Thank you for joining us for episode 430 of Live Happy Now.

Every two years, the International Positive Psychology Association holds its World Congress,

and this week, we're finding out what they were talking about.

I'm your host, Paula Phelps, and over the next few weeks,

we're going to have some conversations

about some of the takeaways from this year's event, which was held in July.

First, I'm sitting down with Andrea Gigline, who addresses some of the growing concerns about

loneliness and the lack of social connections, as well as giving us a fresh perspective on the

World Happiness Report. Let's have a listen.

Andrea, thank you for coming back and talking to me today. You know that it's always my pleasure,

so this is like my happy place, and thank you for having me again. You just came back from the Ipo

World Congress, which is the International Positive Psychology Association, World Congress.

It has been a minute since it was able to, it was this first one that was able to take place person to person?

Well, they actually had one in 21, but it was virtual. This is the first in person for four

years. Because it doesn't happen every year. It's every two years. First of all, going into it,

did you have any certain sessions or certain ideas that you really wanted to explore? Or did you go

there and say, let's follow what's going on? You know, historically, I never really even

looked at anything other than knowing, okay, I am going and I'm going to absorb

because I always view myself as an interloper. I think I am exactly like all of our listeners.

You know, I'm the person who did not commit their life to doing the research, but I did

commit my life to getting the message out.

From day one, when I went to the conferences, it was like, I'll take whatever they've got.

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