Ep: 113: Laurie Santos: The Happiness Professor on the Science of Well-Being

Laurie is a Professor of Psychology at Yale University.  In addition to her work on the evolutionary origins of human cognition, Laurie is an expert on the science of happiness and the ways in which our minds lie to us about what makes us happy. Her Yale course, Psychology and the Good Life, teaches students how the science of psychology can provide important hints about how to make wiser choices and live a life that’s happier and more fulfilling. The class became Yale’s most popular course in over 300 years.  The online version of the class—The Science of Well-Being on Coursera—has attracted more than 4 million students. She was recently voted as one of Popular Science Magazine’s “Brilliant 10” young minds and was named in Time Magazine as a “Leading Campus Celebrity.” Her podcast, The Happiness Lab, has attracted over 100 million downloads since its launch.

 

Some interesting insights from this episode:

  • Our minds lie to us when it comes to happiness.
  • There is the sense of being happy in your life and the sense of being happy with your life.
  • Investing in social relationships is the most important thing we can do to improve our happiness.
  • If you force yourself to be more social, even if it’s natural to you, you’ll actually experience more positive emotions as a result.
  • Beyond social connections, practicing gratitude and helping others are also tools to increase your overall wellbeing.
  • There’s a disconnect between the things that we want and the things that we truly enjoy.
  • The arrival fallacy is thinking that you’ll be happy once you achieve some goal but that happiness is often fleeting.
  • The journey is ultimately much more rewarding than the destination. Learn to enjoy it.
  • “Excellence is behaving and developing mindsets in a way that allows you to flourish.”

 

Show Notes:

Personal website: Dr. Laurie Santos

Podcast: The Happiness Lab

Coursera class: The Science of Well-Being

Ep: 94: Bob Waldinger: Psychiatrist, Professor, Zen Master, Happiness Guru

Bob Waldinger is a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He is also the director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development and director of the program in Psychodynamic Therapy at Massachusetts General Hospital.  He is a practicing psychiatrist and a Zen master who teaches meditation around the world.  His latest book is titled: The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness.

 

Some interesting insights from this episode:

  • His TEDx talk in 2015 is still one of the most popular TED talks ever with over 44 million views and growing.
  • When trying to optimize happiness, most of us try to strike a balance between eudaimonia, which refers to a state of wellbeing in which a person feels that their life has meaning and purpose, and hedonia, which is more about fleeting happiness.
  • The essence of the findings from the study boils down to relationships. That relationships are more important to long term health and happiness than diet or exercise or anything else in our lives.
  • Contrary to stereotypes, women are not any more likely to form relationships than men. They just have a different means of engaging with one another.
  • About 50% of our wellbeing set point is determined by genetics, 10% is based on our current life circumstance, and 40% is within our control.
  • “Excellence is being as fully and deeply engaged in something as I can be in something I care about.”

 

Notes:

Book: The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness

Ted Talks:

What Makes a Good Life?

The Secret to a Happy Life