Jake Pearson  00:00

Are you trying to figure out the secret to happiness? We're here at What Makes You Happy with Jake Pearson. We want to make that happiness more accessible for you in your life. So stick around as we interview everyday people, inspirational leaders and your favorite celebrities on what makes them happy.

Welcome back to the podcast where we ask the question, what makes you happy?

My name is Jake Pearson. And today we have with us a podcaster and an international speaker. We have Maura Sweeney from Florida, USA. Maura, how are you?

Maura Sweeney  00:39

I'm great, Jake, nice to see you. And thanks for having me on today. 

Jake Pearson  00:42

Nice to see you too. And an absolute pleasure to hear all things that make you happy. Before we get started, I understand that you're the trademark Ambassador of Happiness. Could you explain what that means?

Maura Sweeney  00:53

You know what, since I was little, I was always looking to be happy, not like the world was but literally to have a happy heart, happy soul, have peace within me. And when I got older, I started writing and podcasting and speaking about that topic. And as it turns out, I was invited to speak at the inaugural Nelson Mandela Day celebrations; couple of years ago, that a lot of dignitaries there. And they wanted to know what my title was, I said, "I don't have a title. I just write and I talk about happiness." And they said, "Well, we're going to give you one, we'll call you the Ambassador of Happiness." And because I traveled a lot, people said more, 'that fits you perfectly'. And somebody else said later on, "You need to trademark the title", which I did. And the interesting thing is speaking overseas, I am routinely introduced, whether it's by papers, or years ago, they used to use newspapers, and other media outlets as the Ambassador of Happiness from the United States. And I thought, how cute is that? And it was kind of self-made, self-generated all from childhood onward.

Jake Pearson  01:55

I really love how that's just come about from an interest to, one day an opportunities presented itself and it fell in your lap and it just fit really well, didn't it?

Maura Sweeney  02:04

It did and you know, it's funny, you see interest, I would almost say like a lifelong interest and passion, where it's almost like following an internal guidance system, that always was helping me find what makes me happy not trying to conform to the world. But just making me be happy in my own skin doing what I like and being with people I enjoy.

Jake Pearson  02:24

Well, let's segue from that into what does make you happy?

Maura Sweeney  02:30

Well, since you heard it's living Happy from the inside out. One of the biggest and most helpful things about being happy is making sure I take a little bit of time, every day for myself, usually in the morning, and then again at night, but typically in the morning, because we could get off on a day, and then have all kinds of information that attacks us. Or we could be a little bit quiet reflective, which is what I love to do, I always have a journal nearby. And I think about those kinds of things that are important to me, that are important to where I want to see the day go, who I'm going to be spending time with, what those thoughts are that I want to be able to share. And it's almost like I create my own energy, force, that's I'm going to call it and I find that; that's one of the main things that makes me happy because I control the happiness within me rather than being controlled by everything on the outside.

Jake Pearson  03:25

And it's so important that you mentioned that you control your happiness, because a lot of people don't feel like they can control their happiness at the stage of the life they're in. And I'm very fortunate to realize that I feel in control of what makes me happy, and that I'm no longer grasping at other people's opinions of me to help validate my own happiness and self-worth. But what would you say to our audience who are struggling to find happiness in their lives?

Maura Sweeney  03:56

In addition to just finding a little bit of time, every day to say, all right, what are these things? And what are the places in my life where I feel at peace at rest? And here's another word creative? Do you realize when we feel happy, there's creative juices that come out of us where we do things that are important to us, we generate new things. We feel free to try new things that we wouldn't in an environment, maybe we're not always accepted, or people are judging us. And so that's what I always find so helpful about thinking about happiness from the inside. 

I'll say one other thing. Who are the people that you hang out with? And do you make time to be around people to have healthy relationships where there's no agenda, there's little to no drama, and everybody is equally supportive of everybody else's best self. And I think that that is one of the most important things we could ever do in life, to help generate that sense of happiness and well-being and while we're at it, we end up doing it for the rest of the world as well.

Jake Pearson  04:57

I really resonate with everything You said that and I'm so glad that we got this opportunity to sit down and record this. Thank you so much for sharing all things that make you happy. 

Thanks for listening to the podcast. We hope it gives you something to think about on your quest to discover what makes you happy. Make sure to check out whatmakesyouhappypodcast.com to connect with today's guest and follow us on all our social media platforms, and to stay up to date on what's happening next and what makes you happy. Don't forget to share this episode with a friend and we'll see you next time!