Where Gratitude Gets You

Hidden Brain

Hidden Brain Media

Arts, Science, Performing Arts, Social Sciences

4.6 • 40.4K Ratings

🗓️ 23 November 2020

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Many of us struggle with self-control. And we assume willpower is the key to achieving our goals. But there's a simple and often overlooked mental habit that can improve our health and well-being. This week on Hidden Brain, we talk with psychologist David DeSteno about that habit — the practice of gratitude.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Hidden Brain, I'm Shankar Vedantam.
0:04.9	For generations across nations and cultures,
0:08.3	parents and teachers have read Aesop's Fable,
0:11.6	The Ant and the Grasshopper.
0:14.2	It teaches children the importance of hard work and delayed gratification.
0:20.4	It was a beautiful summer and the Grasshopper
0:22.7	wild away its time dancing and frowling with its friends.
0:26.4	This is psychologist David Distanneau.
0:28.4	While the ant went out to the fields and toiled to grow and to harvest food for the winter.
0:38.4	Why don't you stop working so hard and come play the Grasshopper asked?
0:42.4	The Ant replied, I can't, I have to collect food for the winter.
0:46.8	You should too. Otherwise, you won't have anything to eat when it gets cold.
0:52.0	The Grasshopper just laughed and kept playing.
0:58.6	When winter came, the poor Grasshopper had nothing to eat and starve.
1:03.6	The Ant who had worked all summer had a wonderful winter snug in his den and had ample food to live on.
1:16.0	Now, the story has a harsh moral to it.
1:18.2	The Ant who refuses to share comes across as mean-spirited.
1:23.8	But the underlying message of the story is one we all wrestle with.
1:29.0	All of us have something of the Ant inside us and all of us have the Grasshopper too.
1:35.6	Study for the test or play video games.
1:38.8	Exercise regularly or relax on the couch.
1:41.4	Save money for retirement or spend it on something you want right now.
	...

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