Science Of Happiness Professor Dr. Alan Schlechter On Getting By
By Anna Mongillo
You’ve almost made it through your first week of classes. You walked the distance from Gramercy to Stern and back twice, dodged a few Welcome Week acquaintances, fell asleep in Statistics, and spilled soda all over your shorts in the dining hall (true story). Whether you’re new to NYU or a wearied veteran, there’s just something about the hustle and bustle that comes with the start of class that might make everything feel like it’s moving too fast. So what do you do if you feel overwhelmed?
In our search for answers, we spoke with Dr. Alan Schlechter, professor of the popular CAS course Science of Happiness, to help us come up with a few tips for anyone thinking they might need a boost this year.
Here’s what we came up with:
Think about the future, don’t think about falling on your face in WSP.
It’s normal to have trouble transitioning, but don’t dwell on the past. “College is probably the incidence of the greatest transitions you’ll ever have in your life,” Dr. Schlechter said. “You might move apartments 8 times through the years. You’re leaving someplace old, and you have to deal with that, and you’re coming to someplace new. It affects the way you sleep, the way you eat, the way you exercise. I’d say the number one thing that I’d think of when I think of how you can transition well is first being really thoughtful about what you’ve left behind and being aware that you’re leaving something, whatever it is.
Get into a routine.
Schlecter recommends routine as a key to happiness. He lists three “good things” that he does everyday: “I need to meditate for 15 or 20 minutes, I need to spend 2 hours with my kids, and I need to cross something off my list.” Get in touch with what you want and need.
Try reaching out.
Putting in some individual effort and setting up dates with friends, no matter how difficult that may be for you, is Schlechter’s advice for making and maintaining friendships. “Don’t waste your time being lonely. Don’t spend a lot of time thinking, “why don’t people call me?”. Be the person who calls them.”
Don’t be afraid.
Just because you’re not the next Steve Jobs doesn’t mean you can’t have personal success. Schlechter encourages students, especially seniors, not to be intimidated by people around you doing great things. “People who find meaning in life tend to be the people who search for it. You don’t want to avoid it. I avoided it, I can tell you that. I think my fear was that if I tried to find something and didn’t then I would feel terrible about myself, but there’s actually evidence that we only regret what we don’t do, we don’t regret what we do. So had I tried, I wouldn’t have actually felt so bad, because I would have been proud of my effort. That’s what we’re proud of in the most part: our effort.”
Take a step back sometimes.
“There are many kinds of positive emotions,” says Schlechter. “There’s joy and there’s happiness, and there’s also calm and tranquility. New York does not encourage calm and tranquility — we’re supposed to be happy all the time, with friends having a good time, brunch the next day, going to work out. But actually those who have the most well-being in society are those that have a fair amount of calm and tranquility. It’s actually really healthy. It’s important to value those as positive emotions.”
Don’t watch Fox News.
“Fox News is depressing.” We agree, Dr. Schlechter.
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