Chris M. Coursey - The Joy Switch: How Your Brains Secret Circuit Affects Your Relationships—And How You Can Activate It

Joyits the one emotion we long to have dominate the way we describe our relationships, seasons of life, and current circumstances. Yet joy also seems the most difficult to revive when we encounter stress, conflict, grief, or loss. In The Joy Switch, Chris Coursey provides an evidence-based, practical understanding of how our brain processes and produces joy, and what we can do to not only restore joy but thrive in joyfulness. Whether youve experienced trauma, broken relationships, or significant loss, The Joy Switch will offer you concrete steps to enhance and sustain a disciplined practice of joy in your daily life.

DEBORAH GORTON, PHD

Psychologist, professor, and author of Embracing Uncomfortable: Facing Our Fears While Pursuing Our Purpose

Everybody wants to experience joy. But it often eludes us. Coursey blends brain insight with practical wisdom to show you how you can more consistently experience joy. He deftly weaves colorful life stories into how he encourages the reader to engage their joy switch. I recommend The Joy Switch to anyone who wants greater satisfaction in their relationships with people and with God.

DR. CHARLES STONE

Lead Pastor at West Park Church in London, Ontario, Canada; author of six books, including Holy Noticing: The Bible, Your Brain, and the Mindful Space between Moments

Politics, money, and religionwhy are there topics and people we just cannot talk about? How does family love turn into shouting, silence, hurt feelings, and distance? The Joy Switch explains the clear mechanism in the brain that few people understand but we all see. You know you already need to know this!

JIM WILDER, PHD

Author and international speaker on the neuroscience of trauma recovery and prevention

In The Joy Switch, Chris Coursey presents a treasure trove of information. What makes this book extraordinary is the honest, humbling transparency that Chris offers, sharing his struggles and failures as well as his victories. It is his honest report of the challenge of actually living this material that gives it so much traction. I have no doubt that the transformation to experience more joy will come to the life of any reader of The Joy Switch.

DR. BILL ATWOOD

Anglican bishop and author, The General, The Boy, and Recapturing Joy

The Joy Switch is one of those books that can change your life. If you take the time to do the exercises Chris has assembled, there is no way your joy wont grow! Understanding the material gathered in this book will give you a relationship-improving paradigm that you will wish you had known years before.

DR. MARCUS WARNER

Coauthor, The 4 Habits of Joy-Filled Marriages

This book is about how to get joy, keep joy, and what to do to get it back when youve lost it. Thanks, Chris, for another great book simplifying complex topics and giving us practical activities to learn the skill of building and maintaining relational joy. Let the relational revival begin!

MONICA MOUER, MS, LCMHCS, CSAT, CERTIFIED EMDR THERAPIST

Center for Family Transformation, Founder and Clinical Director

I am delighted that Chris Coursey, founder of THRIVE and author of Transforming Fellowship: 19 Skills That Build Joyful Community, has published his latest valuable work, The Joy Switch. With humor and helpful clarity, Coursey demonstrates, encourages, and challenges us to do exercises that cultivate life-giving habits of joy and appreciation, which are foundational skills that galvanize the transformation promised us in discipleship in Christ. The Joy Switch is a valuable starting place in the growing Life Model-THRIVE library for those who seek real change and want effective, measurable results.

CYNTHIA JACOBSEN

Soul coach, writer, founder and director of Whole Heart Living

2021 by CHRIS COURSEY

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Some names and identifying details have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals.

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

Edited by Elizabeth Cody Newenhuyse

Interior and cover design: Erik M. Peterson

Cover photo of switch copyright 2012 by kyoshino / iStock (185219319). All rights reserved.

Author photo: Charles Spoelstra

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020945065

ISBN: 978-0-8024-2171-5
eBook ISBN: 978-0-8024-9923-3

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Chicago, IL 60610

I dedicate The Joy Switch to my lovely wife, Jen, who held down the fort during the time I was writing this book. The time set aside to write this manuscript was when the coronavirus arrived. The world shut down. My love, you did the heavy lifting! You covered my workload, you cared for our children, you led the ministry, you ran the house and, above all, you stayed relational. Thank you for living this book out and staying a source of joy to our little family!

The human brain is an incredible, God-created three pounds of true wonder. It affects our bodies, our relationships, our relationship with God just about everything. And the growing field of neuroscience is helping us understand how it affects our daily lives, including the joy we experience.

Scientists have discovered that one circuit of our brain helps regulate our emotions, specifically joy, and profoundly impacts our relationships. You can almost view it as a switch. The challenge, however, is when it switches off, robbing us of the joy God wants us to experience not only with Him but with those we care about.

Walking with God and growing in our relationships require that we understand this switch, how it works, and how to maximize its impact. The Joy Switch does just that.

Chris Coursey incorporates brain insight as he weaves colorful life stories about his journey in learning about and experiencing this relational switch. He helps us understand how to recognize when this circuit is off and when it is on. He provides a helpful model of the brains relational circuit. He unpacks how the switch works, what you can do to turn it on, and what turns it off. Youll also learn about roadblocks to joyand how to stay in the joy state.

You wont find The Joy Switch to be a book of theory. Its a book of practice. At the end of each chapter youll find several doable exercises you can apply in your life to engage this joy circuit.

If youre looking for a practical book that uses brain insight to help you develop joy habits to enhance your relationships and your relationship with God, then