Little Happier: It Might Be Boring to Read About the “Land of Happy,” But It’s Probably a Nice Place to Live

Happier with Gretchen Rubin

Lemonada Media

Health & Fitness, Education, Self-improvement

4.7 • 13.2K Ratings

🗓️ 26 June 2023

⏱️ 4 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

People sometimes assume that happiness is boring—but as philosopher Simone Weil points out, while that may be true in literature, it’s not true in real life. Get in touch: podcast@gretchenrubin.com Follow on social media: @GretchenRubin on YouTube @GretchenRubin on TikTok @GretchenRubin on Instagram Get the podcast show notes by email every week: happiercast.com/shownotes Get Gretchen Rubin’s newest book Life in Five Senses to see how she discovered a surprising path to a life of more energy, creativity, luck, and love: by tuning in to the five senses. Now available - order here. Visit Gretchen's website to learn more about Gretchen's best-selling books, products from The Happiness Project Collection, and the Happier app. Happier with Gretchen Rubin is part of ‘The Onward Project,’ a family of podcasts brought together by Gretchen Rubin—all about how to make your life better. Check out the other Onward Project podcasts— Side Hustle School, Happier in Hollywood and Everything Happens with Kate Bowler. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Whether your dog is in their puppy adult or senior years, there's nothing better than
0:05.4	more years together.
0:06.8	And the best way to feed their happy healthy life is with fresh healthy food.
0:10.8	The farmer's dog makes it easy to keep your best friend healthy inside and out, with
0:15.2	fresh recipes made from real meat and veggies.
0:17.7	Their pre-portion just for your pup and delivered right to your door.
0:21.4	Help your dog live a healthy life and get 50% off your first box of real fresh food at
0:26.2	the farmersdog.com slash LifeStages23.
0:29.7	I'm Gretchen Rubin and this is a little happier.
0:34.3	I write a lot about happiness and one surprising thing about happiness is that it has such
0:39.8	a bad reputation.
0:42.0	The other day I happen to remember a poem from Shell Silverstein's classic book of children's
0:46.9	poetry, Where the Sidewalk ends.
0:50.5	This poem called The Land of Happy, Caught My Attention for Obvious Reasons, It's All About
0:56.4	Happiness.
0:58.0	In the poem Silverstein describes how in the land of happy, everyone is happy all the
1:03.2	time, they joke, they sing, they're jolly.
1:07.9	The poem concludes with the line, I've been the land of happy, what a bore.
1:14.4	In fact many people assume that happiness is boring.
1:18.2	But it's a complacent state of mind for self-absorbed, uninteresting people.
1:23.7	Consider the scene in the movie Annie Hall when Alvy asks a happy couple how they account
1:28.3	for their happiness and the woman answers, I'm very shallow and empty and I have no ideas
	...

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