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 an entrepreneur, Jennifer Sontag, from Sicily, Italy. Jennifer, pleasure to have you here.

Jennifer Sontag  00:38

Thank you!

Jake Pearson  00:40

How are you?

Jennifer Sontag  00:40

I'm doing well. It's a beautiful day in Sicily, the weather is great, and the sun is shining,

Jake Pearson  00:46

Polar opposite to the rain that we are experiencing right now. But I digress, we will move on up. Thank you for coming on the podcast to share or things that make you happy, can you start with what makes you happy?

Jennifer Sontag  00:57

What makes me happy is being able to actually live my best life almost at 50. I feel like I have a second chance at life. I moved to Sicily two years ago where my great grandparents had emigrated from in the late 1800s and early 1900s, to the US where I was born and raised and lived a very good life raising a couple of children. And now I am back in Italy. And it's absolutely incredible. I wake up, I would say 330 days out of the year, the sun is shining, the beaches at the end of my street, I can see those waves. Turn the other direction, I've got beautiful mountains that I can hike and climb. So life is very good here.

Jake Pearson  01:48

Beautiful. Do you find it's very easy for you to be present with everything around you and grateful?

Jennifer Sontag  01:53

I feel for the first time that I can really be present and grateful. The lifestyle that I have been able to design for myself over the last few years took away a lot of that hustle, and grind. And so now I can really just sit and be within, every morning I can wake up to a little bit of meditation and self-exploration. I have time for walks. But I also have time to really focus and dive deep into what I'm working on. Because I've been able to put all of that chaos outside of my head and compartmentalize it to do specific times to deal with it. So that has made a big difference.

Jake Pearson  02:43

Oh, I love that. Thank you for sharing a little bit about what makes you happy in that regard. What would you say to our listeners right now who are on a journey to find a bit of their own happiness like yourself? What would your advice be? 

Jennifer Sontag  02:57

I think you have to be your authentic self. And I think that is one of the hardest things for us to do. There is so much noise, both our internal noise from our experiences, our family and friends who love and care about us and produce that noise not to hold us back. But with the best of intentions. But sometimes those intentions aren't what we need. And then we have all of this societal pressure so we can really focus on internally, what is that gut feeling of what we want. 

For me and for many others that I've worked with, that's what produces happiness; following our path. And sometimes it's hard, but getting through those stumbling blocks to get to that point. And I guess what is the sports adage, keep your eye on the ball. So just really focusing on Where are you going? And when you get that gut feeling that something's not right, step back, reflect on it. And if you feel like it's not right, no matter what that noise is going on out there. If it's not right for you right here to move on and let it go. And focus back on the center self.

Jake Pearson  04:13

I really resonate with what you've just said there, especially the gut feeling because I lean into that a lot myself, I trust my gut. So our brain can very much start to overthink and create scenarios, worry, the anxiety. And I just sort of had to sit back and trust that second brain which is your gut and the intuition there. And a lot of the time when I listen to my gut. If I'm going in a direction and I feel fine in my gut, I'm like cool, this is great. I feel excited this is working but if something doesn't feel wrong, it's generally my stomach that feels off just as much as the brain so trusting your gut and going with that. There's a lot of research to show that. That is super important towards your mental health, your well-being, your happiness, all of that. So yeah, great point there.

Jennifer Sontag  05:04

Yes, I think absolutely I've done some research on it as someone with a chronic intestinal issue of Crohn's disease, I really resonate with that gut feeling, and in the research, you're right, you know, it's showing, that's our second brain, we've got to think about it, we cannot medicate our way out of this, we cannot keep tapping down those side effects in the symptoms, we really have to think-- We have to think with this brain, and we have to think with this brain. And we have to trust ourselves. And I think that's the biggest thing, and that is impossibly hard, and so I hope that if I model that if you know, listening to your podcast, and listening to so many others talk about how they found their happiness, when we model that it provides that safe space for others to find their happiness, to find their strength in their own beliefs. And their being.

Jake Pearson  06:04

Yes, very beautifully and well put, I completely agree. And that's what we're doing here on this podcast, modeling it so that you guys, listeners all around the world can learn from us who are in a place of happiness, and take from that what you will and apply to your own life. Jennifer, thank you so much for coming on the podcast to share what makes you happy.

Jennifer Sontag  06:26

Thank you, Jake I had a great time. So nice to meet you.

Jake Pearson  06:29

Yes. Nice to meet you. It's an absolute pleasure. And if you'd love to connect with Jennifer and find out more about what she does with her incredible work, which we can touch on in the podcast episode description below. You can do so there. Jennifer, thank you so much for once again coming on the podcast. 

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.