Nate’s Notes 129: Laurie Santos | How To Improve Our Happiness

What great lessons Laurie shared:

First, rather than yell at ourselves like a drill Sergeant to motivate ourselves, it can be more effective to practice self-compassion by talking to ourselves like we would talk to our friend.

Second, to improve our happiness we need to invest in social connection. Not only does investing in social connection make us happier, it makes us happier than we expect it will.

In summary, practice self-compassion and invest in social connection. Both simple ideas. Please take them seriously.

Laurie Santos Bio:

Laurie Santos is the teacher of the most popular class in Yale’s history, Psychology and The Good Life. She is the host of “The Happiness Lab” podcast, which has been downloaded more than 85 million times, and she is the creator of The Science of Well-Being on Coursera, which has more than four million enrollees.

Her work has been featured in the New York Times, NBC Nightly News, The Today Show, GQ Magazine, Slate and O! Magazine, among others, and Time Magazine named her a “Leading Campus Celebrity.”

I hope you enjoy learning from Laurie Santos today, because I certainly did.