Photo: Chancellor Yancy Freeman Sr. (center) poses with Michael Oher (left) and Dr. Arthur Brooks during their visit to the UTM main campus Aug. 28.
MARTIN, Tenn. – Dr. Arthur Brooks spoke to a community audience in Watkins Auditorium in the Boling University Center about what makes people happy and how they can learn to become more happy.
Brooks’ appearance at the University of Tennessee at Martin was sponsored by the Institute of American Physics and UT Martin.
Brooks is a Harvard professor and best-selling author of 13 books. One of his more recent works, “Build the Life You Want,” was co-authored with Oprah Winfrey in 2023 and reached No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list.
Brooks is one of the world’s leading experts on the science of human happiness, appearing in the media and traveling the world to teach people in private companies, universities, public agencies and faith communities how they can live happier lives and bring greater well-being to others.
Brooks and NFL veteran Michael Oher, who is now the director of The Oher Foundation, appeared at a private session at 11 a.m. and at a session with the student body in the Kathleen and Tom Elam Center at noon.
The theme of the open program at 2:30 p.m. was “Love Your Enemies,” and Brooks shared how people can learn to be less unhappy.
“Happiness is a combination of three things,” Brooks said. “It’s the combination of enjoyment in your life, satisfaction with your accomplishments and an understanding of the meaning of your existence…and you can pursue all of those things.
“…The happiest people in every society and every age and every culture – they do four things; they have four habits: They practice their faith, they cultivate their families, they stay up-to-date with their real friendships and they take their work seriously with respect to serving other people.”
Brooks added that people in the United States have been going in the wrong direction with all four of those habits over a long period of time
“The United States has been in gradual happiness decline since about 1990,” he said. “The way that works is the percentage of Americans who say, ‘I’m very happy with my life’ ticks down about a half a percentage point each year and the percentage of Americans who say, ‘I’m unhappy with my life’ ticks up about a half a percentage point each year.
“That’s punctuated by downward droughts; so, it’s kind of gradually going down, and then, downward, then it comes back up a little bit, and then, it continues downward.”
Brooks said that people are less likely to practice a religion, say they are spiritual or have a cohesive nonreligious philosophy of life than they were years ago.
“I’m not going to say which (religion) is right; I’ve got my own. I’m a Catholic,” he said. “But, I will tell you as a scientist that for happiness, you don’t have to do it my way, but you gotta do something, and fewer and fewer Americans are doing anything.”
Brooks said in 1964, 1% of Americans said they had no religious faith or were spiritual. This year, 33% say that.
“Again, I’m not making any judgement about who is right,” he said, “but I’m telling you that if you don’t put something in your spiritual life – your philosophical life – you’ll spend all day thinking about yourself.”
Photo: Chancellor Yancy Freeman Sr. (center) poses with Michael Oher (left) and Dr. Arthur Brooks during their visit to the UTM main campus Aug. 28.