What can positive psychology tell us about religion?

Find out on this week's episode of Live Happy Now.

The ancient Greeks define happiness as the joy you feel moving towards your potential.

To think about positive psychology, it's a science.

And it's actually younger than the Internet, believe it or not.

The reality is that social connection is in the research, the greatest predictor we have of long-term happiness. You have some factors in your control.

They can promote the health and resilience and growth of your absolutely most important asset, which is your brain. And so it all comes down to understanding ourselves. There's a way for all of us to succeed, but it might take different things. We're all looking for the same thing, and that's a way to bring a little bit more joy to our day. Join us as we look at the many different paths that lead us to that happy place. This is Live Happy Now.

Hello and greetings and welcome to another edition of the Live Happy Now podcast. I'm your host, J.R. Houston. Grateful that you are making us a part of your day, wherever you are in the world, and however you have tuned in, thank you for doing so. We're also thankful for those of you who wake up bright and early on Sunday mornings to listen to Live Happy Radio. It is available in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex at 8am on 98.7K, Love. That is central time. Now, if you live anywhere else in the world, just figure out when 8 a.m. Central Time on Sunday morning is. Get up at that appropriate time and then tune into Radio.com. And you can hear it. It is a full hour that features happy facts.

We've also got to in-depth reporting on positive psychology events and newsmakers.

We have also got interviews with those who are doing the research to make you more happy.

So please check it out again. It is 98.7, Caleb, in Dallas, Fort Worth, and it is on radio.com Sunday mornings at 8 o'clock

central time.

So, now that we are done promoting that, we have got a fun conversation for you this week,

and it has to do with religion.

We're bringing in Paula Phelps, our science editor again, as she talks with Patty Van Kaplan,

who's the director of the interdisciplinary

behavioral research center at Duke University. She studies the effective and motivational

determinants and consequences of religious and spiritual beliefs and practices.

Well, Patty, I'm really glad to have you here today. I was able to take in your presentation

at EPA, and so I know that

you're doing a lot of fascinating research about religion and how it affects our well-being.

I wonder if you could tell our listeners what made you interested in traveling down that path.

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