The Surprising Truth About Happiness with Professor Laurie Santos #151

Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee

Dr Rangan Chatterjee

Health & Fitness, Medicine, Alternative Health, Mental Health

4.8 • 10.9K Ratings

🗓️ 27 January 2021

⏱️ 111 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What is happiness? And can we learn to be happier than we already are? Today’s guest believes we can. Laurie Santos is a professor of psychology at Yale University and host of The Happiness Lab podcast. Her ‘Science of Wellbeing’ course became the most popular in the university’s history and has developed into a global phenomenon, with over three million people signing up to study Laurie’s evidence-based strategies for happiness. In this conversation, Laurie shares exactly what those happiness boosting strategies actually are. She also explains how being happy with your life, differs from being happy in your life and how balancing the two is key to overall happiness. We also cover the relationship between money and happiness and discuss the unfortunate reality that when it comes to happiness, our intuition is often wrong. We discuss maximising social connections, being thankful, being present, exercising and sleeping more – things we know are good for us but often lack the motivation to seek out. We also talk about how technology can both help and hinder social connections, how helping others is preferable to helping ourselves, and the incredible benefits of a daily gratitude practice. This is a wide-ranging and uplifting chat that really breaks down the psychology of happiness and Laurie’s suggestions will help you start working towards greater contentment starting today. The best news is that the tools to our happiness are simple and free. Show notes available at drchatterjee.com/151 Follow me on instagram.com/drchatterjee/ Follow me on facebook.com/DrChatterjee/ Follow me on twitter.com/drchatterjeeuk DISCLAIMER: The content in the podcast and on this webpage is not intended to constitute or be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your doctor or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on the podcast or on my website.

Transcript

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0:00.0	It'd just be nice if our brain was like pointing us towards the things that were really going to make us happy.
0:05.9	If we went after the stuff that we were really going to like. But the data suggests that that's just not the case.
0:11.2	I sometimes joke with my students that our minds lie to us about happiness. We're systematically going after stuff to improve our happiness that's not going to work.
0:19.3	You know, it'd be one thing if we just weren't working at it,
0:21.3	if we're just like, oh, I'll just see what happens, maybe I'll get happy.
0:23.9	The problem is like, we're putting a ton of energy and effort into becoming happier.
0:27.5	We're just doing it wrong.
0:29.1	Hi, my name is Ronggan Chatsky.
0:32.8	Welcome to Feel Better Live More.
0:39.2	Today's conversation is all about happiness.
0:42.4	What is happiness really, and can we learn to be happier than we currently are?
0:47.9	Well, today's guest certainly believes that we can.
0:50.8	Laurie Santos is a professor of psychology at Yale University and she's host of the
0:57.5	Happiness Lab podcast. Her science of well-being course became the most popular in Yale's history
1:04.4	and has developed into a global phenomenon with over three million people all over the globe, starting up to study and learn
1:13.1	evidence-based strategies for happiness. In our conversation today, Laurie shares exactly what
1:19.8	those happiness-boosting strategies actually are. She also explains how being happy with your
1:25.5	life differs from being happy in your life
1:28.2	and how balancing the two is key to overall happiness.
1:32.3	We also cover the relationship between money and happiness
1:35.4	and discuss the unfortunate reality that when it comes to happiness,
1:39.9	our intuition is often wrong.
	...

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