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