Welcome to the happiness podcast, I'm Dr. Robert Puff. Over the now nearly 200 episodes, I've talked a lot about how to find

happiness no matter what's going on in our lives. And in our lives a lot of things can happen.

Sometimes we have to face illnesses, other times we have to

face breakups. Sometimes we have to face homelessness or really tough economic times. But what I haven't touched thus far is politics because

sometimes the politics of our nation that we live in can be quite tumultuous and

during these times it can be hard to find happiness.

So I want to do that today because I get a lot of emails and notes from people asking on

how they can find happiness with all that's going on in the world today.

For example, I live here in the U.S. and over the past few years there's been a lot of political

debate and antagonism towards people, even family members, if they disagree on who

they support or what they believe in.

I bet most of us can think of someone we know, perhaps even a family member, they won't talk to a dear friend

or another family member because they hold a different position politically.

And if we talk to them, they really believe that they have a right not to speak to that other person because they

feel the other person's opinions are so heinous and awful.

One of my best friends has a brother and sister who literally won't talk to each other at all because they have different political

points of view.

So with all this political turmoil in the world that we do have to face throughout our lives,

is it possible to truly be happy with things going on in the world that are so, for many of us, upsetting?

I really believe it is.

Over the years, three things have been helpful for me in regards to learning to respect other people,

even if I disagree with them.

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