving for Joy, she explores the science and practice of living with greater meaning, alignment, and delight.Stay Connected with ChrissieInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrissieottmdPodcast: https://www.solvingforjoy.comWebsite: www.joypointsolutions.comFor Physician Coaches & Healthcare LeadersPhysician Coaching Collective: https://www.physiciancoachingcollective.comPhysician Coaching Summit: https://www.thephysiciancoachingsummit.comThis episode explores reflective writing, journaling, physician burnout, narrative medicine, expressive writing, self-compassion, trauma, emotional processing, healthcare burnout, and finding meaning and joy.Music by AudioCoffee(Denys Kyshchuk): https://www.audiocoffee.net/

How to Practice Joyful Service (Without Losing Yourself)Some of us become very, very good at being useful.We care for people. We solve problems. We anticipate what others need. And when service becomes part of our identity, it can be easy to lose sight of how we’re actually showing up in the process.In this episode of Solving for Joy, I’m joined by my friend Alejandra Siroka, founder of Language Alchemy, to explore another pillar of the Practice of Joy: Joyful Service.We talk about the extraordinary power of language to shape how we see ourselves, the people we serve, and the relationships we create.Our conversation moves through values and meaningful relationships, the language of repair, communicating without manipulation or scarcity, and what it means to meet even difficult interactions with curiosity, compassion, and love.Because maybe Joyful Service isn’t about giving more of ourselves away.Maybe it’s about remembering why we serve and choosing, with greater intention, how we want to show up.In This EpisodeHow language shapes the way we see, relate to, and serve othersConnecting service to your values, meaning, and authentic expressionWhy repair, curiosity, and compassion matter in meaningful relationshipsA simple practice for showing up with greater intention each dayConnect with Alejandra SirokaWebsite: www.LanguageAlchemy.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/languagealchemy/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LanguageAlchemy/Podcast: https://www.languagealchemy.com/podcasts/language-alchemy-podcastLanguage Alchemy: The Essential Communication Toolkit for a Life of Peace, Authenticity, and Meaning releases November 10, 2026.Pre-order: https://www.languagealchemybook.com/About Dr. Chrissie OttDr. Chrissie Ott is a multi-board certified integrative physician, Professional Certified Coach (PCC), speaker, and founder of Joy Point Solutions. Through Solving for Joy, she explores the science and practice of living with greater meaning, alignment, and delight. Her work helps physicians and other high-achieving humans reconnect with themselves so they can build lives that feel deeply authentic, purposeful, and joyful.Stay Connected with ChrissieInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrissieottmdPodcast: https://www.solvingforjoy.comWebsite: www.joypointsolutions.comFor Physician Coaches & Healthcare LeadersPhysician Coaching Collective: https://www.physiciancoachingcollective.comPhysician Coaching Summit: https://www.thephysiciancoachingsummit.comThis episode explores joyful service, conscious communication, authentic expression, meaningful relationships, values, compassion, relationship repair, service in healthcare, self-awareness, and practicing joy through the way we relate to and serve others.

A week before this conversation, my mom graduated from this plane.She left her body with peace and with ease at 94 years old, after a long life of loving fiercely and generously.And as divine timing would have it, I already had a conversation scheduled with someone who has spent the last decade helping individuals and families navigate death and meaningful goodbyes.In this deeply personal episode of Solving for Joy, I’m joined by death care specialist and death doula Madison Kuebler for a conversation about grief, death, ritual, and what it means to be held through loss.I share some of my own experience of my mom’s final years and the sacredness I felt in her passing, including the eight hours my wife and I spent sitting with her body, the rituals that helped us say goodbye, and why this particular loss has felt, at least for now, more sacred than sad.Madison shares what a decade working in death care has taught her about grief, presence, trauma-informed care, meaningful goodbyes, and the possibility of a “good death.” We talk about why grief is much more of a scribble than a line, the unexpected places joy and laughter can appear after loss, and why there is no single right way to grieve or remember someone we love.We also explore the relationship between death and birth, the importance of ritual, alternatives to traditional burial and cremation including human composting, and the ways our choices around death can reflect who we are and what we value.Because perhaps being willing to look at death doesn’t diminish the joy of being alive.Maybe it reminds us just how precious it is.And maybe, if we are very lucky, a life spent loving can leave us becoming more and more love.In This EpisodeWhat a decade in death care has taught Madison about grief and being present with familiesWhy death is not always tragedy and what can make a death feel peaceful or “good”Grief as something nonlinear, personal, and allowed to include peace, joy, laughter, and even absurdityThe sacred experience of spending time with a loved one’s body after deathHow ritual can help us create meaningful, deeply personal goodbyesHuman composting, green death care, and having more choices for what happens to our bodiesWhat being close to death can teach us about gratitude, presence, and being aliveChapters00:00 Grief, Joy, and a Different Kind of Conversation01:20 Meet Madison Kuebler: A Decade in Death Care03:01 How Madison Found Her Way to Funeral Service06:52 Presence, Trauma-Informed Care, and the Small Things That Matter09:11 Chrissie Shares the Story of Her Mom’s Final Years15:00 Permission to Let Go and Becoming Love16:37 When Grief Feels More Sacred Than Sad19:26 A Good Death and the Connection Between Birth and Dying20:33 Sitting With the Body: The Sacredness of a Final Goodbye25:32 4:44 and a Final “Love, Love, Love”26:18 Human Composting and Returning Our Bodies to the Earth30:22 Creating New Ways to Remember the People We Love32:19 The Emotional Reality of Working in Death Care35:01 What Makes a Goodbye Meaningful?37:38 Finding Joy in the Business of Death41:38 Gratitude, Legacy, and What RemainsAbout Madison KueblerMadison Kuebler is a funeral director, death doula, and theatre artist based in Denver, Colorado. With 10 years of experience in the funeral industry, she helps individuals and families navigate death and create meaningful goodbyes. Outside of death care, Madison directs plays and creates soundscapes for local theatre companies and is passionate about telling stories for and by the LGBTQIA+ community. She recently received a Colorado Henry Award for Excellence in Theatre. Connect with Madison KueblerLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/madison-kuebler-819b4bb5Learn More About Human CompostingEarth Funeral: https://earthfuneral.com/About Dr. Chrissie OttDr. Chrissie Ott is a multi-board certified integrative physician, Professional Certified Coach (PCC), speaker, and founder of Joy Point Solutions. Through Solving for Joy, she explores the science and practice of living with greater meaning, alignment, and delight. Her work helps physicians and other high-achieving humans reconnect with themselves so they can build lives that feel deeply authentic, purposeful, and joyful.Stay Connected with ChrissieInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrissieottmdPodcast: https://www.solvingforjoy.comWebsite: www.joypointsolutions.comFor Physician Coaches & Healthcare LeadersPhysician Coaching Collective: https://www.physiciancoachingcollective.comPhysician Coaching Summit: https://www.thephysiciancoachingsummit.comThis episode explores grief and joy, death and dying, good deaths, death care, funeral planning, death doulas, meaningful goodbyes, grief rituals, human composting, green burial alternatives, trauma-informed death care, end-of-life conversations, nonlinear grief, memorial rituals, loss, legacy, and finding meaning and joy after the death of a loved one.

How to Find More Delight in Everyday Life (Even When Life Feels Heavy)When did we get so serious?Children don’t need extraordinary moments to experience delight. They find it everywhere—in something funny, something strange, sunlight moving across the floor, or simply discovering something for the first time.Somewhere along the way, many of us become incredibly good at getting through the day, but not always experiencing it.In this episode of Solving for Joy, I’m joined by my dear friend J. A. Jones to explore one of my favorite parts of the Practice of Joy: delight.We talk about what happens to our natural capacity for wonder as we grow older, and how presence, play, curiosity, and becoming a little more comfortable with uncertainty can help us find our way back.We also explore something I think matters deeply: practicing delight does not require us to look away from suffering. We can be aware of what is difficult and still notice what is beautiful, funny, strange, or wonderful. Delight and difficulty are allowed to exist together.Our conversation moves through mindfulness and beginner’s mind, cynicism and humor, impermanence and uncertainty, nervous system regulation, play, revelry, and the simple practice of paying attention to what is happening right here.Because maybe delight isn’t something we have to go looking for.Maybe it’s a capacity we can practice returning to.In This EpisodeWhy presence, wonder, and delight are so deeply connectedLearning to hold uncertainty—and life itself—a little more lightlyWhy delight can exist alongside grief, suffering, and difficult realitiesReclaiming play, silliness, and revelry as adultsHow paying attention to ordinary moments can become a practice of delightConnect with J. A. JonesWebsite: https://aprimamateria.comChapters00:00 The Nature of Delight01:48 Childlike Wonder and Presence04:17 Practices for Cultivating Delight06:40 Why Delight Can Be Hard to Access09:09 Wonder, Awe, and the Mystery of Being Alive11:46 Cynicism, Humor, and Holding Life Lightly14:28 Finding Delight in a Difficult World18:17 Reclaiming Revelry, Play, and Silliness22:11 Beginner’s Mind and the Practice of Connection26:03 Finding Delight in Ordinary Life30:24 A Simple Practice for Cultivating DelightAbout Dr. Chrissie OttDr. Chrissie Ott is a multi-board certified integrative physician, Professional Certified Coach (PCC), speaker, and founder of Joy Point Solutions. Through Solving for Joy, she explores the science and practice of living with greater meaning, alignment, and delight. Her work helps physicians and other high-achieving humans reconnect with themselves so they can build lives that feel deeply authentic, purposeful, and joyful.Stay Connected with ChrissieInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrissieottmdPodcast: https://www.solvingforjoy.comWebsite: www.joypointsolutions.comFor Physician Coaches & Healthcare LeadersPhysician Coaching Collective: https://www.physiciancoachingcollective.comPhysician Coaching Summit: https://www.thephysiciancoachingsummit.comThis episode explores delight, finding joy in everyday life, mindfulness, presence, wonder, awe, play, uncertainty, beginner’s mind, nervous system regulation, impermanence, resilience, and practicing joy even when life feels heavy.

How to Trust Your Own Desires (Without Feeling Selfish)Do you know what you truly desire?Not what you're supposed to want.Not what looks successful from the outside.Not what everyone else expects of you.Your desire.In this episode of Solving for Joy, How to Trust Your Own Desires (Without Feeling Selfish), I'm joined by my dear friend and colleague, Dr. Vanessa Calderón, to explore one of the most misunderstood pillars of the Practice of Joy: desire.Together, we unpack why so many of us learn to distrust our own longings, how social conditioning can disconnect us from ourselves, and why desire isn't the opposite of integrity. In many ways, it can become the pathway back to it.We talk about the difference between craving and calling, why our desires deserve curiosity instead of judgment, and how practicing gratitude for what we already have can deepen our capacity for joy. If you've ever wondered whether following your desires is selfish, irresponsible, or simply too risky, I hope this conversation invites you to become a little more curious about what your deepest longings might be trying to teach you.In This EpisodeWhy desire and joy are deeply connectedThe difference between craving and callingHow social conditioning can disconnect us from ourselvesWhy following your desires isn't selfishPracticing gratitude by desiring what you already haveHow curiosity can lead us back to joyResources MentionedBookFinding Your Own North Star by Martha BeckPerson MentionedDr. Kelly CaspersonConnect with Dr. Vanessa CalderónWebsite: https://www.vanessacalderonmd.comPodcast: https://www.theauthenticpathpodcast.comChapters00:00 Why Desire and Joy Belong Together08:20 The Difference Between Craving and Calling16:38 Coming Home to Yourself Through Desire24:51 Gratitude, Abundance, and Desiring What You Already Have33:16 How to Trust Your Desires With Integrity36:58 Practice for the Week & Final ReflectionsAbout Dr. Chrissie OttDr. Chrissie Ott is a multi-board certified integrative physician, Professional Certified Coach (PCC), speaker, and founder of Joy Point Solutions. Through Solving for Joy, she explores the science and practice of living with greater meaning, alignment, and delight. Her work helps physicians and other high-achieving humans reconnect with themselves so they can build lives that feel deeply authentic, purposeful, and joyful.Stay Connected with ChrissieInstagram  https://www.instagram.com/chrissieottmdPodcast https://www.solvingforjoy.comWebsite www.joypointsolutions.comFor Physician Coaches & Healthcare LeadersPhysician Coaching Collective https://www.physiciancoachingcollective.comPhysician Coaching Summit https://www.thephysiciancoachingsummit.com This episode explores desire, joy, integrity, self-trust, gratitude, purpose, and living in alignment with your values.