Happiness is great. Being happy is good. But, what does happiness really mean? What can science and medicine teach us about being happy; about how we can pursue happiness?
As we’ll discover together, there is a lot of searching for happiness and happiness is a great antidote to stress. But, what can we really do? What should we do?
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I am here as ever with my dear friend Richard Hello Richard and the girl your face like I get I get the facial version not just the radio and he's always smiling no matter what's going on in life and you know that's an example to me so I try to do my best just just look at Andy makes me smile. You know somebody to be there. No thank you somebody call me a smile on time it was a neighbors years ago we lived in shop share every time we see you with smiling and I thought. I don't feel like I smile all that much because I knew I was going on my life at that time and it was really not very good and more than it were 15 years ago 20 years ago but every time we see you is smiling. I used to be known as smiley as a kid and I think you want to lose that you're not careful in adults it's good as life life stuff and life's busy. But maybe we should all smile more especially as Christians we should smile it's better than frowning it takes less energy. Less muscles less muscles right okay Richard you want us to start with something with cold water therapy which we talk about six weeks ago. Yeah this is important actually I mean we'd like to be honest on this show and we are honest and although I was talking about cold water therapy because it's been in the breast and you know in linking with stuff that's been known for hundreds of years. Actually it's been some bad press recently so I feel obliged to see what I read in the Sunday Times just this week. So essentially Wim Hof is this a Dutchman and the headline is his ability his personal ability to withstand extreme temperatures has made him millions has made millions mainly because his son has plugged him but a spate of deaths raises probably questions about the wellness methods he has pioneered. Sir thinking I've read this I need to read the article through the article and it goes on from this you know there is a natural power appealing of the cold and anyone is able to learn so this is what Wim Hof is saying. So says Wim Hof the 65 year old Iceman famous for his ability to withstand extreme cold he believes as 2000 fans and that his method can replace stress number one boost the immune system number two and can even help treat illnesses such as diabetes, arthritis and cancer. So that's all good and he started a global wellness trend inspiring hundreds of copycats and it's important to make sure you follow his methods. However a Sunday Times investigation has uncovered 11 cases where families claim their loved ones have died after performing the whole Hof breathing method. Basically what he's talking about is not just immersing yourself in cold water that holding your breath beforehand. Many families claim their loved one would copy what they believed they'd seen him do in his various videos accusing him of acting recklessly. Coronas and scientists also dispute the medical claims he has that cold water therapy is beneficial and they say it can be harmful in certain circumstances especially where breath holding is involved as it raises the chance if you breath hold and cold water of a heart attack. The son's professor at the University of Portsmouth been studying the effects of cold water on the body for 40 years. He found that young healthy individuals at a one to three percent chance of cardiac arrhythmia so an unusual rhythm in cold water. Now that's quite high one to three percent that's up to one in 30 people. That figure rose hugely if you hold your breath before immersing your cold yourself in cold water. It's an incredible way of reproducing cardiac arrhythmias and otherwise fit unhealthy individuals. Now I might say Hoth denies all this of course that naturally but there are concerns and it seems to be I would say if you're going to vote for the cold water stuff and then perhaps there are benefits although science is disputing it. Certainly don't do the breath holding beforehand that just seems to be dangerous whether or not you've got a known heart condition you don't do it anyway. And if you haven't got a known heart condition please don't breath hold before going in ice cold water. So I'll leave it there but I feel obliged to be on the show as I've done this talk previously saying that there may be some benefits and I'm not pooping any benefits that people have found but no breath holding. I remember watching Romarine Commandos do Arctic training and one of the things they do is they have to jump into the freezing water to learn what to do if they fall into the water. But they're always tied up beforehand in case they stop breathing or have a heart attack. So you know these are guys that we respect they are extremely fit Romarine Commandos and even they when they're trying to do this and testing and training they stick a rope around them just in case which does illustrate the possibility of a problem. Yeah the just in case means just in case they can be a case so I thought I'd bring that to you we don't need to make too much more of it but we want to be safe as well as as received benefits so there we are. Cool and then we're going to move on to happiness. We are now we'd be looking at stress Andy for a couple of weeks because stress is a common feature of our lives short term stress can be beneficial but long term stress can be really quite debilitating. But I was thinking you know as Christians we've got good news. So it's all very well looking at stress and certainly there are ways we can live our lives to make ourselves less stressed and certainly we can trust in God and lean on him. But what about the good news well we should be able to remember that peace and joy. Whereas by right as Christians you know if we if we base our security in Christ that should matter and funny enough as I was about to write this talk on the radio I'm in my car Christian radio comes on. There's a really good song by Ren collective at the moment you might have heard it the joy of the Lord is my strength. Unsurprisingly stolen straight from the Bible and of course being a great a great band for my own they put it to music so the joy of the Lord is my strength it's a catchy song check it out. But you know the joy of the Lord is our strength. One of our super powers is it should be joy and it's a strength but we should be joyful not just because we've had an ice cream. Not just because we've had a good meal with wine or dare I say I hope seeing England win at football although that's been a bit less than joyful recently although you know we have gone through to the next round. But joy through faith in the Lord. So from this strong foundation again I read my newspapers and this is very good article and it's here's the title what really makes us happy. So I thought well I can't ignore that one and you know that the radio audience needs to know what really makes us happy from science. And and as ever what I want to do like with stress is to do a talk based on this article today and then next week we'll look at what the Bible has to say because. Usually these things and I think in this case very much again what people are discovering what science is proving as what God's revealed throughout thousands of years it's in the word. But let's see what what what we learn about so the article starts by examining one common myth. If only I could win the lottery. I'll be happy if only a Lamborghini car suddenly dropped its way into my garage. I'd be happy. But there's a professor of psychology of psychology at Bristol University called professor hood. H.W.D. who's also worked at Harvard is obviously clever broke. And he says winning the jackpot isn't all it's cracked up to be. Now some of us will remember Vivian Nicholson the first lady who won a million quid on a jackpot it didn't do her much good but nevertheless people think well yeah that will make me happy. Well research shows that there may be a short term boost but it will not have a long term impact on your happiness score. Why? Well I'm not just going to add Andy think about it because I'm going to give the answer the brain our brains register change rather than stable states. So what does that mean? Well a lottery win is a change so we can get a short term boost but when wealth becomes the norm say you win a million pounds and it's in your bank account and that suddenly your bank account. The happiness boost has gone money loses its luster and this all comes from a book he's written called the science of happiness which I quite like that as a title based on five years of psychological data on what makes humans feel good. So this is rather poignant now some of you may remember as I do because my youngest daughter about ten years ago was a student at Bristol University this is a profession at Bristol University and he started his course on the science of happiness following a spate of suicides at Bristol Union. And initially thought well I'm doing this work but I'm not sure anyone will attend the hall was full and he was subsequently got emails from students stating that he changed their lives they were even coming up up to him in the campus and giving him a hug. It's now the university's best attended course it's a ten week course and what he wants to do with one thing he does is he distinguishes success from happiness they're not the same thing. And again he looks at why money often fails to provide the emotional payoff that we think it will you know we might think it's a silver bullet and it's not so he's come up with seven points so this is where Andy gets his pencil out. Here is Professor Hood's seven steps for happiness. And as I say we'll look at this from a biblical point I'm going to look through all these seven points and see what the Bible has to say next week but number one it's not all about you. If we think less about ourselves and more of others, by the way which is what new parents do and so my kids my children recently had my grandchildren their children and suddenly oh my goodness there's no way you could be a self-centered person. Well if you are it's going to be even even more tricky than it is for the rest of us it shifts most people out of a self-centered bias because we're having to think why is this baby crying. Why is it getting me up at night what's wrong is it an athlete is it hungry. What's going on. And the first thing and then of course we get joined definitely from our kids we get real happiness although it's hard work there's no one denying that. It's tiring but it's good for us so number one that's just one illustration but it's not all about you. And as I say we'll look at the biblical angle from that and next week number two. Stay connected humans this is obvious in a sense but it's very true humans thrive in groups and languish in isolation. And he's been doing an awful lot of work that various Christian camps recently he probably needs a bit less attention from others but isn't it it's a real stimulation isn't it we know this is how we thrive. And this is not surprising because there's been quite a few studies looking at how poor social relationships increase heart disease by 29% at strokes by 32% and dementia by a massive a whopping 50%. You know there are areas of the brain which are triggered by pain but the same areas of the brain are triggered by social loss. So humans are designed to work together to stay connected and if we don't it's bad for us physically and mentally. So good professor had recommends reaching out to someone you haven't spoken to for a long time and tell them you've been thinking of them. So think about people gosh you know, 20 years ago that school friend that work colleague or that person I used to see regularly down at the tennis club but I haven't seen for ages. Check them out. Tell them you've been thinking of them a little boost them and boost you. So number one it's not all about you number two stay connected. Number three this is a one I like a lot and the Bible certainly talks about this. Avoid negative comparisons and you'll you'll love this one. Avoid negative comparisons. There was a study of athletes at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Now here's a question for Andy I think you'll probably work out the answer but who were happier those that got silver medals. So they were second in whatever event all those that got bronze medals so they were third. Who was happier the silvers or the bronzes. I remember this it was the bronze. Why? Because second place was nearly winning third place was on the rostrum so they got something. Andy you should be we should swap places except I can do your job. I should do yours. I certainly shouldn't do your job. The silver medals were consumed by what might have been oh it could have been me winning but the bronze medals. Wow. I got a medal. Now that's quite interesting but this one's even more interesting and this one I wouldn't predict it. Now he looked at people so ordinary people not athletes now in America who were earning $50,000. And they were quite happy as long as their colleagues were earning $25,000 a year. Now if they were upgraded to $100,000 a year so they had doubled their salary from 50 to 100 would they be happy. Well yes if their colleagues were only 25,000 but know if their colleagues were earning 250,000. In other words they were comparing themselves to other people and it wasn't their salary which you might imagine if money was everything would double double your money, double your happiness. Oh no it's in comparison to other people. And his point was aren't we odd. But he said enjoy what you have on its own terms. Don't compare yourself. Don't have negative comparisons. So that was quite interesting. Number four look on the bright side and that's very true. He was looking at basic what we call metrics these days life expectancy and quality of life. And he said look you know when you look at these things most of us are great majority of people nowadays are doing so much better than our ancestors than our forebears were both in terms of how long we live and the quality of our lives. Yet a YouGov poll revealed that 65 to 70% of those in the UK and US thought the world was getting worse. That's not good for us because optimism has been proven and I've certainly done this when I looked at health statistics some years ago. Optimism adds years to our lives. So what he's tried to do in his science of happiness course is he tries to fix this in his students by being optimistic. If bad events occur well he rationalises that these things happen but listen where's the good stuff. He reinterprets setbacks in a more positive light. And he says and here's a good take-home point do not be paralysed by failure. Now he doesn't want to take it too far. Don't we can't deny reality? Yeah and we mustn't become reckless in denial reality or we turn into Boris Johnson. But don't be paralysed by failure. Don't be overwhelmed by bad stuff. Remember actually gosh all the good stuff we have in our lives. Look at us living you know when I was a young lad we lived till 70. Now we lived to 85 you know below 85 that's a bit disappointing things have changed. So number four look on the bright side. Number five this is important control your attention. Now this is a view which I never thought about but human attention he says began to wonder 10,000 years ago when we started farming. Because before we started farming we used to think okay how can we hunt animals. We've got a hunt we've got a hunt we've got a cache we've got a cache that's what we did. When we started farming so many other things to think about what's the weather doing. Oh with this crop work well that suddenly we're having to think about too many things. And he says a wandering mind this brings us to the modern day of course with social media. A wandering mind with excess stimulation leads to lower mood. And we know don't we it's been shown time and again in the papers recently that social media with all its stimulation. All its in six six seconds here six seconds there it's bad for us. And the science is absolutely confirming this a wandering mind leads to a lower mood. If we can control our attention and prevent in intrusive thoughts it's beneficial for us. And here's a nice thing and I'll throw this over to Andy see what you think about this one. He says don't suppress negative thoughts don't try to ignore them that's not happened. He says allow them in briefly treat them as foreign objects as imposters and then let them go. So they can come in briefly and then they're booted out. We can't just ignore them completely otherwise they'll just keep tapping on the door and let them in and then boot them out. So that's five so five just quickly summarize them again it's not all about you stay connected. Avoid negative comparisons look on the bright side control your attention two more make deeper connections. Put your phone away studies show this is interesting just a site of your phone detracts from how much you enjoy social interaction. So how many times we see people in the pub or in a restaurant and they're having a chat and then suddenly they look down at their right hand and there's the phone. And then enjoy them you're having with your wife even your mates whatever. It's reduced put the phone away join a sports club join us join a choir turn a hobby into a chance to make deeper friends. And here's a nice one thrown into this one another study and I'll ask you this one but I think I know you'll get the answer right. Participants received envelopes containing either five pounds or twenty pounds and they could either spend it on themselves or on other people. Who ended up happier. Bending on others is good to make people smile totally try a little act of uneven better if they don't know who you are a little act of unconditional kindness and apparently making it anonymous. Increases the hit how about that. That's interesting. Deeper connections to join sports club and give stuff away. And no surprise that links in with the Bible as well. And then finally get out of your head. That doesn't mean get drunk. It means go for a walk in the great outdoors. And this helps to deactivate two critical brain regions in the amygdala. Now the amygdala is responsible for looking at emotions and threats. It was responsible for monitoring threats. And it's also linked in with mind wandering and planning. So of course you know what are you doing. If I'm in my study oh my goodness the computer what's going on and what to do this I need to write the lists all that sort of stuff. Oh look the stuff on my desk I haven't dealt with. Oh dear. Oh dear. Get out into the great outdoors. Go and gaze at stars on a clear night. We discover childhood curiosity. Think about or how about this. This is a non-Christian talking. Think about the immensity of space. And ponder who built it. Oh my goodness. Maybe he was a Christian. He's just throwing that in. I don't know. I have to look him up. Think about the immensity of space and ponder who built it. It can be nourishing to see oneself as part of a vast continuum of history. So seven points how the science of happiness and what this guy has learned pond rinks through masses of data. Isn't that interesting? And then we'll look at things for a Christian point of view. Andy what strikes you? Quite a few things. One of them actually that jumped out more was looking on the bright side which you might describe as positive thinking or positive outlook or optimism. And I remember hearing somebody say one time you can't with positive thinking fix your broken leg. You need to get a splint you need to see a doctor and then he put a cast on your leg so the bone can heal. But with a positive outlook you can to suddenly agree help yourself with a broken leg and actually think well it could have been worse. Like you said he was rationalizing things to go wrong. Well I had one of my one of my doctor friends about a just about a year ago. He slipped 70 miles an hour yes it sports car and he was in the right hand lane on the motorway M25 and hit a puddle spun 90 degrees right across three lanes and hit a tree dead stop dead. And when he was cut out of his car by the paramedics they said 50/50 mate not 50/50 whether your car your car is totaled no 50/50 whether you're alive or dead we've seen enough of these. And all he had was a minor headache for a few weeks and I'm thinking what is airbag worked obviously great but you know 50/50. And I said to surely that must make you think about the big things in life oh my word and being optimistic. You know you could say oh my goodness I got a headache no no no no 50% chance of being dead. Absolutely wow and I think we forget that sometimes. I was in Manchester in 1995/96 when the big man when the big IRA bomb went off and I was much closer than let's just said that the media had a very nice figure and I was far closer than that. I had a headache for something like three or four weeks and when I went to see my local GP saying look I've got a headache. He said I don't want to be funny here but you've got off lightly I mean this was like a 24 hour headache nothing touched this thing. Sure absolutely said you're not leaking from every or every orifice like some people are actually you know you're okay you're alive yes the headaches bad. There's very little we can give you paracetamol isn't going to basically do anything you're just going to have to ride this out but actually and he helped me to steer back to positive you're alive and you're still here. Well I mean 100% fantastic yeah good advice. Now the other one that really strikes me as she was controlling your attention because that made me remember I read was it late last year middle of last year. There was a thing about specifically Instagram as a social media platform and particularly girls under 18 who would sit and scroll and scroll and the algorithm that drives Instagram so it's got nothing to do with what they want to see it's what the computer software has said they need to see. Got them more and more depressed more and more suicidal more and more upset about their own weight the way they look and all that. And it's because the algorithm isn't showing them what they want to see it's shown them what it wants to show them so they can stay for longer and Instagram know about this and it's one of the things they need to deal with because one of their big execs left is deliberately addicted. And it's bad for us. No it's terrible because it sucks you in and it's that thing you said about the six second you know because we do videos you know different ministry and you either play the game of how we put so much into these six seconds and I thought I can't bother. If that's what people want I'm not interested in fighting that because there's people with millions of parents doing it so we just make what we don't do what we do. It's much easier. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I think it's it's teaching us I mean you know all this stuff is it's interesting but but you know actually we're not if we're not responding to what the science is discovering. And of course they're going to discover what God reveals and has already revealed in his word by and large. Then then it's foolish because the information's out there. There's an awful lot I mean the connection thing as well we talk about we've been at festivals so I mean I don't know. I was on the F8 hours on Saturday loved it. But I was looking for a quiet space at one point where I just didn't have to talk to people as much as I love it. And I was elated and I wasn't even made tired by it. But mentally I came home and I just wanted some some silence. Sure and I mean you know Jesus took time time out why wouldn't we. Yeah. No there's some really good stuff in there. Deeper connections as well it's very easy to think well I've got no one around me I've been ostracized or I am isolated or whatever. But some of that comes back to positive thinking or you're possibly looking on the bright side because you won't see yourself as isolated or you set apart. That's actually one way. But the idea of being involved with people it does help you to look at things and which is what come back to prayer which we've talked about before. When you're praying for other people it isn't just a feel good because now you're chatting to God which is great. Actually it's about changing your own mindset to think of others and it helps. It doesn't I'll just mention one thing the last you know gazing at stars on a clear night in my various missions in taking Kenya. Sometimes at the end of the day I'd be thinking I don't want to speak to people I've been speaking all day and I just go outside the camp and look up and there was no light pollution so you can see the stars clearly in the stars. And what I would think is if Heather my wife in England is looking up she can see the moon she can see the plow as I can and I can't remember the physics whether I'm seeing it from a different angle because I was in the Southern Hemisphere she was in Northern Hemisphere just in Southern Hemisphere. But the fact is I'm thinking gosh you know that's where we are and we're looking up and yeah you're both looking at the same stars and wow who made them. And the events to space and it's just it was just great and it's great and I came out of it my head my head's cleared. But really to the next day. The one that really strikes me of all the other thing is about comparisons because we've mentioned social media a little bit but social media is so unhelpful or helpful in a bad way. Enabling us to see snapshots of someone's life and think oh look isn't it wonderful they're on a holiday they're in Barbados and look they're going surfing. And we're sitting at home in a rainy day in you know a flat in East London thinking my life's rubbish. Actually it really doesn't help because it makes comparisons so much easier but not in a good way. Not in a good way. No absolutely and people of course send their best shots. No but yes as a non-techy I don't and but I do absolutely see that and it's you know the Bible talks a lot about that we'll look into that one next week. Here's one we went to Spain in the late 90s early 90s and we got one photo it looks amazing it's your glamour shot of in Spain. Here's the thing that nobody else can see. We were at the back of all the restaurants where all their bins were but there was this beautiful shot that we've seen that nobody else was going to. So everyone says oh it must have been an amazing beautiful place. No no we were stood next to the bins you just couldn't see them because what they could see was a nice image it stank but it was pretty. And of course what they're seeing isn't isn't the whole truth. So yeah absolutely. And my bed is pinging around with Bible stuff but I'll say that for next time. Save that for next week. Yeah cool. Thank you Richard. If you've got anything you want to come back on any of those things any questions or you've had a thought about this. Then do come back to us we love your questions. The best way doing that is to email us and it'll stay anonymous. Don't worry about that. So hello at pure247radio.org. Hello at pure247radio.org. Send your questions in at them. Ask them to Dr. Richard Scott GP. Thank you sir. Oh it's a pleasure. Bye for now. 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