The Mark Divine Show Happiness is Good (with Dr. Robert Waldinger)
Nonstop happiness doesn't exist for any human being on the planet.
Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School Dr. Robert Waldinger (@Dr.Waldinger) believes in nurturing relationships for overall health. Dr. Waldinger co-founded the Lifespan Research Foundation and is a practicing psychiatrist and Zen master or Roshi. His book, The Good Life: Lessons From the World's Longest Scientific Study on Happiness, is an excellent look at what keeps us all happy, healthy, and thriving.
Author and Professor Dr. Robert Waldinger's (@Dr. Waldinger) book, The Good Life: Lessons From the World's Longest Scientific Study on Happiness, is a must-read. The study started in 1938 and continues to this day. Dr. Waldinger is a Zen Roshi, practicing psychiatrist, researcher, and professor. He understands that happiness isn't attainable every day. However, he encourages us to be proactive to live an extraordinary life with as much of it as possible.
“All it is is the stuff we do every day, if we give it our full attention, everything pops with an aliveness that normally we miss.”
- Dr. Robert Waldinger
Key Takeaways:
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Personality vs. Ego: Ego is different than personality. The ego is the identification with our sense of self. At the same time, everyone has the conditioning of a personality. When you start moving away from being identified with self and living from the witness, you can bring source spirit into your personality. We want to have a personality, just not be overidentified or attached to it, as that is the ego.
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Meditation Has Differnt Forms: Sitting meditation is only suitable for some. Some people find it aversive to meditate. However, we can all benefit from a practice that makes us come into presence. For some people, breathing, martial arts, or anything they're very present at is a form of meditation. Whatever brings you into presence, whatever gets you out of the thought loops that we're constantly caught up in, and helps you keep coming back to presence is meditation.
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The Happiness Project’s Greatest Finding: Taking care of our health matters. Your happiness, health, and how long you live are correlated. The Happiness Project found that one of the most powerful predictors of who does well throughout life is connected to taking care of the physical body. The other significant finding is having loving, warm, and connected relationships impacts your health positively. People in healthy and happy relationships live longer. And, it stands to reason if you have good relationships, you'll be happier.
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Social Fitness: Social fitness is like physical fitness. It is a constant act of effort and showing up. Studies have shown that perfectly good friendships and family relationships will atrophy, just like muscles, from inattention from neglect. Amall efforts over and over again, like doing 15 minutes of walking or weight training regularly, keep those connections vibrant and alive. It helps to work on relationships like physical fitness to keep them strong and healthy.
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