The 3 macronutrients of happiness and how to build them into your life | Professor Arthur Brooks

Rupy Aujla (0:00)

I'm Dr. Rupy, and on this show, I help you feel more in control of your health through food and lifestyle medicine. Most people, according to my next guest, get happiness wrong. In this episode, you'll learn about the macronutrients for happiness, the elements you need in balance and abundance to create the environment for happiness to thrive, and a toolkit to rewire your brain for happiness, including why removing distraction is so important, morning routines to boost creativity and enjoyment, and how to rethink your downtime that can help you find happiness every day. Author of the new book, The Meaning of Your Life, Professor Arthur Brooks teaches at Harvard Business School, and has dedicated his life to studying and helping people become more happy by creating the environment for happiness and meaning to find you, rather than endlessly pursuing it yourself.

What is the biggest mistake people make when thinking about how to be more happy?

Arthur Brooks (1:09)

The first mistake people always make is thinking it's a feeling, because they have feelings of happiness and they have feelings of unhappiness. But most people are not brought up as kids learning about the functioning of the brain's limbic system. I mean, that's not standard educational fare. But the limbic system is the console of tissue inside your brain. Between 2 and 40 million years old, it predates homo sapiens.

It's really a mammalian feature of the brain. That's the console that creates emotions, which are signals that you have ascertained a threat or an opportunity. I mean, we sentimentalize our emotions, feelings, feelings, feelings, feelings, right? As if that's what makes us human. No, feelings don't make you human. Feelings keep you alive. And it keeps your golden retriever alive. And it keeps the mouse alive in much the same way. And you have positive and negative emotions that signal to your brain, that are signaling to you, that you've perceived a threat or an opportunity. That's what it's all about, is what it comes down to. Now, when things are pleasant, when you've seen an opportunity, when something inspires you and you have a positive emotion, you mistake the positive emotion for the happiness itself. And that's an error, because if you go searching for happy feelings, I mean, you're gonna go, as a vapor, you're gonna go to bed at night saying, it's your hope I feel happy tomorrow. And that's a hell of a way to live. That's not good living, is what it comes down to. So you have to get beyond that. Now, the way to think about it is this, from the culinary aspect, because this is, you know, or The Doctor's Kitchen, after all.

Feelings and happiness are related much the same way that the smell of your dinner is related to your dinner. Feelings are evidence of dinner. They lead you to do particular things, and they're, you know, something special is going on at mom's house because of the smell, but it's not good enough to contain yourself with the smell. You gotta go for the dinner.

And so therefore, you describe dinner, I mean, you would, I mean, how we would talk about it, as, you know, people involved in science, dinner itself, if you want it to be nutritious, filling and good, you talk about it as macronutrients. You define food, and that's what we do with happiness, to define happiness.

Rupy Aujla (3:21)

Okay, and so what would be these macronutrients of happiness?

Arthur Brooks (3:25)

Macronutrients of happiness, and by the way, this is sort of the basis of my work, which is when I move fully into the happiness space. The problem with the research, from a psychological perspective, is it just, it defines happiness as feeling happy and knowing that you're happy, or something that's completely unhelpful in this way.

So I went back to the nutrition literature, actually, to create a definition for happiness that is both accurate and helpful. You don't tell somebody, go be happy.

Rupy Aujla (3:52)

Yeah.

Arthur Brooks (3:52)

It's unhelpful. What you tell somebody is do things so that happiness can find you.

Live in a particular way. So don't go be healthy. No, eat in a particular way and health will find you.

Rupy Aujla (4:03)

Okay.

Arthur Brooks (4:03)

Right? This is how you talk, right?

Rupy Aujla (4:05)

It chimes very much with the way I talk. Absolutely. Because we already have the inherent knowledge and our body knows what to do with the macronutrients when you provide an environment where they are.

Arthur Brooks (4:15)

Yeah, yeah. I mean, you can tell somebody who's trying to basically get in shape, but they're trying to be efficient about it. You know, stay to, I don't know, maybe 2,200 calories a day and get 175 grams of protein, and then eat clean and a few other things with your micronutrients, and health will find you. You know, your lipid profile will improve, right? The same thing as happiness. So, the macronutrients of happiness, the thing that we really want to pursue are the protein, carbohydrates, and fat of happiness, our enjoyment, satisfaction, and meaning.