Welcome to the happiness podcast. I'm Dr. Robert Puff. I believe we all want to be happy and I also think this is a good thing that we want. It's a good goal

to work towards. Finding happiness, finding joy in our lives throughout the day is a wonderful thing to work towards and it sounds so easy

just work towards being happy and yet if we're truthful there probably are a lot of people that we know, maybe even ourselves, that aren't

very happy, or at least aren't consistently happy, doing well in life, the ups and downs of life really wear them out or wear us out.

But why is that? Why can't we just be happy?

What happens? Well the number one thing is differentiating between happiness and

pleasures or thrills. In life we can have some wonderful experiences, ones that we just revel in and think,

wow, that was amazing.

Think about two people who meet. They fall in love. They decide to get married and they have a beautiful wedding.

There are some bumps during the wedding.

But for most people who get married, it's usually a good day, a good memory.

And then they go on their honeymoon, and it's even better, because now it's just a two of them.

They're often at a beautiful place with wonderful experiences, getting

time to fall in love, to be more deeply in love with each other. And it's wonderful. And then they come home and then life begins and the thrills and the

pleasures of their wedding and their honeymoon are in the past and now they're just living the daily life.

And sometimes that pleasure, that thrill that they had just isn't there anymore. And some people begin to question, did I marry the right person?

Am I on the right path? Maybe I need to find something different, something better, someone else that could make me happy and try it again.

And there are a few people that get involved in very intense activities, like climbing the highest mountains in the world or being

able to ski the most dangerous slopes at the various ski resorts around the world, or someone who gets into fast cars, fast motorcycles,

things that take them at high speeds and allow them to feel the thrills, the excitement of these pleasures. The first year I went to university,

there was an airport not far from my campus that offered skydiving lessons, and I wanted to try it. So I went out there for the day, took lessons,

and I remember climbing out on the wing of the plane, ready to let go and I didn't want to let go to finally they kept yelling at me let go let go and I jumped and it was horrifying

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