Sometimes, we use too much logic behind happiness because sometimes life may through heavy tantrums at us. But, is this possible to remain happy even during those times of heaviness? We are just talking, but Matthieu Ricard has actually done it. This 69 year old Tibetan Buddhist monk is entitled as, “the world's happiest man."
He was entitled this when he went through a 12 – year brain study. The study is based on meditation and compassion which is headed by Richard Davidson, (a neurologist in the University of Wisconsin). He tested his mind with 256 sensors and sensed out that, Ricard’s brain not only exceptionally light but also was meditating on compassion.
Davidson said it like, "The scans showed that when meditating on compassion, Ricard's brain produces a level of gamma waves – those linked to consciousness, attention, learning and memory – 'never reported before in the neuroscience literature'. Further he said, “The scans also showed excessive activity in his brain's left prefrontal cortex compared to its right counterpart, allowing him an abnormally large capacity for happiness and a reduced propensity towards negativity."
Ricard explains it like, “It's simply that me, me, me all day long is very stuffy. And it's quite miserable, because you instrumentalize the whole world as a threat, or as a potential sort of interest [to yourself]."
"If your mind is filled with benevolence, you know -the passion and solidarity … this is a very healthy state of mind that is conducive to flourishing," Ricard said. “So you, yourself, are in a much better mental state. Your body will be healthier, so [it] has been shown. And also, people will perceive it as something nice."
He asks to practice happiness and train your mind to be happy.
This is how you can do that:
Start it by thinking happy and positive thoughts for 10 to 15 minutes per day as Ricard says. Typically when we experience feelings of happiness and love, it's fleeting very easily and then something else happens, and we move on to the next thought which may not be a happy one. But Ricard advices, instead, concentrate on not letting your mind get distracted and keep focused on the positive emotions for the next stretch of time. And if you do that practice every day, even just 2 weeks later you can feel positive mental results. And if you practice that for fifty years like Ricard has, you can become a happiness pro too.
