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Want To Be Happy? You Only Have To Do 1 Thing. Over And Over.

How to encourage that impulse to grow within ourselves, our communities, and our children.

community, earth, environment, mental health

Photo by Tyler Nix on Unsplash

The sum is stronger than the individual parts.

Matthieu Ricard says that the way for all of us to live sustainably on this planet is to adopt a culture of thinking about each other. And not just the others who are here right now, but also people we'll never meet.

He tells us some stuff that you're probably tired of hearing. We're exhausting our planets resources. Humanity has completely screwed everything up on this planet.

But stick around because he's going to get crazy surprising.

This is not a speech about recycling.

He points out that our situation is even more serious than you might have known. We're rapidly exceeding the planetary boundaries that make Earth habitable.

And, let's be honest, it's easy not to feel crazy urgent about this, right?

The glaciers are melting, but I didn't see them back when they were all there.
There's a flotilla of plastic out in the Pacific, but it's pretty far from my home.
And we've lost half of the world's species since 1970, but how many of them were cute ones? (Kidding — lots of them were.)

When we consider how we treat our planet, when we're talking about big action, we're doing it because we'd like our kids and grandkids to not live in a post-apocalyptic hellscape.

But then he offers a solution.

And it's not about buying a Prius.

So, his big revolutionary advice is just to look out for each other but in a tremendous way. Look out for your neighbor. Look out for your friend. Look out for your enemy and their great-great-great-grandkid.

But is that possible? And can we be happy if we think about others that much?

In fact, it happens all the time. So often that it's not newsworthy. This ordinary goodness is what helps communities and families grow.

An international survey found that the very most perfect predictor of happiness is the quality of human relationships.

But what is altruism? Is it a choice? Is it something we do for ourselves so that we will feel good about ourselves?

But how do we encourage that impulse to grow within ourselves, our communities, and our children?

For that, you'll have to watch the video.

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Here’s how we can use the power of awe to make our lives more fulfilling

Being amazed by things outside ourselves is tremendous for our mental health.

via Benjamin Davies/Unsplash

A young man looking into the sky

The exhilaration of a rock concert. The feeling of deep serenity you experience during a religious ceremony. That sense of connectedness you get while walking through a dense forest. The lightness that flows through your body while dancing and the dissolution of the ego you experience on psychedelics. These are all experiences that give us the feeling of awe.

Most of us love having at least a few of these experiences and believe they help us grow. But now, a team of psychologists has explained why cultivating a sense of awe can benefit our minds and bodies and how we can create these experiences ourselves.

Maria Monroy and Dacher Keltner posit that a sense of awe can help solve the crises of individualism, excessive self-focus, loneliness and a culture of cynicism, and can even improve our physical health. They explain it in a research article titled “Awe as a Pathway to Mental and Physical Health.”

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Woman flawlessly breaks down how luxury bags—and other designer brands—keep people 'poor'

"They're targeting the people who want to look rich—middle and lower class folks who don't have a lot of money or savings. That is the bread and butter of designer brands."

Cara Nicole/Youtube

Not worth it.

It feels safe to say that we are all hoping to be more mindful about how we spend our money these days, whether it’s to be kinder to the environment, align better with our values, improve our finances or simply exercise free will against the siren call of consumerism.

That’s why this video essay created by Cara Nicole (who gives all kinds of financials and sustainability education on her Youtube channel) feels so timely.

In just under twenty minutes, Nicole astutely breaks down how luxury brands like Hermes, Louis Vuitton and Rolex create the fake illusion of wealth through “manufactured exclusivity” and getting free marketing from celebrities and influencers—who often don’t even pay for the products themselves. Meanwhile, most real rich people wouldn’t be caught dead in the flashy brands, and in reality consider them "overrated." But still, the illusion persists. Because advertising.

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Couple says living on a floating cabin saves a ton of money and is great for their mental health

They saved $27,500 a year overall.

@keepingalfoatwiththejoneses/Instagram

Inexpensive and tranquil…what's not to like?

Saving money and living comfortably don’t always go hand in hand, but people do find ways to accomplish it. Sometimes all it takes is thinking a little outside the box—getting a job that allows you to travel the world or swapping out a traditional mortgage for more creative, less costly home ideas.

Take this couple in North Carolina, for example, who gave up living on land to move into a floating cabin and apparently saved $27,500 annually by doing so.

According to Good News Network, Sarah Spiro, 27, and her boyfriend, Brandon Jones, 40, break down the math: Their one-bedroom floating home, which they bought in March 2021, originally cost less than $30,000. The pair then spent two months and $23,000 renovating, for a total initial investment of less than $50,000. And now, they pay $2,500 a year to live on the lake. Yes, you read that right. $2,500 a year. They used to pay that much per month on their combined individual rents.

Obviously, it was a “no brainer,” said Spiro.

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