10 Ted Talks on Happiness

We all desire genuine happiness in our lives. There have been moments when we feel unmotivated and nothing we do seems to make us happy.
Achieving happiness and pure joy is one of the tricky bits of life. And it can not be attained the same way for two people. What you can do is watch Ted talks on happiness and get some points that you can add to your life.

Learn to value yourself, which means: fight for your happiness.

Ayn Rand

What is TED Talk? About TED- Ideas Worth Spreading

TED (an acronym for Technology, Entertainment, and Design) is a non-profit organization, who through its motto “ideas worth spreading,” have a vast volume of great videos to listen to when you need a boost of happiness around you.
Today, TED is a global community, that passionately believes in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and, ultimately, the world. There are now a number of TED conferences in more than 150 languages.
Their videos touch across almost all topics and are always concise (18 minutes or less) and filled with valuable nuggets you can apply to your life.

TED TALKS ON HAPPINESS

Here are ten TED talks about happiness we have chosen to inspire you.

Each of these speakers will answer any of the unanswered questions that you might have had concerning attaining real happiness.

10 TED TALKS ON HAPPINESS

1)’Helping Others Makes Us Happier — But it Matters How We Do It‘ by Elizabeth Dunn

Elizabeth Dunn studies the secrets to achieving happiness in a world where it seems to be hard to attain. In her TED Talk, Dunn argued that giving out money significantly affects our happiness.

2) ‘Less Stuff, More Happiness‘ by Graham Hill

To Graham Hill, living a minimalist life guarantees your happiness. In less than six minutes, Graham Hill makes a solid case for why having less gives us more out of life.

As Graham Hill explains, our brains have a defence mechanism that’s hard-wired to make us happy with the lives we have, however little it may be.

3) ‘Flow, The Secret To Happiness‘ by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Connecting with other people and feeling part of something larger than ourselves takes us a long way toward happiness.

In this ted talk on happiness, Psychologist Csikszentmihalyi discusses how a state of heightened focus and immersion in activities you enjoy can bring about pleasure and lasting satisfaction. But this is only possible so long as we keep challenging ourselves.

4) ‘Secrets to Happiness‘ by Matthieu Ricard

Take it from a Biochemist turned Buddhist monk to have nuggets on happiness.
In his Ted talk on happiness, Matthieu Ricard says we can train our minds in habits of well-being, to generate a true sense of serenity and fulfilment.

He is commonly referred to as the “happiest man in the world,” because his aura emits happiness.

5)’How to Be Happy Every Day: It Will Change the World‘ by Jaqueline Way

Jacqueline Way’s motto “One give, one day at a time” is her vision for her organisation where she practices the 365 give challenge.

She expatiates on how giving can not only change your level of happiness, but it leaves a lasting impact on the world.

6)’Want to Be Happy? Be Grateful‘ by David Steindl-Rast

Happiness can’t exist without gratitude by David Steindl-Rast
David argues that if you want to be happy, you have to practice being grateful. In his talk, he touches on ways you can slow down from the fast track of life so you do not get overwhelmed, and how you can have a vision for your future by appreciating what you have.

7) ‘My Year of Saying Yes to Everything‘ by Shonda Rhimes

Shonda Rhimes, the writer of our favourite tv shows Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, and How to Get Away With Murder, explains her self-discovery to happiness in her life.
In this talk, she explains how she spent an entire year saying yes even to the things that scare her.

She further highlights how her self-discovery journey has taught how to differentiate the things that truly make her happiest to say “yes” to. Shonda’s talk is one of the best ted talks on happiness, a must-listen.

8) ‘The Happy Secret to Better Work‘ by Shawn Achor

Does productive work make you happier, or does being happy make you more productive?

Shawn Achor

In this talk, Achor discusses how our perspective on happiness impacts our creativity and resourcefulness, and the dramatic role this can have on our work lives. He carried out extensive research which shows that if you raise the happiness level, then intelligence, creativity and energy go up.

9)’What Makes a Good Life? Lessons from the Longest Study on Happiness‘ by Robert Waldinger

Good relationships keep us happier and healthier.

Robert Waldinger

In his TED talk on happiness, Waldinger dives deep into a 75-year-old study to highlight its findings on what has made people truly happy over the course of their lifetime.

In this study, Harvard students starting university in the years 1939-1944 were studied throughout their life. Every two years, research staff came to see them, asking them about health and illness, happiness and misery, career and love. Based on thousands of data points, the researchers got an in-depth understanding of how the health of these 268 men developed over life.

10) Happiness In The Past, Present And Future – Robert Biswas-Diener

Robert’s work on happiness provides a baseline for positive psychology.
A happiness consultant himself, he points out in his TED talk how there are a lot of people who appear to see happiness at work as the one and only goal. This is one of my favourite ted talks on happiness

In his talk, Biswas-Diener answers one of the fundamental questions: How can I be happier?
In his very, very catchy talk, Biswas-Diener says that the past, not the future, is the source of happiness. The happiest days are behind you. He ends with a personal story where he tells us why he so much believes in the past as a source of happiness.

Have you watched any of these TED talks on happiness? Is there any ted talks on happiness you would like to add to our list? Let us know in the comments below! Don’t forget to share.