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- Part 1: The Benefits of Gratitude
- Part 2: Four Powerful Ways to Practice Gratitude
- Part 3: Gratitude in Tough Times
- Part 4: THIS EPISODE
- Part 5: The Secret to Enduring Happiness
It’s true: pleasure and success can’t make you happy; at least not for very long. In the last several podcast episodes, I’ve been focusing on parenting and happiness. How can we experience deeper happiness and fulfillment as parents, and what gets in the way of that happening?
In this episode I focus on the four levels of happiness as they have been described by philosophers, theologians, and psychologists. How can our definition of happiness get us stuck in an unsatisfying drive for some holy grail that seems to elude us? Why are some of us happier than others?
Breakdown of the show:
- What is happiness? The Catechism tells us that our ultimate purpose in this life is to come know, love, and serve God and to come into paradise where we rest with God eternally. This is Beatitude. It seems no matter how many times we hear this message, most of us forget about it!
- The 4 level of happiness introduced briefly (pleasure, ego satisfaction, making a difference in the world, and transcendence). I address levels 1 and 2 in this show; levels 3 and 4 coming in next show.
- Level 1: Pleasure. This is happiness that comes from satisfying our basic needs for food, shelter, and clothing, and experiencing pleasure from them. The happiness we experience at this level is very short-lived, or it can even bring suffering if we misuse or hoard the goods of this world.
- Level 2: Ego satisfaction. Happiness at this level is found by satisfying our desire for admiration or to win at the “comparison game.” Am I taller, richer, more honored, or more popular than the next person? Are my children smarter, holier, or better at sports than the next parent’s children? Exploring our talents and bringing our creative gifts to the world is part of the maturation process, but we take a wrong turn when we become addicted to success, winning, or being better than others. I briefly address the pitfalls of social media and the comparison game in parenting.
Resources
Finding True Happiness by Fr. Robert Spitzer. Drawing on ancient philosophy, theology, and modern psychology, Fr. Spitzer lays out the four levels of happiness, from the short-lived satisfaction found in a good cheeseburger to the eternal happiness found in beatitude and transcendence.
Happiness. Video series on Formed.org; drawn from Fr. Spitzer’s book above. Requires a subscription.
Letter to the Woman Worried She Isn’t Mom Enough. My chat with Chloe Langr about moms and perfectionism, which is often rooted in our comparing ourselves to other moms, or our kids to other kids.
Image credit: Mudretsov Oleksandr (Dreamstime.com)