Learn Happiness 101 on DVD by Tal Ben-Shahar

Tal Ben-Shahar taught Harvard University's most popular course. The course is on positive psychology and the science of what makes people happy.

Now you can get access to some of these ideas in this PBS video DVD titled Happiness 101. The DVD is available for purchase on Amazon (shown on the right) so you can watch from the comforts of your own home.

I had watched it and highly recommend it. In a lecture talk format in front of an audience, he takes the science and teaches us how to apply in it our everyday living.

The presentation is well done with bits of humor. He does tell a few jokes himself and he shows funny clips from comedians. The presentation cites studies and shows interview clips from experts to back up the ideas being presented.

The first concept he goes over is "the permission to be human". He says that it is okay to experience negative emotions. We should not suppress it. Instead, we should accept it. When we accept and acknowledge it, it will dissipate.

He says there are only two types of people that do not experience negative emotions: the psychopaths and the dead. So if you experience negative emotions, that is good. It means that you are not a psychopath and you are alive. By letting ourselves experience negative emotions, we will also experience positive emotions.

His advice is to let yourself be human and let others around you be human too.

Next, he talks about stress. When we have to much to do, we get stressed. And if we get chronically stressed enough, then we eventually get depressed.

His advice is to simplify. Do less, not more. When you have what is called "time affluence", you will be happier. It is not a bad idea to turn off your cell phone a few hours each night so that you can be with your family.

Many people have their email program on while doing concentrated work on the computer. He mentions a study that found workers who were distracted with emails and phone calls loses productivity equivalent to a 10-point drop in IQ. That is like performance after losing a night's sleep. For comparison, smoking marijuana is a 4-point drop in IQ.

He says that stress in itself is not the problem. And we would not be able to eliminate all our stresses anyways. The problem is that we do not have enough recovery from stress.

His advice is to build in recovery time. That includes having 15 minute breaks in between work. That includes having a good night sleep. That includes having days off and taking vacation (without the computer).

Exercise

He can not over-emphasize the importance of exercise. He noted a study where exercise alone is as effective as taking medication in reducing depression. This is not to say that medication is not useful. In some cases, medication is definitely needed. However, it means that we need to take the importance of exercise seriously.

It is not that exercise acts as an stimulant. It is the fact that not exercising acts like a depressant. Everyone has an innate happiness setpoint. When you are sedentary, your happiness levels drops below that setpoint. When you exercise, you bring back up your happiness level to where it should be.

Exercise in schools showed a drop in obesity, an increase in academic performance, and a reduction in bullying. Exercise is not only good for the body. But it is good for the brain as well. He showed a clip of John Ratey, author of Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain where Ratey says that regular exercise can delay cognitive decline and even reduce the chance of Alzheimer's.

Meditation

Another example of the mind-body connection is the benefit of meditation -- whether it is mindfulness meditation, repeating a mantra, focused prayer, yoga, tai-chi, etc. All these form has three things in common: (1) focused single-pointedness, (2) deep breathing, (3) having no good or bad meditation.

Jon Kabat-Zinn had also mentioned in his 2006 talk at MIT that a mediation session can neither be good nor bad. A meditation session where there is a ton of thoughts racing through your mind is not considered a bad meditation. And a session where your mind was cleared of thoughts is not considered a good meditation. The former is the same as the latter. There is no good nor bad. It is the act of meditation that is important -- the act of bringing back that thought to the breath, to the mantra, to the pose, to the movement.

Ben-Shahar says to give yoga a try. For those who are not comfortable with meditation, at least breathe. It is very important. He is talking about the deep belly breath. We do not do that enough.

He mentions the book, Three Deep Breaths and advise us to take three deep breaths regularly throughout the day. Try doing it every time you come to a red light.

Dr. Andrew Weil had said that if he (Weil) could teach only one thing to people to improve health, it would be to breath properly.

Finally Ben-Shahar talks about the importance of appreciation and gratitude. Every night, he religiously writes down 5 things that he is grateful of. And he recommends that we do the same.

Article written July 2010 and author may received revenues from display ads and links within content.