14
Enlightenment Journal | Summer 2017
Sam Chase joins Dr. Laurel Trujillo in a conversation about
the nature of happiness.
Laurel Trujillo:
Yogananda wrote, “Do not make unhappiness a chronic habit,
thereby affecting yourself and your associates. It is blessedness for yourself and
others if you are happy.” How did you become interested in yoga and happiness,
the topic of your recent book, Yoga and the Pursuit of Happiness?
Sam Chase:
I was one of the least likely candidates for a yoga practice. While
studying economics, I was invited to apply for a Rhodes Scholarship and a
Marshall Scholarship. The day that I got a call from the British Consulate telling
me that I had won should have been the best call I had ever received, but instead
of being thrilled, I had a panic attack. I was caught totally by surprise with the
realization that I just could not stare down forty more years in economics, even
though there was a lot that I loved about it.
Over the years, I began to get acquainted with the part of me that rose up to
reject the career that I had so carefully plotted out and then run away from. Yet
there was still a part of me that was wasn’t going to believe the effect that yoga
was having in my life unless I had some hard scientific evidence for it. During
graduate school, I discovered there was a rich conversation happening between
the scientific study of happiness and well-being and the ancient traditions of yoga
and contemplative practice.
Laurel:
You encourage people to find their own definition of happiness. Why is
this important?
Finding
Happiness in
Unexpected
Places