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Finding Happiness And Achieving Flow

Danial Igdery
/
Unsplash
"Flow commands our total attention, stretches us to our limits, helps us make order from chaos, energizes us for excellence, and expands our power to defeat anxiety, boredom, and conformity," writes The Flow Channel.

We all want to be happy. Many of the choices we make in life are based on whether or not those choices will lead us to happiness. It’s how we choose our careers, decide whether or not to take a certain job, make decisions about our relationships or about whether or not to have kids.

But what do we really know about what makes people happy? Happiness is actually a field of pretty intense study and on this edition of Talk of Iowa, host Charity Nebbe speaks with two professors who have pulled together research from many different sources to give their students some guidance about how to pursue happiness with the best results.

Benjamin Hunnicutt is a professor in the department of health and human physiology at the University of Iowa and he’s teaching a course called "Health for Happiness." He’s also the author of "The Age of Experiences: Harnessing Happiness to Build a New Economy."

Gary Gute is an associate professor of applied human sciences at the University of Northern Iowa and he’s teaching a course called "Foundations of Positive Psychology: The Science of Human Flourishing." He researches flow, a state of mind in which a person becomes fully immersed in an activity.

Guests

  • Benjamin Hunnicutt, professor of health and human physiology, University of Iowa
  • Gary Gute, associate professor of applied human sciences, University of Northern Iowa
Charity Nebbe is the host of IPR's Talk of Iowa
Rick Brewer was a producer for IPR's Talk of Iowa and River to River