Did you know that you can manufacture happiness from positive thoughts? It is called Synthetic Happiness. Learn more about it in this episode of Everyday Happiness!  

 

Transcript:

 

Welcome to Everyday Happiness where we create lasting happiness, in about 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 what we know now from science out of Yale and Harvard Business School is that synthetic happiness brings you the same joy as organic happiness (winning the lottery, getting a perfect parking spot - when we get what we want, we get a jolt of happiness). 

 

As an adolescent, I didn’t feel like I belonged.  I grew up in a small town in MN, 2006 people in the middle of a cornfield.  I felt like I had no way out. 

 

As humans, we yearn to BELONG, It is scientifically in our DNA. 

 

The emotional trauma of not feeling like you had good friends or people that really understand you can be devastating.  

 

What I did, unbeknownst to me at the time. Was manufactured synthetic happiness.   

 

The “glass is always ½ full”   Synthetic happiness is what we make when we don't get what we want.  It’s looking on the bright side. It’s making lemons into lemonade.  Harvard Professor Daniel Gilbert uses the term “synthetic happiness” to refer to happiness that comes from our good thoughts about events that may seem bad at first. 

 

Like I mentioned, manufactured, synthetic happiness brings you the same joy as organic happiness.

 

My way out of a place I didn’t feel like I fit in was big dreams of law school, where I thought, was a way to make enough money, to have choices.  I did achieve my dream of becoming a lawyer - but I had this tug on me, there was something else.  

 

So while it was a means to an end so a season of life, it wasn’t all of my life.  I mean, now, I’m here, with you, talking about happiness, which completely lights my hair on fire.   

 

So, today, I invite you to make some lemonade and be thoughtful about the way you think of something that may not be perfectly happy right now. 

 

Until next time, click that subscribe button, write a 5-star review and let’s connect over on social @everydayhappinesswithkatie.  

 

And remember, kindness is contagious. 

 

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