Welcome to the happiness podcast. I'm Dr. Robert Puff.

When I headed off the university, I remember I got on my motorcycle

and everything in the world that I owned

fit on the back of it.

I didn't even have a trailer to hold anything. It literally sat behind me

on the back of my motorcycle and I began my life away from my family. And then the next time I moved I had a car that time and

everything that I had then in the world fit in that car. And then during the last years of my university work when I went off to finish

my PhD, I needed to get a trailer to fit everything that I owned that I pulled behind my car and on it went with time I

accumulated more things and mind you there's nothing wrong with this it's just

part of life but we tend to do that. We amass more and more with the

hopes that with that accumulation, our lives will be better. But I do remember going off the university on my

motorcycle and I had such little things back then, mostly my clothes, but I wasn't afraid, I wasn't concerned, it was an

adventure and I did have everything that I needed. Having less didn't make me any less happy.

And I think what we can do in life is we can have the thoughts that if I get more,

more things, more possessions, I'm going to be happier.

And I don't think that's necessarily true.

As a matter of fact, what I want to talk about today is I think that if our hearts possess too much, then

we're going to suffer when our hearts let go and truly try to keep ourselves free like the birds of the air, that we're going to find

that less is more.

And what I've learned in life, it isn't really what we have that matters. It's more what we hold in our hearts.

If we say, I need this thing or this person to be happy, then we have the potential to suffer because life changes.

Life is impermanent.

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