JUNK HAPPINESS

When our Core Happiness takes a hit, and that stool topples over, it hurts. Feeling out of control, discontented or out of alignment creates negative

emotions that we’ll instinctively try to run away from in any way we can. Usually we’ll reach for the

nearest and quickest solution – something that makes us feel a bit less unhappy, even if it’s a short-term fix. I call this Junk Happiness. We all have

a go-to Junk Happiness habit, something that we use to numb the inevitable pain of living. It could be wine, chocolate, Instagram or online shopping. When I was a young man, one of my Junk Happiness habits was

gambling. The thrill of risking more money than I

could afford on football, golf, a game of pool – in fact, anything – would enable me to forget my worries in the here and now, but always at a cost to my Core Happiness

in the long term.

I’m not saying that these pleasures are always bad. The problem comes when

we engage in these behaviours regularly and find ourselves reaching for Junk Happiness too often. Another comes when we use these treats not as occasional pleasures but to try to fill the hole inside us that’s created by a lack of Core Happiness.

One of the ways you can tell Core from Junk Happiness is

how you feel when you remember it. If that alcohol you enjoyed with your friends makes you feel bigger when you remember

it, it was probably nourishing you and building Core Happiness. But if the memory makes you shrink inside, it was almost

certainly Junk.