The Rural Mindset Podcast™ Episode 8 - The Pursuit of Happiness

by Erica Leniczek March 21, 2022

On this episode of The Rural Mindset Podcast™ Erica dives into the research behind happiness. If we could bottle up happiness and sell it, we would. Happiness has been researched for decades. Why are we happy? Why aren't we happy? How can we be happy more? Can someone truly achieve happiness? What does happiness even look like?

Happiness is often perceived as a destination. Somewhere we want to get. Something to achieve. But, happiness is just an emotion. Emotions are energy in motion. Emotions are temporary, so if happiness is an emotion, then happiness must be temporary too.

But, how many of us say or think:

"I'll be happy when I _______________________."

"If I can do ________________, I'll be happy."

"Once I hit my goal weight of ______, I'll be happy."

Researchers from Harvard and Stanford have been hammering down on what they think happiness looks like for people and how we can achieve more if it. When doing this search, of course, they looked at money. They found that money has a little bit to do with happiness, but it really doesn't impact how happy we are past being able to buy our basic needs and be a little bit comfortable. Past comfort, happiness is found to be mostly influenced by finding joy in the moment.

The science says that being able to practice presence and enjoy the processes of the mundane things in what we might do daily will bring happiness more so than money or a lavish lifestyle.

I could get more into how when people make more money, they spend more money because they buy nicer, more expensive things, and so really, even if we make less money than some people, we probably have proportionately similar levels of debt, but I'll leave that for another time!

So, if you're on the pursuit of happiness, remember to stay present, enjoy the moment, and try to find joy in the process, because happiness is temporary but you can change your day to day by finding small moments of contentment and joy.

Listen to Episode 8 - The Pursuit of Happiness

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References:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4449495/

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0209821

https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1993-98937-037