HeyJaredThe Happiness Standard
Happiness isn’t a goal to chase. Through the lens of her listeners and her own lived experience, Dr. Sarah Eileen-Downey Akers explores the two-sided coin of happiness—how it shows up in both joy and discomfort. Discover how to make happiness your standard, not your goal.
- Indexed episodes, last 90 days
- 12
- Latest publication
- Sep 22, 2026
- Audience
- Checking…
- Earliest in this view
- Jul 7, 2026
Latest episodes
Episode 32: Just Because (opens the original)
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What do you do, simply because you love it? 🤩 In this episode of The Happiness Standard , Dr. Sarah Eileen-Downey Akers explores the happiness of having something that’s simply yours—a hobby, interest, creative project, or little obsession that doesn’t need to be productive, profitable, or goal-oriented. We’ll talk about intrinsic motivation, self-determination theory, autonomy, identity, productivity, and learning to recognize when something is enough. Because not everything we love needs a pur
Episode 31: Reasons To Stay (opens the original)
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In this episode of The Happiness Standard , Dr. Sarah Eileen-Downey Akers gets emotional discussing suicide awareness with it being the month of September, hope, and how looking at life through a curious lens can help encourage us to stay long enough to find out what happens next. This episode is a reminder that there are people you haven't met, memories you haven't made, and moments you don't know are waiting for you yet. If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988 in the U.S. fo
Episode 30: Relationship Killers (opens the original)
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Conflict is normal. But how you fight can make or break a relationship 🐎💥 Explore Gottman’s Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the communication patterns that can predict divorce—and the antidotes that can help you break the cycle with Dr. Sarah Eileen-Downey Akers on this week's episode of The Happiness Standard. References: Gottman, J. M. (1998). Psychology and the study of marital processes. Annual Review of Psychology, 49, 169–197. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.49.1.169Gottman, J. M.,
Episode 29: Why We Stay Too Long (opens the original)
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Why do we stay too long? 👀 In relationships, friendships, careers, goals, and even old versions of ourselves, we can keep investing simply because we've already invested so much. That’s the sunk cost fallacy—and it can make knowing when to stay, change, or let go surprisingly difficult. In this episode of The Happiness Standard , Dr. Sarah Eileen-Downey Akers explores the psychology behind why we struggle to walk away, how our emotions and identities keep us stuck, and how to make future decisio
Episode 28: The Teacher I Am (opens the original)
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We all remember that teacher—whether they changed our lives for the better... or for the worse 😂🍎 Dr. Sarah Eileen-Downey Akers shares the teachers who shaped her and the research-backed philosophy behind the classroom she strives to create. Episodes With Similar Content: Episode 11: Congratulations! You Failed https://open.spotify.com/episode/2iLl7CCtTI1x51LPkhLduC?si=Jz40qGQTTgO7lDKCegF2Qg&utm_source=sms References: Cooper, K. M., Downing, V. R., & Brownell, S. E. (2018). The influence of acti
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