Doctor Mike

which is really important.

And unhappiness and happiness are different.

I mean, Richard Davidson at UW Madison, he's done all that work on how different parts of the limbic system process negative emotions and positive emotions differently, which is sort of common sense.

And so he does all this stuff that shows that the left side of the face musculature is more activated when you're having negative emotions, which is why when you kind of scowl, it's always the left side of your face.

You can kind of clench the left teeth, your molar's more...

And that's because we're, not just because of this hemispheric lateralization, but because this negative and positive emotionality, they're biological.

So given the fact that happiness and unhappiness are not opposites from one another, you want to know what you should be paying more attention to and what's more effective.

Some people don't have a happiness problem.

They have an unhappiness problem.

Some people don't have an unhappiness problem.

They're perfectly good on the unhappiness side, but they need to have more joy in their lives when it comes down to.

And you need to know the right remedy.

It turns out that you can personally lower your unhappiness or raise your happiness.

Public policy doesn't raise happiness.

Public policy eliminates sources of unhappiness.

And so one of the great sources of unhappiness is barriers to having more well-being.

The barriers to faith, to family, to friendship, to work.

Well, those barriers to religious life, for example, would be where your family comes from, where it was illegal to practice your faith openly.

That's like the most unhappiness-provoking policy you can get because it's such a barrier to what a lot of people actually find is really important to their life.

barriers to family life or where we create disincentives for people to get married and have children.