Welcome to the Happiness podcast. I'm Dr. Robert Puff. Have you ever seen the comic strip,

Calvin and Hobbs? It's about a young boy and is playmate a tiger. In the comic strip,

Hobbs is often the wise one trying to teach Calvin lessons about life.

Well, there was one comic strip I read years ago that really stood out to me.

Calvin and Hobbs were riding down a hill on a wagon, and it was a steep hill. Well, as they kept

going faster and faster, Hobbes noticed that not much

further ahead there was a very steep cliff, that if they didn't stop, they were going to go over.

When he did try to point this out to Kelvin, Calvin was so absorbed in the thrill of speeding

down the hill and the clear, positive, exuberating experience that he was having,

he just wanted to focus on the positive ride, the exhilarating thrill of going down the hill

faster and faster. And as they get closer to the cliff, Hobbs again points it out to him,

hey, we need to slow down, we need to stop, there's danger ahead, but Kelvin will have none of it.

He wants to be positive and enjoy the thrill of the ride.

Well, sadly, the cliff is coming, and though Calvin doesn't want to know anything about it,

and just wants to keep focusing on the thrill of the ride, the ride does come to an end,

they go over the cliff, and they end up at the bottom of the

cliff in pain and mangled. And then Calvin, not missing us dried, looks at hops and says,

I don't want to hear about it. I think we're experiencing a new anxiety out in our culture.

Because people are chasing, like Kelvin, the

positive vibes only, which often leads to burnout and guilt. It's not that seeing the cup

half full, having a positive attitude, working towards goals, are all admirable and good traits. But the problem comes

is that when we just do that, we can get in trouble. We can all acknowledge that negative thinking

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