Welcome to the happiness podcast. I'm Dr. Robert Puff. Sometimes life can just be exhausting. There are so many things we have to do just to get by that it can overwhelm us and we can think, wow, I just don't know if I can keep this up. I'm so tired. I don't know if you can relate to that statement, but I know a lot of listeners can.

So in today's podcast, we're going to talk about something that can be really helpful,

one to counteract these feelings and to two soften them and make them better because in life we're here to enjoy the journey of life and

sometimes we forget that. So today is about vacations and how they can help us

find happiness both in the here and now and something to look forward to in the future.

I'm not sure why, but life sometimes can really trick us.

Tric is into thinking that if we work really hard today,

someday we'll be able to slow down and enjoy life.

And we have to be very careful with that approach to life because those sometimes one never come or they take a really long time to come and by the time we get there, we're exhausted.

I had a relative of mine who had a sad story.

He worked so hard to support his family, went on and received advanced degree so that he could make more money, so

that in the future, his kids, and he could have a better life.

And then, as his company downscaled, he kept working harder and harder in order not to lose his job.

And then finally, when he reached the point where he was able to quit, retire, and was really looking forward to ending his life for years and years to come with traveling

and exploring.

He had just bought a fifth wheel and he and his wife were going to explore the United States. He within weeks got a very severe form of stomach

cancer and the last two years of his life were fighting this cancer, a battle that he didn't

win. I know we all know people like this, and the first thing

we do not want to do is judge them. These people usually work very hard for their families, and because they want to later in their life have a high quality of life instead of having to depend upon their children.

But with life, we just don't know no matter what we do if there's a guarantee of how long we're going to live.

So really the key of life is yes provide for our families and yes prepare for our futures so we don't have to be

too dependent on our children or our relatives as we get older but also this is so

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