In this episode of The Daily Meditation Podcast, I discuss Practical Happiness with Pamela Gail Johnson.
Pamela is the author of the upcoming book Practical Happiness: Four Principles To Improve Your Life.
In the episode, we discuss simple and practical ways to be happier in life.
My favorite tip from Pamela is to simply go back through your day and think about all the small moments when you felt content, joyful, and other types of happiness.
TRANSCRIPT
Paul Harrison
Welcome to the daily meditation. My name is Paul Harrison, and joining me today is Pamela GAIL Johnson, the author of Practical Happiness. Hi, Pamela. How are you doing today?
Pamela Gail Johnson
Hi, how are you?
Paul Harrison
I’m absolutely fantastic. Thank you. So in this podcast, we’re going to go through lots of ways to cultivate happiness with our guest Pamela Gale Johnson. But to begin with, Pamela, perhaps you could just give an overview of yourself, your work, and what you do.
Pamela Gail Johnson
Well, I kind of think of myself as the practical happiness advocate for people who want to improve their lives by feeling happier, or, quite frankly, sometimes happiness is just feeling a little. Better than you. Did the moment. Before, I’m also the founder of the Society of Happy People, which started over 20 years ago in 1998. So those those are my big those are my big cues and then I work with organizations who try to help make their workplaces happier because we spend so much time at work.
Paul Harrison
So tell us. About practical happiness, precisely what does that entail?
Pamela Gail Johnson
Well, practical happiness is based on 4 principles for living a realistically happy life. So the first principle is happiness is personal. The second principle is happiness. Zappers are manageable, so those are those things that kind of peel. Away at our happiness. The third principle is happiness changes as you change and the 4th principle is happiness is bigger. Than you think.
Paul Harrison
So you mentioned happiness, ZAP is there. And from reading your things, you actually list meditation as a happiness zapper.
Pamela Gail Johnson
Well, no, it’s not an actual zapper. It would be one of the ways you can help manage your zappers. So meditation, I think, is one of those things that for the most part, we we have 5 categories of happiness zappers. And I think meditation is one of those things that can help in all 5 categories. So that would be unhappiness when we’re experiencing. Let’s say a. Big unhappiness is sort of those things are are big life changes that we usually have to find a new normal in. So you kind of go through a grieving process in most cases, whether it’s, you know, a job loss or relationship loss. Obviously death is the ultimate loss. If we if we lose someone we love. Then we also have fear is one of our happiness zappers. We have chaos, is one of our happiness. Zappers we have stress, is one of our happiness uppers and the last one is annoyances, so annoyances are kind of the smaller ones that are easier to brush off. But for your big happiness zappers. I think meditation is that that. Even if you only meditate for 5 minutes and just stop your mind or just practice what I think of as paying attention to your breath work, you know your your being conscious of your breathing, so you’re sort of re oxygenating your body. It really does help you make better decisions and again manage those happiness zappers. And you may even find that kind of that peace or contentment which are also part of our 31 types of. Happiness. So I do think meditation is a key key. Key way to manage your happiness appears, and it’s the very least breathwork. If you’re one of those people who says I. Can’t meditate. Just. The the breathwork that’s often connected to meditation.
Paul Harrison
No, our listeners are very passionate about meditation. So I’d like to just. Discuss that a bit further with you. You mentioned breath work. Are there any other types of meditation that you recommend for happiness?
Pamela Gail Johnson
You know, personally, I meditate every I I meditate at least once, if not twice a day. So it for me it kind of moves to that happiness as personal. So it’s a little bit about what? What is it you need at that moment. So sometimes I like a more guided meditation where someones, you know, sort of talking me through different. Mantras or different different things. Sometimes meditation for me is just. Sometimes I need to sit in absolute silence and try to silence. Your mind and and and and get into that Zen place. That’s that’s quiet and and go inside. So I I think your meditation. Practice is sort of based on the moment and what it is that. You actually need in the moment.
Paul Harrison
And many people advocate specific techniques like loving kindness and gratitude for happiness. How do you feel about?
Pamela Gail Johnson
Well, kindness is one of our 31 types of happiness, and gratitude is one of our 31 types of happiness. So I do think those are both types of happiness that are important. But I also think feeling contentment is a type of happiness. I think peace is the type of happiness relief sometimes when we just. Clean out a drawer somewhere or we finished a project at work and we were. Like exhale that it’s done or. Maybe we have. To have a difficult conversation with one of our kids, our significant other. Those are things that we’re usually not looking forward to, but once they’re done, usually there’s there’s a relief that happens after and that can be a type of happiness. So I think happiness itself is a very broad spectrum of emotions.
Paul Harrison
Certainly. Yeah. So other than meditation, what other practical or happiness tools are there?
Pamela Gail Johnson
Well, I think it again. Depends on what’s perhaps zapping your happiness so one of one of the things that when you look at happiness zappers, it might just be better communication. It might be exercise it. It could just be a variety of things and somewhat dependent on the experience. But if you want to look at how do you increase your happiness? I think one of the best tools that we have and then the book even offers is how do you broaden your definition by counting more happy moments. So we actually have on the website. A happiness counter and there’s 31 types of happiness, so obviously we can’t go over all of them. But if you get that counter, it’s at shp.com/counter COUNTER, so you can download that counter and. One of the things is. Just take 5 minutes, take 10 minutes and. Go and count. The happy moments you have during that window of time and look at. Look at that list now. If that list is overwhelming, maybe just pick one or two and say I’m going to spend today figuring out how many times I was amused by something. And you may find that you’re amused much more often than you. And then you even give it credit for. Because it’s one of. Those moments that happens that we don’t always pay attention to when it’s happening, but if you find out, you know, like how many times was like kind of grinning. Or I saw something funny on the Internet or my dog or cat did something silly or bird or whatever your pet. Is you just you can see. Something when you’re out walking that just sort of makes you. Grin. That’s a that’s a. Type of amusement. So just. Count that for the day or count. That for 10 minutes and and figure out like ohh. I might be happier. You know, then I think I am. When I look at all. These different types of happiness.
Paul Harrison
And do you find that? When we recounted our happy moments throughout the day that it makes us more mindful and more aware of happy moments when they happen in the future.
Pamela Gail Johnson
I think it’s a habit that we have to train ourselves to get into, so yes. The more you do that. The more you’re going to. Notice them. So like the more you count the number of times. You felt a moment. Of relief or a moment of satisfaction like you did. Something you were. Like, great job. The moment the more. You count that consciously. Eventually, after probably 40 days after so many days, you’re going to start, you’re going to start just automatically. It it becomes more of. A habit but it. Is something you’re going to have to retrain your mind to think about. We’re somewhat conditioned between. Many things, and so it doesn’t matter what all the things are, but. Many things to kind of see. What’s wrong in life? So we may naturally do that to a degree anyway, but then we’re conditioned between online and news. And just sometimes what people talk about and we don’t do that exact same thing with all the things that are right or those things that make us feel good. You sort of take that for granted, so it it does happen as a habit, but it does. It will take time. For that to happen.
Paul Harrison
And presumably that would reduce the effects of negativity bias as well wouldn’t.
Pamela Gail Johnson
It well it should because. You know, kind of like in theory my my question has always been, are you happier than you admit you are? So are you happier than what you talk about? Because at the end of the day, shouldn’t we be happy with at least half our life? And if we’re not, if it’s not an equal balancing scale, we probably need to make some, you know, significant changes. Which can include how we think, because sometimes. If we really. Go look at and go. Oh, wait a minute. I really enjoy this and I really enjoy that. And and I think that’s one of the things if you want to find a gift in the pandemic. One of the things has been that people realize like ohh, I really did miss going into the office. Some most people do want a hybrid work environment so they actually can sometimes see their coworkers and sometimes they want to work remote when they need to do that and it’s more convenient for their their work life balance. But sometimes you don’t know. Yeah. Do you? Have something taken away from you or ohh. I really missed my family holidays that many years. I’m rolling my eyes about going. To cause it’s. A little bit of a chaos. You usually don’t have big family gatherings that aren’t chaotic, but but we learned like, wow, I really didn’t. This spending time with these people I love and I miss hugging. People or you know, whatever. It is we miss things, sometimes things. Have to be taken away that we take. For granted for. Us to really realize how much we miss them.
Paul Harrison
Don’t know what? You’ve got till it’s gone. Take paradise. And put up a. Parking lot, right?
Pamela Gail Johnson
Sometimes I mean, I mean sometimes that’s that’s that’s what happens we we and I think that happens with happiness more than the things that annoy us. I think the things that make us happy we really do take that for granted and so if we get into that habit of of really counting it. And really, being mindful of it, yes, I think it, it changes our life and our outlook and and hopefully you go wow 80% of my life is really, you know makes me feel good and and is a happy moment for me.
Paul Harrison
Mm-hmm. So I just want to discuss your work a little bit further. Are are there any special moments that you’ve noticed any kind of really rewarding moments from your work, whether it be transformation within yourself or perhaps one of the readers of your book wrote to you and said, you know, how much of A change it made to them? Any real standout moments for you?
Pamela Gail Johnson
I think my most standout moments are when people, because the society’s been around for over 20 something or so. I’ve been helping people find a little more happiness for for a long time. But one of the biggest moments that just always is heartwarming is when somebody messages me, people who. Somewhat deal with mental health challenges or clinical depression and and these are part of their their life. And so they’re comparing their happiness set point, so to speak to maybe somebody who doesn’t deal with that. So when they get the types of happiness that that counter I talked about. They actually message me, I’ll say. You know what I do experience more happiness than I thought I did. And again, there’s might be in the form of satisfaction, or it might be just being content. Sometimes being content is a great type of happiness, especially if, if that’s that’s been a challenge for you. So when people really. They discover that they’re experiencing happy moments, despite things that they deal with on a daily basis, I think. That is just. A really heartwarming experience, because sometimes we do. Do what I. Call comparative happiness we we compare like my happy experience. To yours. But even if you and I are going and we have a delicious meal somewhere and we have the exact same meal and we both walk away and say that we enjoyed that moment and we enjoyed that meal, we still experienced it different because our happiness. Is personal so. It’s still not the exact same type of happiness, even when we have the exact same experience.
Paul Harrison
So I like to. Do a little challenger exercise in my. In the podcast. Is there a 5 minute little challenge or exercise that you could suggest for our listeners to do something that would boost their happiness levels?
Speaker
Well, I think.
Pamela Gail Johnson
If you want. To take the next 5 minutes and. Let’s just take. Three of the types of happiness, and I want you to take the past hour of your day. And just think of how many times you experienced these. So for for ease and fun, let’s say, how many times did you laugh? So humor, humor is the type of happiness. So when did you experience some humor? When did you experience some satisfaction, something that? You felt really good. Yeah, when you completed it, you you felt satisfied. Maybe it’s just because it’s done, but at least it’s done. So satisfaction. And then I like amused cause I’m easily amused. So let’s go with amuse. How many times did you experience so amusement. So let’s look at those three types of happiness. You know, and look at it for the past hour and my gut is you’re going to have experienced more of them than you thought you would have if I’d ask you to give me a rating of what you thought, it would probably be a lower number than what you actually experienced. So we want to do like I said, humor. When you laughed, amused. And satisfied.
Paul Harrison
So there’s your challenge for the day. Spend 5 minutes sitting down and thinking about all the times from the last hour when you were satisfied. Amused and humored. And that is going to make you more aware of the moments in your life. When you are. Happy and science shows that when we become more aware of moments of happiness in the past, we are more likely to notice positive times in the future. So by doing this today, you’ll be setting yourself up for more happiness tomorrow. Now, GAIL, we’re nearly at the end of this episode. How would our listeners get in contact with you if they wanted to read your book? If they wanted to reach out to you, how would they get in contact?
Pamela Gail Johnson
If you just go to the Society of Happy Peoples website whichissohp.com, you’ve got information on how to get the book and information on getting the counter I mentioned. Plus, just lots of more information. Our happiness happens month, which is in August time for Happiness Week, which is in January. We just have, we have lots of ways to try to help, you know, boost your boost, your happiness and your awareness of happiness.
Paul Harrison
Awesome. So GAIL. Sorry, Pamela, I don’t know why I called you by your middle name. I’m Paula. Thank you very much for your time. I’m sure listeners really appreciate your advice on happiness.
Pamela Gail Johnson
Thank you for having me on and I’m. Super excited to hear from your listeners.
Paul Harrison
All righty listeners. So they have it. That is your guide to happiness for the day. Spend 5 minutes now recounting the times from the past hour when you felt amused, humored and content. A big thank you to our special guest, Pamela GAIL Johnson, and until next time, stay zensational.
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