3 Measures of Happiness
Jasbina Ahluwalia asks Dr. Pat Love, author of The Truth About Love: Happiness is an inside job. I think that is so profound.
You mentioned a preventative measure. Individuals can side-step some of the more common relationship issues.
3 Measures of Happiness: For Yourself
One of which is to find a way that you can make yourself happy.
What other preventative measures might there be for someone?
A person might say, “Looking at the patterns you see on a regular basis, what can I do to mitigate the chances of getting in that situation?”
Are there some concrete things that someone can do to prevent some of these things?
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Dr. Pat Love
3 Measures of Happiness
- Money Responsibility
- Friendship in Relationships
- Single State of Mind
This is a very popular answer. Research is so clear about this. It has to do with money.
3 Measures of Happiness: Money Responsibility
It’s the way you manage money. It’s the way you live either within or beneath your means.
Money is a secret assailant of relationships. Money issues cloud everything. It sounds very crass to talk about it.
We’d much rather talk about love, attention, romance, how exciting it is to be together and how we communicate.
Because money is connected to security, it is so very important.
It doesn’t mean that you have to be rich to be happy.
What we know is that we have to be responsible.
You have to look at that within and before you get into a relationship.
3 Measures of Happiness: Friendship in Relationships
There is another secret that’s really big. It has to do with the stages of love.
Oftentimes, when we meet someone, we focus on characteristics that immediately attract us. We’re thinking short term instead of long term.
We talked about falling in love. What most people don’t realize is that it’s not always love at first sight.
Some of the best relationships start with a friendship.
Somewhere down the line, it becomes a spark. All of a sudden, you’re jealous because your “friend” went to the movie with someone else.
Don’t discount those friendships and good relationships.
Some of the best relationships, the ones that go long term and are happy, start out with good people.
Maybe it wasn’t that excitement in the beginning. It doesn’t mean that spark can’t ignite somewhere down the road. I think that’s extremely important.
3 Measures of Happiness: Single State of Mind
You mentioned something else. I want to highlight it.
The greatest predictor of how happy you’re going to be after you’re in a committed relationship is how happy you were before you got into the relationship.
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Tell Us:
Do these 3 measures of happiness reflect in your personal situation? Tell us which measure best motivates your happiness below in the comments section.
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The above is an excerpt from Jasbina’s interview with Dr. Pat Love.
The entire interview transcript is at: Dr. Pat Love Interview – Love: The Highs, the Lows, and How You Can Make It Last Forever
Listen to the entire interview on: Intersections Match Talk Radio – Jasbina’s Lifestyle Show
Listen to the entire interview on Blog Talk Radio: Love: The Highs, the Lows, and How You Can Make It Last Forever – Dr. Pat Love
Listen to the entire interview on iTunes
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