What Creates Happiness?

July 2, 2012

Interview with Sean Meshorer, author of the book The Bliss Experiment: 28 Days to Personal Transformation

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Mike Carruthers:
It’s no wonder that being happy can be so difficult.

Sean Meshorer:
One study said we have up to 50 thousand thoughts per day and for the average person half of them are needlessly negative.
 

Sean Meshorer, author of the book The Bliss Experiment: 28 Days to Personal Transformation, says happiness is not about achieving goals and acquiring possessions.

There’s tremendous scientific research now that things such as wealth, fame, beauty creates absolutely zero long-term happiness boost.

An interesting experiment followed 2 groups of people.

1 who won the lottery and 1 who became paraplegic in a tragic accident – and what they found is that people who won the lottery right away had a huge spike in their happiness. But at the 12th month mark were now less happy than before they won the lottery. With the paraplegics they had been in a tragic accident but by the 12 month mark they had completely gained their prior sense of happiness and were happier than the millionaire lottery winners.

One powerful technique in finding more happiness in your life is practicing the act of gratitude.

And so 2 minutes of thinking of positive things in our life can help our minds think generally more positive for the following 24 hours and it keeps our minds from spinning out of control.