"When are humans most happy? To answer this question, researcher Matt Killingsworth built an app, Track Your Happiness, that let people report their feelings in real time. Among the results: We're often happiest when we're lost in the moment."
Good Morning Folks,
As your Chief Happiness Officer, over the past months, I've chosen TED talks to share here about the path to happiness and self-fulfillment that will enlighten and inspire you in unexpected ways.
These short lectures explore why we’re often unhappy, why we feel happy when we do, and how we can overcome the many opposites of happiness so that we can live every day of our lives in a positive, enriched, and deeply fulfilling way.
What is it that makes us happy? We’re told that money that doesn’t buy it, or success, or even love. Can happiness be created, or must it be discovered? Does the path to a happy life require certain ingredients—self-discovery, confidence, a loving group of family and friends, spiritual guidance, the opportunity to fulfill one’s dreams—or can anyone be truly “happy?”
We spend our entire lives on the pursuit of this elusive state, which we so often think we recognize in others, and which we constantly struggle to find for ourselves. Thousands of years of philosophy, psychology, and sociology have studied what it means to be happy, but what if it could be a whole lot simpler than that?
Through his website trackyourhappiness.org, Killingsworth has made a research tool that allows him to track people’s responses to questions such as: “How do you feel?” “What are you doing?” “Are you thinking about something other than what you’re currently doing?”
His research has shown that 47 percent of the time, people are thinking about something other than what they’re doing in that moment, and that there is a direct correlation between people’s “mind wandering” and their feelings of unhappiness. In other words, no matter what we’re doing, we’re substantially happier when we’re aware of and engaged in the moment than if we’re cluttering our minds with other thoughts. In this short, concise lecture, Killingsworth shows us how his statistics have the power to reveal when we’re the happiest, and how maybe being happy is a lot easier than we think. -
When are humans most happy? To gather data on this question, Matt Killingsworth built an app, Track Your Happiness, that let people report their feelings in real time. Among the surprising results: We're often happiest when we're lost in the moment. And the flip side: The more our mind wanders, the less happy we can be. (Filmed at TEDxCambridge.)
Thanks to NPR and SpiritualityHealth.com and, most of all to you for “caring” (and sharing!).
Have a GREAT Day,
Mitchell D. Weiner
Chief Happiness Officer
Ideas are not set in stone. When exposed to thoughtful people, they morph and adapt into their most potent form. TED Tuesdays on MitchWeiner.com highlights some of today's most intriguing ideas. Look for more talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more— HERE.
About Matt Killingsworth
Researcher Matt Killingsworth designs studies that gather data on happiness. While doing his Ph.D. research at Harvard, Killingsworth invented the Track Your Happiness app.
He's now a Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Scholar examining such topics as the relationship between happiness and the content of everyday experiences, the percentage of everyday experiences that are intrinsically valuable, and the degree of congruence between the causes of momentary happiness and of one's overall satisfaction with life.
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About FSO Onsite Outsourcing
Recognized on the Inc. 5000 list of the nation's fastest growing companies for the third consecutive year, and lead by industry pioneer, Mitch Weiner, FSO's growth and success can be attributed to making a positive and powerful impact on their clients' bottom lines, as well as their employees' careers and lives.
