How to Find Joy Even If You Have a Hole in Your Bucket

How can you expect to be happy if your brain is stuck in a mode that literally prevents it? This is the state of affairs for most of us these days. What if happiness isn’t something you find someday, but a skill you can master today, even if your life feels like it’s leaking from the bottom?

In How to Find Joy Even If You Have a Hole in Your Bucket, licensed therapist and spiritual guide Michael Boyle shares a refreshingly honest, science-backed approach to healing and happiness. Drawing from decades of experience, a near-fatal injury, and hundreds of client transformations, in his book, Boyle invites you to stop waiting for better circumstances and start creating a better state of being—right now.

This isn’t just another self-help book. It’s a roadmap out of survival mode and into a life grounded in safety, joy, and purpose. With powerful stories, practical tools, and a dose of irreverent humor, How to Find Joy Even If You Have a Hole in Your Bucket helps unravel the outdated patterns holding you back and shows how to rewire your nervous system for lasting change.

If you’re tired of coping and ready to feel genuinely good—without gimmicks or bypassing—this book will show you how to come home to yourself, and your joy.

Michael Boyle, LMFT, C-DBT, is a licensed psychotherapist, optimal performance coach, and founder of the ALL Together Academy. He specializes in Embodied Aliveness Trauma Transformation (EATT), guiding others to turn pain into purpose through practical, neuroscience-backed tools that blend heart, humor, and grit.

For 24 years, Michael unknowingly lived with a life-threatening injury-a six-inch hole in his diaphragm that compromised his health and energy. Despite this, he led mental health programs, raised a thriving family, and built a transformational body of work that now serves thousands.

Following a life-saving surgery in 2024, Michael brings renewed clarity to his mission: helping people regulate their nervous systems, rewire survival patterns, and cultivate joyful, resilient lives from the inside out. Through his teaching and writing, he empowers others to embody what he calls the JOLKA way-joy, openness, love, kindness, and awareness.