Happiness. What is the role of this word in your life? Does it signify a goal? A choice? A state? Does it resonate with you? Perhaps you find terms like fulfillment, purpose, or meaning more useful? What about your relation to melancholy? In what ways are happiness and melancholy connected? If they conversed, what would they say to one another?

These are some of the questions we contemplate with Dr. Ibrahim Al-Marashi. Our hope is to become more intimate with these terms to perhaps discover novel ways in which they can shape our human experience in a wiser manner.

This interview was originally recorded during the Happiness Week at IE University in Madrid.

Dr. Ibrahim Al-Marashi is a visiting professor at IE University and an Associate Professor at the California State University of San Marcos. Ibrahim holds a Ph.D. from Oxford University on the Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait.

Themes:

• The (un)usefulness of happiness as a concept ;
• Definitions of happiness across time;
• The ingredients for a fulfilling life;
• The importance of meeting one's darker side toward a more wholesome experience of well-being;
• Ibrahim's personal experience with psychotherapy;
• Some resources to manage melancholy;
• A few comments on why and how to find ethical motivation on a planet in crisis.

Host: Carlota Guedes

Music Audio Producer & Editor: Carlos Sierra

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References:
- Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
- Man's Search For Meaning by Vitor Frankl
- Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb
- Don't Look Up