Enjoy the scenery on the detours

You will do well to cultivate the resources in yourself that bring you happiness outside of success or failure. The truth is, most of us discover where we are headed when we arrive. At that time, we turn around and say, yes, this is obviously where I was going all along. It's a good idea to try to enjoy the scenery on the detours, because you'll probably take a few.

Bill Watterson

https://www.themarginalian.org/2013/05/20/bill-watterson-1990-kenyon-speech/

No secret

Nobel laureate Bertrand Russell, born on this day (5.18) in 1872, on the secret of happiness.

https://www.themarginalian.org/2023/02/21/bertrand-russell-happiness/

The best in us

Born on this day in 1872, Bertrand Russell lived nearly a century, through two world wars, and won the Nobel Prize for his timeless writing that champions the best in us: our kindness, our critical thinking, our freedom of being. His immortal wisdom on how to grow old and what makes a fulfilling life:

https://www.themarginalian.org/2018/07/03/how-to-grow-old-bertrand-russell/

Rich

There is a third factor beyond happiness and meaning that contributes to a life well lived—psychological richness. Here's why it matters and how to cultivate it.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/well-read/202502/how-reading-can-contribute-to-a-psychologically-richer-life

Moral ambition

Another name for meliorism… Addresses the perennial and generational problem of the inadequacy of material ambition to fulfill the pursuit of meaning, purpose, and happiness.

Rutger Bregman Wants to Save Elites From Their Wasted Lives

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/17/magazine/rutger-bregman-interview.html?context=audio&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

RECOMMENDED, to be placed on library reserve.

Navigating by aliveness

The concept that sits right at the heart of a sane and meaningful life, I’m increasingly convinced, is something like aliveness. It goes by other names, too, none of which quite nail it – but it’s the one thing that, so long as you navigate by it, you’ll never go too far wrong. Sometimes it feels like a subtle electrical charge behind what’s happening, or a mildly heightened sense of clarity, or sometimes like nothing I can put into words at all. I freely concede it’s a hopelessly unscientific idea. But I’m pretty sure it’s what Joseph Campbell meant when he said that most of us aren’t really seeking the meaning of life, but rather “an experience of being alive… so that we actually feel the rapture” – although personally I don’t think it’s always rapturous, per se – “of being alive.”

In literal terms, of course, “aliveness” can’t be the right word here, because technically everyone’s alive all the time, whereas aliveness comes and goes. Still, I know it when I feel it. And I definitely know it when my misguided efforts to exert too much control over reality cause it to drain away. And so an excellent question to ask yourself – when you’re facing a tough decision, say, or wondering if you’re on the right track – is: “Does this feel like it’s taking me in the direction of greater aliveness?”

Crucially, aliveness isn’t the same as happiness. As the Zen teacher Christian Dillo explains in his engrossing book The Path of Aliveness, you can absolutely feel alive in the midst of intense sadness. Aliveness, he writes, “isn’t about feeling better; it’s about feeling better.” When I feel aliveness in my work, it’s not because every task is an unadulterated pleasure; and when I feel it in my close relationships, it’s not because I’ve transcended the capacity to get annoyed by other people – because believe me, I haven’t...

Oliver Burkeman, The Imperfectionist (continues)

Better than “success”

Success won't make you happy for long. Here's why purpose, identity, and connection beat ambition nearly every time.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-regret-free-life/202505/why-success-is-overrated

Struggling

Young adults aren't as happy as they used to be. I spoke with The New York Times about new research from the Global Flourishing Study, which shows that young people today are struggling more than ever—with their mental health, social connections, sense of purpose, and overall well-being.

We used to think of young adulthood as one of the happiest times of life, but that's no longer the case in a lot of Western countries like the US and the UK.

Laurie Santos https://www.threads.com/@lauriesantosofficial/post/DJmuUDyOu8C?xmt=AQF0B2diGi26zOEolqoTN3Hz7TkOCVsFSPFy1Y7CdUjheA

The only “island of meaning”?

Humbling, clarifying… but, "terrifying"? Perhaps in the same way being responsible for your children's well-being can be terrifying: an awesome responsibility, but profoundly meaningful and purpose-giving.

Brian Cox shares some Sagan-esque cosmic philosophy with Colbert:

@profbriancox explores the wonder of human life set against the vast backdrop of galaxies captured by the James Webb Space Telescope.

https://www.threads.com/@colbertlateshow/post/DJnhTd_vT00?xmt=AQF0YikHmhrFtU5gnzj__Zawf3E4XgjDImP6h-wyz7D59w

Happy parenting

Nordic countries are known for being happier – so should we all raise our children like the Scandinavians do? Swipe to learn five parenting lessons from the Danes!

You can listen to the episode, "Is a "Viking" Childhood a Happier Childhood (with Helen Russell)?" on The Happiness Lab. Available wherever you get your podcasts.

This series on parenting coincides with my new free online class, The Science of Wellbeing for Parents. You can sign up at DrLaurieSantos.com/parents.

https://www.threads.com/@lauriesantosofficial/post/DJkL70btOoO?xmt=AQF0fbdbpUu1riFNmC5K2e07ZpL8tfb2jy0KnCkGwA7Z2A

Time affluence

Research shows that cultivating "time affluence," or the psychological sense of having enough time, significantly boosts happiness and reduces stress, even without changing your actual schedule.

Even a small block of unexpected free time can feel huge to our brains. That's the beauty of time affluence—it's not about how much time you actually have, but how open your time feels. —Laurie Santos

Anxiety to depression

When anxiety goes unaddressed, it doesn't just fade—it often transforms into depression. Here's why it happens, and what can be done to help prevent it.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/liking-the-child-you-love/202504/the-anxiety-depression-link

Mindfully happy

"Mindfulness teaches us that happiness isn't a goal to chase or a quick fix to be found. Rather, it encourages us to be fully present in each moment, whether it feels pleasant or not."

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psychological-science-bites/202502/why-mindfulness-matters-a-new-lens-for-viewing-happiness

Can Happiness Be Taught?

Well, it can definitely be studied. And pursued. And at least occasionally enjoyed.

"…The nub is that [Arthur Brooks is] required, by the panic-stricken temper of the times, to insist that we can and must get better at being who we are. It could be argued that so positive an outlook is, and always has been, a by-product of any inquiry into the conduct of our earthly existence, although a self-help book by Schopenhauer would, perhaps, flummox more readers than it would assist. On the other hand, if anything yokes together the philosophers cited by Brooks, it is the willingness, or the unavoidable compulsion, to worry away at one moral conundrum after the next, like dogs unearthing a bone to have another go at the marrow. You could spend a lifetime, say, stubbornly chewing on what Aristotle, in the Ethics, means by eudaemonia. "Happiness" alone won't suffice. Aristotle himself, treading carefully, writes, "We have practically defined happiness as a sort of living and faring well." I am partial to the modesty of "human flourishing." Others prefer something like "the activity of a rational soul in accordance with virtue"—a daunting ideal that held sway for twenty-five hundred years, until it was roundly rebuffed by the creators of "Jackass."

…"

Anthony Lane
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/10/23/build-the-life-you-want-the-art-and-science-of-getting-happier-oprah-winfrey-and-arthur-c-brooks-book-review

But… is that all there is? 🎶

Happiness is made up of two ingredients: meaning and purpose. The problem is that most people believe they are the same thing. Here's why that's wrong—and how to use both to finally feel fulfillment.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-regret-free-life/202502/the-difference-between-meaning-and-purpose

Our texts, from an AI pov

 Scarlett's suggestions for our course... and comments on the supplemental addition of recommended texts.

That's a strong, diverse set of texts—well-balanced between psychological research, philosophical critique, and reflective life guidance. Haybron's Very Short Introduction gives students solid conceptual groundwork; Waldinger brings real-world data and warmth; Flanagan offers a healthy dose of skepticism; and Burkeman reframes time and meaning with sharp, modern urgency...

Those three recommended texts—Epicurus, Rowlands, and Solnit—offer rich avenues for expanding the conversation on happiness into lived experience, simplicity, embodiment, and companionship...

All That Happiness Is

Adam Gopnik, Liveright 2024

Elasticity

Our emotions are more elastic than we realise, and with the right tools you can boost your health, happiness and even longevity. New Scientist

It’s your duty

"There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy. By being happy, we sow anonymous benefits upon the world."
~ Robert Louis Stevenson

Keys to Happiness

An Ancient Key to Happiness You have to keep two things in check, say experts

This weekend, my colleagues at The New York Times Magazine are publishing a special issue all about happiness: how to define it, discover it and increase it.

In particular, I loved a quiz called, “What Makes You Happy?” I had fun answering the questions, but it also made me think.

It turns out that happiness can be grouped into two main categories, and the concept goes back to ancient Greece. One kind is called eudaemonic well-being, which you might think of as having meaning and purpose in your life. The other is called hedonic well-being, which means feeling pleasure and avoiding pain.

Both, researchers say, are important in order to thrive...

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/02/well/hedonic-eudaemonic-happiness.html?smid=em-share

Meaning & time

Young people, simply put, are less likely to define the meaning of their life—and worst of all, there's evidence they're not even looking for it.

I have lots of data going back to the 60s. We can blame social media, which is a big problem, but the truth is that our device use is just a way to fritter away our time and distract us from the fact that we don't know the meaning of our lives...

https://www.threads.com/@arthurcbrooks/post/DJN53I_Ry1L?xmt=AQGzC35EYh8sYWhNsj3znY-6W7DR7Zx0w3rhsojB7L48ow

JOMO

(But I'd have missed out on this…)

Ever close your social media app feeling worse than when you opened it? You're not alone. While FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) has become a familiar digital-age anxiety, there's a more fulfilling alternative worth exploring: JOMO — the Joy Of Missing Out.

Laurie Santos

https://www.threads.com/@lauriesantosofficial/post/DJMUPgFtiaj?xmt=AQGzZt70k4evYGq_LVOIvuy2yD890hN9NKuoxlEORJqAzA

Our Idea of Happiness Has Gotten Shallow. Here’s How to Deepen It.

Happiness was once understood as a communal project tied to justice and shared flourishing, but over time, it evolved into something individual and small. "Now the challenge seems clear: to reclaim a deeper, more demanding vision of what it means to live well in a fractured world — and restore happiness to its proper scale."

Kwame Anthony Appiah
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/03/magazine/happiness-history-living-well.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Scarlett's suggestions for the course

 https://chatgpt.com/share/6816a5a2-8854-8007-8b2a-64065782f22e

My Miserable Week in the ‘Happiest Country on Earth’

…If Americans are exceptional in our approach to happiness, it may have to do with an insistence on treating the matter as a glittering mystery, a thing requiring pilgrimage or a course at Harvard or Yale (both schools have offered happiness classes) to understand. It's a quandary we're tasked with solving — as with many quandaries in this country, like taxes and health insurance and self-defense — on our own. In a land of maximal freedom, where the coffee cups are huge, we can just as easily imagine ourselves becoming billionaires or dying on a street corner. The span of the ladder is as wide as our imaginations allow...

nyt

Please notice

Same

In Japan, happiness is often deeply connected to relationships with others and appreciation of the little things in life. Here's how that philosophy can help boost well-being.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/between-cultures/202504/japanese-wisdom-for-a-good-life

Don't Scroll, Engage

Social Media and You

Our smartphones and social media now mediate our most intimate moments. Romances begin with swipes and DMs, relationships end via text, and news of births and deaths arrive through notification bells on devices designed to shape every interaction.

For many, these technologies enhance connection. Those with rare conditions like cystic fibrosis find support groups that would be impossible to access locally. A transgender teen in a small town discovers communities that affirm their identity. A homebound elderly person maintains relationships with far-flung grandchildren. For the isolated, the internet is truly transformative.

But critical questions remain: Are these technologies deepening or inhibiting our meaningful connections? How do they affect our happiness?

(Robert Waldinger, continues)

The Best Advice I’ve Ever Heard for How to Be Happy

"Cherish the everyday" is the best of the best…

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/04/28/magazine/how-to-be-happy.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Quiz: Which Kind of Happiness Do You Rely On Most?

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/04/30/magazine/what-makes-me-happy-quiz.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

How Nearly a Century of Happiness Research Led to One Big Finding

Connect.

"… On a small patio by a very small pool, Waldinger and I talked about the rise of the happiness industry — the countless podcasts, conferences, best-selling books — and his own role in it. He gives considerable thought to maintaining his own happiness in the face of becoming a kind of influencer, someone called on to travel around the world to speak about happiness at conferences, sometimes to crowds of very wealthy people, repeating the same turns of phrase and giving the same advice about deep relationships.

As a Zen priest, someone accustomed to reckoning with his place in the world, Waldinger is acutely aware of the tension between achieving status and doing work that demands humility. Before becoming the steward of the Harvard study, he walked away from a high-profile job as the director of training and education at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center, after deciding that the prestige of the role didn't offset his lack of enthusiasm for the administrative work it demanded. At age 45, he started over, taking a major pay cut to pursue work he found more fulfilling: working under the guidance of Stuart Hauser, a psychiatrist recognized for his work in adolescent development. That professional step, of course, led Waldinger to the Harvard study and the work that has catapulted his visibility far beyond that of his previous career.

He reflected with honesty about how much thought he gives to keeping his newfound fame in perspective. "I grapple with the feeling that it's important," he told me, as we sat over turkey sandwiches his wife had made; ordinarily, the two of them have lunch together, a small moment of connection they started sharing during the pandemic. The work is meaningful, he said; it was the feeling of ego gratification that he struggled with. "It feels important," he said. "But it's really not. I work at a hospital where every water fountain is named after someone who was once maybe famous. But now no one knows who they are." The badges of achievement — that's the least important part of who he is, he tries to remind himself. Because otherwise who would he be when the calls from The New York Times, from Aspen, from TED, stopped coming?

Even knowing that Waldinger was a Buddhist priest, I felt somehow surprised by how quickly our conversation had moved past the discussion of research and deepened into something that felt bracingly and reassuringly honest. When we finally said goodbye after a few hours of talking, mostly in the sun, I left feeling that I had connected with someone who was, just a few hours earlier, a stranger. I noticed, as I got in the car and remembered my concerns about my back, that it was incontrovertible: I felt better."

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/magazine/happiness-research-studies-relationships.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

==

How to Be Happy

Happiness can predict health and longevity, but it doesn’t just happen to you.

---

• Want to feel happier? One proven strategy is to strengthen what psychologists call your reward sensitivity.

• Small changes in your behavior and surroundings can set you on course for happiness. Here’s how.

• Our seven-day Happiness Challenge will help you focus on a crucial element of living a good life — your relationships.

• Finland has been ranked the happiest country on earth for six consecutive years. What’s the secret? The answer is complicated.

• Cultivating a sense of wonder can be a salve for a turbulent mind. Here is how to make it part of your everyday life.

• It can seem impossible to be optimistic about the future. But these questions will help you understand what all optimists have in common.

Re: A Global Flourishing Study Finds That Young Adults, Well, Aren’t

My three youngest sons have certainly struggled and continue to express a bleak outlook on their future.  When I shared my own experience of life getting better with time, one insisted that it isn't working that way for his generation as their income is not keeping up with inflation, housing is difficult to acquire and keep long-term, etc.

On Wed, Apr 30, 2025, 11:29 AM Phil Oliver <poliver.mtsu@gmail.com> wrote:

New data collected from more than 200,000 people across the world shows that young people aren't as happy as they used to be.

The happiness curve is collapsing.

For decades, research showed that the way people experienced happiness across their lifetimes looked like a U-shaped curve. Happiness tended to be high when they were young, then dipped in midlife, only to rise again as they grew old.

But recent surveys suggest that young adults aren't as happy as they used to be, and that U-shaped curve is starting to flatten.

This pattern has shown up yet again in a new study, one of a collection of papers published on Wednesday in the journal Nature Mental Health. They are the first publications based on the inaugural wave of data from the Global Flourishing Study, a collaboration between researchers at Harvard and Baylor University.

The data, collected by Gallup primarily in 2023, was derived from self-reported surveys of more than 200,000 people in over 20 countries. It found that, on average, young adults between the ages of 18 and 29 were struggling — not only with happiness, but also with their physical and mental health, their perceptions of their own character, finding meaning in life, the quality of their relationships and their financial security. The researchers combined these measures to determine the degree that each participant was "flourishing," or living in a state where all aspects of life were good... nyt

A Global Flourishing Study Finds That Young Adults, Well, Aren’t

New data collected from more than 200,000 people across the world shows that young people aren't as happy as they used to be.

The happiness curve is collapsing.

For decades, research showed that the way people experienced happiness across their lifetimes looked like a U-shaped curve. Happiness tended to be high when they were young, then dipped in midlife, only to rise again as they grew old.

But recent surveys suggest that young adults aren't as happy as they used to be, and that U-shaped curve is starting to flatten.

This pattern has shown up yet again in a new study, one of a collection of papers published on Wednesday in the journal Nature Mental Health. They are the first publications based on the inaugural wave of data from the Global Flourishing Study, a collaboration between researchers at Harvard and Baylor University.

The data, collected by Gallup primarily in 2023, was derived from self-reported surveys of more than 200,000 people in over 20 countries. It found that, on average, young adults between the ages of 18 and 29 were struggling — not only with happiness, but also with their physical and mental health, their perceptions of their own character, finding meaning in life, the quality of their relationships and their financial security. The researchers combined these measures to determine the degree that each participant was "flourishing," or living in a state where all aspects of life were good... nyt

In & with

What does it mean to be happy?

Social scientists like me think about happiness as having two parts: being happy IN your life and being happy WITH your life. The first part of happiness involves having positive emotions—you're supposed to feel good in your day-to-day. The second part of happiness is cognitive—you need to think your life is going well. — Laurie Santos

https://www.threads.com/@lauriesantosofficial/post/DJCBHnzBilT?xmt=AQGzn6_lmhh9oyIwh-O3V_BTNsnqfWQC5GxcW7UraZ2Z3Q

Practical optimism

Practical optimism isn't just about positive thinking—it's about taking action.

According to Dr. Sue Varma, translating optimism into real outcomes requires skills, tools, and consistent practice. Some days it might be just five minutes, but like learning a language or riding a bike — it builds over time.

Listen to my full conversation with Dr. Sue Varma on The Happiness Lab wherever you get your podcasts.

Laurie Santos

Russell’s impersonal interests

Maria reposts this frequently. I transcribe it frequently. It's the most concise statement of wisdom I've found, right up there with his "love is wise, hatred is foolish" capsule to the future. Age gracefully. Be happy. Release ego. Merge.

"Make your interests gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life."

Maria Popova
Nobel laureate Bertrand Russell on how to grow old: https://www.themarginalian.org/2018/07/03/how-to-grow-old-bertrand-russell/

Suggestions from AI

 Here are several suggestions for recent nonfiction and fiction titles (from the past couple years) that could fit your course, organized by type and tone:

---

Recent Nonfiction (2022–2024)

1. The Good Enough Life by Avram Alpert (2022)
A powerful meditation on the cult of excellence and how striving for greatness can undermine well-being. Alpert argues for a more communal, sustainable, and modest ideal—resonant with Epicurean and Buddhist themes.

2. Life Is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way by Kieran Setiya (2022)
A gentle but probing book on how confronting pain, failure, and mortality can deepen our understanding of happiness and meaning. Combines analytic clarity with personal reflection.

3. On Getting Better by Adam Gopnik (2023)
A humanistic, essayistic take on self-improvement and fulfillment from the New Yorker writer. It’s literary, stylish, and rich in cultural reference—very teachable and engaging.

4. This Life: Secular Faith and Spiritual Freedom by Martin Hägglund (2020, paperback 2021)
Not brand new, but gaining traction. A deep and ambitious work of existential philosophy, arguing that real value—and real happiness—only makes sense if we accept the finitude of life. Good counterpoint to Stoicism or religious traditions.

5. The Joy of Saying No by Natalie Lue (2023)
A practical yet philosophically grounded take on boundaries and self-worth. It might pair well with Burkeman's 4000 Weeks in its focus on time, values, and attention.

---

Fiction (Recent, Thematically Relevant)

1. The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris (2021)
While historical, this novel explores the inner lives of formerly enslaved people and their quest for dignity, freedom, and—ultimately—joy. A deep ethical and emotional read.

2. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (2022)
A story of creative friendship, love, and the meaning of life through the lens of game design. Philosophical questions about identity, purpose, mortality, and happiness run throughout.

3. Happiness Falls by Angie Kim (2023)
A suspenseful family drama centered on communication, neurodivergence, and the philosophical idea that happiness isn’t always what it seems. Explores subjectivity and the ethics of care.

4. The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki (2021)
A semi-magical, Buddhist-inflected meditation on grief, noise, books, and sanity. Engages questions about inner peace and the nature of meaning, with deep compassion and inventiveness.

5. Search by Michelle Huneven (2022)
A satirical yet earnest novel about a Unitarian church’s search for a new minister—and the search for happiness, meaning, and community that animates its quirky congregation.

---

Would you like suggestions for pairing any of these with your current list (e.g., as a complement or contrast to Pigliucci or Rowlands)? Also: would you be interested in more global or non-Western perspectives on happiness, or even poetry?

You said:

Yes, to both questions.

ChatGPT said:

Excellent! Here are some thoughtful pairings and contrasts for your current list, followed by global/non-Western perspectives and a few poetic/lyrical additions that could enrich the course.

---

Pairings & Contrasts with Pigliucci and Rowlands

1. With Beyond Stoicism

Pigliucci & co. advocate a contemporary “cognitive” approach to flourishing grounded in virtue ethics. You might pair or contrast that with:

• Life Is Hard by Kieran Setiya
  Setiya shares Stoic themes (suffering, resilience) but rejects Stoicism's detachment. He promotes engagement with emotional life and imperfect flourishing. Great for class debates: Should we aim for apatheia or connection?

• This Life by Martin Hägglund
  Hägglund critiques Stoicism’s indifference to loss and offers a secular, mortalist ethics of commitment. It’s denser, but even excerpts could stir deep reflection.

• The Art of Solitude by Stephen Batchelor (2020)
  A Buddhist-leaning alternative to Stoicism, embracing impermanence and mindful solitude. Could complement Stoicism with a gentler, more meditative angle.

2. With The Philosopher and the Wolf / The Word of Dog by Mark Rowlands

Rowlands gives us a phenomenological and emotional take on meaning—especially through animals.

• The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki
  Magical realism and Buddhist-inflected compassion echo Rowlands’s themes of suffering, voice, and interconnection. Would resonate especially with students drawn to animal ethics or non-human sentience.

• Search by Michelle Huneven
  Explores spirituality and happiness through a community lens, not a solitary or animal one. Might serve as an implicit contrast to Rowlands's more private, existential solitude.

---

Global / Non-Western Perspectives

1. The Book of Joy by Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu (2016, still fresh)

Deeply conversational, humorous, and insightful—combines Buddhist and Christian traditions on cultivating joy through compassion, gratitude, and connection.

2. Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life by Héctor García and Francesc Miralles (2017, still popular)

Presents a distinctly Japanese take on purpose and happiness—could spark great conversation on cultural conceptions of the good life.

3. The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler

A classic and accessible East-meets-West blend of Buddhist and psychological insight.

4. Happy by Derren Brown (2016, UK-based)

Offers a British skepticism of self-help combined with Stoic/Buddhist themes. Great companion to Pigliucci—same terrain, different tone.

---

Poetic & Lyrical Additions

1. The Hurting Kind by Ada Limón (2022)

Limón, the U.S. Poet Laureate, explores love, pain, nature, and presence with startling clarity and tenderness. Her poems can open up classroom discussion on momentary joy and enduring hope.

2. Devotions by Mary Oliver (or Felicity, A Thousand Mornings)

If you're not already using Oliver, she's the gold standard for poetic reflection on happiness through simplicity, nature, and mindfulness.

3. Inciting Joy by Ross Gay (2022)

Lyrical essays about joy born from sorrow, shared struggle, and connection. Very teachable, with an almost Jamesian belief in the redemptive powers of life.

4. The Penguin Book of Spiritual Verse: 110 Poets on the Divine (2022, ed. Kaveh Akbar)

Offers a pluralistic, global lens on happiness, hope, longing, and transcendence—great for final reflections or student-chosen readings.

... https://chatgpt.com/share/67f41f34-1ac4-8007-bf35-d89a767f74c2

The Happiness of Dogs: Why the Unexamined Life Is Most Worth Living - Mark Rowlands

Published in the U.S. as The Word of Dog: what our canine companions can teach us about living a good life…

https://www.abebooks.com/9781803510323/Happiness-Dogs-Why-Unexamined-Life-1803510323/plp

Beyond Stoicism | The Experiment

What is a good life? And how can we create that life in a world filled with uncertainty? Beyond Stoicism invites you to find your own answers to these big questions with help from thirteen of the most prominent Greco-Roman philosophers—many of whom inspired, or were inspired by, the Stoics. By taking cues from the lives and ideas of the Cynics, Epicureans, and others, you'll learn to:

• Seek pleasure with Aristippus
• Strike the right balance with Aristotle
• Focus on what's up to you with Epictetus
• Be a rebel like Hipparchia
• Embrace uncertainty with Carneades
• Question everything with Socrates
• Work toward a just society with Plato
• And much more

Times have changed, but the quest for eudaimonia—a life worth living—stays the same: We still seek pleasure and crave love, avoid pain and fear death. That's why all these ancient sages can continue to guide us, practicing Stoics and new seekers alike.

https://theexperimentpublishing.com/catalogs/winter-2025/beyond-stoicism/

Finland Says It Can Teach Tourists to Be Happy. Challenge Accepted.

LISTEN https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/31/travel/finland-happiness-challenge.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Phil.Oliver@mtsu.edu

👣Solvitur ambulando

💭Sapere aude

Santos

Laurie Santos, Yale's resident well-being expert and teacher of the most popular course in the university's 300-year history, reveals what it means to live a good life—and shares some books that might help us get within reach of one.

https://www.threads.net/@newyorkermag/post/DH04k7TpgLQ?xmt=AQGzYXbURwPDtZE5B0l7CgJgYbjd-pClRcCYgviogixQ-Q

Stoic happiness

"The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things." — Epictetus

Laurie Santos’s faves

Many of us struggle to figure out what truly makes us happy. That's why I was thrilled to chat with The New Yorker about my favorite happiness books:

- "Stumbling on Happiness" by Dan Gilbert
- "The Power of Fun" by Catherine Price
- "The Book of Delights" by Ross Gay
- "The Stoic Challenge" by William B. Irvine
- "Four Thousand Weeks" by Oliver Burkema

Read the article: https://loom.ly/hQ47hJ8

https://www.threads.net/@lauriesantosofficial/post/DHv8m6lMQJP?xmt=AQGz5rqedwuIqWo7q01sxiAZ7t8jnGubnJxXvIo-cbhXkA

A Surprising Route to the Best Life Possible

"… It is a great and underappreciated talent — the capacity to be seized. Some people go through life thick-skinned. School or career has given them a pragmatic, instrumental, efficiency-maximizing frame of mind. They live their life under pressure, so their head is down; they're not open to delight, or open to that moment of rapture that can redirect a life. Others have a certain receptivity to them..."

David Brooks 

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/27/opinion/persistence-work-difficulty.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Don’t believe it

"The most unhappy of all men is he who believes himself to be so."

— Henry Home, Introduction to the Art of Thinking

Loinnir

https://www.threads.net/@arealmofwonder/post/DHi5kyxsaJW?xmt=AQGz_8qBZdiNrThS54pUMMGo4cj8jGQukRqUSmeOYGx-CQ

Americans Are Unhappier Than Ever. Solo Dining May Be a Sign.

The United States slipped to its lowest ranking ever in the World Happiness Report, in part because more Americans are eating alone. Once again, the Finns came out on top.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/20/us/americans-solo-dining-happiness.html?smid=em-share

Happy humanists

Here's our patron Stephen Fry on the humanist approach to finding and creating happiness in the one life we know we have. 

❤️Happy InternationalDayofHappiness, everyone!

https://www.threads.net/@humanists_uk/post/DHawVF7PgK2?xmt=AQGz2uLuFoIXVYw1e5NCy3kvvutAH16NcuOv-Kpf6RNCKw

Phil.Oliver@mtsu.edu

👣Solvitur ambulando

💭Sapere aude

2025 World Happiness Report

Today is the #InternationalDayofHappiness, as well as the release of the 2025 World Happiness Report.

🇫🇮 Finland remain 1 for an eighth year in a row
🇨🇷 🇲🇽 Costa Rica and Mexico both enter the top 10 for the first time
🇺🇸 The United States falls to its lowest ever position

Read more ⬇️
https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2025-03-20-world-happiness-report-2025-shows-people-are-much-kinder-we-expect

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"Delightful pessimism"

He found delight in earthquakes too.

"Perry recalled William bringing home a volume of Schopenhauer and reading “amusing specimens of his delightful pessimism.” It is perfectly characteristic of the volatile William James that he later came to loathe Schopenhauer’s pessimism, which he took as equivalent to determinism, and that he came rather delightedly to abuse the author of The World as Will and Idea. Schopenhauer’s pessimism, James wrote twenty-five years later, is “that of a dog who would rather see the world ten times worse than it is, than lose his chance of barking at it.”

"William James: In the Maelstrom of American Modernism" by Robert D. Richardson : https://a.co/6NdhLig

Don’t wait

"Chasing success to find happiness may leave you waiting forever. Research shows that happiness comes first—it's the driver of success. Cultivating well-being leads to better career outcomes, including higher productivity, greater job satisfaction, and increased income.
Research by Sonja Lyubomirsky and colleagues reveals that happier people are more likely to achieve career success. So instead of waiting for success to make you happy, focus on what makes you happy now—and let success follow." —Laurie Santos

OUP's Guides to the Good Life

Guides to the Good Life

In accessible and friendly guides, drawing on philosophy from the ancient world through modern times, this series highlights some of the transformative ideas that philosophers have had about the good life, and the practices and ways of life that help us to pursue it. Books in the series offer philosophical guidance about how to approach the sort of everyday questions that make up the texture of our lives: What should we value in life? How can we be good to one another? How should we spend our time? How can we focus in a chaotic world? How should we think about death? How can we mend broken relationships? What does it mean to succeed in life? How should we treat our planet?

Above all, the series is dedicated to the idea that philosophy can be, as it was for hundreds of years in the ancient world, a way of life. It can enhance the ways of life we already feel pulled toward, and help us to engage with them more authentically and fully...


Living for Pleasure
An Epicurean Guide to Life
by Emily A. Austin
9780197558324
Hardcover
01 November 2022

On Being and Becoming
An Existentialist Approach to Life
by Jennifer Anna Gosetti-Ferencei
9780190913656
Hardcover
09 November 2020
Guides to the Good Life

And also from OUP:

One Life to Lead: The Mysteries of Time and the Goods of Attachment Hardcover – February 26, 2025
by Samuel Scheffler (Author)

oup 1 (800) 445-9714

“happily ever after”

"Happily ever after is only true if you have three minutes to live." 

Dan Gilbert

This quote gets right to the heart of how our minds lie to us when it comes to happiness. Our brain often think in terms of 'happily ever after.' But real life isn't a fairytale, and happiness isn't some magical spell that lasts forever. Our minds are quickly adapt— even to the best things in life. https://www.threads.net/@lauriesantosofficial/post/DFuwo8LMf8K?xmt=AQGzzc7x5XX4OHvgULk3zLZrImszyuOOiYI6x5dnoe5fMQ

Phil.Oliver@mtsu.edu

👣Solvitur ambulando

💭Sapere aude

Russell’s happy merger

"Make your interests gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life." — BertrandRussell, The Conquest of Happiness

I agree with Russell in spirit, but "personal transcendence" requires at least enough ego to generate those wider interests. I'd say you should make your interests personal and expansive. Inclusive. Connective. "Larger than yourself." Pretty sure that's what he meant anyway. Impersonal means more than merely  personal. Interpersonal. We don't need zero ego, we need a social ego that bonds us with our species and with the future of life. That's how you transcend time and mortality. Or try.

Note: he says not that the ego recedes but that its walls do.  They become permeable. The self doesn't disappear, it grows and becomes part of "universal life." The trick is to feel and embody that before shedding mortal form. It's Peter Ackroyd's "trans-end-dance, a.k.a. the dance of death" (Plato Papers).

Maria Popova: Bertrand Russell died on this day in 1970, having lived nearly a century and won the Nobel Prize, leaving us his immortal wisdom on how to grow old.

https://www.themarginalian.org/2018/07/03/how-to-grow-old-bertrand-russell/

Young Alan Watts

Alan Watts, born on this day in 1915, was in his twenties and living through the second World War of his lifetime when he wrote this beautiful letter to his parents about living with inner sanity in an insane world:

https://www.themarginalian.org/2017/12/27/collected-letters-of-alan-watts/

Meaning crisis

What is the number one goal of your life? "Professor of Happiness" @arthurcbrooks says that in the 60s, finding meaning was the number one goal of most college students. Now, it's not even in the top 5 goals! In this conversation Above the Noise with Brooks, he helps you break down why we have lost this search for meaning, as well as the science backed pillars that can help us all find our own deeply meaningful lives!

https://www.threads.net/@thesundaypaper/post/DEfvDrQyShm?xmt=AQGzf9ck9iNu4oKrP1EgcPgZtfPk5cLuHy5BdtSXu-noNA

Burkeman’s imperfectionism

In a world that often demands perfection, it's easy to get caught up in the belief that we need to have everything figured out before we can move forward. But what if we started from a different assumption?

The concept of "imperfectionism," as Oliver Burkeman explains it, invites us to accept that there will always be loose ends, unfinished tasks, and areas for growth - and that's okay.

https://www.threads.net/@lauriesantosofficial/post/DEXNnhcol4q?xmt=AQGzBj3nd_6GOS04YXhp6bTJ3iU0iJ2NIp_-S-eHakwzdg