In this weeks episode, I am joined by EMMA SEPPÄLÄ, Ph.D Emma is a best-selling author, Yale lecturer, and international keynote speaker.

She teaches executives at the Yale School of Management and is faculty director of the Yale School of Management’s Women’s Leadership Program.

A psychologist and research scientist by training, her expertise is the science of happiness, emotional intelligence, and social connection.

Her best-selling book The Happiness Track (2016) has been translated into dozens of languages.

Her new book is Sovereign (2024).

Seppälä is also the Science Director of Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education.

Emma’s research has been published in top academic journals and featured in major news outlets like The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, and CBSNews. She speaks and consults internationally for Fortune 500 companies like Google and Facebook and contributes to Harvard Business Review, The Washington Post, Psychology Today, and TIME among others.

A repeat guest on Good Morning America, Emma also spoke at TedX Sacramento and TEDx Hayward. Her research on breathing for military veterans with trauma was highlighted in the documentary Free the Mind. She is also featured in documentaries like The Altruism Revolution, What You Do Matters, and Bullied.

Emma is the recipient of a number of research grants and service awards including the James W. Lyons Award from Stanford University for founding Stanford’s first academic class on the psychology of happiness and initiating other well-being programs for Stanford students.

Key Points

• Life's joy lies in compassion balance.

• Discover inner freedom & sovereignty.

• Intuition & awareness are happiness keys.

• Downtime sparks genius and intuition.

• True charisma is simply being present. Best Quotes

05:30 - 05:38

• "When you do take time away from the stimulation, you actually access your innovative potential, your greatest sort of genius ideas." 06:39 - 06:49

• "So in a way, you know, being in a meditative place, whether you're doing meditation, which I highly recommend given all the research on it, but, or downtime where you're, you know, we used to sit in the bus and just stare out the window."

13:23 - 13:27

• "So charismatic people make you feel like you're the only one person in the room. Like, how do they do that?" 32:43 - 32:53

• "That's loyalty. Loyalty comes out of a, a deep human connection with another person who had your back, who was, who positively inclined towards you."

32:59 - 33:06

• "And, and those moments, you know, after food and shelter, our greatest need is for positive social connection, like you said, those micro moments of upliftment."

44:56 - 45:09

• "It's so painful, you know? And then also with the, you know, in my neighborhood, like all the teens are just on their phone waiting for the bus, going home, walking on the phone, and not looking up at the trees and the birds and nature."