We talk about why you might give yourself a prop to hold, discuss a friend’s hack for helping little kids to be independent, and explore a listener question about the common post-pandemic stumbling block of maintaining healthy habits that have been acquired during the last year.

To celebrate the fifth anniversary of the “Happier” podcast, we’re presenting our very first episode, along with some commentary from us about everything that’s happened and what we’ve learned since that episode aired.

If you’re trying to save money, does it matter if you splurge on one pair of expensive shoes? Probably not. What about two pairs? Three pairs? In the TV show “Sex and the City,” Carrie’s shoe collection illustrates an important idea in habit-formation: the One-Coin Loophole.

Podcast 85: Why you should give yourself something to look forward to; whether you’ve ever had an uneasy response to a gift, and Gretchen talks about her “Bowl of Requirement.”

Podcast 56: Schedule time to worry, learn to avoid loopholes, and how to deal with a writers' accountability group that is starting to shirk writing. Want to get in touch? @gretchenrubin; @elizabethcraft; [email protected]; happiercast.com/56; 774-277-9336.