This video struck a chord recently. It was shown to us as part of a Wellbeing Day at work a few weeks ago and—as well as being quite funny—I thought its practical, down-to-earth steps to a more positive mindset made a lot of sense.
The happy secret to better work | Shawn Achor – YouTube
We believe that we should work to be happy, but could that be backwards? In this fast-moving and entertaining talk from TEDxBloomington, psychologist Shawn Achor argues that actually happiness inspires productivity.
One of his slides summarises the ways you can train your brain to become more positive.
I’ve been following these steps for a few weeks now, and writing down three new things I’m grateful for and a positive experience I’ve had that day does help me focus on looking for the positives.
That video was published in 2012, but one that contained a very similar message coincidentally appeared just a few days ago, from Kurzgesagt.
An antidote to dissatisfaction – YouTube
Everybody is familiar with the feeling that things are not as they should be. That you are not successful enough, your relationships not satisfying enough. That you don’t have the things you crave. In this video we want to talk about one of the strongest predictors of how happy people are, how easily they make friends and how good they are at dealing with hardship. An antidote against dissatisfaction so to speak: Gratitude.
This video, too, discussed the benefits of a simple gratitude journal, “sitting down for a few minutes, one to three times a week, and writing down five to ten things you’re grateful for.”
In the end, how you experience life is a representation of what you believe about it. If you attack your core beliefs about your self and your life, you can change your thoughts and feelings, which automatically changes your behaviour. It’s pretty mind-blowing that something as simple as self-reflection can hack the pathways in our brain to fight dissatisfaction. And if this is no reason to be optimistic, what is?
So thanks, Shawn Achor and the folks behind Kurzgesagt, for highlighting the importance of gratitude!
Miscellaneous Details 
Thanks for these two posts Terry and you’re right these videos do hack my brain. It can be so easy to fall into negativity because it’s in the news, it’s everywhere but this is a trap and remaining grateful does help you to see your life as being more rich and overflowing with good stuff. I hope the gratitude journal is going well and also that you manage to get hold of The Art of Gratitude. Hope you have an amazing weekend
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