Hi all,
Last week I took some time to go to a seminar with Michele entitled Happiness and its Causes. It was a secular thing but had a full range of wonderful people both from a range of secular disciplines and religious traditions. A key draw card was the Dali Lama. Thankyou all for creating the space for me to attend this.
There were some brilliant speakers. The quality of accademic work and the increasing insight we are gaining from the dialogue between science, philosophy and religion is remarkable. For example neuroscience is now identifying that various forms of mind exercises may be able to prevent the onset of altzheimers and physiologists can now measure the beneficial chemical changes that occur in the body during meditation.
So what did I take out of this.
1 the skills that we have as researchers are so relevant today and a challenge is for us is to learn how to apply them for communal good. For example there was the debate about is it indulgent to focus on your own happiness rather than the happiness of others. Some researchers in the US constructed an controlled experiment where they had people visit phone booths. In half the phone booths they left some money lying round so the respondents had positive experience. Then they had a researcher walk by and drop a bundle of papers. The respondents leaving the booth where they had found the money were more than twice as likely to help pick up the dropped papers. Hence the conclusion..if you get yourself feeling good you are more likely to help others. Simple but brilliant. If we could do stuff like this Id be stoked.
2 Compassion …like random annonymous acts of kindness are a great driver of happiness. Compassion for your enemy is a winner. Compassion for your friend is a little loaded. Apparently is all about empathy for human beings.
3 Economists have shown there is a positive relationship between money and happiness that peaks out at $15000 per person per annum. After that the absolute ammount has nothing to do with happiness…..its all about if you get more or less than someone else..and of course since most of us increase at about the same rate….feeling rat like?
4 You can tell how happy someone is from the look on their face..really…theres a smile where the lips turn up in the corner and the eyes squint thats a dead give away. There is an academic term for this kind of smile.
5 Being detached from material things and being grateful with what you have is good place to be…learn to say thankyou often.
6 There is a school of thought that’s prominent at Monash that involves the concept of Mindfullness…there is a book I want to read on this. Its about stilling the mind through mind training that has all sorts of positive health and happiness benefits. Meditation and prayer could fall into this category.
7 There are some brilliant accademics here and I have some great ones earmarked to talk to us at some time and others that I will involve in our business in various ways.
8 We all need to spend more time with our kids..really the question is not why our kids are deserting us but the reverse. This is a biggie.
I notice I have really used the word really a lot here…but Im really really excited
9 The book “The Secret” that I mentioned in my last blog was bagged by Clive Hamilton of the Australia institute. Clive thinks all this modern self help stuff is big in helping the helpers. Clive recons the basic problem is materialism and the biggest rouges are the manipulating marketers and the polies that put GDP growth before all else.. he may have a point but he doesnt give a realistic alternative. For me I take what works for me and I hope that spills over to others. I have found martyrs are not that practical.
10 Father Chris Riley says that to give youth the self belief that the have power by enabling them to have control and give shape to their visions is the key to their happiness. He thinks all billionairres should be locked up. I wonder if he includes Bill Gates.
At the end of the day as the Dali Lama said when someone asked him ” whats the meaning of life” he answered ” I dont know”… thats about it for me too. But have a think about some of the points and if they work for you…
But I am thankful that I could go ..so once again thankyou.
John
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What a wonderful opportunity to look inward and explore the recesses of the soul. I believe sessions like these (and of course I include church which I put in a similar category) are not just exciting to attend but absolutely essentail in life. The help to maintain balance in life and bring a reality check to what we are living for, rather than letting the ‘rat’ race define our beliefs and motivations. Good on you John - I hope you find meaning and fulfillment and the energy to do what you’ve been placed on this earth to do - its all about a cause greater than ourselves (and the best is yet to come).