Exercise from a former Google employee who teaches you how to be happy
Simple, but ingenious formula Chad-Meng Tan.
Who is this guru
Chad-Meng Tan is a former developer of Google, and now a guru of self-development who daily teaches employees of major IT corporations personal growth, meditation, empathy and the development of emotional intelligence, writes Lifehacker.
Chad says he used to constantly feel miserable. But he managed to change this state of affairs and learn to find joy in every living day. How did he do it? When Chad was about 25 years old, he found that not everything is so bad and you can work on the feeling of self-hatred.
How to become happy
It turned out that thinking can be changed not only with the help of psychotherapy sessions, but also thanks to a special exercise. Chad says it helps to experience small flashes of happiness.
Such flashes of happiness usually pass unnoticed: eat a piece of chocolate for the first time in a day, go into a cool room from the heat, get a long-awaited response to the message. It's so nice!
A moment of pleasure and joy lasts 2 – 3 seconds, but it helps to lift your spirits. If you learn to notice it, fix it, then the effect will only intensify.
Chad says: “Small flashes of happiness arise constantly. When you notice them once, miracles begin to happen, you will see more and more such joyful moments - always, everywhere. Now you can count on joy and happiness every day. ” Count on as best friend.
Why does it work
The idea behind this advice is simple. It works the same mechanism by which we form habits. Habitual behavior is controlled by the basal ganglia, which are also involved in the creation of memories and emotions. The more familiar the action that we perform, the easier it is to embody and the less need to use the brain.
The “flash of happiness” exercise contains a trigger, a routine and a reward. These are the three components necessary for habit formation.
- The trigger is a nice moment.
- The routine is the fact that you notice this moment.
- The reward is a feeling of joy and happiness.
Exercise is useful for those who are engaged in meditation. It helps to enter the correct state before starting the practice. However, Chad believes that the execution of this exercise is in itself a meditation. In addition, first we begin to notice the details around us, then - really see.
There is also scientific evidence supporting the idea of Chad. A small study by psychologists at Loyola University showed that most people older than 55 who could savor pleasant moments showed a high degree of satisfaction with life, regardless of financial status or health. Those who could not notice the small joys felt bad, and any illness only made the mood worse.
This exercise would be worth learning right now. After all, the older we get, the more often we need to savor our lives. In the 2014 year, a study was conducted that showed that older people easily describe themselves by enumerating pleasant life events. But young people tend to call only rare, "very-best" dates: graduation from the university, obtaining rights ... But the truth is that all these extraordinary moments seem incredible only to you. Yes, and they do not bring happiness. The number of joyful days spent in pleasure, the number of good events is what really matters.
With the result that
- Learn to notice and appreciate the slightest pleasure.
- Feel how they bring you joy and happiness.
- Repeat until joy becomes a daily habit.
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