My guest this week is Dr. Jonah Paquette, back for his third visit to the podcast. As always it was great to speak with Jonah. This time we focused on his new book, Happily Even After (affiliate link), and especially on how gratitude contributes to happiness. I don’t know about you but I often feel like gratitude is an obligation—something that we’re supposed to do. So Jonah and I explored how to practice gratitude that’s freely given. I think you’ll take a lot from this discussion.

Topics we explored included:

• Finding happiness even when we’re struggling
• The three facets of happiness
  • Hedonic happiness as an emotion
  • Evaluative happiness as life satisfaction
  • Eudaimonia happiness as meaning and purpose
• The problems with pursuing happiness directly
• Pursuing happiness by aligning with what brings us alive
• What gratitude has to do with happiness
• Robert Emmons’s research on gratitude
• The difficulty in being grateful for the baseline good things in our lives
• Louis CK’s bit on flying on an airplane
• Avoiding moralistic overtones with gratitude
• Gratitude as an attentional shift
• Viktor Frankl’s invitation to find freedom in our attitude
• Finding gratitude in exactly what is disappointing or frustrating us
• The problem with trying to should ourselves into gratitude
• Jonah’s own practices of gratitude
• The “Three Good Things” exercise

Jonah Paquette, PsyD, is a psychologist, author, and speaker who specializes in the science of well-being and emotional fitness.

He is the author of four books including Happily Even After, Awestruck, The Happiness Toolbox, and Real Happiness (affiliate links).

Jonah’s writing aims to provide readers with practical, research-backed strategies to foster greater well-being and connection in our everyday lives.

In addition to his clinical work and writing, Jonah offers training and consultation to organizations on the promotion of well-being and conducts professional workshops for clinicians around the country and abroad.

He is a sought-after media contributor, having been featured regularly in print, online, radio, and podcast outlets.

To learn more about Jonah and his work, visit him online at his website and on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.