The Joy Edit #9

A regular edit for your joy.

Nervous system regulation tool

Shoulder Blade Squeezes

HOW: Sit or stand tall, then draw your shoulder blades together as if you're trying to hold a pencil between them.Hold for 5 seconds, release slowly. Repeat 3–5 times.

(Remember to keep your jaw and forehead soft. I see you.)

WHY: We carry tension across our upper backs and chest when stressed. This reverses the collapse, opens your front body, and signals to your nervous system that you're not in threat mode.

Try it now before you turn on the playlist below — how do you feel after?

​Listen: After Glow Radio​

I heard this track on a surf movie I watched recently (Nauticaa, on Netflix).It's really awesome. This playlist is groovy, mellow, and will make you feel better to be alive.

Watch: ​​Goals are stressful. Regulation is better.​

Setting goals to feel better? You might be making it worse.Here's what to do instead.(Plus: a short body-based practice at the end so you can actually feel the difference, not just understand it.)

A movie I've loved: The Shark Whisperer​

Controversial, it seems. But I thought this was seriously inspiring.

Good news: Art Is Making People Healthier​

Creativity is proving to be such an effective remedy that hospitals are rolling it out.

Behind the scenes:

I've been laughing a lot this week.

Proper, all-out belly laughs.

All thanks to remote-watching daft movies and TV with my bestie and her boyfriend (MAFS Australia is toxic, but those two make it brilliant), and old Hammer horrors with my boyfriend. We press play at the same time and chat in WhatsApp throughout.

And it hit me: this is co-regulation at a distance.

No deep chats or processing, just being in the same emotional space as someone else — even through a screen, even miles apart — and my nervous system actually regulating.

We tend to think support has to be serious to count. But sometimes it's just watching the same show as someone we love and making jokes about it for an hour.

It’s subtle. It’s powerful. And I reckon it's actually a bit magical.

The takeaway:

Your nervous system is constantly responding to who and what you surround yourself with, not just in person, but energetically, digitally, all of it.

And when you intentionally bring in people or moments that help you soften, laugh, exhale… you change your entire baseline without forcing a single thing.

Who helps you feel like that?And are you letting yourself have enough of it?

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