A friend forwarded an article recently.
Here are the excerpts that resonated with me a lot:
Who is the happiest man
in the world?
If you Google it, the
name "Matthieu Ricard" pops up.
Matthieu Ricard, 69, is a
Tibetan Buddhist monk originally from France who has been called "the
world's happiest man."…
…To Ricard, the answer
comes down to altruism. The reason is because thinking about yourself, and how
to make things better for yourself all the time, is exhausting, stressful, and
ultimately leads to unhappiness.
"It's not the moral
ground," Ricard explained. "It's simply that me, me, me all day long
is very stuffy. And it's quite miserable, because you instrumentalize the whole
world as a threat, or as a potential sort of interest [to yourself]."
If you want to be happy,
Ricard says you should strive to be "benevolent," which will not only
make you feel better, but it will also make others like you better. (That's not
to say you should let other people take advantage of you, Ricard warns, but you
should generally strive to be kind within reason)…
Ok, so how does one
train their mind to be happier?
Just spend 15
continuous minutes a day thinking happy thoughts, Ricard says
Typically when we
experience feelings of happiness and love, it's fleeting and then something
else happens, and we move on to the next thought. But Ricard says instead,
concentrate on not letting your mind get distracted and keep focused on the
positive emotions for the next stretch of time. And if you do that training
every day, even just two weeks later you can feel positive mental results. And
if you practice that for 50 years like Ricard has, you can become a happiness
pro too.
I found this
advice very practical. Just attempt it. If 15 minutes appear long, start with 5
minutes. Do it with a timer. You can even experiment it with your team, partner,
family or another person. You will be surprised how amazing each one feels at
the end of it.
This can be
built into a habit. Being your work day with just 5 minutes of continuous happy
thoughts. And see the magic unfold.
