How to cultivate the skill of happiness (w/ Dan Harris)

How to Be a Better Human

TED

Self-improvement, Education

4.2 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 4 March 2024

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If you’ve ever felt apprehensive about trying something seemingly woo-woo to improve your mental health (like meditation, mindfulness, or simply touching grass) you're not alone. Dan Harris was a mindfulness skeptic anchoring on ABC News when an on-air panic attack sent him into a journey that had him searching for what constitutes well-being. Dan hosts the Ten Percent Happier podcast, and authored a book of the same name. This March, he celebrates the book's 10th anniversary. With a skeptic’s sense of humor and a curious, philosophizing mind, Dan talks about what he's learned in his exploration of meditation, mindfulness, and happiness. You’ll hear about the scientific data that could sway even the toughest cynic – and learn the tools and tricks that can help you build the skills that can make life (and you) a little bit better. For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts

Transcript

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0:00.0	Ted Audio Collective.
0:02.0	Audio Collective.
0:04.0	You're listening to How to Be a Better Human.
0:10.0	I'm your host Chris Duffy.
0:12.0	On today's episode, we're going to be talking about
0:14.4	ways to recognize and change the voice inside your head. And to let you in on the voice that lives
0:19.4	inside my head, mine is a guy who sometimes is very fun and notices hilarious things that other people have overlooked and other times
0:26.2	my guy gets extremely focused on a tiny thing that is not going perfectly and then spirals that into a giant catastrophe that is completely
0:35.3	overwhelming. For example, a coworker didn't use an exclamation point in a reply to my text,
0:40.8	that probably means that he's furious at me and that definitely means that I'm
0:43.9	about to get fired.
0:45.5	I can't find my wallet?
0:46.5	Well, that probably means that it's gotten stolen.
0:48.8	My credit cards are already maxed out and my identity is currently being sold for
0:52.3	Bitcoin on the dark web.
0:54.0	You know, saying these things out loud, it's obvious to me how ridiculous they are,
0:59.0	but at the same time, when I am in the moment and I'm feeling those things and I'm thinking them it can be really hard to see that they are ridiculous or to have any perspective at all
1:07.7	Today's guest Dan Harris thinks a lot about ways to get some perspective and how to disrupt those thought cycles that can really torment us.
1:15.6	Dan is also one of the funniest and most refreshingly skeptical people that I have ever met.
1:20.4	I am so excited for you to hear from him today.
1:23.0	Here's a clip from his TED Talk.
1:25.0	I should give you a little background on me.
	...

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