Being Skeptical

Hi, I’m Paul Krismer with the Happiness Experts Company. Skeptics rock. They’re the ones that challenge the status quo. They question authority. They call out the BS on the many overhyped claims out there, including calling out the BS on the people who are not so far from my own field of interest, that being positive psychology— being happy! Being a skeptic myself, I keep my teaching grounded in science. Some happiness promoters have an unhealthy prescription of being happy regardless of the very real suffering we all sometimes face. Full points to the skeptic who expects more than fluff to feed their personal development. However, in all this praise of the skeptical mind, there is a common blind spot that can ruin your bliss if you ignore it. Today, I’ll provide a little guidance for getting out from behind your blind spot.
As a coach, public speaker, and best-selling author, I teach topics just like this one all around the world. So stay tuned and I’ll give you practical tools that you can use to make both yourself and those around you both happier and more successful. Skeptics are smart. They use their powers of rational thinking to demand quality information before taking any action. But what if there are critical things to experience that defy rational explanation? What if some of what makes us feel our best is outside of the concepts that can be explained with words? In a previous video, I explained the 10 emotions that fall under the umbrella label- happiness. You can see it at the link below. Now, one of the 10 emotions of happiness is awe.
It is that slack-jawed, gobsmacked, stunned, recognition of something truly amazing. It stops you in your tracks and takes your breath away. Do you see how awe defies explanation? Awe can’t really be described with words. We’ve all experienced it. Often, it’s a sight in nature that is just so amazing. It’s like looking over the Grand Canyon for the first time. Or, less frequently but equally special: we’re struck by a truly exceptional human performance. For example, when we hear a musical masterpiece or see an athletic feat that’s so perfect that we’re simply stunned and breathless. Again, note how awe defies the tools of our rational mind. Words are never adequate to describe something awesome. We try we describe our experience and we usually end by saying: “Well, you really had to be there.” Inevitably, words fall short of the experience. They profoundly miss the mark. Instead, the only way to share awe is to have had the same experience. To be struck similarly by something that truly left you silent in awe. Even then, the extent to which we can verify the relevance and power of the shared experience will be limited by our inability to describe it. Awe isn’t rational science— it just is what it is.
What’s the point? Well, I’ve described this experience of awe amongst other similar experiences, because we all know it and we can also all readily admit it defies the tools of understanding that are the hallmark of skepticism. Why does this matter? Because to be truly happy, to get the full meal deal— to get it all and raise your positive energy to its maximum height, we have to transcend the limitations of the rational mind. We have to experience spirit! The positive psychology literature is abundantly clear that people who are openly spiritual are happier because of it. Now, I am not telling you not telling you to believe in this or that God, Gaia, sources of power or any other woowoo idea. I’m saying that if you only contend with ideas that you can conjure up logically in your mind— then you sort of have your head up your arse. You cannot see the big picture from there. We have to be open to something more. To the mystery that is life. To the potential for serendipity. To your highest self being something beyond your body and mind. Now, if you have a comment or want to debate this; agree or disagree with today’s content, please add it below.
If you want some rational ways to consider your own openness to spiritualism, there’s a link to an excerpt on spiritualism from my best-selling book below. My own version of this spiritualism has been Christianity and then atheism and then another version of Christianity. I’ve studied Buddhism and I’ve spent a lot of time looking at religion. Only later in life have I figured out that all of that blends into my own version of spiritualism— not religion.
It’s my life’s mission to help the world be a bit happier. Please like and share this video and you will make the world happier too. If you’d like to see more of this kind of video content, please subscribe to my channel. Until next time, I’m your happiness expert Paul Krismer. Thanks for watching.