Short YouTube micro-class by Brian Johnson summarizing Neil Pasricha’s “Big Seven of Happiness”: seven evidence-based practices (exercise, savoring, kindness, flow, unplugging/recovery, brief meditation, and gratitude) that can boost mood if practiced consistently (even for as little as two weeks). The clip ends with a brief promotional pitch for Brian’s Philosopher’s Notes/optimized membership.
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another micro class. This one's on the Big seven of Happiness. It's inspired by the Happiness Equation by Neil Pasricha. The Big Seven of Happiness. Neil talks about the fact that he studied hundreds of positive psychology studies and he shares with us his personal favorite big seven studies that are guaranteed to boost your happiness if you consistently engage in them for as little as two weeks. Let's go through them really quickly. One, three walks is what he describes it. This is basically exercise is amazing for you. Exercise is as effective as Zoloft in study after study. Three brisk walks, he says, is enough to boost your happiness significantly. If you're not exercising. Tal Ben Shahar tells us it's like taking a depressant. I like to think imagine those supplements you take or vitamins you take. If you decide you're not going to exercise consistently, imagine popping a depressant. Doesn't make any sense, particularly if you're already feeling a little depressed. The second of the big seven is a 20 minute replay. He says spend 20 minutes replaying, writing down something that was awesome. Researchers call that savoring. It's a big idea. The third big idea is kindness. Did you know that research shows that kindness is the most effective and quickest way to boost your mood? Do something nice for someone else today and every day. That's a big idea. The fourth of the big seven is flow. We talk about this all the time, right? You need to match your skills with the challenges. If the challenge is too high and your skills are too low, you're going to feel anxiety. If your skills are too high and the challenge is too low, you're going to feel boredom. You need to match them. That's how you feel. Flow. Getting engaged in activities that generate flow is a big seven idea on how to boost your happiness. That was actually the fourth one, so we're going to switch them. The fourth one, which I'm now going to call the fifth one, is to undo plug. We're constantly bombarded with stimulation. We need to make waves again. Tall Ben Shahar again quoting Tony Schwartz. And the powerful engagement tells us that it's not that we work too hard, it's that we don't recover enough. You need to bake in recovery beyond and then be off. You need to unplug. The sixth of the big seven is a two minute meditation. Meditation, as we know and as we discuss in meditation. 101 is huge and you don't need to do it for two hours. Two minute meditation can boost your mood in the gray matter that helps you focus your attention, which is a great way to boost your mood over the long run. The seventh of his big seven is five Gratitudes. What are you grateful for? As we've discussed a number of times, doing something as simple as keeping track of five things you're grateful for on a weekly basis will boost your mood by a ton. Technical Description so there you go. Exercise is good for you. Savoring is wise. Be kind, get into flow, unplug and make waves. Get into a two minute meditation and practice five Gratitudes. I just heard Emerson yes yelling for me, so I'm going to go unplug and say hi to him for a bit. Hope you enjoyed which was your favorite one and how can you make it a bigger part of your life today? Get on that. Have an awesome day. See you.
Isn't it a bit odd that we went from math to science to history but somehow missed the class on how to live for for some wacky reason, optimal living 101 never made the schedule. Of course, it's too late to go back and change that, and you're too busy to read full time to catch up yet. If you're like us, you're all about optimizing your life and actualizing your potential. So imagine this. Imagine having someone read the best books on optimal living and pulling out the big ideas that can truly change your life. You know those sections you asterisk and underline and mark all up. Then imagine that guy me, connecting those ideas to other great books and helping you apply them to your life today. Well, that's what I do with something we call Philosopher's Notes where I break down each great book into a simple 6 page PDF, 20 minute MP3 and 10 minute Philosopher's Notes TV episode. Then imagine me taking the absolute best big ideas from those great books and sharing them with you in fun, inspiring, super practical optimal living 101 classes on stuff like purpose 101 confidence 101 business 101 meditation 101, that sort of thing. You've got a personal trainer. I'm kind of like your personal philosopher. Ancient Wisdom plus Modern Science plus Common Sense plus Virtue plus Mastery plus Fun. That's what our optimized membership program is all about. We'd love to have you join us. Check us out at BrianJohnson me join.
