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Happiness Podcast

#57 Happiness – Henry David Thoreau's "Simplify, Simplify, Simplify"

Happiness Podcast

Dr. Robert Puff, Ph.D.

Health & Fitness, Mental Health

4.5955 Ratings

🗓️ 27 October 2014

⏱️ 21 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the Happiness Podcast, Dr. Puff explores the importance of keeping our life free so that we have time for happiness. As Henry David Thoreau said in Walden, "Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify, simplify! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail." To learn more, go to http://www.HappinessPodcast.org

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to the happiness podcast. I'm Dr. Robert Puff. Busy, busy busy, boy can we be busy. We can be so active that the second our alarm goes off in the

0:24.8

morning to the second we put our head down at night that we just move at a

0:29.1

genetic pace throughout the day so when our head does hit the pillow at night, we're exhausted.

0:34.9

We did so many different things, and yet often we still don't feel like we accomplish

0:39.2

at everything we set out to do that day.

0:42.0

What's this all about? Where does his busyness come from? Although I don't think

0:46.0

we can give credit to him figuring it all out, Henry David Thoreau did make some great discoveries

0:52.1

when he spent two years in the 19th century living by a lake called Walden.

0:57.0

And he lived there in such a way that he decided,

1:00.0

I'm going to live here, so I take care of my basic needs and the rest of the time I'm going to spend time with friends, go for walks, read, and really just enjoy life.

1:10.0

His book, Walden, really describes the beauty of nature and how much of a wonderful time he

1:14.9

had when he did have time. But that book, which I've read several times, though it's a hard

1:20.9

read, it is a beautiful read. But there's one quote out of there that I really

1:25.2

like that I like to share with you.

1:27.4

Henry David Thoreau writes,

1:29.8

Our life is fretted away by detail.

1:32.5

Simplify, simplify.

1:36.2

I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand,

1:42.0

instead of a million count half a dozen and keep your accounts

1:46.6

on your thumbnail.

1:48.3

The part that I like that's very famous and worth heating is simplify simplify. I think why we go through life so exhausted and

1:59.2

at such a frenetic pace is because we take so many things on, we really don't have time to enjoy life.

...

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