I think of TED Talks a bit like traveling. There are way too many good ones out there to watch them all. No, I’m not making time excuses. They’re just not high enough priority in the day to squeeze anything else, at least for the moment.
I rely on friends pushing in TED talks to watch them. And these days, I end up watching one only if a friend pushes them and tells me why they loved it so much.
The last 2 TED talks I watched were both very very good. The first one was Paul Zak’s talk on Morality and Oxytocin – it had a simple takeaway. We can change the world with 8 hugs a day because hugs stimulate the release of Oxytocin, which in turn, makes the world a better place by ensuring morality. As is the case with these things, simple concept – but hard to do. And I’m saying that as a very ‘hug-gy’ person (i.e. a person who would prefer a hug over a handshake if we know each other).
The next one that recommended twice by two different friends in a short period of time was Shawn Anchor’s talk on ‘The Happiness Advantage’. This is also a wonderful talk and Shawn makes us laugh almost all through the 12 minute duration.
The big takeaways from this talk are summed up very nicely in this article on ‘How to reverse our flawed formula for happiness’. If you don’t have 12 minutes to check out the talk, I hope you’ll find a few minutes to read the article. It makes a few great points and builds on Shawn’s great talk.
The biggest takeaway here are the specific suggestions Shawn left us with. They are –
- Three gratitudes – Make note of three new things that you are grateful for every day.
- Journaling – Recall a positive experience that occurred over the last 24 hours; this practice allows your brain to re-live it.
- Exercise – It teaches your brain that your behaviour matters.
- Meditation – Sitting still trains the brain to get over our “cultural ADHD,” and helps bring focus.
- Random acts of kindness – Email one person in your social support network, praising them.
These are not new wisdom in any way and it’s nice to have them neatly collected in one place. It’s nice to see how universal these concepts are and how we can arrive at them from different place. I’d written about the first three in my (extremely) long rant on my own pursuit of happyness. I’ve been on a very simple form of meditation most mornings over the last 2 weeks and that’s had huge impact as well.
The only thing I’m not so sure I do on a day to day basis is random acts of kindness. I like to think I’m a kind person.. but, don’t we all?? ;-) My good morning quote for the day is apt
‘We are what we do. And not what we think we should do.’ | Paolo Coelho
(Thanks Mom, for the quote!)
So, I’m going to observe myself for a few days and see if I am indeed as kind as I think.
All that said, I’m very excited about all these advancements we’re making in understanding happiness. I’m in complete agreement with the fact that we’ve just tended to misunderstand it but it seems like we’re discovering more great research that supports the fact that happiness really comes all the small things that make up the journey. That’s why that fisherman we saw when we were visiting that primitive village was very happy. It wasn’t because he was hiding his secret graduation from Stanford. He just did little things that made him happy..
For those interested in more digging in, do read The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt. It is hands down one of the best books I’ve read.
This reminds me that I have book reviews due for a bunch of great books that I’ve read over the past few weeks. More ideas to execute than bandwidth…
Happyness! :-)
A Learning a Day 