Welcome to the Simple Sophisticate Podcast, where intelligent living is paired with signature style.

I'm your host, Shannon Ables.

And whether you're listening on your commute, exercising, working in the garden, or sitting down with a hot cup of tea or a

cafe ole, thank you for tuning in. Let's get started. Welcome to the 79th episode of the simple

sophisticated and as promised last week I told you that January was going to be a

month all about happiness.

We are continuing down that trail, and today is all about the how of happiness.

A helpful marketing ploy to sell a book, an article, or a product is to smack the word

happy right there on the title.

After all, the United States Declaration of Independence declared the rights of life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of

happiness to be at the foundation of our young country. People want to feel happy and

they want to figure out how to feel happy. To feel happy is to experience a rush of specific chemicals and a

creative balance of these four specific ones, dopamine, oxytocin,

serotonin, and endorphins.

However, each one of us has our own unique equation that will lead to the most happiness,

as explained by Dr. E.P. Siegelman in the book Authentic Happiness. What's the formula? You may be wondering,

it's quite simple. Happiness is a set range based on our biological parents, so something we really

cannot change or shift.

But there are two other components don't worry or if you're thinking oh my parents are so

happy that's fantastic wonderful news circumstances of your life with how you're

dealing with your money, how you're handling and interacting in your

relationships, your health, your religion, your faith, your spirituality, the

...