How to Build a Happy Life: Know That You Know Nothing

How to Age Up

The Atlantic Monthly Group, LLC

Education, Social Sciences, Science, Society & Culture, Self-improvement

4.0 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 26 October 2021

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

If there’s one thing we might regret at the end of life, it’s that we missed out on moments that mattered—not because we weren’t physically there, but because our mind wandered off to some unknown place. In this episode of How to Build a Happy Life, we explore why it’s uniquely challenging to “live in the moment,” how we limit our own curiosity by assuming we know best, and why the illusion of stability pulls us from living every day fully, and in the moment. A conversation with Harvard University professor of psychology Dr. Ellen Langer helps us think through a daily struggle: How do I stay present? This episode was produced by Rebecca Rashid and is hosted by Arthur C. Brooks. Editing by A. C. Valdez. Fact-check by Ena Alvarado. Sound design by Michael Raphael. Be part of How to Build a Happy Life. Write to us at howtopodcast@theatlantic.com or leave us a voicemail at 925.967.2091. Music by Trevor Kowalski (“Lion’s Drift,” “This Valley of Ours,” “Una Noche De Luces”), Stationary Sign (“Loose in the Park”), and Spectacles Wallet and Watch (“Last Pieces”). Click here to listen to every full-length episode in the series. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is how to build a happy life, the Atlantic's podcast on all things happiness.
0:10.6	I'm Arthur Brooks, Harvard professor, and happiness correspondent at the Atlantic.
0:18.3	A big part of happiness is learning to live in the moment.
0:22.6	What does that actually mean, and more importantly, how do we do it?
0:27.7	It turns out that living in the moment, or at least being fully alive right now, has
0:33.0	two components, mindfulness and curiosity.
0:37.8	Mindfulness has been kind of in the zeitgeist for a long time.
0:41.9	It's this idea that you're missing your life if you're not here right now, and so you
0:46.3	need to figure out a way to focus on the present, to be really experiencing your current
0:51.6	time frame, as opposed to thinking about the past or thinking about the future.
0:55.4	Now, there's a reason that that's hard to do, and there's a lot of neuroscience that's
1:00.0	gone into this.
1:01.2	It effectively comes down to the unique nature of the human mind, probably compared to any
1:07.1	other species that's ever existed.
1:09.9	The human brain makes it possible for us to be in other time periods in the current
1:16.4	moment.
1:17.4	I can imagine that I'm in the future, practicing future scenarios in my life.
1:22.4	Whenever I'm done recording this podcast, I'm going to do something else.
1:25.1	I can think about that, and I can think, should I do this or that?
1:28.1	I can walk myself through those scenarios and kind of live in the future and figure out
1:31.8	which one I like best.
1:33.0	I've already lived them effectively, and so I'm choosing the one that I like best that
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Atlantic Monthly Group, LLC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Atlantic Monthly Group, LLC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.