This book was a bit of amines bag for me.
I loved the idea, and I loved some sections of it and how it was this mixture of adivce, sharing life stories and also tips and ideas on how to do it yourself, I liked the format of making it a 30 day plan.
What I didn't enjoy so much was that a good amount if what's talked about this in this book sounds good and might be great, but if you isn't have a stable income and/or partner supporting you it might be very hard to actually do a lot of it, at least in the 30 days this book suggests.

All in all?
Nice book with good ideas if a bit far fetch sometimes.

I started reading this a long time ago and then life happened.

I recently picked it up again and started from the very beginning. The author has suffered a huge professional setback - her business has shut down. Among the anxiety and depression, she decides to take a month to herself and focus on creating joy in her life.

It's an intriguing idea and the author talks very candidly about her life. You are right there with her when she tries on various things to see if they will bring her joy.

A book she mentions repeatedly is The Evolutionary Glitch and I am intrigued enough to want to read it soon.

Some ideas in the beginning of the book were new to me and her experiences were very unique.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this practical memoir.

3.5 stars rounded up

I received a free copy of the book from NetGalley

This book is a very good mix of personal empowering story/memoir and self-help. I liked this more than I thought I was going to. Love the format - thought it was a unique

This was an excellent self-help book on discovering joy in your daily life. Kaia had many good ideas to help you put your joyful thoughts into action and change your mindset. The humor throughout the book kept my interest.

The back of the book had exercises to help you create new habits and a discussion guide. I didn’t use it as a group study but you could. I found the discussion questions helpful and thought-provoking to go through on my own.

I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a new way to meditate and find joy in their life.

I received this galley from NetGalley.

There were many parts of this book that I read and thought, yeah, I can do that. At the same time, there were parts I read and thought I would only be able to do if I was married and had a second income coming in. The Joy Plan is of course not a step-by-step plan to follow, but just one person's journey. She admits that she was able to do things that might not always be feasible without the help of a good support system.

For me, the hardest thing about doing something like Kaia did, would be trying to change my habits. I try to change them all the time with little or no success, so really making that a goal to look at my life and see the things that need to be changed and work on changing them to make myself a happier person, seems in a way, overwhelming. Without being able to put my life on hold for this, I don't think I would be able to do it.

It's great to see how it worked for her, but I feel like the average person takes away more of the small lessons she learned than her huge revelations.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Author: Kaia Roman
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Publication Date: 1 Jul 2017

I could never do all of these ideas, but I'm sure that I don't need to do all of them; merely doing some of them will help. My favorite parts are where the science of happiness is explained, like how you cannot be grateful and anxious at the same time.

The Joy Plan by Kaia Roman was a nice reminder of how we should gratitude and mindfulness in order to create a lifetime of joy. Every chapter had a different topic relating to joy and how to achieve it. The book was written in a way that it made it very easy to understand. The book also motivated me to try certain suggestions in order to increase my happiness and emotional tone. Although there are many books on the market about happiness this book truly championed different methods to achieve happiness and joy that I had not really considered in the past. I would recommend reading this novel if you are searching form something in your life and you are not quite sure what it is or if you want a Joy Plan.

When I read the title of this book, I knew it was one I wanted to read.

Because I worry...

and I complain. A lot. Even though I preach positivity to everyone else.

And who doesn't want ridiculous happiness?

Roman took a challenging experience and used it as a growth opportunity... and really, isn't that what we all should do? It's easy to look at difficulties and wallow... but instead, she developed a plan (just like the business woman she is!) to find and keep joy.

Not just everyday happiness... but joy.

This book takes scientific evidence of the inner workings of the neurotransmitters of the brain to explain how we can better approach life to be happier...

and if we are happier, we naturally will be more productive and healthier, in all aspects of our lives.

Several of her tips were very useful. I'd recommend this book to anyone looking to have a more positive attitude in life. A great read!!!

I did receive a free copy of this book through netgalley and am offering my honest review

This book is a very good mix of personal empowering story/memoir and self-help.
Finding joy, even in the small things in life, isn't easy. This book helps with examples and practical advice to find your way to a more joyful life.

"The Joy Plan" captured my attention from the first page as author Kaia Roman revealed the "warts" in her outwardly rosy-looking life that was falling apart. I wanted to know how she got from that point to where she is today, and her engaging, inspiring memoir did not disappoint! I appreciated the scientific research she included, as well as the practical ways to promote joy in one's life so that it's not so fleeting. In a world that's often overly negative, Roman's book is very relevant and valuable - it's a great read!

We've all been there. We all don't have the gift that Kaia has to pull herself together and continue the fight. A great reminder to not give up when things go south.

The essential guide to reclaiming your life and learning to actually enjoy it. Essential reading for anyone looking to escape the panic that seems to infect nearly every aspect of society.

I'm a big fan of happiness/well-being books and I enjoyed Kaia Roman's "The Joy Plan"- there's a lot of insightful advice tucked in these pages. I like that she balanced a holistic perspective with a scientific basis for a lot of her findings- when she introduced some of the the "Law of Attraction" stuff she *almost* lost me, but then she backed it up with neuroscience and I was hooked back in. I like the personal narrative, as well.

I definitely recommend this book for anyone interested in ways of increasing theirhappiness and looking for various ways to do it.

Kaia Roman felt down-and-out after her business collapsed. She was seeking direction in her role as a wife, mother, friend and business woman. She consulted a friend and decided to devote the next 30 days of her life to creating JOY!

Ms. Roman discovered that The Joy Plan was much more than a 30 day project.
Joy and happiness became a lifestyle that would change her life and the lives of her loved ones.

This is both a memoir and a self-help book for anyone who is seeking joy and a positive lifestyle.

My Thoughts
What is a joy plan and how do you make one?

I think we would all like more joy in our lives. While happiness is a state of mind based on circumstances, joy is an internal feeling that disregards circumstances.

Kaia Roman explained how she started the joy plan by asking a single question; "Does this feel good?" As the author learned to choose positive thoughts and attitudes, her life took a joyful turn. She was attracting positive people and experiences into her life.

I enjoyed this book very much. Ms. Roman provided a detailed account of the ups and downs that she experienced on her quest for joy. She cited an impressive number of references and resources for further study. There is an excellent discussion guide at the end of the book to be used with a study group or just a review of the reading material.

I am currently taking a MOOC on Positive Psychology at Coursera. The experiences chronicled in this book demonstrate that positive emotions CAN change your life for the better. I applaud Ms. Roman for writing this book and thank her for showing us how to "stop worrying, quit complaining, and find ridiculous happiness."

MY RATING: 5 STARS OUR OF 5

FYI - I received a digital review copy of this book from Net Galley.

Please share your thoughts in the Comments Section below. I will reply to all comments and questions.

I have been surprised by a lot of books this year, more so than over the last few years, and I hope this will be a continuous trend, as – in my opinion, books, no matter what genre or subject – should make you grow from the experience of having read them. The Joy Plan by Kaia Roman is on that ever growing list.
This quick to read self-help book is a raw, emotional read that is a lot more practical than what I first envisioned it to be. I can relate to her sentiment of finding it liberating to discover one’s true nature hidden under a heap of accumulated trash. Been there, done that – hope to have learned that lesson, as much as the Author of this book has. Her journey from anxiety and depression toward a positive, and happy person was moving, and inspirational. I am not usually a fan of “memoir” style books but this book asks you to take action, and not just merely read a story of the Author’s life, which makes it probably the most practical memoir I have ever read.
Her take on practicing mindfulness using her senses, specifically taste, was nicely confirming what I have found true and valuable in my own daily practice. What brought this book home for me most, was the practical exercises that allowed the reader to create their own joy plan. It was very action-oriented, detailed and positive.
A very inspirational (and entertaining), self-help book that is one of those I am unlikely to forget.

The Joy Plan has been referred to as a "practical memoir". It is part the very honest journey of one woman and part research backed scientific and psychological "plan" for cultivating joy. The combination of these two very different perspectives hooked me from the start. I love the rawness of a well told personal story and my inner geek loves anything that has solid research as a backdrop. Roman delivers on both as she weaves her own experiments in cultivating joy into a deeply personal account of the why and how she sought out and successfully increased her own levels of joy. She then takes it a step further and outlines a plan that others can follow to increase their own levels of joy.

Most importantly to me, Roman is honest. She is honest in how she lets us into her journey. She is honest about the choices she made that were ultimately joy stealers and the choices she made to help replace those joy stealers with joy builders. She does not pretend to assume that her joy plan is "the joy plan". She shares her experiences, what worked, what didn't, and provides some tools that readers may choose to use as a piece of their own joy plan - but she all does all of that while managing to steer clear of the "shall and must" territory that bogs down so many self-help type books

Not so much a self-help book as a book about how Kaia helped herself.
Don't get me wrong, it has some great "joy" tips at the end of each chapter and the story of her 30 day journey to joy is very inspiring.
I got much out of her journey that will contribute to mine and I did enjoy reading this book.
She has been through much and overcome and therefore her story should help others.
I am fortunate to have received a free e-book copy in return for an honest review.

I was curious to see THE JOY PLAN by Kaia Roman in part because she is described as a Mindfulness Teacher for elementary school students. However, I found this book to be rather sad and therefore not especially appealing and also less helpful than it might otherwise have been. I know from the online reviews that others have found this book valuable and I am grateful for that. I do think that the discussion guide raises some good points and will revisit that in the future.

An excellent read, based on scientific research and realistic expectations. The style is charming therefore you can enjoy the book as an insightful journey looking for joy and fighting hard to discourage negative thoughts and anxiety. It opens the possibility of living differently, more insightful and trying to find the sparks of wonder into every single moment. Strongly recommended if you are desperately looking to change your wrong perspective on life.

The Joy Plan is an interesting take on how you can better confront and tackle head-on, the problems, worries and challenges you have in life. This is the first book I read by Kaia Roman. The Joy Plan has a fun title that made me request it from the publisher out of curiosity. I have a thing for books based on, or influenced by, people's personal experiences. This book is told in an approachable style that informs, teaches and opens your eyes to what Kaia experienced and what readers can too if they make some changes to their lives. Through combining personal experience with tips and tricks, Kaia writes in a way that means, whether you read this in one sitting or dip in and out of it, you will take away something important.

Thanks to Kaia Roman and her publisher for my eARC copy of this book via Netgalley.