Episode #237 Best Of: Stop Chasing Happiness

Five Problems

• The pursuit of happiness often makes the outcome of happiness less likely.
• Pleasure makes us happy… until it doesn’t.
• We can never become healthy if we fail to make healthy choices.
• We tend to ignore negative emotions at the expense of our health.
• Revenge may feel good in the moment, but it is in opposition to a life well lived.

Five Principles

• Happiness is not a brief experience of pleasure but an elongated state of wellbeing.
• It is far more helpful to pursue health and wholeness than it is to pursue happiness.
• Expressions of grief produce greater joy than merely pretending to be happy.
• Our goal as parents should not be to keep our kids happy but to help them become well.
• Wisdom produces happiness, and happiness confirms whether the wisdom is working.

Three Practices

• If the pursuit of your values does not produce wellness, consider rethinking your values.
• Regularly pause in examination of your life and ask, “Is this working?”
• Invite wise mentors to suggest choices that could help you to become more fully alive.