Google engineer Chade-Meng Tan is on a mission to make the world more peaceful and the people living in the world happier. The secret to happiness, he says, is in doing three things every day.
CNN Health and Wellness editorial director David G. Allan discusses these steps after attending Meng’s panel, “Make Yourself the Happiest Person on Earth,” at SXSW in 2014.
Step one is to “calm your mind” by pausing during the day and paying attention to your breath. Meditation and mindfulness have been shown to offer numerous benefits.
Step two is to “log moments of joy.” All too often we focus on the negative and ignore or overlook the positive moments. Acknowledge more of the good things to counterbalance the negatives.
Step three is to “wish other people to be happy.” Being altruistic can turn around a bad mood and empathy is a very valuable skill. Remind yourself to wish for others’ happiness and, in turn, boost yours.
The video above is Meng talking about some of these concepts at Google’s “Search Inside Yourself” course. Although these three simple steps might not work for everyone, it’s worth a try if it means experiencing more joy.
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