In this episode, Saranne dives into the controversial Wall Street Journal article that challenges the effectiveness of walking in nature, meditation, and community in boosting overall happiness. Despite the article's claims, Saranne remains a firm believer in the power of these activities to bring joy and positivity. She also poses an intriguing question: would you take a pill or have a chip implanted in your brain to guarantee eternal happiness? Join Saranne as she explores the complexities of happiness and shares her own perspective on finding joy amidst life's challenges.
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[MUSIC] >> Welcome to Beating Cancer Daily. Beating Stage 4 Cancer for 30 years still takes my breath away every time I say it. I'm Saren, founder of the Comedy Cures Foundation. And I hope you'll join me for just a few minutes daily for the next 365 days. So we may laugh, learn, maybe cry a little as we live our best days, beating cancer daily together. [MUSIC] I don't know if you saw the Wall Street Journal article. Sadly, many happiness studies are flawed. Now, I love quoting happiness studies. I love everything about happiness. So now everybody's poo-pooing happiness because they're saying that all these studies about walking in nature and journaling and all these things are very flawed scientifically. I don't care, we just all feel good when we're happy. Now they have to go and ruin it and say all the studies are phony, baloney. Well, I'm not having any of it. [LAUGH] Who doesn't want to be happy? Come on Wall Street Journal. I can't even tell you how many people sent me this article because they know that I love studies about positivity and wellness and happiness. So I just had to put it out there that the Wall Street Journal did say that a lot of the older studies in particular are pretty flawed. Now with that said, I don't care. I'm still gonna spend all of these episodes trying to help us all. Stabilize and feel better in our own skin and more positive while going through a cancer journey. It worked for me. It's just the way that I did it and I loved researching it. I love talking about it and I really love sharing strategies. Oracle did a survey in 2022 about happiness. And I was just completely floored at the results. 45% of the people have not felt true happiness for more than two years and 25% don't know or have forgotten what it means to be truly happy. Now this wasn't a population of cancer patients. This was the general population. 88% are looking for new experiences to make them smile and laugh. That's interesting because I guess that's why the Comedy Cures Foundation is just really sought after and beloved because that's what we do. We create experiences specifically for patients, caregivers and healthcare workers to bring me our joy, smiles, laughter and help develop a comic perspective. So that's statistically resonated with me a lot. More than 53% wish that money could buy happiness. With 78% willing to pay a premium for true happiness, 89% attempted to find happiness in online shopping during the pandemic. And 47% said that receiving packages made them happy. 12% struggled to remember the purchases that they had made online. It's really interesting that people are willing to fork out so much money to find true happiness. When I was told to get my affairs in order, I looked inward and I said, if I can build my happiness from the inside out, then regardless of what's happening to my body or what circumstance I'm in, whether it's financial or a relationship or my habitat, I can actually carry that true happiness with me. That joy with me, no matter what they're doing to my body, no matter what news I'm getting. That's why I did the podcast, because I found so many different ways to bring joy not only in my own life, but to my daughter and to my friends and my family. So if you haven't listened to a lot of the strategy episodes, you should definitely go back and check them out. Because we do go day by day, minute by minute, hour by hour. Just different ways that you can infuse just joy into your own life without having to spend a lot of money. And just ways to make yourself laugh and smile. So you're not even dependent on other people to make you laugh and smile, even though it is fun and it's contagious. So I recently heard a talk where the person said, if you could take a pill or you could have a chip put into your brain, to always be happy, would you do it? Think about that for a minute. Guaranteed happiness, morning, noon, and night. Would you do it? What do you think I would say? I bet you think I would say always. No, I personally would not take the pill or take the chip to always be happy. Now I know that a lot of people take mood stabilizers and anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medicine. Because you either have a chemical imbalance or you're going through cancer treatment and you're feeling incredibly anxious. That's not what I'm talking about. That I completely understand you're in a rainstorm, protect yourself. This is, would you take a pill or put a chip in your head to just only feel happiness? And that's where I said I wouldn't. What would you do? I'm so curious. The reason why is that I think the rough times heightened the happiness that the struggles make me appreciate the brighter times even more. Multi-sensory experience of the joy. I feel it in my toes. I feel it in my heart, my brain, my body. I burst with happiness when I'm feeling happiness. So I think that that happens because I've had so many struggles. I've had to fight to beat stage four cancer and be here. I did not have the easiest upbringing or childhood. I didn't have great marriages. So all of those experiences actually make me appreciate each one of the blessings that I have now, even more. Now, if you would take it, do you think that it would get boring all that happiness? Do you think that it would start to become numbing? I love to feel my life. Granted, would I want less aggravation, less problems, less things that caused me sleeplessness? Of course. Who wouldn't? You don't want troubles. But there's something about the unexpected. There's something about getting smacked or faced with something and then watching myself figure it out and how to still maintain joy and laughter and play even in the middle of a crisis. I'm kind of the person that people go to when things are falling apart or they need things solved. And I love the challenges of stabilizing the situation or myself or a friend and then still finding the humor, still finding a way to laugh, even though things seem really dark. And how fast can I bounce back? Do you ever really think about that? Are you building your resiliency by listening to this podcast every day? Are you watching that life is getting just a little bit easier or that you have more tools in your toolbox to deal with it? I try. That's a goal every day. It's a goal. Can I have the most joyful day possible even with all the crazy things that go on? That's just the way that I choose to do it. And I would forgo the happy pill or the chip in my brain. We may get there. We may get to a place where everyone just chooses the happy chip or the happy pill. I don't know why this really is in my brain today. But I think it was really stimulated by this Wall Street Journal article about all these studies being flawed. Don't I walk in nature and just feel better? Yes. Don't I meditate and just feel better? Yes. All these things that they're saying the studies are flawed or manipulated. At my experiences that they do make me feel better. Can't wait to hear what you think. You know that I love it when you go to comedy cures and you hit the record button and you just share with me or you go to the contact menu and you write to me. You have to tell me which one would you choose that? Oh, and I have to tell you a joke. It's silly. You know the jokes are always silly. Why was the horse so happy? Because it came from a stable environment. They told you it was silly, but it's kind of good. The stable environment. Did you come from a stable environment? I didn't. I had a crazy upbringing, but you know what? It made me really appreciate stability, but also love adventure. And it made me incredibly resilient. And I don't think that I would have survived stage poor cancer if I hadn't had to build all of that fight and gumption and moxie. I think it was that upbringing that gave me the tools I needed. So if I had taken a happy bill or if I'd had a happy chip, maybe I wouldn't have been able to survive what I survived. Who knows? Hopefully I'll be here a very long time to keep doing this podcast and keep asking you these questions. Have a blessed day and I'll see you tomorrow. If you've enjoyed this podcast, then I'd love to ask for you to go to comedycures.org and check out our membership circle levels. You will find even more resources and more programming, like our live virtual Q&A sessions with me, our live comedy cures events with our very talented comedians, live health builder workshops with Jackie Bryan, hosted by me, a robust monthly newsletter plus much more. It's really an exciting community. So please consider becoming a member, giving it as a gift, telling your friends, telling your hospital support group all about this community. I can't think of a more empowering way to go through a cancer journey or your survivorship or your caregiving experience than with us at Beating Cancer Daily. It's truly an honor to serve you. Thanks so much. See you tomorrow. Guess what time it is? It's time for me to read the disclaimer. Beating Cancer Daily and the membership circle are not in lieu of medical advice or treatment. They are for entertainment purposes only. Please consult your healthcare team to review your best strategy. Thanks for listening. [Music] You
