Happy Habit Podcast

Prof George Bonanno is Clinical psychologist and author of The end of Trauma, and The other side of Sadness. In this episode we define what trauma means as far as the professor is concerned and how it differs from the commonly accepted definition of trauma. Plus we ask why the coventional wisdom on trauma is so at odds with Professor Bonanno's findings. The professor asks why trauma only crops...

In this episode I speak with Phil M Jones, author and international speaker. We hear why words, something that we use all the time are quite so powerful. I ask if we really understand the significance of the words we use and how they can influence and impact people around us. Expect to learn the one mistake most people make when they are speaking to others. Phil tells us some of the phrases he sug...

Thomas Gilovich is the Irene Blecker Rosenfeld Professor of Psychology at Cornell University. His work in social psychology includes the key textbook in the field, How we know what isnt so, and has written books that touch on topics such as behavioral economics and the fallibility of human reason. In this episode we talk about the subject of regret, and the impact hindsight has on our making judge...

I'm chatting with Dr Anna Colton, she is a clinical psychologist. We talk about anxiety and why Dr Anna sees anxiety as a rocking chair and also a bully. We ask why people find it so difficult to deal with anxiety and speculate whether anxiety is tolerated because it is a familiar bedfellow. Expect to learn about why we catastrophise when we know we shouldnt. We find out about the stop techniq...

Antonio Neves is a keynote speaker, life coach and author of Stop living on autopilot, Take responsibility for your life and rediscover a bolder happier you. In this episode we hear about Antonio's view of accountability in life. We discover how Antonio's chaotic childhood (which involved 6 parental divorces and 15 different places he called home), informed his outlook on life today. Expec...

Cody Royle is the man who coaches the coaches and the author of Tough stuff and Where others wont. In this episode we talk about leadership and the traits necesary to be a good leader. We hear about the significance of self-awareness and empathy when dealing with other people, especially in a team. Expect to learn how leaders and coaches are themselves performers trying to bring out the best perfo...

Prof Lara Aknin is the director of the Helping and Happiness Lab at Simon Fraser University. She studies what makes people live happier and healthier lives. What a fascinating area of research and so given the fact that this podcast is all about striving to acquire a greater state of happiness, through fulfilling routines, self-improvement and health and wellbeing I thought it would be more the in...

Dr Michael Steger is the Founder and Director of the Center for Meaning and Purpose, and Professor of Psychology at Colorado State University. In this episode we tackle some pretty weighty issues. We discuss the meaning of our lives and the philosphy of appreciating the little moments and I reference Matt Haig and his book Reasons to stay alive, in which he catalogues all the seemingly mundane thi...

Sinead Cloherty is a nutritionist, a health coach and an expert in making healthy eating, easy, tasty and fun. Shes mentored thousands of clients down through the years with thousands of followers on instagram, where she shares healthy eating tips. In this episode I ask why we have such a complicated relationship with the food we eat ? Expect to learn what what sustainable weightloss is and best t...

Emily Balcetis is a social psychologist and professor of psychology at NYU and author of Clearer, closer, better. She is fascinated by how we look at things and has performed groundbreaking research showing how we can change our perspective to attain our goals. In this episode, we hear how how what we see creates our perception of the world around us. We hear about how much of what we see is in di...

Jonathan Malesic is a Dallas based writer and former academic who holds a PhD from the University of Virginia, he is also the author of The end of burnout, why work drains us and how to build better lives. Jonathan was a victim of burnout himself which prompted him to explore this age old phenomenon. Indeed we discuss the long history of burnout dating back 2 millenia. We talk about the pitfalls i...

Dr Alice Pailhès, Ph. D. is an Associate Lecturer in Psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London. Dr Pailhes has a partticular fascination in magic and the psychology behind magic tricks. I'm talking about how magicians use psychology to manipulate, influence, force, redirect, misdirect and distract us in order to bamboozle us with their magic skills. Dr Pailhes' research focuses on the...

Dr Michelle Segar is an award winning NIH funded researcher with at the University of Michigan with 3 decades of experience in helping people adopt healthy behaviours in a way that matches the complexity, the messiness and the unpredictability of everyday life. She is also the author of The Joy Choice, named as one of the best health books of 2022 by the Washington Post. In this episode we talk ab...

Nutritional psychiatrist Dr Uma Naidoo is the author of the new book, Calm your mind with food : a revolutionary guide to controlling your anxiety. In this episode we hear about the emerging field of nutritional psychiatry and how the foods we eat can affect our mood, our emotional resilience and mental health. We hear about how inflammation can contribute to anxiety. We discover that saffron is o...

Dr Terry Wahls is an author and a clinical Professor of medicine at the University of Iowa, in addition to being proof positive that food can be your medicine. She was diagnosed with MS and spent 4 years relying on a wheelchair for her mobility, so debilitating were her symptoms. She was faced with making one of 2 choices, to either give up on life or continue going. Thankfully she chose the latte...

You're probably familiar with having an MRI scan on your strained muscle, your grandmother quite possibly had her hip replaced at some point, and more and more of us are wearing devices that can alert us of irregular heart related events which can prompt us to seek medical attention. These are all everyday examples of how our lives intersect with biomedical engineering. As research in this are...

Loneliness can be so damaging at any age but especially when growing up. Few people have more experience of being friendless and lonely than Daniel Wendler. In todays episode I speak with Daniel who is now a clinical psychologist and author, and who as a teenager was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome which contributed hugely to his lack of social skills. In this episode Daniel discusses what...

Anna schaffner is a writer, coach and professor of cultural history who has written books on the history of exhaustion, and the art of self development' She has a new book coming out on the subject of exhaustion called Exhausted: An A to Z for the weary. Anna's mission is to help clients move from a state of exhaustion to a state of vitality in their lives. In this episode we discuss what...

Today I am talking with one of the pioneers of evolutionary medicine and evolutionary psychiatry, Professor Randolf Nesse. We discuss what evolution has to do with modern day psychiatry and how knowledge of evolution's influences on someone's mental health informs Prof Nesse's ability to help his patients. We learn whether our quest for happiness is merely a distraction. Is mental illness a result...

Brian Malow, is a well known science comedian who uses comedy to educate people and make more accessible many of the scientific topics that can perplex. He gives regular talks on science and has interviewed many of the worlds nobel laureates in the field of science and several of the astronauts who walked on the moon. In this episode I explore with Brian the way in which science is communicated to...

Dr Ian Kerner is a practising sex therapist and author of the best selling, She comes first. In this episode Dr Kerner helps dispell some commonly held misconceptions about sex. We learn that desire or lack there of is largely the reason many people choose to see a sex therapist. We hear about the assurances that women need in order to feel comfortable during sex, especially when she is receiving...

Today I speak with Dr Harry Ball the co-founder of the Dental Sleep Institute. He is a physician with a background in dentistry who now helps people with sleep problems. In this episode we find out how dental issues and sleep are related. We discover what exactly bruxism or teeth grinding is and how it presents itself. We hear about restless leg syndrome. We learn how disordered breathing can lead...

Dr Stacy Sims is a physiologist who specialises in women's fitness, performance, nutrition and hormone related health. This seems ridiculous given the fact that women make up about 50% of the global population, but the vast majority of scientific data we have has been derived by studying only men, which means theres a glaring lack of science-based information thats specific to women. And this...

Do you have trouble sleeping, perhaps you have insomnia. Are you reaching for the coffee every morning, exhausted because it has taken you so long to fall asleep, because you've woken up multiple times or maybe you wake up super early every morning. Perhaps you're one of the many people who've been prescribed sleeping tablets, but you're looking for an alternative to help you sleep...

Today I am talking with Dr Rosalba Courney , she is an osteopath who did a PhD in dysfunctional breathing, she is an integrative breathing specialist who helps people with poor breathing habits and suffer from dysfunctional breathing. In this episode we define functional and dysfunctional breathing. We discover how the body's pH is affected by the breath. Expect to learn what the optimal numbe...