Chaos Theory And Happiness

In this podcast we explore how Chaos Theory, a key aspect of physic, can help us navigate life with joy and happiness. This provides and interesting look at how chaos, generally associated with negative emotion, is actually a central aspect of our everyday happy lives.

Transcript

Welcome to the Happiness Podcast.

I'm Dr.

Robert Puff.

There's a story that's been circulating in the physics world for many years and now I think it's also circulated down to the general public too.

And it goes like this.

There was a butterfly flapping its wings in Peru and six months later the butterfly's flapping led to a tornado in Texas.

And at its core what it basically means is small changes in the past can add up to huge changes in the future and they really can't be predicted because of the chaos that these small changes create.

Chaos theory has been around for quite a while and one of the ways it manifested in the scientific world was in observing planets.

For example,

When astronomers look at the Earth and Moon they can make predictions about how often the Moon goes around the Earth,

In what orbit,

And when things will happen.

But when you include a third body like the Sun things get a lot more complicated.

It's called the three-body problem and when you add three things and want to make predictions based upon three factors it's incredibly difficult to make predictions.

And this has been known for a very long time.

But then in 1961 Edward Lorenz who was studying weather realized that as he made models of weather that if he just made a small change in one factor that was part of his model that it would totally create chaos in the predictions of the future model.

In other words,

Small changes can have big impacts like a butterfly flapping his wings in Peru.

So how does this relate to us and happiness?

Well obviously there are more,

Far more than two things that contribute to our outcome,

Contribute to our future,

Contribute to how our lives are going to turn out.

There are many,

Many,

Many factors.

Some of them we have control over,

Some of them we don't at all.

But there are so many factors it is very difficult to predict how our lives are going to turn out.

I remember once working with a very successful man who had made his living in the financial world and he was probably one of the most successful clients I ever worked with.

And in his world he said,

I don't quite understand it.

He was a very intelligent man but he said,

I don't understand it.

There were so many people doing what I did and so many of them came to nothing and I made all this money.

It's just lucky because they were just as smart as I was,

They had just as many talents but I made it and they didn't.

And he really felt it was lucky that he had made it.

And I think there's some truth to that.

Truth in the sense of we can work really hard at things and things don't work out.

And sometimes things work out that we put little effort into and yet they seemingly worked out pretty well.

Our lives I actually do think reflect much of nature in the sense that with nature we can observe,

We can make predictions,

But things can go down a very different path that we just can't predict.

A small change can create a great difference in the future that isn't predictable.

I mean think about the asteroid that hit planet Earth and we wouldn't be listening to this podcast if that hadn't happened 65 million years ago.

Now,

Perseverance can have a lot of power to it,

I'll give you that,

But at what cost?

Again,

Chaos kicks in.

We work really hard at developing our careers but at what cost?

Do we now have a lot of emotional problems?

Are we struggling with anxiety?

Do we have depression?

Do we feel suicidal?

So yes,

We can succeed at things but often at great costs.

So when it comes to predicting our futures,

Of course we're going to make plans,

But those plans are part of nature and nature says that there is chaos,

That things don't work out always the way we expect.

And chaos theory,

If you haven't heard of it before,

Isn't just a small branch of physics,

It's on par with Einstein's relativity,

It's on par with quantum mechanics,

It's being studied around the world by thousands of scientists.

Research articles,

Symposiums,

Presentations are regularly being published and presented to the world on new insights into chaos theory.

If you've lived long enough,

I'm sure you can think of people that you know,

They're going down a very normal path and then something happened and wham,

Things changed,

They changed,

The whole lives changed and it seems like it's out of nowhere,

Like that tornado in Texas but it had growth,

It had unexpected influences from the past that caused that radical change to happen in people's lives where they may commit suicide,

Where they may leave their spouse,

Where they may become addicted to a substance and lose everything that they have or the things that we can't control like a disease,

Like an accident,

Like a natural disaster,

These things happen and they happen unpredictably.

So if I've made my point,

If you believe that yes,

Dr.

Puff,

I do think chaos theory does play a big part in life and though I work really hard at controlling things and making plans for the future,

The best made plans just don't always turn out the way I expected.

So the big question today is how do we find happiness given that there is chaos in the world,

That we can't always predict what's going to happen in the future no matter how hard we try.

How do we find happiness given these conditions?

Well remember,

Chaos theory in modern times really has been explored in depth through the exploration of weather and if we know weather well enough,

We know that when we listen to the weather report,

They're pretty good at predicting the weather for a couple of days out but further than that,

They're not very good at making predictions based upon chaos theory.

But given that,

We can still enjoy our time and prepare for the present day weather,

Can't we?

And the great thing is they're quite good at predicting close events like today.

If we walk outside and look at our app,

Our weather app,

It will be pretty accurate in telling us what the weather is like right now and even for the next few days,

We can have confidence that it's probably going to be what they say.

But if we're going to hold faith in that they're going to know what's going to happen a month from now,

We're going to be sorely disappointed because they're not.

They can make generalizations but things can happen.

I live in Southern California.

We have earthquakes.

If you live in the Midwest,

You may have tornadoes.

If you live overseas,

You may have tsunamis or heat waves.

Again,

Around the world,

Things happen that can't be predicted and they can happen very quickly.

They are based upon a build up.

That's where chaos theory comes in.

It typically isn't something out of nowhere.

It's more the sense of it's built up and now it's led to that.

Even think of my asteroid example.

When an asteroid hits the Earth,

It has been traveling toward the Earth for a very long time and its trajectory is such that it's going to impact the Earth.

But going back to weather,

Okay,

With the weather,

With chaos theory,

We can have a pretty good idea what's going to happen today.

So,

If you can imagine,

Then to be happy,

What we do is we focus on being happy today.

And though we plan for things,

Perhaps we're planning for retirement,

Perhaps we're planning to travel the world,

We don't know.

So given that,

It's probably best for us to say,

Am I enjoying today to the best of my ability because this is what I know I have.

I don't know for sure what tomorrow is going to bring,

But I know what I have right now.

So one of the keys,

If not the key of happiness,

Is focusing in on right now.

How do I right now do things that create happiness in my life,

That create peace in my life,

And that also later won't create disturbance?

For example,

A person may say,

Well,

Okay,

Dr.

Puff,

I want to be happy right now.

I'm going to go to my bank,

Get all the money that I can out of my accounts,

Liquidate my credit cards,

And go to Vegas and have a really good time.

That may make sense,

But of course we all know in the long run we have to pay for those things.

So there are things that probably will have consequences to them.

So that's where we balance living well in the present with realizing,

Does this thing I'm doing have consequences?

And if it does,

I best think about that because I may need to face those consequences.

So of course we can err that way,

But I also think we can err the other way,

Where we're so much planning for the future,

We're so much delayed gratification,

I want to have it someday instead of now,

That we spend years working towards something so that someday we'll find pleasure and enjoyment.

Again,

Chaos theory would say,

I wouldn't plan on that.

There are just too many variables to predict what's going to happen in our lives.

So it's better to say,

Can I enjoy today while I prepare for the future and find pleasure in today while I'm preparing for the future,

Realizing that the choices I make today will have impact on the future.

Again,

Think about the butterfly.

It did impact the tornado in Texas.

So our choices today will have ramifications.

The question is,

Are they good ramifications or bad ones?

So eating,

For example,

Fresh organic fruits and vegetables that we enjoy will have good ramifications.

Eating sweets and drinking alcohol or doing things that are bad for us every day will have bad consequences.

Both of them can be pleasurable.

We just need to find things that are pleasurable,

Are enjoyable,

Like watching a sunset,

Being in nature,

Hanging out with friends,

Exploring our world.

Those things are easy to do at any time,

But they don't have any negative consequences in the future.

In many ways,

They have positive consequences.

Now we can't count on them because we may get sick someday and not be able to do some of these things.

So that's where learning about chaos and realizing,

Okay,

I get it.

Life can change.

And given that it can change and it probably will change,

I need to both love what I'm doing right now as best as I can and if I'm not,

Working towards loving it more with still preparing for the future and realizing the choices I make today will have impact in the future.

So am I going to choose things that have a positive impact or a negative impact?

And so we do those things and we start living our lives that way,

Realizing that we cannot control everything.

Chaos series says that's just impossible.

But what it also says is that right now,

We can be pretty good at predicting how our lives are going right now.

So if we start focusing on right now,

With realizing this will turn into something in the future,

That balance can create a beautiful life.

And I believe there's another positive benefit we can learn from chaos theory.

When we make plans and things don't turn out the way we expected,

Maybe we went through a divorce,

Maybe we lost your home,

Maybe we're living in a place that we didn't expect to,

Maybe we invested in something like stocks and they went all away.

Whatever it may be,

The changes that happen in life are part of chaos.

So though we can learn from our mistakes,

Of course,

Blaming ourselves,

I don't really feel is helpful.

I think it's far better to say,

Hmm,

What can I learn from this?

How can I grow from this?

And maybe there's nothing I could have done.

Maybe there is.

But the point is to realize that,

Okay,

We do our best.

Some of our plans work out.

Some of our plans don't work out.

And we don't always know why.

Sometimes it's luck.

I don't know.

We just don't know why.

Always.

But we have a tendency to blame ourselves.

And I think blaming ourselves is the path to unhappiness.

Kindness works far better.

But not only kindness towards ourselves.

When we see someone else whose life isn't going as well as we wish it would for them,

Instead of judging them,

We can perhaps feel kindness towards them and not lash out at them or attack them and realize there's a lot of things that create events that happen.

We don't always know what they are.

And perhaps that homeless person is there for a reason.

We just don't know.

There's so many factors.

We may be homeless someday.

If we don't judge others and we shower the world with kindness instead of judgment,

The great thing is that when we do have things happen to us that don't go the way we wish they would,

We get to experience that kindness,

That gentleness,

And realizing that.

Because Chaos Theory is one of the major forces in our world that's going to happen,

Just like gravity.

That we have to live with chaos and realize we do our best.

But we can't always predict what's going to happen.

And given that,

We find a gentleness,

A kindness towards ourselves and towards others.

And we also learn to live well in the present moment,

Realizing that tomorrow isn't always predictable.

And given that,

The best life we can have is the one we're given right now.

So may we all live well right now,

Showering ourselves with kindness and others when mistakes are made and continue to grow in our kindness and in our joy of life each day.

Thank you for joining me on the Happiness Podcast.

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