I was the girl who was waiting to be happy "when…"
When I got the degree. Then another. And another. When life finally looked the way I thought happiness was supposed to look.
What I didn't realize was that the same striving helping me achieve success was making it impossible to experience the life I already had.
I became an unhappy happiness professor,
quietly struggling to apply the science of well-being
to my own life.
Earning a PhD and spending my days immersed in the science of well-being made me even more unhappy.
The more I learned, the more I felt like I wasn't measuring up to the very thing I was teaching.
After class one day, a student could not wait to tell me about Shawn Achor's TED Talk,
The Happy Secret to Better Work. She said I'd love it, and she was right.
That conversation sparked a new direction in both my work and my life. The idea that we could train our brains for happiness blew me away. I spent the next several years immersed in the science, convinced the answers to my own unhappiness were just one more research study away.
Ironically, the more science I read, the worse I felt. I finally stopped searching for answers and trying to fix myself, and started pausing as a daily practice to reconnect with myself and the present moment, I rediscovered the playful spirit that had always been here.
This was ultimately the spark to live life a little lighter—
eventually becoming the foundation for Dr. SidZ Studio.
Tiny daily practices can train our brains
and shape how we view the world.
Everything shifted when a student shared a TED Talk on happiness.
2025 – present
Dr. SidZ Studio and The Pause Trio™️ emerged as a creative space to share tiny, playful invitations and science-backed tools to live a little lighter.
2024
Moved back East from AZ, my Mom passed, and the business evolved into Dr. SidZ WellBeing Lab.
2022
My Dad passed, I started The WellBeing Hub, and created the Well-Being Experiment Cards®—
a culmination of my life's work.
2018
Adopted Zenna and trained her as my Service Dog, the greatest love and joy of my life.
2011
Earned Tenure—another accomplishment that did not bring me happiness.
2002
Graduated from Arizona State University with a PhD in Exercise & Wellness.
1994
Graduated UNCW, attended grad school at Appalachian State University— eventually moved to California
1990
Drove 16 hours away from my childhood home in Massachusetts to attend UNC-Wilmington.
MY Story Moments
Dancing, music,
and movement
Movies, comedy,
and storytelling
Curiosity, creativity,
and photography
Exploring new places
with Zenna
What lights me up…
The Heart of
Dr. SidZ Studio
Today, Dr. SidZ Studio brings an art to the science of well-being through stories, movies, nature, playful experiments, reflection, and everyday observations that translate the research into lived experience.
The Studio is named in honor of Zenna—the “Z” in Dr. SidZ—my service dog and beloved companion, who has taught me as much about presence, wonder, love, and being human as any person, book, or research study.
More than anything, I’ve come to believe that being human isn’t about fixing ourselves so we can finally be happy. It’s about learning to relate to ourselves and to life with a little more lightheartedness, a little more love, and a lot less pressure.
Being human is full of paradoxes. Joy and pain. Beauty and messiness. Love and loss.
Yet we often resist or avoid the uncomfortable parts, making life even harder.
When we pause, welcome the full human experience, and stay open to possibility, we meet life with a little less resistance.
At the heart of this Studio are tiny, playful invitations to pause. To notice. To experiment.
Not to fix yourself, but to discover your own way of living a little lighter.
More play.
More wonder.
More awareness.
More love.
More being.
My Philosophy
I'm in love with . . .
Joy Scout Experiment
Outdoor Adventures
Zenna
Some of the defining books that helped shape Dr. SidZ Studio.
Books Behind the Studio
Explore a playful approach to well-being through four free sample experiment cards—one from each pillar:
Awareness, Connection, Insight, and Purpose.
No pressure. No perfection.
Just tiny invitations to experience life a little lighter through curiosity and play.
