My name is Susan Holt.

My tip for Copenh is to treat everything like my sixth grade science project.

Whether it's risking a trip to the grocery store this week or taking steps toward that

move across the state to be closer to my children, I have to decide.

The outcome is unpredictable, even with a lot of research and thought beforehand.

So I make a choice. I take a breath and I watch what happens next.

That is, I observe with curiosity and careful attention to what happens.

Did it feel brave and smart or was it not too smart?

Treating it like a science experiment took the pressure off to get it right when there was

really no way to guarantee that. So large or small, now I can face up to what comes next and I

can get on with my day. Life kit wants to hear from you. If you've got a random tip,

leave us a voicemail at 202-216-9823 or email us at lifekitatnpr.org.

This is Life Kit. I'm Shrine, Marisol Maraji. Everyone I know is looking for a way to either be

happy or stay happy. My guest today teaches a course at Yale on the Science of Happiness

and to say that class is popular is an understatement. It's kind of surreal how popular it was.

It became the largest class ever in Yale's history the first time I taught it. We had over a thousand

students, which just to get the scale at Yale is just under one out of every four students at

the entire college. So that's Dr. Laurie Santos. She also hosts a podcast called The Happiness Lab.

So if you can't take her psychology class at Yale, you're still in luck. And on this episode

of Life Kit, we're going to get into two big happiness go-tos with Laurie, gratitude and the power

of positive thinking to see what the science says about whether they boost our well-being.

First up, gratitude. Laurie starts things off by breaking down a study conducted by Robert Emmons,

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