Podcast: Choosing Happiness

Episode 194|HAPPINESS. With Karen Guggenheim

Karen Guggenheim is the Founder and Chief Executive of the World Happiness Summit, WOHASU. Along with her team, she brings together game changers and researchers focused on using science and practical habits to increase happiness from the personal level to the national.

Karen has a personal passion to create a happier world and plans to do so by using science to show how happiness changes our biochemical state, giving us the ability to attain our highest potential. WOHASU has been purposely created as a buffet of research and hands on activities with the intention that attendees can determine the data and habits that resonate internally.

I met Karen while she was in Los Angeles and I was enamored by her passion and dedication to bring an incredible group of people and the community together. Talking with Karen is an ode to the science behind the importance of our happiness. Happiness is not fluffy, it is researched, practical and possible for anybody.

Karen and I talk about how most people end up making themselves less happy while seeking fulfillment and she gives us a road map with directions to cultivate our own happiness. We discuss the science behind how the school system is holding children back from attaining a higher IQ and the researched change we could implement today to improve the system. This is the story of loss and how it manifested into one of the world’s most impactful summits to date.

Radically Vibrant Karen

• Transforming loss into a happy experience that celebrates the life of your lost one, while understanding you’re still human and need to grieve
• Tackling happiness directly by forcing yourself to be happy, will make you unhappy, while tackling it indirectly through your spiritual life, intellectual relationship, and physical and emotional well being leads to happiness as a whole
• Using science to showcase the necessity of happiness and ensuring the research is accessible to as many people as possible

Radically Inspired Clarity

• Our brain has a negativity bias, since we don’t actually need happiness to survive, and we must discover how to work around it through daily habits that cultivate happiness
• Become the person you want to be by doing as they would and acting as if you are that person prior to fully transitioning into the higher version of yourself
• We cannot utilize our full potential if we are unhappy because our energy is spent on negativity instead of self growth, opportunity and gratitude

Karen Guggenheim Answers…

• How did a personal loss manifest into a Happiness Summit with attendees from all over the world?
• What does science say about stress’s effect on our ability to forgive and be happy?
• How do we identify and transition out of our conditioned belief that once we acquire the job, the relationship, the car, then we’ll find happiness?
• Where do you see the future of society if it were to totally adopt the practices of the World Happiness Summit?

Radically Loved Quotes

“Something that we haven’t touched upon that is extremely important for happiness is gratitude. It’s very hard to be unhappy while you’re being grateful.”

“Happiness is not fluffy, you have to apply yourself. You have to tackle the different areas of your life that contribute to happiness and then, your happiness will increase.”

“Happiness is preventive medicine.”

“There is a lot of potential to make immediate and lasting change in society. It’s important to make this roadmap so societies can thrive by optimizing these resources.”

WOHASU is giving Radically Loved listeners 15% off of a 3-Day Summit Pass. Use the code Radicallyhappy at checkout!

More About Our Guest

Karen Guggenheim is the Founder and CEO of WOHASU, a summit dedicated to increasing awareness about happiness as a life choice, a human right and an enabler of human development and social innovation. This summit brings together game changers and researchers focused on how to improve gross national, social and personal happiness. Stepping into this role is an evolution of Karen’s extensive career arch, including editorial board work for The Miami Herald and strategic communications and marketing expertise with c-level executives. To learn more about Karen and the World Happiness Summit, visit: https://happinesssummit.world/world-happiness-summit-2/