A little strange title - the happiest person on earth. But neuroscientist Richard Davidson argues that this is exactly what the French molecular biologist and now Buddhist monk Mathieu Ricard is. Now 66 years old, Mathieu left his life in Paris 40 years ago to go to India to study Buddhism. He is now a confidant of the Dalai Lama and a respected Western authority on religion.
But it turns out that daily meditation has brought Mathieu another benefit: he enjoys life like no one else in this world. Having scanned the brain of Mathieu Ricard, Richard Davidson discovered the greatest potential for creativity ever recorded. As Mathieu himself says, meditation changes the brain, which means it changes you completely. And he assures that everyone can become like him if they learn to let their thoughts float freely.
Neurologist Richard Davidson examined Mathieu as part of his study of people practicing advanced meditation techniques, which he conducted at the University of Wisconsin. He connected 256 sensors to the monk's head, and scans showed that during meditation on compassion, Mathieu Ricard's brain generates gamma waves. They are associated with consciousness, attention, learning and memory. According to Davidson, before this study, such a reaction had not yet been reported in the neuroscience literature.
Andy Francis and Antoine Lutz attach sensors to Mathieu Ricard's head. www.dailymail.co.uk
The scans also showed excessive activity in the left prefrontal cortex of the brain compared to the right, which the researchers believe indicates a decrease in negativity and an abnormal ability to experience happiness.
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www.dailymail.co.uk Research into the phenomenon of neuroplasticity is in its infancy, and Mathieu Ricard, along with several leading scientists around the world, was the first to conduct experiments in this area.
Neuroplasticity is a property of the human brain that consists in the ability to change under the influence of experience, as well as restore lost connections after damage or as a response to external influences. This property was described relatively recently.
Believes that meditation can change the brain and help people feel more joyful, in the same way that regular weight training strengthens muscles.
We have spent 12 years studying the short- and long-term effects of training the mind through meditation on attention, compassion, and emotional balance. And they found remarkable results in practitioners who have completed more than 50,000 cycles of meditation, as well as in beginners who meditate for just 20 minutes a day for three weeks - a regimen that is, of course, more applicable to modern life. This research is wonderful because it proves that meditation is not bliss under a mango tree, it is something that changes your brain and you.
Mathieu Ricard
Ricard wrote several books. The first, “The Monk and the Philosopher,” together with his father, the philosopher Jean-François Revel. These are dialogues about the meaning of life. Ricard published his next book in 2011 - a practical guide “The Art of Meditation”, which explains how and why everyone should master meditation.
1. A healthy mind should work like a mirror: faces are reflected in it, but not lingered. It's the same with thoughts: let them flow freely through your mind, don't stop them.
2. It's impossible not to let thoughts enter your head, but certain sounds or sounds calm the mind, bringing clarity. By controlling your mind, you do not limit your freedom, but you stop being a slave to your thoughts. You need to control your mind like a boat.
3. Learn to be mindful, pay attention to the sensations of inhalation and exhalation. If you find yourself getting distracted, focus on your breathing. Use mindfulness to bring yourself into the present instead of dwelling in the past or thinking about the future. Feel the warmth, the cold, the sounds you hear.
4. Once you have some mastery, you can cultivate kindness or deal with disturbing emotions. You may even feel an overwhelming love, this feeling usually lasts about 15 seconds, but you can hold it in by focusing on it during. When you feel it getting blurry, liven it up.
5. It can be compared to playing the piano: by practicing 20 minutes a day, you will get more noticeable results than if you spend a few seconds on it. Regular practice is as necessary as water for a plant.
6. You can use meditation to detach yourself from negative emotions.
Your emotions are fire. If you are aware of anger, you are not angry, you are simply aware of it. When you are aware of anxiety, you are not anxious, you are simply aware of it. By being aware of your emotions, you are not adding fuel to the fire, and they will quickly burn out.
Mathieu Ricard
7. After a month of consistent practice, you will see improvements: less stress, more overall well-being. Those who say they don't have time to meditate should understand the benefits. If meditation gives you the strength to get through the remaining 23 hours and 40 minutes, then those 20 minutes were well spent.
The book became a bestseller, and my peace of mind came to an end. Suddenly I was transported to the Western world. I communicated a lot with scientists, and everything began to get out of my control. I became involved in scientific research and the science of meditation.
Mathieu Ricard
Now the famous monk Mathieu Ricard of the Shechen Monastery in Kathmandu divides his time each year between meditation, scientific research and accompanying him on trips to French-speaking countries and to scientific conferences. He spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos during the 2009 financial crisis to tell politicians and business leaders gathered there that it was time to abandon greed in favor of "enlightened altruism."
Mathieu was awarded the French Order of Merit for his work in preserving Himalayan culture, but his work on the science of happiness characterizes him better. It seems that Mathieu Ricard lives a good life and shows compassion not because religion demands it, but because this is the road to happiness.
Test it to believe it. Buddhism tries to unravel the mechanisms of happiness and suffering. This is the science of the mind.
8 simple habits of a happy person
1. DON'T WORRY ABOUT WHAT OTHERS THINK OF THEM
Do not allow negative people to influence their well-being. Whatever these people say, everything flows off them like water off a duck's back. After all, they know for sure that a worthy person is not one who has no shortcomings, but one who has dignity.
2. ALWAYS SEE THE PROS
There is something good in everything bad. If they cannot see the positive side of a situation, such people create it themselves. They have no regrets. If it was good, then great. And if it was bad, then it’s an experience.
3. ALWAYS BE FRIENDLY AND GRATEFUL
Happy people don't care what you look like or where you come from. All they need is one more person to laugh and be happy with. They are not shy and do not spare a few minutes to express gratitude to other people.
4. ALWAYS SMILE AND POSITIVE
“We laugh not because we are happy; We are happy because we laugh" (William James). Smiles and laughter are an integral feature of happy people. It just so happens that the people with whom we spend a lot of time influence us and our perception of the world around us. The more time we spend with positive and optimistic people, the brighter our lives will be.
5. LIVE IN THE PRESENT MOMENT
“I have experienced many terrible things in my life, some of them actually happened” (Mark Twain). They don't wait for Friday evening, Sunday morning, buying a new car, a new apartment. They don’t wait for spring, summer, autumn, winter. After all, the worst mistake is to think that you are living, when in fact you are lying in a storage room waiting for life
6. THEY KNOW THAT NOT EVERYTHING IS PERFECT, BUT THEY ARE NOT UPset
It is difficult to overcome perfectionism, but it is necessary. Everything is good in moderation. Happy people know how to control the desire for perfection. They do not punish themselves for inaccuracies and shortcomings. They are proud of themselves and their achievements. Sometimes things don't go as planned, and that's okay. It is impossible to keep everything under control.
7. TRYING TO DO GOOD
One of the best ways to feel happy is to change the world around you. To do this, it is not necessary to save people or stop a tsunami. It’s enough just to smile at people, give compliments, help friends, give gifts.
8. CONTINUE TO LEARN
They are curious and strive to learn new things about the world and the people who inhabit it. There is always something we don't know about yet. Interest in life gives energy, helps you create new ideas, has a positive effect on thinking and makes your days more eventful and bright.
Everyone will probably answer this complex and multifaceted question differently. And even the same person at different periods of his life and in different moods can give different definitions of this state. And all because it is deeply subjective.
Scientifically, happiness is defined as a state of contentment or a response to the satisfaction of a need. Everyone's needs are different, so the concept of happiness is also different.
Based on a scientific definition, sociologists are constantly trying to figure out which country has the most happy citizens. So where do the happiest people on Earth live, who are they? Do their worldviews, material factors, or something else determine their level of happiness?
How to measure happiness?
To determine the happiest place on earth, you need to use a conventional happiness meter. What is he like?
Based on the scientific definition of happiness, we need to look for the happiest people on earth where people’s needs are most fully satisfied. As it turned out as a result of research, people do not have many needs, and they can be systematized into groups:
Social guarantees of the state;
Level of material well-being;
Environmental Safety;
Lifespan;
Freedom.
The happiest peoples in the world according to international statistics
The latest research by international experts was conducted in 2017, using data from 155 countries for 2014-2016. So where do the happiest people in the world live and by what criteria did sociologists determine this?
They assessed, among other things, the level of GDP, average life expectancy, the feeling of support and trust in the government, as well as anxiety, anger, sadness and other negative feelings of the country's residents.
According to the results of these studies, the happiest people on earth live in Northern Europe. And Norway is named the happiest country. This state ranks first in the world in terms of social services. Norway has the world's largest GDP per capita, as well as the world's fairest financial distribution system. 95% of Norwegians are satisfied with the level of freedom.
Last year this country was only in fourth place. And Denmark occupied the leading position, and it was in first place three times in a row.
Denmark is known for its fairly strong family institution, the strong connection between children and parents. The fundamental right of citizens of this country is high-quality free medicine. The Danes also prioritize gender equality.
The top five countries where the happiest people on earth live also included Iceland, Switzerland, and Finland.
Their standard of living is quite high; there are more rich and healthy people there. But material well-being is far from the only indicator of happiness...
Friendship and cohesion are the key to life satisfaction
As it turns out, in order to feel happy, it is important for people to feel supported - both by the state and by their fellow countrymen.
In the countries officially named the happiest, helping your neighbor is “in the blood.” There is an opinion that in the states where the happiest people on Earth live - Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Finland and Sweden - people feel satisfied with life thanks to an unspoken set of rules governing life in a society that does not recognize the right to individualism - the so-called Law Yante. This “law” actually helps in creating a friendly and very cohesive society. Maybe it is precisely this cohesion and sense of comradeship that is the main reason that people in the Nordic countries feel so happy?
Citizens also feel satisfied when they realize that their activities are needed by society. In other words, if the citizens of a country consider themselves an important link in its life, then they feel a surge of enthusiasm and happiness. Participation in the life of the state and the true power of the people develop mutual trust in society, which is a component of social capital. And such capital is no less important than material capital.
Maintain a fragile balance
Material well-being is undoubtedly very important for a person to feel comfortable and comfortable. But this is far from the most important factor due to which you can feel happy. Even a very prosperous person living in abundance can be extremely unhappy. And a resident of a poor country can feel absolutely happy just because the sun is shining and loved ones are nearby.
By accumulating material wealth, according to the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people, the Dalai Lama, one can achieve only external happiness. But it will be fleeting without inner, spiritual happiness.
A soulless person loses the ability to perceive the world in all its diversity, and even having all the riches of the world, cannot feel happy. This feeling is available only to those who combine the spiritual and material. Everyone must certainly take care of their body and its needs, but they must treat it as a container for the soul. The Dalai Lama perceives the soul as a subtle matter that gives meaning to the physical existence of the body.
Only the one who manages to maintain this balance of spiritual and material can safely be called a happy person.
The happiest people on earth: who are they?
We already know about the happiest countries and peoples, but there are also individuals whom everyone calls lucky.
Buddhist monk Matthew Rickard, officially known as the happiest man on earth, received this status as a result of a study aimed at identifying the effects of meditation on the brain.
Hundreds of people took part in the research, led by neurologist Richard Davidson. As magnetic resonance imaging showed, Matthew's brain produces levels of gamma waves during meditation that have never been described by science before.
In Buddhist monk Matthew Rickard, a friend of the Dalai Lama, scientists also found high activity in the left cerebral cortex, which is responsible for a positive outlook on the world.
Isn't a person who has eight lives lucky?
Frano Selak from Croatia is also known for his luck, which never left him. This man was on the verge of death 7 times, but he always managed to deceive her. The first time this happened was in the 60s. Frano Selak was riding on a train that derailed and went underwater. Since this disaster occurred in freezing cold, the passengers had little chance of survival. But this man managed to be among the few who survived.
A few years later, Frano Selak was again in mortal danger. The plane he was flying on touched the top of a mountain with its tail during landing. The blow was so strong that the door opened. There were only two people on the plane at that moment who were not seatbelted: a pretty flight attendant and a passenger who decided to hit on her and followed the girl to the rear. This passenger was our hero. Both flew out through the opened door when the plane was 600 meters from the ground. Frano's life, when falling from such a height, was preserved by a large snowdrift in which he landed. The girl also survived, clinging to a tree branch. A year later, these two were legally married and feel like the happiest people on earth.
Frano not only miraculously escaped death many times, but also won the lottery, as befits a favorite of fortune. And he won no less than a million dollars! With this money, the happy Croat reconstructed the Temple and built the Chapel of the Virgin Mary. He spent the remaining dollars on travel or simply gave them away to family and friends. Frano is sure that at his age you need to get maximum pleasure from money!
If we take smiles as a criterion
If the criterion for measuring happiness is the opinions of the residents of the countries themselves, you will get a different picture from the official one. The happiest people on Earth, in their own opinion, live in the far from rich countries of Latin America: Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Ecuador, as well as in Asian countries - Fiji, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam.
Interesting conclusions were made after analyzing 150 million photos from the popular social network Instagram. Analysts used the number of smiles in the photographs as a criterion for life satisfaction.
Most often, people from Latin America smiled in the photo.
In Asia, the most smiling people were the residents of the Philippines, and the second place in terms of smiles were the residents of Kazakhstan. And the gloomiest people in Asia are the Uzbeks.
In Europe, judging by the smiles in the photo, the happiest people live are the residents of Macedonia, and the Romanians are not far behind them.
Happiness is in ourselves
Everyone wants happiness. But many, for unknown reasons, believe that happy people live somewhere far away, in rich countries. And dreaming of living in one of these happy states, they do not know how to find joy and satisfaction in the most important things that fill a person’s life with meaning: love, respect, support, creativity, spirituality. But it is these components that make up happiness...
If you know how to say “no” and leave whenever you want, then you are a happy person.
Leave early. Go away often. Know how to leave when necessary.
This doesn't mean walking away from something because it's difficult. This means walking away from what is ruining your life. From what prevents you from being truly happy.
Sometimes leaving is the best thing to do, and sometimes it's the only thing to do. We don't always have to finish everything we start, and sometimes it's better to leave something behind to start over and go in a new direction if we want to achieve happiness.
1. Quit a job you hate. Or from a job where you have been working for many years and do not see progress or proper evaluation. It's easier than you think - finding something you love, starting a new career, or finding someone who believes in your talent and is willing to give you a chance.
2. Stop making excuses for your mediocre life. Stop believing that circumstances are stronger than us. We think we're doing ourselves a favor by forcing ourselves to be happy with what we have or to accept a life we're not excited about. But the best comes from taking risks, when we try harder, when we go all in, when we stop making excuses for our mediocre lives.
3. Leave undefined love. Leave the toxic relationships, the ones that make you miserable, the ones you don't know what to call. Give yourself time to get over the breakup, cry, but leave, end them, because it will definitely be better without them.
4. Leave friends who put you down. Those who make unpleasant jokes about you, try to rise at your expense, who do not make your life better, who point out your shortcomings. Get rid of this extra burden.
5. Leave the city where you no longer belong. Where nothing ever changes, where you already know every corner, where everyone knows who you are. A city that has broken you too many times. Leave him to start over in a new city, leave behind the painful memories and try to reinvent yourself.
6. Stop saying yes when you want to say no. Stop putting your health and well-being at risk because you don't want to upset other people. Stop feeling like you have to be present wherever you are invited. Stop giving in to pressure. Say “no” more often and see how it changes your life.
7. Stop worrying so much about what others think. Stop adjusting to others to please them, stop living on someone else's approval. Stop thinking about what they said, stop believing that they know you better than you know yourself.
8. Leave your past behind. You don't live in it anymore, and it doesn't have to haunt you every time you try to move on. Leave past mistakes, failures, the past that no longer characterizes you.
9. Stop lying to yourself. Deep down you know what you have to walk away from. Your heart knows when it's right to do it. Your mind knows that you will be fine when you leave. So stop telling yourself that you can't leave, stop saying that leaving is bad. In fact, this could be your salvation.
George Bernard Shaw- Irish playwright, writer, novelist, Nobel Prize winner in literature, one of the most famous Irish literary figures. Public figure. One of the founders of the London School of Economics and Political Science. The second most popular playwright in the English theatre.
The only person to receive both the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Oscar.
- The secret of our unhappiness is that we have time to wonder whether we are happy or not.
- Life is not about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.
- Ideal love is only possible through correspondence.
- Now that we have learned to fly through the air like birds, to swim under water like fish, we lack only one thing: to learn to live on earth like people.
- All men are the same in front of the woman they admire.
- The test of a man's or woman's good manners is their behavior during a quarrel.
- You won't learn to skate if you're afraid to be funny. The ice of life is slippery.
- The longer I live, the more inclined I am to the idea that in the solar system the Earth plays the role of a madhouse.
- Why is the world so arranged that people who know how to live for pleasure never have money, and those who have money have no idea what it means to waste their lives?
- A person suffering from toothache considers everyone happy who does not have toothache. The poor man makes the same mistake about the rich.
- The world is made up of slackers who want to have money without working, and idiots who are willing to work without getting rich.
- My way of telling jokes is to tell the truth. There is nothing funnier in the world.
- Women somehow immediately guess with whom we are ready to cheat on them. Sometimes even before it even occurs to us.
- If a man decides to kill a tiger, it is called sport; and if a tiger decides to kill a person, this is called bloodthirstiness.
- A smart young woman has to choose between stupid young men bursting with strength and health and smart and - how can I put it - old goats who are greedy for women.
- Love men. They really need your love. Even if they never admit it. Behind every great man there is always a woman who believed in him. And she truly loved.
- The only lesson that can be learned from history is that people do not learn any lessons from history.
- An ideal husband is a man who believes that he has an ideal wife.
- Tell a person that there are 978,301,246,569,987 stars in the sky, and he will believe. but put up a "Freshly Painted" sign and he'll be sure to check with his finger.
- The thinner the ice, the more everyone wants to see whether it will hold up.
- If you ever find it while chasing happiness, you will, like the old woman looking for her glasses, discover that happiness was right on your nose all along.
- Atrocities do not cease to be atrocities if they happen in laboratories and are called medical experiments.
- I don't like to fight, I like to win.
- Most of all, people are interested in what does not concern them at all.
- Never point out mistakes unless you know how to fix them.
- Don't try to live forever, you won't succeed.
- Freedom means responsibility. This is why most people are afraid of freedom.
- There is no woman who could say “goodbye” in less than thirty words.
- George Bernard Shaw was a vegetarian from the age of 25 and lived to be 94 years old. At 70 years old, when asked by a journalist: “How do you feel?” he replied: “Great, but the doctors are bothering me, claiming that I will die if I don’t eat meat.” At the age of 90, he answered the same question: “Great, no one bothers me anymore: those doctors who scared me that I couldn’t live without meat have already died.”
- A healthy nation is as oblivious to its nationality as a healthy person is to its spine.
- Those who teach the most know the least.
