Micro-dosing Joy
Join us in December for finding small moments of joy
November was hard. We know many of you feel that, too. We’ve spent a lot of time wondering where we go from here—“we” as individuals, as a country, and also as a community at Midstory. Jessica and I started one of our signature workshops, “Small Steps in Uncertain Times,” during the early months of the pandemic, and we find ourselves similarly drawn to the idea of small steps now, as well.
But maybe even smaller. Like, “micro,” smaller.
As she so often does, Brene Brown found words to express the collective paralysis with an antidote to despair: “micro-dosing hope.”
After many conversations over the past few weeks, Jessica and I feel like even that might be a little too much for us right now. So we are are going to opt for micro-dosing joy instead. And we hope that you’ll join us.
Introducing Micro-dosing Joy: a two-week practice
Some of you may not be ready for rallying, taking action, or being hopeful. We understand that, and we feel similarly. But we believe that avoiding despair is paramount at this moment; while we may not be ready to assimilate the “hope” angle of Brene Brown’s call to action, we can get on board with the “micro” aspect. And we’re going to put a slightly different spin on it and seek out joy.
For the first two weeks of December, we’ll be “micro-dosing joy” with our paid subscribers. Every Monday through Friday, we’ll post a short prompt for inspiration, and participants can share their daily moments of joy—this can be a photo or a song that spoke to you, it can be a few sentences describing a sunset you watched or a few paragraphs about an evening you spent with your best friend.
Micro-dosing Joy is an invitation to seek out small moments of joy in your daily life, and to lean into a community of supportive midlife women to keep you accountable and connected. You can use this two-week experience to kick-start your creativity, lean into a writing practice, or simply give yourself a small “joy vine” to grab to get through the day.
This two-week practice is for paid subscribers only—you can upgrade your subscription here to join us starting December 2nd. We can’t wait to connect with you.
Get started
Before the challenge begins, right now paid subscribers can go here to introduce themselves and learn more about how the practice will work.
I love this idea. I work to find joy in the face of tragedy and have found a wonderful community for this among other grieving mothers. We give each other permission to laugh.
Excited for this! I am a "midstory" woman and writer at 64, publishing the Substack Living in 3D, "Life lessons in embracing desire in every decade from a late-blooming woman in her 60s, still in the process of becoming. We thrive by planting our roots in all three dimensions at once: mind, body and spirit," https://amybrown.substack.com/. I am divorced as of two years ago (after more than three decades together), based in southwest Florida for the past 10 years, but moving to Barcelona in Feb 2025 to be closer to my two daughters (one in Barcelona, the other in Paris). My story is entering a different chapter now, a bit of a full circle, since while American, I lived in Europe for 22 years, raising my daughters with their Swedish dad. In the midst of trying to publish a novel, working on a new book, running a freelance writing business and getting ready for a transatlantic move, I need to microdose myself with joy so as not to drown in the overwhelm of all I want/need to do. So grateful for this initiative.