THE HAPPINESS RESET

We're obsessed with being happy but the struggle is real. To turn our frowns upside down, we have to forget everything we know about happiness

- Amy Molloy

Sometimes the happiness teacher fails her own class. Dr Laurie Santos is a professor of psychology and the teacher behind Yale University’s most popular course in over 300 years, which in twice-weekly lectures breaks down how to be happy. More than 4.5 million people have taken the online version of the class (called The Science of Well-being), and her podcast (The Happiness Lab) has over 85 million downloads. If anyone understands the mechanics of happiness, it’s Santos. So why does she – like all of us – struggle to hold onto that slippery little sucker: happiness?

“I think the biggest barrier to our happiness is the misconceptions we have,” she explains. “We all assume that we know what will make us happier; often that’s big changes to our circumstances, like more money or promotions at work and so on. But research shows that we’re often mistaken.”

In the new season of The Happiness Lab, Santos opens up about the “happiness demons” she struggles with: crippling perfectionism, chronic stress and a paralysing fear of death. “I wanted to be as honest as possible because I think it’s important for listeners to know that I struggle too,” she says. “I’m human and it makes sense that I also fall prey to things like boredom and busyness and overwhelm.”

For her, the antidotes include learning to be present, calling in self-compassion and addressing a lifelong intolerance of boredom. She cites a study published in the journal Science in which 67 per cent of men and 25 per cent of women chose to give themselves a small electric shock rather than sit quietly in a room doing nothing for 15 minutes.