Is “The World’s Happiest Man” Really Happy?
More than “three rules for a happy life”
Matthieu Ricard, a French Buddhist monk and scientist, has been studying happiness for decades. More specifically, the difference in the brains of meditators as compared to the rest of us.
What he’s been after is to establish scientific proof for happiness, or wellbeing through meditation.
With the help of MRI’s of meditators like himself and others, he has produced scientific evidence that a brain region — the right frontal cortex, which is involved in happiness — is activated by meditation.
Because his is more activated than any other frontal cortex ever scanned, the media has dubbed him The World’s Happiest Man.
So, it would seem that’s the whole pot pie.
I’ll meditate and my ecogrief and eco-anxiety will dissolve like clouds in a blue summer sky.
Is it really that simple?
I’ve been mini-binging a show for the past few weeks. A courtroom drama in which “the good guys” always win. At first, it made me happy because…well, the good guys always won!
But after a few weeks, for the past two nights, I’ve been getting crazy stupid weird nightmares from it. Partly because I’m an empath. I’m sure few people…
