Panic Attacks and The Science of Happiness

Stacie and Andy at Lake Tahoe in November 2015 :)

For the last year-and-a-half, I have been exploring a new world. I have always been a generally happy and optimistic person, but I dove into the world of positive psychology and have found so many pearls that I decided to dedicate my life to the study and dissemination of the principles of human flourishing.  

This book changed my life. Click the book to get your own copy.

I studied social psychology at Brigham Young University and was fascinated by so many things about human behavior and personality, but I didn't follow that path right after graduation. For a while I have been dabbling in different jobs and have landed myself in the world of internet entrepreneurship. I manage a few online businesses and work from anywhere that has WIFI (mostly my home office). My goal this year is to maintain these businesses while launching an online business (a blog, YouTube channel, Periscope, Instagram, podcast, etc.) that will teach people research-backed ways to increase their levels of happiness and flourishing. Millions of dollars of research funding has gone into thousands of studies on the science of human happiness, but the average academic journal article is read by only seven people. Who wants to go read the twenty pages of collected data of some university professor written in academic jargon? Apparently seven people do, but the vast majority of mainstream society spend their time in social media channels, watching videos and reading very short, and easily digestible content. My goal is to convert the jargon of academia into small snippets of sharable content in a way that is enjoyable for the average information consumer. I have experimented with this in a small way already using a new live-streaming app called Periscope. 

​

Periscope gives you some metrics about your broadcasts and from what I have seen, thousands of people have watch hundreds of hours of me talking about positive psychology. The point of sharing this is that people want to be happy. 
​

When Panic Attacked

 In early 2015 I went to the emergency room because I thought I was having a heart attack. The ER doc sent me home because he said I was fine. It was terrifying to feel like was dying when in fact I wasn't. For months after this happened, I went from doctor to doctor trying to figure out what the deal was. I went through a lot of tests and found a few things that needed to be tweaked a bit (like my microbiome), but no signs of anything else wrong with me. It was so frustrating to me because I felt the physical symptoms happening. My heart rate went up to 110 while laying down, I had tingling feelings all over my body, I would wake up trembling or convulsing, I had pain in my legs, arms and chest, weird rashes popped up on my skin and many other unexplainable physiological events. I felt like my body was revolting against me. I tried all kinds of things from different doctors, but nothing really made an impact. Then I read a book called When Panic Attacks, by David Burns, MD. I realized that these physical symptoms could actually be caused by panic disorder. I read stories of people who experienced exactly the same symptoms as me and who overcame it without medication. He talked about something called the Hidden Emotion theory. Long story short, I started diving into my emotions and my unspoken desires and concerns. I also started looking more into one very powerful aspect of positive psychology: mindfulness. I started meditating and being more mindful. When I started to do this, my body started to work with me instead of against me and I was a new man. Positive psychology has changed my life. It has allowed me to live again and now I desire to share this with as many people who want to increase their happiness. 

I have skipped a lot of details, but I mainly wanted to post about my enthusiasm about positive psychology because it has changed my life in a very real way. In 2015, I wrote a book about discovering and living your unique life mission. When you LIVE YOUR MISSION, it makes you healthier, happier, and the world is a better place because you exist. The world is about to become a better place because I exist. Here is my book (click it to buy):

Stay tuned for details on the positive psychology channel. It's coming soon! Don't have panic attacks, go discover your unique life mission and then live that mission.  

Click to get started reading these!