Tidings, June 10, 2021
A podcast that I have been listening to this past several months is “The Happiness Lab.” (You can find it wherever you listen to podcasts.) It is hosted by Dr. Lauri Santos. She is a Professor of Psychology and the Head of Silliman College at Yale University and is an expert on human cognition and the cognitive biases that impede better choices (why we make the choices we do). She designed the course, “Psychology and Good Life” which is about how to make wiser choices and to live a happier and more fulfilling life. It is the most popular class in the 300-year history of Yale and has been modified and made available for free on the Coursera platform titled, “The Science of Well-Being.” You can find it HERE.
In season 2 of her podcast, Dr. Santos created a “mini-season” called, “The Happiness Lessons of the Ancients.” In it, she mines ancient philosophies and religions for what they got right about what brings us happiness and a more fulfilling life and how it has been supported through science today.
The episode I listened to on a walk during my lunch was titled “The Happiness Lab: The Torah.” She talks about the ancient wisdom of the first 5 books of the Bible and what they have to teach us today. While there is a lot I could go into, a major theme she shares on is gratefulness. She explains that much of the time we need to think our way into a new way of feeling as opposed to feeling our way into a new way of thinking. Perhaps it is better phrased with the following.
It is not happy people who are grateful, it is grateful people who are happy.
Being grateful is not dependent on being in a good mood. I don’t have to feel a certain way in order to name something that I am grateful for. Rather, science and the Torah says that whether you are in a good mood or not, we are asked to be grateful and it is in the naming of something that we are grateful for that we then actually begin feeling better and our mood starts to rise. Science has found this to be true.
Like many families, mine says grace before dinner every night. As part of saying grace, we leave a space in which we all say something for which we are grateful. Sometimes it is on the more serious side, such as giving thanks for a good diagnosis of a friend’s disease. Many times, it is very playful or even downright silly, and someone will say they are thankful for things like their “fork” or “toilet paper.” The point is not what you are grateful for (although I do wish we would veer on the more serious side more often, the point is to practice gratitude, which in turn will make us happier people.
So, if you are still reading this, take a moment and name something for which you are grateful. If you can, name three things. You don’t have to write them down, but you can if you want. Savor them. Think about how they have brought you joy in the past and how they might bring you joy again. Notice the feeling that, hopefully, develops within you and spreads throughout you.
Maybe end with giving thanks for the ability to feel gratitude.
Grace and Peace (and know that today I am giving thanks for you),
Pastor Tim