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We all want to be happier but how do we achieve it? And do we even recognise what makes us happy? With an overwhelming rise in mental health issues ‘Happiness, A Sceptics Guide’ seeks to address a vital issue: understanding and improving your wellbeing. Join your hosts, serial self-help-abuser and professional sceptic Paul Flower and psychologist and author Dr Gary Wood on an epic quest, to navigate the vagaries of the world of wellness, in pursuit of happiness and how to hold on to it. In fortnightly short bursts, ‘Happiness, A Sceptics Guide‘ aims to sift the ‘science from the snake-oil‘ and sort the breakthroughs from the fake news to find out what works, what doesn‘t and what‘s just hype. Is happiness about the journey or the destination? Is it about the good life or finding meaning in life? What are the short-cuts and hacks? And should it really have taken a pandemic to get these two to work together? ‘Happiness, A Sceptics‘ guide aims to inform, entertain and bring you happiness whatever your objections!
A list of links, updated as we go, to support the podcast, 'Happiness, A Sceptics Guide'.
Books
Read Gary's book The Psychology of Wellbeing on which many of these podcast episodes are based. For the UK see here. For the USA see here.
Websites
Action for Happiness - a charity 'committed to building a happier and more caring society.' Its website is packed with resources and details of events. Follow on Twitter @actionhappiness
World Happiness Report 2021 As referenced in Episode 02 and thereafter. Twitter: @HappinessRpt
The Happiness Research Institute - an independent think tank whose research is referenced at regular intervals during the podcast (Ep 02) Follow on Twitter @Happi_Research
Ed Diener's (Dr Happiness) website - for various psychological measures related to happiness and subjective wellbeing, mentioned in Episode 03.
Values in Action - Character strengths survey - VIA detailed survey to analyse your character strengths and qualities. Also mentioned in Ep 03.
Reading well - This is a great resource we mention in Ep 12 as it supports you to understand and manage your health and wellbeing using helpful reading. All the books they feature have been recommended by health experts, as well as people with lived experience of the conditions and topics covered and their relatives and carers.
Definitions
Eudaimonia (Greek: εὐδαιμονία [eu̯dai̯moníaː]; sometimes anglicised as eudaemonia or eudemonia, /juːdɪˈmoʊniə/) is a Greek word commonly translated as 'happiness' or 'welfare'; however, more accurate translations have been proposed to be 'human flourishing', 'prosperity' and 'blessedness'.
In the work of Aristotle, eudaimonia (based on older Greek tradition) was used as the term for the highest human good, and so it is the aim of practical philosophy, including ethics and political philosophy, to consider (and also experience) what it really is, and how it can be achieved. It is thus a central concept in Aristotelian ethics and subsequent Hellenistic philosophy, along with the terms aretē (most often translated as 'virtue' or 'excellence') and phronesis" ('practical or ethical wisdom').
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eudaimonia
More reading
Erik Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development (ep 18)