Welcome To The Happiness Squad Podcast

Hey there friends. Welcome to Happiness Squad. This is the podcast dedicated to helping you unlock your full potential by mastering the art and science of happiness. We bring on the best leading experts on these topics to help you unlock your true potential and live with more joy, health, love and meaning in your life. Your host is no other than a star combo of Ashish Katari and Anil Ramjiani who are both on a mission to provide you with an unfair advantage to be the masters of your experience and leaders in your industry. Get ready to be moved, challenged and enlightened on this podcast. It may change your life. Thanks for being here and joining the squad.

Hey everyone, it's Anil from the Happiness Squad. I. I am so excited to be here with my good friend and our host, Ashish Kothari. Hey Ashish, how you doing, Anil?

I am awesome. I'm doing fantastic and it is so amazing to start this journey with you to help our listeners unlock their full potential through integrating the art and science of happiness into their day to day lives.

You know, Ashish, we've been talking for the last couple of months when we've been pulling the podcast together, building the Happiness Squad community. You know, what is that we can really do for our listeners? And, and we agreed that we want to make three promises to all of you. The first, we want to offer you tips and tricks, practices that you can embrace daily to really help you live a better life, hourly by hour. The second is we want to give you an access to a range of Ashish and my experts, you know, folks that are in psychedelics that have practiced vipassana meditation, ontological coaches, armed services, the list goes on. The third is we also want you to listen to organizational leaders and practitioners who use and embody these practices themselves and can really share with you how it has made such a massive impact on not only their lives, but the lives of those around them.

It's going to be, you know, it's, you know, as we kind of launch this Anil, I think, you know, that was one of the big insights, right, As I thought about like, you know, oftentimes there are podcasts who are just from, you know, usually cover one or two kind of themes, right, of how we can all unlock our full potential. And that's why I was excited to kind of do this collaboration with you because, you know, by bringing access to a range of experts, right, from fields from psychology and neuroscience and philosophers and you know, people who are at the cutting edge, as you mentioned, of psychedelics as well as, you know, from A whole different range of life, right? People who are in nonprofits, people who are in for profits, people who are executives, people who are frontline. I mean, we want to be able to learn from all of us, right? Because we are all on a mission. We want to live, you know, we want to live happily, we want to live great lives, we want to serve others, we want to be healthy. And so this is such a lived experience. And so I think I am so excited because the more of these conversations that we have and we ground it in real practical insights, right, and contextualize it to how we experience life, I think, I think we can, we can actually have really create magic together, right? Because this is about living these practices. This is not about knowing the practices. And that's the reason, you know, and that's the reason, as you and I shared, I think it's probably helpful to share with the listeners, you know, why did we decide to create this? You know, there's tons of happiness podcasts out there. There are tons of well being podcasts out there. So why did you and I feel so, you know, why did I feel such a momentum? Why did we say, you know, let's actually do this now? Yeah. So compelled. What is, what is behind the story and you know, comes from this place. Dear friends, I'd invite you for a moment, just close your eyes and just think about this unique time that we are in right now. On one hand, you know, we have never been more prosperous than ever before. We are living longer than ever before, almost 10 to 15 years longer than prior generations. We are more connected than we have been ever before. Yeah, I mean it used to take what, 10 days for somebody to get an email from United Kingdom, you know, where anil you're based to the US and we can exchange messages now within seconds, right? So we are more connected. We are also doing things today that we can do so much more efficiently, so much faster. Yeah, I mean it's amazing. Like, I mean this world we are living in, so much more prosperous, living longer through breakthroughs in science and technology, more connected and frankly, so much more efficient. You know, you would think we would be flourishing as a generation. You would think that we would be swimming with free time. But that is not the lived experience of people out there. We are struggling with loneliness. 60% of us are reporting loneliness. We are struggling with stress and anxiety. 40 to 60% of employees are reporting anxiety, burnout, stress in that day to day life. You know, the shame. So is the case with students in colleges. One third of Students are on therapy and depression. What is the world that we are creating from all of these gifts that we have? And why is it, why is it. Think about that. Why is it that for the first time ever, first time ever, I get so excited about this, first time ever, that we actually have a crisis in every level that we can actually address through this podcast? That's what I get excited about, that I think the practices we are going to talk about can help us unwind the clock, can help us get out of a crisis that we are experiencing collectively, living through in every domain, in the life we have a crisis ecologically, there are hurricanes, wildfires, floods, earthquakes, natural disasters every day. Economically, we're struggling. Inflation is at an all time high and we are trying to make ends meet. We're trying to get our dollars or euros or rupees further than they could ever get politically. You know, we are afraid we are at each other's throats, we've lost the ability to take perspective. And through this podcast we want to be able to take listeners through ways in which we can learn to listen again, learn to connect again, break this polarization that is looking to, you know, really tear our communities apart. And we want to do that because fundamentally what these practices, you know, that you and I are going to talk about with experts from all these different fields are about is they can help our listeners fundamentally rewire their brains from fear, which we are all living in. Fear, anxiety, uncertainty about the future. And the fact that we can rewire our brains for happiness, we can truly hardwire for happiness. And that is what I get excited about, you know, because we can have doom and gloom about the world we are in. But no, the reality is we have the power to change that collectively, as we integrate these into our lives, we can become better individually, we can create better worlds around us and we can together, you know, thrive again as humanity.

Do you know, I'm 100% with you, Ashish, and I think what's beautiful about what you're saying is I'm sure everyone listening to this or those that you know who aren't who I'm sure you're going to tell them about this, you might identify with some of the things that either Ashish already said or what I'm about to share with you now. So again, are you one of the 40 to 60% who are struggling and experiencing stress and burnout? Are you someone who's on the front line working for nonprofit or for profit? Are you someone who's an executive leading a team who may not be able to share with you as a leader, feedback or, or you aren't able to share with them your gratitude for them. Are you One of the 60% that Ashish mentioned are experiencing loneliness? That's basically if you're in a room of 10 people, six of those people are feeling lonely, they're feeling disconnected. And Ashish mentioned you're surrounded by technology and opportunities to connect, yet they feel lonely. Or are you one of those lucky 30% who actually love what you do day to day in your work, where you work, how you work? Or are you the other 70% who are basically working to just to survive, to earn a living, to put food on your plate and a roof over your head, knowing, as Ash said, that is not sustainable. We want to speak to you, we want to help you. So that's why we say happiness Squad. This is for everyone.

And Anil, so tell you to talk to. I love those different, you know, I love those different, you know, groups. Right. Frankly, as we, as you and I discussed, this was one of the big things we, you know, we openly talked about, right? This work truly is for everyone, right? Everyone can benefit from this work. But let's talk a little bit about what, how, how, what are we going to talk about? What are we really going to do? Right? We talked about hardwired for happiness, Hardwired for fear. How can we hardwire for happiness? Right? And so in this podcast, in this journey, collectively, together, what I want to share with you is nine practices that I discovered through my research. I read 500 different books. I studied with spiritual teachers, I studied with psychologists, I studied with neuroscientists. I practiced on my own, trying all the different practices that are out there. And what emerged from my research across spirituality, psychology and neuroscience were these nine themes, nine practices that are in every wisdom tradition that has ever existed. You can go back 3,000 years and you will find them, but they are validated over the last 20 years from the fields of psychology and neuroscience. That these practices, if we integrate them into our lives, not if we know about them, we know about them. We've known about them since the time we were born. It's about living them. If we integrate them into our lives, we, we can fundamentally build new neural circuits that allow us to start to experience the world differently, that allow us to truly thrive, but thrive not by trying to control the external world. Because, my dear friends, we cannot control the external world. We can't control anything outside. The world has become more volatile, more certain, more complex and ambiguous. The but you know what we can do 100%, we can master our inner worlds. Our experiences are our own. So what are these nine practices that we're going to cover? We're going to talk about self awareness. We're going to connect with how we can get to better understand who we are as individuals and how we can understand how we are perceived by others. And we're going to learn about that from experts, from ontology, from psychology, from spirituality. We're going to talk about purpose. As Anil said, 30% of people today are engaged. For 70%, it is just about survival. We're going to learn about how by living a life in connection, by integrating more meaning into our lives, by living a purposeful life, we can be happier and healthier. And we're going to actually talk about how you can do that right where you are. Look, it's always easy to say, I'm going to go leave my job and find something else. But we're going to talk about, we're going to talk about that too. If you want to go down that path, we want to be able to help you, but more importantly, we want to help you integrate meaning in your day to day lives where you are right now. We're going to talk about mindfulness. Not mindfulness like go sit in a meditation mat and practice. We're going to talk about that, but we're going to also talk about how you can integrate mindfulness into your day to day lives one minute at a time. We're going to talk about gratitude. We're going to talk about how we can get better at dealing with anger, stress, anxiety, resentment, guilt, shame, all of these hard emotions that can really drag us down. And let's be honest, I think we've had a lot of these come up in the last two years and a lot less of the positive emotions. So we're going to talk about how we tackle the unpleasant ones, but we're going to also talk about how do we actually, through our actions, our actions and our actions alone, we control 100% of our actions. How do we create more positive energy in our lives through kindness, through compassion, through empathy. We're going to talk a lot about that. We're going to talk about how do we be at our best selves from a physical, mental and spiritual basis. We're going to delve into the field of well being and wait for the amazing people we have lined up for you in the space of well being. Oh, my God. You know, people who kind of train every single Formula one racer is somebody you know. I have a colleague of mine, Anastina Hinsa. She's going to be on it. And they train every Formula one racer in the world, helping them be at their best. You know, you're going to have a chance to hear from her. We're going to hear a chance to hear from nutritionists, you know, doctors who are, you know, who've practiced the art of Ayurveda. You're going to hear all of these things in this podcast in a single place. You're going to learn about how do you build community, starting with the family that is right around us. And we're going to hear, and we're going to hear from experts and we're going to talk about how we can truly live an intentional life, how we can stop responding to everything that comes our way, how we can stop being reactive, how, but really be the captain of our own ship, guiding the ship in the choppy waters of life towards a north star, towards destination that is chosen by you. That is chosen based on where you want to get to, not what the world expects of you, not because somebody else is doing it and you want to be like them. No, we want to help you get there based on who you are and where you want to go. And so think about these nine themes. They are so different, but they're all interconnected. And we want to be able to, in a single place, bring these insights, bring the expertise, but also bring the stories of you, me, all of us together who are living this into their lives, the struggles we have, the successes we have. I want to bring all of those stories here and Anil wants to bring these stories here for you. We want to bring the stories of leaders who are basically saying, enough. We're not just going to drive profitability and revenue, but we're going to truly create workplaces that allow our people to thrive, that allow our people to flourish. We want to hear their stories, we want to get inspiration from them around what they're doing. How are they integrating work and meaning, health and meaning into our day to day lives? How are they creating cultures of flourishing? And, and by the way, you know, this is one thing that you are going to learn from them as we share these stories, stories from CEOs, from Tillamook, from people like Crocs, you will learn that it is a myth that you can either drive performance or we can create cultures of flourishing. It is not true. Every one of these companies is at the top of their game. They are growing, they're thriving, they are Crushing their goals performance wise. But they're doing it because of their. Not people, because of their people. And so that's our promise to you. A whole range of different fields, practical tips and tricks that you can integrate into your day to day lives. And all of them not just from experts, but from people like you, me, Anil. Day to day people journey, men and women collectively on a journey together to become the best version of ourselves so that we can be of service to the world and create a much better humanity, a much better world for our kids and the next generations.

Do you know what's powerful about that folks? As you hear all that literally this is Ashish streaming this all from his consciousness. This is not something that it's scripted, it's trying to figure out what the right words are not. This is actually something that Ashish lives and breathes and believes as do I, as do we hope all of you do one day. And you're probably wondering to yourselves, so what? Why are Ashish and Anil so uniquely set up to deliver this to you, to share this with you? Well, you heard a few bits from Ashish about how he's read over 500 books, how he's actually practiced, met spoke, let me share a little bit about me and then I'm going to pass it back to Ashish. So who am I? So I'm Anil. I'm actually born in the us, I live in Europe, I work for Nike and I've been in the corporate world for nearly two decades. And I'll tell you what, seven years ago I had to take a pause, I had to take a breath and say, wait a minute, who am I, you know, why am I doing what I'm doing and is this really the way I want to live? And I'll tell you what, I now believe in people. I believe in potential and I believe in performance. But as Ashish said, and since he and I got connected just over a year ago during COVID this is something to me that it has to be shared. It can't be kept just to me or to those around me. But we want to touch more than just one life. I tell you what, since speaking to Ashish, I've actually learned how to bring intention into my life, how to bring integrity into my life. And I think it's really important that despite, you know, having different backgrounds with the listeners, I feel like we all have a common theme. We all suffer from that stress, that burnout, that anxiety and what I find incredibly unique. Ashish laid out the nine practices with you. But I started to incorporate them into my day to day life. And I'll tell you what, a few minutes a day is all it takes. I didn't believe him at first, but then he and I started talking and I tell you what, it changed my life. And Ashish, I mean, tell us more about you. What also makes you so uniquely set up to share this with our peers?

Yeah, my friend. And I think the biggest one is I go keep going back to I am just one of you. Right? There's a lot of podcasts out there by spiritual teachers who've spent 20, 30 years kind of, you know, in an ashram, reading and practicing. I'm not one of them. You know, there's a lot of people who've spent 20 years in a research lab in a university studying, you know, really studying the science behind happiness. I've read all their work, but I'm not one of them. I'm not just sitting, you know, in a university researching. I'm not in an ashram again, researching, doing me search as one of my dear friends Tal Ben Shahar says, you know, we're not doing that. I'm also, you know, so who am I? So why me, right? I am one who is like you, who's living in the day to day. And for me, this journey started five years ago. You see, I grew up in India. I grew up in a middle class family. And I picked up a script early enough, like so many of you, that to be happy, you had to be successful. And to be successful, you had to put everything you had, you had to work harder than the other person. You had to work with a high ethic, you had to give it all. You had to give it all. And I did that. And I reached the pinnacle of success. I came to the US in the 97. I literally had come with $5,000 in my pocket. And 20 years later I was a partner at one of the most prestigious consulting firms. I was at McKinsey. I'd been a partner for about, you know, I spent about 17 years there. Right. And I was incredibly successful in my, you know, time there and in consulting. You know, I'm married, I have a now a 12 year old son. Back then, you know, I was about 42, 43 anil. I was living in Boulder. Everything was going great. I checked off every box. Right, exactly. I checked off everything on my box of this success checklist that was going to bring me joy and friends. My reality was, yes, externally, everything was amazing. I had controlled my external world internally I was struggling with stress and anxiety every day. I was waking up so anxious I needed to throw up every morning. I didn't know the reason why. And so I decided to dedicate the next three to five years really learning why was I not flourishing. And by the way, as I dug into it, I realized it wasn't just that I wasn't flourishing. This was a very lived experience for so many others. And a lived experience not just for those who are working in profit or on high intensity jobs. This was an experience that was a shared collective experience with all of us as a humanity. Right? And so that's where, you know, as I learned from teachers, as I learned and I practiced every day, my life changed. And I think that's why, you know, when I, when I look at this work, I know these things can really help us. It is not about knowing, it's about doing and fundamentally transforming our state of being. That's why I decided after 25 years in consulting, after being incredibly successful and getting to the top of the field, I decided that I was going to dedicate my life to really helping democratizing happiness. I wanted to make accessible what is accessible, you know, what we know to be true. Data backed research based practices that we know, work, we've known about them forever. But now we have the benefit of science, we know these work. And I want to be able to bring this to everybody. I don't want this to be only limited to people who can afford to pay millions of dollars as companies of or hundreds of dollars as individuals, right? $300, $500, you know, hire coaches. I want to make this accessible to everyone. And in fact, that's the reason that we are launching our podcast. This is one of the first ways in which we are living into our mission to democratize happiness, to make these tools and practices available to a billion people. But not just make them available because like, who am I kidding, these are available today to everyone. It's not about making them available, it's about integrating them into our lives. It's about taking what we know about habit formation and helping people integrate into our lives. So that is what I'm excited about. I am just one like you, I continue to read a book or two a week, I continue to practice, I continue to integrate these and listen, I will learn a lot from you. I will learn a lot from the experts we're going to have on our calls. I learn always a lot from every conversation I have with Anel. And collectively we will unfold into our fullest potential. We will flourish. We will thrive. So I'm so excited that you listen to this episode and you choose to join us in this journey together.

Ashish. I'm super excited. And you know what I'm going to tell you guys, When I first met Ashish, I said to myself, there's a connection. And like you said, he's like everyone. He really is. And when he told me, anil, I have a vision. This is not just going to stop with you and me, with my family, with those around us, maybe even just these listeners. Ashish, what do you want to reach with the Happiness Squad?

My goal is for us collectively to reach a billion people, Anil. And the reason I'll tell you the billion. It's important to think about the billion because you know, a lot of people say billion. It's just ego. It's not ego, my friend. The goal of the billion comes from two places. You know, one, it comes from my fundamental belief that the reason we have a crisis in every situation is because as humanity we're making decisions from a place of fear. See, when we make decisions from a place of fear, we focus on the self versus the other. We focus on the here and now versus the future. We focus on survival. We focus on control. We don't focus on thriving. We don't focus on really living and having courage to, to be able to do what our heart is saying. We are literally in a survival mode. And because as humanity we are collectively doing this. That's why the billion, if you only touch 10,000, 5,000, 100,000, a million, it's like a drop in the ocean. We're not going to make a difference. We're not going to make a difference. And that's why a billion. And the second reason for choosing a billion number is, is I really want, you know, in this mission to enroll all of you. We are building a community around of learners, teachers, practitioners. Because guess what? I can count on my fingers and you can think about, ask. Think about this if you're listening. How many people reach a billion? President Xi, Narendra Modi because he leads India and he leads China, maybe the Pope. Think about how many individuals reach a billion. Not that many, but you know who reach a billion people. In fact, you know who reaches 8 billion people? Everyone. People like you and me. We individually, when we collectively count the number, we reach a billion people. And that's our mission. It is about truly taking these tools and making them available to everyone so that as collectively we change, we become the change we want to see in the world, we start to influence all the people around us. And I actually truly do think as we push this to the edge, as we put this to the edge of our existence, to all of us in our lived lives and build a vibrant community, we will achieve that goal. We will achieve that goal. That's what I'm dedicating my life to. Anil, I know you're on this journey with me and there's so many others in the Happiness Squad who are all in and I really hope that our listeners you choose to become a part of this too, in any shape or form that you can join the podcast. Learn more about us on our website, hardwire happinesssquad.com yeah, I'm really, really excited. I really hope you take us up on this invitation to collectively create a happier, healthier world filled with more love and meaning. So my dear friends, with that, as we bring this episode to a close, I would love to invite you to come join Anil and I on this revolution so collectively we can be on a journey to unfold, integrate these practices to become the best version of ourselves so that collectively we can create a kinder, happier, healthier world filled with more love and meaning.

Thank you Ashish. That was both beautiful and powerful. I just want to say all of you and to Ashish, thank you for having me be part of this. I'm excited to be part of this journey with you. And so on that note, I want to say enjoy Happiness Squad and join us as we talk through how we can hardwire for happiness.

Take care.

I hope you enjoyed the episode today on the Happiness Squad podcast. Make sure to hit subscribe on your chosen platform that you listen to us on. If this episode made you think of someone, take a screenshot and share this podcast episode with them. Go to www.happinesssquad.com where you can catch the show notes for this episode and learn more about us and the community we are building. The community is where we gather weekly to practice and connect with other learners, teachers and practitioners working together to unlock our best selves. Lastly, follow along on Instagram yhappinesssquad for tons of behind the scenes as well as short videos designed just for you. It's where we hang out in between episodes once again. Www.happinesssquad.com all links can be found in the description below. Until next time.