What I’ve found is you can very deliberately reach back. It feels very exciting if you smell something that reminds you of summer camp, and it all floods back, but that’s opportunistic. A lot of the time, we remember things without remembering that we remember them. I think people know this but don’t realize how much we can deliberately use it. We’re overlooking how we can tap into our senses to evoke memories. What are we missing out on or overlooking when it comes to our senses? The result is a playful look at how we can harness the power of our senses for better health, more creativity, and more profound joy.

The author explored “the universe” our senses offer and meticulously researched each one-all to lift herself out of her fog. “I'd be walking on the beach, but I'd be rewriting a paragraph in my head, and I wouldn't see what was around me, or I wouldn't feel the sand under my feet or smell the ocean.” “I was lost in a fog of preoccupation,” she tells The Sunday Paper. In Life in Five Senses: How Exploring the Senses Got Me Out of My Head and Into the World, Rubin takes us on a revealing look at how she'd been failing to appreciate one of the most accessible elements of happiness: our ability to see, smell, taste, touch, and hear. The topic is stunning in its simplicity and complexity. Rubin's latest book stays close to her beat. She also hosts the hit podcast 'Happier with Gretchen Rubin.' Helping us to smile more and live better is her passion. The author has written numerous bestselling books, including The Happiness Project and The Four Tendencies. The quiz is free, and takes about 10 minutes to complete, and answers are confidential.Gretchen Rubin has become one of the most profound voices in the quest for happiness.

Just as important, understanding other people’s Tendencies can help us reduce conflict and make significant, lasting change.ĭeveloped by happiness and habit expert Gretchen Rubin, using years of research and observation, the Four Tendencies personality framework answers the question “How do I get myself-and others-to do what I want?” Her book, The Four Tendencies is a New York Times bestseller, and over 3.5 million people have taken her quiz.

We can make better decisions, meet deadlines, meet our promises to ourselves, suffer less stress, and engage more deeply with others. Knowing our Tendency can help us approach situations in ways that make us more likely to achieve our aims. Our response to expectations determines our “Tendency”-that is, whether we fit into the category of Upholder, Questioner, Obliger, or Rebel. We all face two kinds of expectations-outer expectations (meet work deadlines, answer a request from a friend) and inner expectations (keep a New Year’s resolution, start meditating).

The happiness project by gretchen rubin