{"id":393,"date":"2024-10-31T13:05:39","date_gmt":"2024-10-31T13:05:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bearburns.co.uk\/home\/?p=393"},"modified":"2024-10-31T13:05:39","modified_gmt":"2024-10-31T13:05:39","slug":"laurie-santos-happiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bearburns.co.uk\/home\/laurie-santos-happiness\/","title":{"rendered":"YouTube video: Dr Laurie Santos on Happiness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GF-xvBXgqa4?si=qTuX5Hf8T_E980Gw\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li data-sourcepos=\"1:1-1:296\">8 minutes, 30 seconds<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3 data-sourcepos=\"1:1-1:296\">Video Summary<\/h3>\n<p data-sourcepos=\"1:1-1:296\">Dr. Laurie Santos, a psychology professor at Yale and host of &#8220;The Happiness Lab&#8221; podcast, explains that our minds often mislead us about what will make us happy. We tend to <strong>&#8220;miswant&#8221;<\/strong> things like money, possessions, and status, assuming they&#8217;ll bring lasting happiness, but they often fall short.<\/p>\n<p data-sourcepos=\"3:1-3:83\">Santos highlights several &#8220;annoying features&#8221; of our minds that contribute to this:<\/p>\n<ul data-sourcepos=\"5:1-8:0\">\n<li data-sourcepos=\"5:1-5:131\"><strong>Reference points:<\/strong> We constantly compare ourselves to others, leading to dissatisfaction even when we&#8217;re objectively well-off.<\/li>\n<li data-sourcepos=\"6:1-6:114\"><strong>Hedonic adaptation:<\/strong> We get used to things over time, so even positive experiences lose their initial impact.<\/li>\n<li data-sourcepos=\"7:1-8:0\"><strong>Impact bias:<\/strong> We overestimate how long and intensely positive events will make us happy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p data-sourcepos=\"9:1-9:87\">To overcome these biases and boost happiness, Santos suggests &#8220;rewiring&#8221; our habits by:<\/p>\n<ul data-sourcepos=\"11:1-16:0\">\n<li data-sourcepos=\"11:1-11:122\"><strong>Prioritizing social connection:<\/strong> Spending time with loved ones is crucial, yet we often underestimate its importance.<\/li>\n<li data-sourcepos=\"12:1-12:127\"><strong>Practicing kindness:<\/strong> Helping others has a greater positive impact on our own happiness than focusing solely on self-care.<\/li>\n<li data-sourcepos=\"13:1-13:110\"><strong>Cultivating gratitude:<\/strong> Regularly acknowledging what we&#8217;re grateful for shifts our focus to the positive.<\/li>\n<li data-sourcepos=\"14:1-14:123\"><strong>Savoring positive experiences:<\/strong> Paying attention to and appreciating good things in the moment enhances their impact.<\/li>\n<li data-sourcepos=\"15:1-16:0\"><strong>Exercising:<\/strong> Physical activity has a significant impact on mental well-being.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p data-sourcepos=\"17:1-18:46\">Santos emphasizes that these strategies are not a cure for serious mental health conditions but can be helpful tools for improving overall well-being. She also stresses the importance of accepting negative emotions as natural signals, learning to regulate them in healthy ways, and, most importantly, putting these happiness strategies into practice consistently.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>8 minutes, 30 seconds Video Summary Dr. Laurie Santos, a psychology professor at Yale and host of &#8220;The Happiness Lab&#8221; podcast, explains that our minds often mislead us about what will make us happy. We tend to &#8220;miswant&#8221; things like money, possessions, and status, assuming they&#8217;ll bring lasting happiness, but they often fall short. Santos [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,28,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-issues","category-relationships","category-skills-techniques"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bearburns.co.uk\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bearburns.co.uk\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bearburns.co.uk\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bearburns.co.uk\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bearburns.co.uk\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bearburns.co.uk\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":395,"href":"https:\/\/www.bearburns.co.uk\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393\/revisions\/395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bearburns.co.uk\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bearburns.co.uk\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bearburns.co.uk\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}