Today we talk about how happiness is more important now than ever, even as it feels like the world right now is in a state of chaos.

Transcript:

Welcome to Everyday Happiness where we create lasting happiness, in 2 minutes a day,  through my signature method of Intentional Margins® (creating harmony between your to-dos and your priorities), happiness science, and musings about life. 

I'm your host Katie Jefcoat and I’m in my feelings.  I thought you might be too, so I recorded this episode for us.  As a reminder.  Save this episode and refer back to it as often as needed. 

We can be happy AND we can feel like the sky is falling.  We can see the injustice of war on the other side of the planet, feel that pain, and still be happy. 

The world right now is in a state of chaos, from a two-year-long pandemic to soaring gas prices to lives simply not going back to the way they once were. So how does one define happiness in a world of chaos? 

Fortunately, happiness is something that we can focus on and pursue even with outside forces beyond our control are making life more challenging than expected. 

Happiness scientists have gone round and round about how to define happiness. Arthur Brooks, an accomplished scientist and professor at the Harvard Business School, and Sonja Lyubomirsky, a positive psychology researcher and author, have done an excellent job encapsulating happiness research and elaborating on this well-established definition.

Happiness scientists seem to agree that happiness is a two-pronged definition. The first prong is

happiness in emotions. The second prong is satisfaction and purpose. You need both prongs to be fulfilled to achieve well-rounded happiness.  We talk about this a lot in this podcast.

But what’s interesting right now, is that when the news is blaring all the bad things, we can forget that happiness is from within.

And frankly, we can’t give what we don’t have and who wants to live in a world of so much unhappiness.  If we want to share happiness and joy, it has to start from within us, which is why happiness is so important when it feels like the sky is falling.    

Even when the world is cruel, I would argue that it is our responsibility to find the moments of joy and spread kindness wherever we can and it does not decrease our sensitivity and our compassion for what’s happening around the world or in our backyard because there will always be bad things that are happening.   

It’s not fair to yourself or the people around you to dim your light.  Who is that helping?  If your family is enjoying family game night or you get a chance to do something really cool - share about it, it inspires others to know there is happiness too.  

And as always, kindness is contagious - even and especially when the world feels heavy.  Go out there and spread some kindness today. 

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