Welcome to the happiness podcast, I'm Dr. Robert Puff. If you've been listening to this

podcast for a little while now, you may begin to notice some changes, changes in

you as you become more peaceful, more happy, more content with life, flowing better with life,

and life just seems to keep getting better.

And clearly these are really nice benefits.

But I do get emails from listeners pretty often that ask me this question.

Dr. Puff, what about my family?

What about my friends?

What will happen with them as I change? Or can I help them become happier themselves as I get

happier? The simple answer to this question is yes and no. Yes, we can make changes in other people and no we can't

make changes in other people. What do I mean by that? As we journey through life, clearly we're impacted by the people around us.

I mean it affects us, it conditions us, it shapes us. But more importantly, far more

importantly, as you discovered perhaps through listening to this podcast, it's far

less important what people do to us than it is our response to what people do.

That's the most important thing. That's the thing that really shapes us. No matter what people do. That's the most important thing. That's the thing that really shapes us. No matter what people do, we can have very different responses to the exact same situation.

I'm sure we can all reflect on people that we know growing up and even now that had the exact

same parents but turned out very differently.

A good example of this is President Carter.

He graduated with honors from one of the top military academies in the United States.

He went on to become governor of a state and then later became president of the United States

and after that won the Nobel Peace Prize. That's pretty impressive.

His own brother, who struggled with alcoholism, Maine job was running a gas station.

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