A woman with short hair and a flannel shirt holding a 'joy' sign. Represents micro-dosing joy in anxiety therapy Seattle. — Image from Unsplash by Preslie Hirsch 8/18/25

Humans are additive beings. Think about your life experiences, they’ve already happened, so you can’t go back in time and remove them from your life. Your experiences are cumulative. How you see the world, how you learn, your relationship to other people, and many more experiences are shaped cumulatively. There is so much in life that you can’t control, so many obstacles that can instantly lay before you. Due to this cumulative, additive nature of existence, it can be helpful to think about what you can ADD to your life to improve your day-to-day experience and over time shape your focus to more positive experiences. Most people struggling mentally get stuck in patterns of reactivity. It’s easy for your nervous system to pay more attention to perceived threats than positivity or safety. Your nervous system wants to keep you alive, that it’s top job. But it can get stuck and need a little guidance to re-focus on the more enjoyable parts of life. This blog explores why micro-dosing joy matters, how it works, and practical ways to begin weaving it into your daily routine.

Releasing What You Can’t ‘Control’

It’s total normal and reasonable to want to illuminate stress and struggle from your life. When such things are within your influence, of course, make life changes that will contribute to your mental wellbeing and happiness. In my experience, there is a lot in life that’s completely out of your control or influence. Once those parts have been identified, it can be difficult to accept that you will never completely illimate suffering from your life. It’s a human urge to remove or ‘get rid of’ ‘bad’ or ‘harmful’ experiences. Micro-dosing joy can help make what is un-controlable more manageable because your reality is grounded in a different focus.

What is Joy? Using Joy as a Tool in Anxiety Therapy Seattle

Joy isn’t about forced positivity or ignoring what’s hard. It’s a meaningful way to regulate the nervous system, ease stress, and build resilience. Any sensation of emotion is transient in nature. Unfortunately, if your nervous system is stuck in a state of survival, you may perceive more challenging emotions as occurring ‘all the time’ or that you ‘always’ feel a certain way. This is a strong indicator that this practice may be for you. What we tend to classify as ‘good’ emotions, such as happiness or joy are harder to punctuate at first. That’s why I like to think about micro-dosing joy as opposed to thinking you must add giant chunks of positivity. Joy can be found in small, seemingly unimportant moments.

By focusing on these incremental moments, you begin to shift the baseline of your mental health—creating steadier ground for growth.

Highlighting Micro-moments of Joy Into Daily Life

When you think about adding positivity, valued action, or joy to your day, you may think you need to plan a fancy date, get a massage, or go on a long hike. All of these things are lovely and if you have the time and capacity to do so, go for it. What we are discussing when speaking about micro-dosing joy, is starting to find existing moments in your day that you can soak in a bit more. This could be everything from smiling to a stranger, petting a dog, using cute pens at work, or taking a deep breath. Highlight the things that are already happening. By doing this, you are starting to punctuate a different focus. Your nervous system is getting to chance to see moments of safety, love, and connection. As you get better at highlighting moments that are already happening, you can start to intentionally seek out such micro-moments. You may even find moments that surprise you or that you experience differently.

A black woman wearing a green suede jacket with short hair, smiling and throwing glitter in the air. Represents anxiety therapy in Seattle. — Image from Unsplash by Clay Banks 8/18/25

Small Changes Lead to Big Gains

Real, lasting change happens over time and takes practice. There’s a term in the therapy world; ‘first order change’ means surface behavior has changed for the time being. ‘Secord order change, ‘means that a transformation shift has occurred and the system has changed, not just at the surface. Micro-dosing joy is an accessible way for you to start working on second order change today. When it comes to improving your mental health, especially if you’re dealing with overwhelming anxiety, is work to change the structures and systems that are keeping you stuck. There will always be stressful times in life, so your resilience is more based on your foundation of psychological flexibility, your ability to ‘ride the wave.’

Empower Yourself and Reach Out Today to a Seattle Anxiety Therapist

You don't have to face life challenges alone. If you are suffering silently or the support you have isn’t getting you to where you want to be, reach out and schedule a free consultation today. My hope for all potential clients is that you get connected with a provider who can meet your needs. If that isn’t me, I’ll guide you towards someone who can. I can’t wait to meet you.

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