Welcome to the Commune Podcast.

My name is Jeff Krasno.

As we approach 600 episodes on the Commune podcast,

we are now republishing some of our most popular interviews.

Now, this interview from 2023 is with Dr. Robert Waldinger. Dr. Waldinger is a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School

and director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development,

which informed the writing of his book, The Good Life, lessons from the world's

longest scientific study on happiness. He's also a Zen master, or a Roshi, who teaches

meditation. Now, the Harvard study of adult development is considered the world's most thorough

longitudinal study on human happiness. For over

eight decades, the study has tracked the same individuals and their progeny, asking thousands

of questions and taking hundreds of measurements from brain scans to blood work with the goal

of discovering what really makes for a good life.

So Bob and I cover the two main categories of happiness, hedonic well-being, also known as

moment-to-moment happiness or pleasure, and eudaimonia, a Greek term, which points to a broader

sense of life being worthwhile and having

purpose and meaning. And we get into the importance of flow state, the integration of

intention and action, and the importance of letting go and being present in order to experience

happiness.

This conversation probes the bidirectional relationship between good health and a good life,

where good health contributes to happiness.

And conversely, how being in a better mood actually promotes better health.

...