I am very on board with the research and tricks brought to the table in this video. I’ve read a lot about the topic of happiness, and listened to a variety of audiobooks and podcasts, and everything I learned or heard was in line with what this guy said. I think the most important thing is to view happiness as an actionable perspective or choice in life – it’s not something that “just happens” as you check certain boxes or achievements – but it’s also not an end in and of itself (because you will never reach that end) – it’s something that happens along the way.
I once had a professor make the bold assertion that “there is no such thing as stress.” Everyone was very skeptical, but he went on to clarify that what he meant is that there is no actual stress as an independent object, but rather a stress RESPONSE to a situation that you have deemed (subconsciously) as stressful. And this can absolutely be trained and modified throughout life, and explains how some people can be “stressed” by some things, but not by others, and how we cannot simply downplay people’s responses to things that we think may be trivial – because, to them, it’s still highly impactful.
“The Geography of Bliss” is a really interesting book that explores different countries rated the happiest, and the least happy, in the world – as well as why they are like that. Many countries with a standard of living that should dictate happiness are not really that happy, and many that should be miserable are quite happy (Latino countries and their emphasis on enjoying life and family ties are some of these). As the guy in the video said, perspective is key (choosing the lens and changing it over time through which we view our lives and the stimuli therein), as are relationships. A leading theory for why people live so long in the Blue Zones (places where people frequently live to over 100) is based on relationships. For a long time, people thought it was diet, exercise, climate, etc. These are all factors, but it is seeming more and more that the main factor is that people in these areas have socially based lives with frequent and meaningful human interaction. For example, you can imagine the old person who sits at home in his house and watches TV and goes to the grocery store occasionally, as opposed to the old person who walks (not drives) to the baker, the butcher, the grocer, etc., having conversations with people all along the way.
