280 ‒ Cultivating happiness, emotional self-management, and more | Arthur Brooks Ph.D.

Watch the full episode and view show notes here: Become a member to receive exclusive content: Sign up to receive Peter’s email newsletter: Arthur Brooks is a social scientist, professor at Harvard University, columnist for The Atlantic, and bestselling author. In this episode, Arthur returns to the podcast to discuss his new book, Build the Life You Want. He delves into the nuanced concept of happiness, differentiating between momentary feelings and overall wellbeing. He explains the importance of understanding one’s personality pattern with respect to positive and negative emotions in order to better self-manage emotions. He delves into the three key elements of happiness, offering practical strategies for enhancing those specific domains through methods such as metacognition, transcendent experiences, discipline, minimizing self-focus while directing attention outward, and more. Through personal examples, Arthur demonstrates that one can actively track well-being levels and take intentional steps to cultivate happiness and enhance overall well-being. We discuss: 0:00:00 - Intro 0:01:11 - Happiness vs. happy feelings, and how happiness and unhappiness can coexist 0:04:55 - The six fundamental emotions 0:15:29 - The evolution and heritability of happiness, and the four personality patterns with respect to positive and negative emotions 0:22:15 - Navigating relationships: the power of complementarity over compatibility 0:24:28 - The importance of self-managing your mental habits 0:31:31 - Enjoyment: one of the three macronutrients of happiness 0:44:25 - Satisfaction: one of the three macronutrients of happiness 0:52:14 - The reverse bucket list, metacognition, and other techniques to protect yourself from your limbic system 0:59:15 - Meaning: one of the three macronutrients of happiness 1:07:55 - The four quarters of your life and how that relates to the meaning of your life 1:12:03 - Putting metacognition into practice 1:20:55 - What might explain the societal downdrift in happiness over the last few decades? 1:36:07 - Taking charge of your happiness: discipline, transcendent experiences, and other deliberate actions for happiness 1:49:17 - Tracking happiness: biomarkers and micronutrients behind the macronutrients of happiness 1:57:52 - The value in minimizing the self and looking outward 2:02:23 - How Arthur surprised himself with his ability to improve his happiness -------- About: The Peter Attia Drive is a deep-dive podcast focusing on maximizing longevity, and all that goes into that from physical to cognitive to emotional health. With over 70 million episodes downloaded, it features topics including exercise, nutritional biochemistry, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, mental health, and much more. Peter Attia is the founder of Early Medical, a medical practice that applies the principles of Medicine 3.0 to patients with the goal of lengthening their lifespan and simultaneously improving their healthspan. Learn more: Connect with Peter on: Facebook: Twitter: Instagram: Subscribe to The Drive: Apple Podcast: Overcast: Spotify: Google Podcasts: Disclaimer: This podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing, or other professional healthcare services, including the giving of medical advice. No doctor-patient relationship is formed. The use of this information and the materials linked to this podcast is at the user’s own risk. The content on this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Users should not disregard or delay in obtaining medical advice for any medical condition they have, and they should seek the assistance of their healthcare professionals for any such conditions. I take conflicts of interest very seriously. For all of my disclosures and the companies I invest in or advise, please visit my website where I keep an up-to-date and active list of such companies. For a full list of our registered and unregistered trademarks, trade names, and service marks, please review our Terms of Use: