PODCASTHappiness Break

Scroll down for a transcription of this episode.

Take a few minutes to reflect on someone that inspires you, and how you can embody the values you admire in them.

How to Do This Practice:

1. Find a comfortable place to do this practice and settle into a relaxed pattern of breath.
2. Think of someone who’s character has moved and inspired you. Focus on a specific time when they did something that inspired you.
3. Notice the feelings that arise in your body when you reflect on that person’s moral beauty.
4. Reflect on why that aspect of moral beauty is so significant and meaningful to you.
5. Think of how you can strive to incorporate it into your own life.

Today’s Happiness Break host:

Dacher Keltner is the host of the Greater Good Science Center’s award-winning podcast, The Science of Happiness and is a co-instructor of the GGSC’s popular online course of the same name. He’s also the founding director of the Greater Good Science Center and a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley.

We’re living through a mental health crisis. Between the stress, anxiety, depression, loneliness, burnout — we all could use a break to feel better. That’s where Happiness Break comes in. In each biweekly podcast episode, instructors guide you through research-backed practices and meditations that you can do in real-time. These relaxing and uplifting practices have been shown in a lab to help you cultivate calm, compassion, connection, mindfulness, and more — what the latest science says will directly support your well-being. All in less than ten minutes. A little break in your day.

Transcript

Dacher Keltner: Welcome to Happiness Break, a series by the Science of Happiness where we take a little break in our day to try different practices and meditations where we take a little break in our day, where we take a little break in our day to try different practices and meditations to help support ourselves and connect us with the world around us.

Today we’re turning our attention towards our sense of purpose in our lives. Or, sense of meaning in what we do, by homing in on what values we hold most dear and who inspires us to live up to those values. In the literature, this is known as moral beauty. That other people’s sacrifice and courage and sense of justice and humility can inspire us to live up to those values that are so important to our sense of purpose.

So for example, for a lot of scientists like me, Jane Goodall, is a person of moral beauty and her devotion to studying the chimpanzees that she studied, her sense of wisdom and understanding, really in promoting a new science and the preservation of different species inspires me to think about how to be a better scientist living with purpose. So today we’ll contemplate the moral beauty around us that inspires us to live with greater purpose.

Research suggests that when we have a strong sense of purpose, we’re happier. We have healthier habits and stronger relationships. And a sense of purpose cultivated by things like moral beauty is linked to less chronic illness and lower depression rates.

So find a quiet and safe place to sit. Or if you choose, you can stand. And let’s explore homing in on our sense of purpose through moral beauty. First, let’s pause and settle into a relaxed pattern of breathing, letting go of the day’s stresses.

Now think of somebody whose moral beauty inspires you, whose kindness or courage or strength or character has moved you emotionally. Think for a moment, a very specific moment when this person did something that moved you to feel inspired. What was it that they did that demonstrated kindness or courage or strength or overcoming. What actions did they engage in that embodied these principles?

Now as you get an image in your mind of what this person did, this act of moral beauty, sense in your body how thinking about this moral beauty of a friend or a loved one, how it makes you feel. Notice what is happening in your body. There might be some warmth in your chest, sense of openness. Maybe even tears.

Now as we become more aware of how these actions of other people’s moral beauty move us physically, reflect on why this action matters to you, why does it really speak to you? What do you find really personally meaningful about this act of moral beauty?

This is the experience of moral beauty when we are aware of how it moves us emotionally and in those emotions we often can recognize some kind of purpose that really matters to us, some realm of meaning. It might be about truth or justice, or caring or beauty.

So returning to your example, think of how this person has helped you realize a purpose you have in your life.

What did this person teach you about how you wanna live a meaningful life?

How would you name the kind of purpose that they embody? That you feel is important to you. What is that sense of purpose that they have given to you? You might even want to name it.

Now, think for a moment about, is there anything you can do today as you move through your busy life that is aligned with the values and sense of purpose that this individual embodies and has inspired you to think about?

What can you do to bring that quality of moral beauty into your day-to-day? In how you treat other people, in how you carry out your work and your loving relationships.

Let’s take a few deep breaths and let’s move through the rest of the day animated by this feeling that arises when we think about other people’s moral beauty and the purpose it gives us in our individual lives.

There is moral beauty all around us. If you wanna share with us a story of moral beauty, please email it to us at Happinesspod@berkeley.edu. Thanks for joining us on this Happiness Break. I’m Dacher Keltner. Have a wonderful day.

Hi, this is Haley Gray, the producer at the Greater Good Science Center, where we make The Science of Happiness podcast. We’ll be exploring the science of purpose at the Greater Good Science Center’s upcoming virtual event, “Purpose Across the Lifespan,” featuring a keynote by Dr. Jane Goodall.

You can join online from anywhere in the world for this half-day event on November 3. Learn more at ggsc.berkeley.edu/purpose event. Thank you.