Her research focuses on the mind-body connection,and how to cultivate resilience and compassion. She is the author of The Willpower Instinct、The Upside of Stress and Yoga for Pain Relief.In her free time, she volunteers as an adoption counselor for animal rescue.Her mission, as an author , a psychologist, and an educator, is to make easier. Her 2013 TED talk “How to Make Stress Your Friend,” which makes the case that social connection is both a natural instinct and a source of resilience in times of stress, started out as a lecture for Stanford’s Introduction to Psychology course.Through the Stanford Center for Compassion and Altruism, she helped to create the Cultivation Training, a course now taught around the world that helps individuals develop greater empathy, compassion, and social connection.She believes that it is possible to experience hope, joy, and meaning, even when things are difficult. And she believes that the best way to do this is to connect—with one another, and with something bigger than ourselves.