Happiness Break: A Meditation to Inspire a Sense of Purpose

The Science of Happiness

PRX and Greater Good Science Center

Science, Social Sciences

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 7 September 2023

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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

Link to episode transcript: https://tinyurl.com/4x2whvzb

How to Do This Practice:

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

Check out Dacher’s most recent book, *Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life: *<https://tinyurl.com/4j4hcvyt\](https://tinyurl.com/4j4hcvyt)

More resources from The Greater Good Science Center:

How to Find Your Purpose in Life: https://tinyurl.com/28mjx65c

Living with a Purpose Changes Everything: https://tinyurl.com/yeyv2xhu

Seven Ways to Find Your Purpose in Life: https://tinyurl.com/4ekymbet

Five Ways to Foster Purpose in Adolescents: https://tinyurl.com/25e5bvv3

How Purpose Changes Across Your Lifetime: https://tinyurl.com/yhek7ktr

We love hearing from you! Who inspires you? Email us at [email protected] or use the hashtag #happinesspod.

Find us on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/6s39rzus

Help us share Happiness Break! Rate us and copy and share this link: https://tinyurl.com/6s39rzus

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

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0:00.0	Welcome to Happiness Break, a series by the Science of Happiness, where we take a little
0:10.2	break in our day to try different research-backed practices and meditations to help support
0:15.2	ourselves and connect us with the world around us.
0:18.9	Today, we're turning our attention towards our sense of purpose in our lives, or sense
0:24.3	of meaning and what we do by homing in on what values we hold most dear and who inspires
0:31.8	us to live up to those values.
0:34.3	In the literature, this is known as moral beauty, that other people's sacrifice, encourage
0:39.8	and sense of justice and humility can inspire us to live up to those values that are so important
0:45.6	to our sense of purpose.
0:47.4	So for example, for a lot of scientists like me, Jane Goodall is a person of moral beauty
0:52.0	and her devotion to studying the chimpanzees that she studied, her sense of wisdom and understanding,
0:59.6	really in promoting a new science and the preservation of different species, inspires
1:04.9	me to think about how to be a better scientist living with purpose.
1:10.4	So today, we'll contemplate the moral beauty around us that inspires us to live with
1:16.2	greater purpose.
1:18.2	Much suggests that when we have a strong sense of purpose, we're happier, we have healthier
1:22.9	habits, and stronger relationships, and a sense of purpose, cultivated by things like moral
1:28.8	beauty, is linked to less chronic illness and lower depression rates.
1:34.0	So find a quiet and safe place to sit, or if you choose, you can stand.
1:39.5	And let's explore, homing in on our sense of purpose through moral beauty.
2:01.2	First, let's pause and settle into a relaxed pattern of breathing, letting go of the
2:07.1	day's stresses.
	...

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