Hello and welcome to Happier, a podcast that gives you strategies and tips for how to

be happier.

This week we'll talk about why you might benefit from seeking out silence and a list

of the Iowa Reminisce about a happiness hack used by our parents.

I'm Rich and Ruben, a writer whose studies happiness, good habits and human nature.

I'm a New York City and with me is my sister Elizabeth Kraft.

Elizabeth has changed in many ways but she has yet to adopt the metric system.

That's me Elizabeth Kraft, a TV writer and producer living in LA and Grouch thank you for

bringing up once again my my cryptic high school yearbook quote that we discussed in episode 74.

Yeah I've got the biggest kick out of that. I can't stop thinking about it.

So Elizabeth we got a great listener email that I thought that we should share because we had

talked about the strategy of pairing and how pairing can be a really powerful way to change habits.

You do one thing with something else like you only watch real housewives when you're on the

treadmill that's one of your pairings and this was one from Kristen. Yes I love this.

She had an un-pairing idea. Yes. So Kristen writes you would also just

talk about the strategy of pairing and I'm glad it's been effective for both of you.

Your example of using the strategy for the gym reminded me of one way that it could actually

get in the way of forming habit especially for women. Lots of women I know insist that if they

work out they need to watch their hair. They pair the two activities. More often than not this

becomes an excuse not to work out. Lots of my friends have said to me oh I wanted to go to the

gym but I just didn't have time to watch my hair so I had to skip it today. The reality is that

if somebody wants to make regular fitness a goal those two activities can't really be permanently

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