Simply Good Life - Worrying | What is Happiness? | Our Place in the Universe

Hi friends, here is your weekly dose of “Simply Good Life,” a list of things that will help you to grow personally and professionally. Enjoy!

Do you know the Japanese practice called forest bathing? Studies show that spending time in the forest lowers your levels of cortisol (the stress hormone) and even of your inflammation markers.

So whenever you feel stressed, just go outside and walk around in nature for 5 to 10 minutes.

What’s your definition of happiness? For me, happiness is not a permanent state. Happiness is not a thing we achieve. We do not find the secret to happiness and then everything is just great. It’s rather “more of the good stuff and less of the bad” as described in this great article about meditation. Of course, when good or bad things happen, our happiness will still rise or fall. But with a regular meditation practice, we’ll start to have higher highs and shallower lows.

And when the highs are higher and the lows aren’t as low, an interesting thing happens: the overall level of our personal satisfaction rises. That’s happiness.

Powers of Ten is a short film made in 1977 that beautifully shows our place in the universe. It explores the world, both from great heights and from microscopically close. Starting at a picnic in Chicago, it transports us to the outer edges of the galaxy to make us think not just about scale but how it relates to our place in the universe. I feel small every time I watch it. How do you feel?

I use this principle from the famous author Neil Gaiman to teach innovation. Whenever you ask for feedback (for your creative work or your product) just ask about things that do not work, don’t ask how to fix them.

They are experts in using the product, we - the creators - are experts in solving the uncovered problems.

Isn’t this a great reminder for us to stop worrying? We constantly worry about things that might happen.

As an exercise, sit down and create a list of things you worry about. A few days later go through this list of things you’d written down. Did any of them eventuate? If so, how many didn’t eventuate? It’s possible that all the worry was for nothing. How does it make you feel?

Thank you Esther for sending this quote in the Simply Good Life WhatsApp group. Keep them coming!

Have a great weekend, all

Adam