Happy Habit Podcast

Link to The Happiness Hypothesis : https://amzn.to/4c0q6Lz In this episode I dive into Jonathan Haidt's book The Happiness Hypothesis which puts the wisdom of ancient philosphers regarding life and happiness to the test of modern science. What are the keys to living a happy life today ?

Dr Kristin Neff is an associate professor in educational psychology at the University of Texas at Austin and is one of the world's leading experts in the area of self compassion. Dr Neff is the author of several books in the field of self compassion, details of which you will find at her website:www.selfcompassion.org In this episode, we define compassion and discuss its relationship with suffering, and we differentiate compassion with pity for others. We learn why, that while we may admire compassion in others we often we fail to show compassion towards ourselves. We also learn that many people deem that showing compassion to be a sign of weakness. We discover the evolutionary origins of compassion. We explore perfectionism and how it enters the discussion on compassion. We find out that being hard on yourself doesn't increase the likelihood you will achieve your goals. More Happy Habit Podcast episodes at : https://anchor.fm/mathieu-norry

In life you can be one of two kinds of people, someone who reacts to life events or one who is proactive, the former lacks control and divests themselves of their power, the latter takes control over their thoughts, actions and emotions. Proactive people are doers, reactive people see themselves as victims. In this episode I talk about ways we can be proactive.

Choosing one's path in life is a challenge in itself, indeed starting out on that path requires committment and accepting responsibility as well as embracing one's values. Then when we meet an obstacle we need to remember our core value so that we can forge ahead and stay true to our path in life. In this episode I detail 6 ways to help us choose our life path and stay the course.

Author Cyndie Spiegel through a compenium of short stories drawn from her own life, preaches the power of what she calls microjoys, the little joys in life that one must practise being awake to. Because life is full of little moments that can bring us joy, like the fallen leaves, the taste of tea, the smile on someones face , a gift , a thank you, mothers home cooking ... all of these joys must be celebrated but are easily passed over when we fail to be alive to them. Through her own life, its highs and many lows, the author shares with us her moments of joy, and tells us of twh value of living and apprecaiting the prsesnt moment and how it brings her hope even in the darkest of moments.

Mo Gawdat experienced the ultimate trauma for any parent when he lost his son. As a response to his grief and in an effort to dicover the joy of life after his son's passing Mo used his skills as an engineer to formulate an equation that would make happiness replicable. His equation factors in life's illusions, blindspots and fundamental truths to help us arrive at or solve for happiness.

Prof Catherine Salmon joined me on the latest episode, she is an evolutionary psychologist with an interest in female sexuality, pornography and how birth order in families affects sibling relationships within the family and beyond. https://www.redlands.edu/study/schools-and-centers/college-of-arts-and-sciences/undergraduate-studies/psychology/meet-our-faculty/catherine-salmon/ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-Power-Middle-Children-Middleborns/dp/0452297931 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Warrior-Lovers-Evolution-Sexuality-Darwinism/dp/0300093543

In a chaotic world sometimes we feel like things are spiralling out of our control, in reality to re-establish a sense of control or agency we simply have to focus on some core things like our breath, our thoughts and responses, the qaulity of our sleep and nutrition.

Take inspiration from Hal Elrod who came back from a life threatening car crash and adopted a morning routine that allowed him to take ownership over his life and steered him towards his goals. Simply getting up 1 hour earlier and using that time for your self development each morning yields signicant cumulatuve results, and it all begins with NOT using your snooze button. This is a method that facilitates personal transformation and achievement through incredibly simple daily actions every morning when you wake.

We have more options and choice than ever before, while this would seem to be a luxury it has the potential to make life very difficult for us by overwhelming us and making us doubt that we have made the right choice at any given moment. Barry Schwartz's book The paradox of choice, outlines how we can make better choices in a world teeming with options.