Happiness Is A Direction: Harvard Professor Arthur Brooks On Navigating Crisis, Building Better Relationships, Finding Meaning, & What Actually Makes Us Happy

877 snips

Feb 17, 2025

Arthur Brooks, a Harvard professor and leading researcher on happiness, dives deep into the essence of joy and fulfillment. He examines how success addiction can distract high achievers from true happiness. Arthur discusses the tension between striving and surrender, revealing insights on love and purpose. Personal stories, including a transformative encounter with the Dalai Lama, highlight the importance of connection through adversity. He also addresses the need for meaningful relationships in navigating crises and discusses how grief can lead to personal growth and deeper meaning.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Books

Transcript

Episode notes

ADVICE

Learning from Loss

Keep a failure and disappointment list, noting what bothered you.
After a month, write what you learned; after three, a resulting benefit.

INSIGHT

Fear of Death

We fear death because we can conceive of our physical end, but not non-existence.
This cognitive dissonance creates fear, leading some to avoid the concept of death entirely.

INSIGHT

Innate Spirituality

We possess an innate sense of the divine, evidenced by the universality of religious belief in all documented civilizations.
This suggests a deep-seated human need to connect with something greater than ourselves.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

The Plantpower Way

Whole Food Plant-Based Recipes and Guidance for the Whole Family

Julie Piatt

Rich Roll

Created by Rich Roll and Julie Piatt, this book shares their experiences and the health benefits of a plant-based lifestyle. It includes a variety of easy-to-prepare whole food recipes, such as hearty breakfasts, lunches, dinners, smoothies, juices, and desserts. The book is not just a recipe collection but a comprehensive guide to long-term wellness, body, mind, and spirit health, and a celebration of a simple and sustainable lifestyle.

On death and dying

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

In this seminal work, Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross delves into the emotional and psychological experiences of terminally ill patients through extensive interviews and conversations. The book introduces the now-famous five stages of grief: denial and isolation, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. It challenges the medical culture of the time by emphasizing the importance of listening to and supporting the unique experiences and needs of dying patients. The book has had a profound impact on clinical practice, contributing to the development of hospice and palliative care, and has transformed how society approaches conversations about death and dying[2][4][5].

From Strength to Strength

Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life

Arthur C Brooks

In 'From Strength to Strength', Arthur C. Brooks addresses the inevitable decline in abilities that comes with aging and provides a practical guide on how to transform this period into an opportunity for growth. Drawing on social science, philosophy, biography, theology, and eastern wisdom, as well as interviews with everyday men and women, Brooks advocates for refocusing on priorities such as deep wisdom, detachment from empty rewards, connection and service to others, and spiritual progress. He argues that by adapting our expectations and focusing on these areas, we can achieve increased happiness and purpose in our later years.

Build the Life You Want

The Art and Science of Getting Happier

Arthur C Brooks

Oprah Winfrey

In 'Build the Life You Want,' Arthur C. Brooks and Oprah Winfrey offer a research-based approach to improving one's life by focusing on emotional self-management. The book emphasizes building the four pillars of happiness: family, friendship, work, and faith. It provides practical, science-backed strategies to manage emotions, turn challenges into opportunities, and find inner peace. The authors share their own experiences and those of others who have found joy despite hardships, highlighting the importance of enjoyment, satisfaction, and purpose in achieving a happier life.

The Anxious Generation

Jonathan Haidt

In 'The Anxious Generation', Jonathan Haidt examines the sudden decline in the mental health of adolescents starting in the early 2010s. He attributes this decline to the shift from a 'play-based childhood' to a 'phone-based childhood', highlighting mechanisms such as sleep deprivation, attention fragmentation, addiction, loneliness, social contagion, and perfectionism that interfere with children’s social and neurological development. Haidt proposes four simple rules to address this issue: no smartphones before high school, no social media before age 16, phone-free schools, and more opportunities for independence, free play, and responsibility. The book offers a clear call to action for parents, teachers, schools, tech companies, and governments to restore a more humane childhood and end the epidemic of mental illness among youth.

Finding Ultra

Rejecting Middle Age, Becoming One of the World's Top Ultrarunners

Rich Roll

Finding Ultra recounts Rich Roll’s remarkable journey from an out-of-shape, mid-life couch potato to one of the world’s top ultrarunners. The book chronicles his battle with alcoholism, his transformation into an elite endurance athlete, and his adoption of a plant-based lifestyle. It includes his experiences in the elite Ultraman competition and the EPIC5, five Ironman-distance triathlons completed in less than a week on different Hawaiian islands. The revised and updated edition provides practical tools, practices, and strategies for optimal performance, longevity, and wellness, making it a guide for anyone seeking to transform their life through self-discovery and a healthier lifestyle.

Voicing Change

Rich Roll

Voicing Change is a culmination of Rich Roll's eight-year journey of interviewing unique thinkers and visionaries on his acclaimed podcast. The book distills the collective wisdom from these conversations into thoughtful essays and first-person wisdom, focusing on themes of intentional living, life lessons, and enduring inspiration.