Welcome! Thank you so much for your interest in learning about our Maximizing Joy evergreen and live course and its sample session mini-course.

We’re honored to open with this appreciation of Maximizing Joy from one of the founders of the human potential movement, Stanley Krippner, author of A Chaotic Life: The Memoirs of Stanley Krippner, Pioneering Humanistic Psychologist.

Joy, and such associated feelings as bliss and happiness, are often in short supply in this troubled world. In this remarkable course, Saniel Bonder and Linda Groves-Bonder and their guest speakers teach their virtual students how to find and maximize joy, not only in such obvious settings as family, faith, music, Nature, work settings, and loving relationships (with pets as well as other humans) but also in adversity, contemplation, and solitude.

Their discussion of the neurophysiology of joy presents its underlying mechanisms.

Too often joy is taken for granted, but this course provides ways to find it, maximize it, and make it a part of everyday life.

This is an important, original project, one that will bring joy to many people.

And here’s a statement from Marci Shimoff, #1 NYTimes bestselling author, Happy for No Reason and Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul:

Just knowing that the Maximizing Joy program is available gives me joy and hope. Created by pioneering spiritual leaders Saniel Bonder and Linda Groves-Bonder, this unique course is both timeless and timely.

In our challenging world, with unprecedented levels of depression, hopelessness, anxiety, and fear, this is a powerful antidote to experience, metabolize, and make your own. With powerful practices and processes, Saniel, Linda, and their wise guest teachers welcome us to supercharge our joyousness.

If you’re curious but not ready for the full 8-session course, you can opt for a “sample session mini-course,” Laying a Foundation for Maximizing Your Joy. This mini-course itself could help you optimize happiness in a deep and lasting way.

I’m delighted to give this program and these great teachers my highest recommendation.

Business icon Chip Conley is a boutique hotelier and a global hospitality and strategy adviser, founder and CEO of the Modern Elder Academy (MEA), and NYTimes bestselling author of Wisdom@Work and Learning to Love Midlife.

We’ve all heard of “mixing business with pleasure.” It’s a whole other matter, nowadays an urgent necessity, to infuse business and our whole lives with joy in every way we can. Maximizing Joy is a feast of humane wisdom and inspiration for how to actually do it. The bonus interviews are like a mini-summit of world-class spiritual leaders. The teachings of host facilitators Saniel Bonder and Linda Groves-Bonder are leading-edge and wonderfully grounding. Anyone can benefit from this extraordinary course. A lot of us need it. I heartily recommend it!

 Maximizing Joy
In Your Life, Work, Relationships — and World

An 8-session online recorded course
plus current live interactive trainings
with pioneering spiritual leaders

Saniel Bonder & Linda Groves-Bonder

Featuring Guest Speakers
in order of appearance:

Rick Hanson, Ph.D., Mirabai Starr, Ken Wilber,
Stephen Dinan & Devaa Haley-Mitchell, Miranda Macpherson,
Anodea Judith, Ejna (formerly Jean) Fleury, & Terry Patten

Dear Friend,

A great question haunts so many of us every day:

With all the challenges, pressures, and anxieties I'm dealing with every day — how do I stay happy?

More than that — how can I be as joyful as possible, and help others do that too?

Think about the things that tend to drain off, if not completely boil away, the juiciness of your sense of basic wellness and happiness.

The transformational process we two offer, best known as Waking Down in Mutuality® or Waking Down®, never shrinks from the pain, darkness, and difficulties of being alive.

But we're not "downers." This is our position on everyone's disposition:

Joy is good and good for us all!

We suggest that's true at every stage of our personal and spiritual development and in all kinds of outward and inner circumstances. Here’s Linda telling a personal story about joy in the midst of mourning: 

Mud Puddle Joy (3:00)

There’s plenty of information and experiential practices in Maximizing Joy about how to deal with feelings and experiences, like a death in the family, when joy is hard to find — and may not be something you’re looking for at all.

You’ll learn many ways to strengthen, refine, and share joy. You’ll also explore how to access a home base of it in your spiritual core that can never be compromised by any experience. And is always appropriate!

To help you anchor and embody what you’re learning, in addition to many recordings we offer you ongoing live, interactive trainings.

In this letter we offer lots of other short video clips like the one above of Linda’s experience with the three little girls. Several are coming right up, and you can go to the “What’s in Each Session” section for the others.

And, you’ll see other endorsements from thought leaders and testimonials from folks who share what they’ve gotten out of the course(s) themselves.

Philip Goldberg has hosted us twice on his Spirit Matters podcast. He’s the author of a sweeping modern spiritual history, American Veda: From Emerson and the Beatles to Yoga and Meditation — How Indian Spirituality Changed the West, The Life of Yogananda, and Spiritual Practice for Crazy Times.

Knowing Saniel and Linda, and seeing the lineup of luminaries they’ve assembled, I know that Maximizing Joy has been designed and infused with wisdom, integrity, and practical tools for growth and transformation — and, yes, conducted with maximum joy.

"The Two Kinds of Joy, and
Why It's Totally OK for You to Maximize Both"

Linda’s story above above is a preview clip from our original introductory presentation about the Maximizing Joy course, “The Two Kinds of Joy, and Why It’s Totally OK for You to Maximize Both.”

Here are some other video “peeks” into that presentation:

Nature’s Gifts of Joy (2:41)

Pamper Your Inner Child or Teenager, Please Your Inner Queen or King (2:28)

Three Key Points on the Two Kinds of Joy (2:50)

Here’s the full intro talk, edited from the hourlong original to 30+ minutes.

"Laying a Foundation for Maximizing Your Joy":
The New Sample Session Mini-Course

If you’d like more information than what’s available on this page or an opportunity to experience a full session of Maximizing Joy without buying the total course, we’ve added this new mini-course.

It’s the entire first session of the full course, including these main recordings:

• our own Presentation
• the bonus Interview with Rick Hanson, Ph.D.
• the first Conversation with live course participants

Plus two guided meditations:

• our approach to “Gazing” with one another as a way of amplifying spiritual presence and communion
• a way to work with challenging issues or feelings called “Six-Step Recognition Yoga™”

Laying a Foundation for Maximizing Your Joy offers you a sound basis for everything you can explore, learn, and implement from the full course.

The "Maximizing Joy” Course Format

Each of the 8 sessions in the full course and the single, sample-session mini-course include these components:

• An up to 60-minute presentation by us, Saniel and Linda
• A bonus interview with a spiritual teacher or cultural leader
• An up to 75-minute Q&A/conversation the two of us facilitated with participants in the original live course
• Meditation practices and experiential exercises offered by us and by most of our guest speakers

In addition you also get:

• Recorded music and other helpful material, including Linda's vocal toning and one of her original songs
• Lifelong access to all this on each course’s private webpage for registered purchasers only
• A monthly live conversation/practice session on Zoom that’s open to all purchasers of both course versions
• Multiple coaching options for personal, couples, or small group consultation and mentoring with us, Saniel and/or Linda, online or in-person. Contact us at [email protected] for a complimentary discovery session

Already know you want to take the full 8-session Maximizing Joy course or the sample-session mini-course?

What’s in Each Session

This list includes the session title, the name of that session’s guest interview speaker, and short video clip previews of the session’s three main recordings. On the private course page you get access to upon purchasing, each session opens with 3 written Key Points.

Session 1 (also the Mini-Course):

Why Non-Joy Seems to Win so Much of the Time, and What We Can Do About It

▶ Bonus Interview with Rick Hanson, Ph.D., renowned neuropsychologist and author of Buddha's Brain, Hardwiring Happiness, Resilient, and Neurodharma

Presentation: Remembering Ke’e Beach — Mindsets and Actions for Empowering Joy (4:03)

Rick's Interview: Helping Our Brain Be More Like Velcro for Good Experiences and Teflon for Bad Ones (4:20)

Session 2:

Serving and Being Served — Secrets of Unstinting Generosity and Delighted Receptivity

▶ Bonus Interview with Mirabai Starr, spiritual teacher and author of Caravan of No Despair, Wild Mercy: Living the Fierce and Tender Wisdom of the Women Mystics, Ordinary Mysticism, and other titles

Mirabai's Interview: More than a Mother’s Loss and Transformation — On the Wounded Healer or Reluctant Prophet Syndrome (4:28)

Mirabai's Interview: Our Particular Task in This World Is Intimately Entwined with Our Joy (3:04)

Conversation: "Where I’ve Had My Greatest Joy in Service" — & the Gift to Others of Communicating about Your Self-Care (3:36)

Session 3:

The Endless Dance of Being True to Yourself While Helping Others Do the Same

▶ Bonus Interview with Ken Wilber, philosopher, founder of the international Integral movement, author of A Brief History of Everything, The Religion of Tomorrow, and other seminal works

Ken's Interview: The 3-2-1 Process — On Changing the Territory as Never Before (5:28)

Conversation: Weave the Braid and Make It Your Own (1:02)

Conversation: Letting Nature Rejuvenate Us So We Can Put Our Love out There for the World (2:30)

Video previews of Sessions 4-8 coming soon

Session 4:

Acting Local, Being Global, and the Grace of Contribution

▶ Bonus Interview with Stephen Dinan and Devaa Haley-Mitchell, Co-founders of The Shift Network. Stephen is also author of Sacred America, Sacred World; Devaa is an ordained minister, ceremonial priestess, and women’s leader

Session 5:

Drinking From the Fountain of Blissful Nectar in Your Own Heart

▶ Bonus Interview with Miranda Macpherson, interfaith minister, spiritual teacher, author of The Way of Grace: The Transforming Power of Ego Relaxation, and leader of the Living Grace Global Sangha

Session 6:

Why Trust Is the Ground of Joy — and How to Strengthen It

▶ Bonus Interview with Anodea Judith, founding director of Sacred Centers, therapist and global teacher, author of Wheels of Life, Eastern Body Western Mind, The Global Heart Awakens, and more

Session 7:

The Serene Joy of "Foundation Friendship," the Radical Unity That Liberates Us into Our Uniqueness

▶ Bonus Interview with Ejna Fleury, Lakota Grandmother, Visionary, and Peace Ambassador for the Crow Creek Sioux tribe

Session 8:

What the One Great Heart We All Share Won't Settle for Less Than

▶ Bonus Interview with the late Terry Patten, Integral leader, (r)evolutionary, and author of The New Republic of the Heart, and founder of The New Republic of the Heart Community — please see Terry's statement in the P.S. below

Cat Dancing-Strong is a retired IT project manager, a devout Christian, and a devoted dog lover.

From Saniel and Linda’s intro talk it was validating to get that I'm already tapping into both the existential and the experiential forms of joy — and liberating to hear that I’m truly free to maximize both in my life.

In the mini-course, Linda’s story about being pulled over by a traffic cop on Halloween when she was dressed up as a baby doll showed me it’s possible to bring lightness and joy even to really bad situations.

Rick Hanson’s neuroscientific explanation of how evolution has made our minds like Velcro for negative experiences and Teflon for positive ones has stuck with me. So has his recommendation just to “take in the good” every day.

My whole life has already changed for the better as a result, and I’m just very grateful.

Larry Dossey, M.D., is the author of One Mind, The Extraordinary Healing Power of Ordinary Things, and Prayer Is Good Medicine.

The spiritual teachings of Saniel Bonder and Linda Groves-Bonder embody timeless wisdom, immense practicality, and a refreshing lightheartedness and joy. They are authentic healers — practitioners who help people become whole by discovering their intrinsic holiness. And, they are among the most talented, multifaceted, awake people I know.

Jon Mattingly is a former student and teacher of Saniel and Linda’s Waking Down transformational work. He’s also one of the participants you’ll hear in the course’s Conversations.

Finding our Joy and bringing it forward into the world is the critical skill of our times. Understanding the elements that make this possible is the core purpose of Maximizing Joy, and Saniel and Linda deliver on their promise.

Drawing on nearly 60 years of their combined teaching expertise, along with delightful insights from other renowned voices, they have given us an immeasurably valuable conversation that weaves together modern paradigms with the ancient wisdom of our radiant hearts, and illuminates the dynamic interplay of the most important aspects of our whole being, from surrendered mindfulness to empowered activism.

The topics covered in the guest interviews are wide-ranging, full of wealth and wisdom. As a bit of a neuro/biology geek myself, I especially enjoyed Rick Hanson’s approach to anchoring joy into the entire body-mind for ongoing well-being.

Anodea Judith gives an excellent account of joy throughout the chakras, making a beautiful case for the profound importance of cultivating trust in our own bodies and all the way through to Grace, for the greatest experience of Joy in our lives.

If you want to give yourself the gift of boundless, vibrant, unshakable Joy in your life, let this profound offering be your starting point.

What You Can Learn from "Maximizing Joy"
or the Mini-Course

▶ The age-old truths that so many find in faith — rejoicing in the "3 Faces of God"

▶ Why spiritual bypassing of our wounds, trauma, and pain misses the mark of authentic joy as much as emotional wallowing in our miseries

▶ What's love got to do with joy? One way or another, just about everything!

▶ How serving and just being kind to other people and creatures outshines stress and makes us happy — and them too

▶ Learning how to recognize and integrate our "shadow," why professional therapeutic help can be crucial, and how to avoid re-traumatizing ourselves

▶ The miracle of what our pets and other animals can do for us, mostly without even trying

▶ Why generosity is ultimately anything but altruistic, gratitude is "attitudinal gold," and trust makes endorphins swim around in us like happy dolphins leaping through the waves (sorry! couldn't resist! :->)

▶ The "limbic loop" for emotional intelligence, the "sinoatrial sync" for mutual existential joy, and other neurophysiological verifications of why good company is so good for us — and bad company is so bad

▶ The transformative power of "greenlighting" the parts of ourselves we tend to struggle with and suffer the most, and the confident joy of "Six-Step Recognition Yoga"

▶ The power of simple gazing with someone we trust to strengthen our spirits, anchor our resilience, and even activate and enhance our whole-being awareness of the one great Heart that we share with all life and all that exists

▶ How every moment of prayer or meditation and every act of kindness contribute more to peace on Earth than we can possibly know

▶ Increasing your appreciation of a song well sung, a task well done, a child's love, the stars above — the simple marvels and sheer miracle of our ordinary moments of living

This is a long list — and we’ve deleted a bunch of others we’d come up with. Hopefully you’ll find them on your own!

Ken Wilber is a renowned cultural philosopher, a primary founder of the international Integral movement, and the author of The Spectrum of Consciousness, The Religion of Tomorrow, and many other seminal works.

Saniel Bonder is one in whom the Conscious Principle is awakened, and he is attempting to forge a new path of mutuality in the midst of ordinary, messy, everyday realities ... and Linda Groves-Bonder is a brilliant teacher in her own right.

Marlene Samuelson is a professor emerita of biology and a gender awareness/rights advocate.

As an experienced student of Saniel and Linda's Human Sun Heart Work, I’ve taken and/or participated in most, if not all, of their courses. Of them all, Maximizing Joy has been my favorite and most personally meaningful and empowering, for at least 2 specific reasons:

1) The emphasis that it's totally OK to maximize the personal, daily, everyday joys. I think I had still been living with some lifelong internal messages, received from my mother (and no doubt others in my young personal world), that to care for self, let alone seek “joy,” was selfish and not good or OK.

Even though I had done a lot of psycho-spiritual work for decades before this course, somehow that message was still in me. The permission, emphasized in this course, to maximize that personal joy was very liberating for me — I GOT IT!

Perhaps the “reason” is that I now somehow know that my own joy helps bring out my inner SUN and LIGHT more to others and the world.

2) The interviews with the 8 other teachers were so excellent — the ways Saniel and Linda interacted with them and what I heard from them all was very rich, empowering and motivational for me.

And, in retrospect, overall, I feel that this course really helped deepen my already felt and known sense of “unshakable JOY."

Words of Welcome from the Heart!

This recorded course and its mini-course excerpt, plus the ongoing live trainings we offer, are open to all. Everyone is welcome — especially all who sense that our potential is immense, that we can enjoy life ever so much more than we ordinarily do, and that what we do to maximize joy itself helps change our world!

Again, we, Linda and Saniel, welcome you to contact us if you’re interested in exploring personal, couples, or group coaching with us.

Just write us at [email protected] and request a complimentary discovery session. We’ll respond promptly and work with you to schedule a Zoom or phone call soon!

Also, see our P.S. below — where another special friend, now no longer with us, had things to share with you about our work and us.

We sooo hope you decide to partake of these course offerings and register now!

As you consider…

Whether to invest your time, money, attention, energy, hope and heart in Maximizing Joy:

Remember all the stuff that tends to drain off the juice of your sense of wellness, if not boil it away?

It's all still going to be here tomorrow, testing and challenging you.

This course can empower you to meet all that and more—with joy!

We’re confident you’ll be glad you did!

Sending you all our love and Heart-blessings, with deep appreciation for who you are and are becoming,

Saniel and Linda

P.S. Here's a more extensive appreciation of our work and us from a nearly lifelong friend and fellow spiritual journeyer of Saniel's who passed away in late 2021. Terry Patten was a leader of the international Integral movement, author of the bestselling A New Republic of the Heart, and founder of the global New Republic of the Heart community.

Saniel Bonder has been awakened for decades, and was an early pioneer in the democratization of awakening. I have known him for almost 50 years, and I can attest that, quirks and all, Saniel is the real thing — brilliant, awakened, authentic, deep, alchemically potent, sincerely caring, and vulnerably, divinely human — a true original.

He has a superpower or siddhi: he is able, quite naturally and authentically, to behold the unique divinity, humanity, and gifts of an awakening soul, and to mirror it back — not infrequently with life-changing catalytic effects. During the early years of teaching Waking Down in Mutuality he catalyzed transformational awakenings in many dozens of ordinary people, creating a community of awakening and clarifying a dharma that embraces the messy imperfection of human life rather than attempting to override it in hypermasculine fashion.

He is a tantric, and works the alchemy of the deep feminine — now in a new way because for over two decades he has been synergistically partnered with his wife, Linda Groves-Bonder. Linda is revered in her own right by students for an immense capacity to transmit transformative love, and for her unique abilities to help people awaken to and deeply embody their divine humanity.

Together, Saniel and Linda are now empowering the awakening and growth of many emerging gnostics, weaving a masculine-feminine matrix of blessings, and — one heart at a time — activating and provoking new levels of emergence and empowerment, helping people 'drop' into conscious enjoyment of and participation in the sacred nature of reality, recognizing that it is always already the case.