Doctor Mike

So you survive, Mike.

I mean, fear, anger, disgust, and sadness are the basic negative emotions.

They exist and they're produced in the limbic system of the brain for a reason.

They're an alarm system.

And if you didn't have them, you'd be dead in a week.

If you never felt any fear,

I mean, you'd be run over by a car.

If you didn't feel any sadness, you'd have no relationships at all.

No friends, no employer, no nothing.

If you feel no pain, you will keep touching the hot stove.

It'd be a problem.

You know, it'd actually be a problem.

And you're not going to avoid negative experiences.

because that's part of life on earth.

If you're not having negative experiences, it means you're dead, which is not the greatest alternative, I suppose.

And so the result is that we have to recognize that happiness isn't the goal.

Happiness is a direction, not a destination.

The second thing to keep in mind is it's not a feeling.

Feelings are evidence of happiness and positive emotions are evidence of having a lot of happiness.

The way to understand happiness is kind of take it like we take the macronutrients in our diet.