A guide to designing joy
Willpower and motivation are the first two things that leave when you are depleted. They are gone before the energy is. Which means most advice about building a better life arrives asking for exactly what you no longer have.
The Happiness Handbook starts somewhere smaller.
Available September 22 · $14.99 on Amazon
I had spent two decades teaching other people how to take care of themselves, and suddenly I could not walk to my own mailbox.
My medical team was extensive, and every one of them told me the trauma was completely physical. They were describing a body. I was living in a mind that had gone dark.
Then one doctor told me I was going to need three things to get through it: a streaming service, a library card, and a therapist.
I laughed him off. He was right.
He was not prescribing anything new. He was pointing at things already within reach and telling me they belonged alongside the medication, not after it.
The boulders are the big ones. Structured exercise, nutrition overhauls, sleep protocols, therapy. They belong in every conversation about well-being, and they require reserves, planning, and sustained effort. Sometimes they are the least available option on the days you need help the most.
The pebbles are smaller, and they are everywhere.
I started opening the blinds before I opened my laptop. I listened to Smallpools instead of the news. I stopped worrying about the depth of a friendship and sent silly memes whenever I thought of someone.
One pebble is insignificant. A handful in a day starts to feel like something. Weeks of them and you are holding material you can build with.
Every one of them can be acted on as a single decision, in the moment, with no preparation and no plan you have to sustain afterward.
The color, the light, and the pile on the counter your brain has been reading all day.
Five minutes of it, a plant on a windowsill, the sound of water through a speaker.
The playlist, the comfort show, and the feed you scroll before bed.
The thing you loved at ten years old and stopped doing when it stopped being productive.
Who you would call on the worst night of your week, and who would call you.
Where you put things, how often you repeat them, and what you decide they mean.
You will rate songs and shows. Clear one surface. List what you loved doing at ten years old. Figure out who you would call on the worst night of your week. Sketch an ordinary Tuesday you would actually want to live.
What the research actually found, in plain language, with the researchers named so you can go check.
One small action you can take in the next ten minutes. No supplies, no free Saturday.
Pages where you build your own plan out of what you just learned.
Jessica has a remarkable ability to take the science of well-being and make it feel deeply human, practical, and possible. The Happiness Handbook isn’t another book telling you to ‘just be positive,’ and you don’t simply read this book; you interact with it, reflect through it, and begin making changes because of it. Jessica reminds us that joy doesn’t have to wait for life to become easier, quieter, or more perfect. We can start building it right where we are, and that may be one of the most hopeful messages we can give people.
Dr. Erin NitschkeDean, Health & Fitness Professional, Speaker, Writer, and Co-host of the Fit & Flustered Podcast
Jessica H. Maurer writes and speaks about happiness as something you can build out of what is already around you. She spent two decades in the fitness industry first, which is where she learned to be very good at the wrong things.
She is the 2026 IDEA Fitness Leader of the Year and the Director of Education for the Mental Wellbeing Association.
She lives with her husband, teenage son, and one cat who identifies as a dog. You can find her roller-skating her neighborhood, leading music bingo, practicing her grandma hobbies, and talking to her plants.
I will send you the first two chapters that tell you everything you need to know to start your journey. You will also be the first to know when the book goes live on September 22.
No spam and no funnel. Two chapters, and one email when the book is out.
