Man I almost missed the boat on this one. So my fellow art director buds: Jenny and Carrie and I had planned to attend for weeks but had a total fail on actually getting tix. For the amount of time we spend on social media, not sure how we missed it. So we stood in line for 1.5 hours outside in the cold on a Friday night. It paid off. Nose bleeds but happy, we saw Stefan talk about his art exhibition at the ICA - Philadelphia and upcoming documentary about one singular subject. Being happy.
What he spoke about wasn't mind blowing, it was all information that was pretty common sense. What was unique was the experience in absorbing all that content at once and the way he delivered it through video, typography, info graphics and interactive exhibits.
This is just kind of a brain dump of my notes from the lecture so I won't forget.
If I don't ask i won't get. (really cool film with balloons more about it here)
Happiness factors:
-non-repeat activites
-life condtions
-genes
Be more flexible.
Social aspects to life are more important than income. Once you have enough $$ to survive, anything over that doesn't relate to how happy you are.
The Happiness Hypothesis by Johnathan Haidt
1. Meditation: act of being present, Stefan went to Bali to practice
2. Therapy: seeing a therapist was helpful, idea that you can change things about yourself, overcoming fears. Having guts always works out for me. (part of that film here) Also talked about making the first step, speaking or approaching people first.
3. Drugs: Lexipro gave him good results.
They must work together to steer in the right direction.
Emotions have a negative bias in humans. We're more open to negative emotions rather than postive ones. Example: Evening news.
Also talked about thankfulness, appreciating and thanking people. Having sympathetic empathy and humilty.
Self confidence produces good results. (film here)
Worrying solves nothing. This one really resonated, I'm super guilty of this...
He talked about exercise being more effective then meditation. As seen below. The act of exercising producing clarity of mind.
Drive with no purpose, no where to go. Great music, top down. As soon as a purpose is introduced, it's ruined. Uselessness is gorgeous.
Other things that make people happy: many friends, good friends, religion, singing in groups, non repeat activities and even religion.
Idea: before bed, list out 3 things that worked today.
Try to take more risks. Goes back to the film mentioned prevously. Having guts always works out for me.
So there it is. I own his book Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far and will be going back to read through.
I also recommend watching some of his TedX.