This is Annie Grace and you're listening to this naked mind podcast where without judgment,

pain or rules, we explore the role of alcohol in our lives and culture.

And today I have a question from Dominic and Dominic asks, are you really happier without alcohol?

I find that hard to believe.

And first I'll say, Dominic, I was in the same boat.

Like really if you would have told me that I would have been happier without drinking,

I just would have thought you were insane and nuts and disregarded everything you said

because I would have thought that you were just completely crazy.

There was no way I could have fathomed how much better life is once you really find happiness

apart from anything external and that is namely for me alcohol.

And so, yes I am but I want to give you some more detail on it because I think it would

be really helpful for understanding.

And one of the main things is that happiness is kind of this nebulous topic.

It's so subjective.

It has everything to do with the person experiencing it and how we feel it.

But there is one woman, her name is Barbara Fredrickson, she is a researcher at the University

of North Carolina and she is a happiness researcher and she is one of the leading happiness

researchers in the world.

So some people actually say she's the world's expert on happiness.

And she defines happiness as 10 emotions that are the most positive human emotions.

And so I'm going to list them out for you.

And then I'm going to just kind of go through each one in regards to my experience.

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