Welcome to the happiness podcast. I'm Dr. Robert Puff. When we think of happiness and what it

entails, I think for a lot of people it entails feeling less pain and having more pleasure.

That's a pretty common definition of happiness.

And it kind of makes sense if you think about it.

Don't we want to feel good and not feel bad?

Don't we want to have lots of good experiences that put smiles on our

face and then stay away from and avoid those that make us sad or unhappy or angry? The problem

with this approach is life just doesn't always go that way.

Sometimes we have events that happen to us that are sad.

And sometimes we have events that happen to us that put a smile on our face.

And they both can be good. They don't have to be bad experiences but if we try to

push away the bad and just have the good in an extreme form that will lead ultimately to unhappiness.

Think for a moment about how I always end this podcast.

Except what is, love what is. If right now what is is sadness then we need to

feel that.

An example of sadness being a good thing

is the love I had for my dog Einstein.

He died about five years ago after a long life of about 16 years, he was with me much of the time and we really

had a close, close bond.

I was privileged to be there when he was dying and when he took his last breath, all of a sudden what came out of me was a deep, deep sadness.

I mean, I just cried harder than I think I've ever cried in my entire life.

And it actually felt very good. It felt very natural. I wasn't expecting

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