3 “cheat sheets” of happiness by Jonathan Lehmann

Practiced and approved!

Do you know Jonathan Lehmann? He defines himself as an old “dunce of happiness”. He left his career as a lawyer to search for happiness, just like me! He recently participated in the TEDx Valenciennes and presented in 20 minutes three habits that can change your life.

As his sharing is more than relevant for La Minute Yoga, here is, in two minutes for the most hurried and non French-speakers, what I retained from this intervention:

The problem :

Our mind produces on average 60,000 thoughts a day, mostly negative.

Who is responsible for this? The mind that acts as a tyrant, an internal dictator who creates problems.

“The voice in my head is a bitch”

The solution :

To be happy, it is essential to understand that suffering, unhappiness, comes from our negative mental and emotional states (anger, fear, sadness, anguish ..). Indeed, if the conscious present, a moment, lasts on average 3 seconds, our thoughts and emotions persist much longer than that. To increase the happiness thus passes by the acceptance of the present moment: cease to resist it in order to diminish the suffering.

Knowing that you are in a hurry, Jonathan has selected for you 3 “cheat sheets” of happiness, 3 techniques to turn this tyrant into a tool of happiness, to change your life without taking too much of your time.

1. The mind is negative, practice gratitude!

Our negative thoughts travel faster in the brain, we remember more negative than positive thoughts because we are biologically programmed to handle problems: it is a requirement for the survival of the species.

But neuroplasticity makes it possible to transform the brain, like modeling paste: by activating a thought, I reinforce a network of neurons and increases the probability that it activates in the future.

All thought is either a vicious circle or a virtuous circle.

Jonathan thus proposes us to practice gratitude every day, by writing or recalling regularly the little moments of happiness we lived, and thus “live his life as if everything was a miracle”.

2. The mind is compulsive, practice meditation!

The mind produces thoughts a day in an almost continuous flow, and there is no Off button.

As an antidote, Jonathan proposes the practice of meditation, exercising attention on the present moment (often breathing) as a tool for training the brain.

Some good reasons to do this ? Meditation, practiced a little every day, makes happier (distance with thoughts, secretion of hormones), more intelligent (improves memory, stimulates creativity) and lengthens life (slows down cellular aging)

3. The mind is internal, externalize it!

Stuck in the head, the problems go round and round, they are ruminated, we cannot see clearly. By putting them into writing, by externalizing our thoughts, we dish them up, we gain in clarity.

Thus, Jonathan’s morning pages consist of writing daily, when waking up, everything that passes through his head, in order to allow him to decide what to give energy to, according to the goals of his life. One way to “get the mental trash out”.

Faced with a problem, he makes the questions / answers, writing everything that comes up.

A  Harvard study shows today that what gives happiness is good relationships with others. However, this requires above all a good relationship with oneself.

Jonathan concludes:

By practicing meditation only 10 minutes and gratitude 3 minutes for 10 days, your life will change; After 21 days, it will be a habit, will will not even be really necessary to practice.

It’s not at La Minute Yoga that we will tell you the opposite!

Ready to increase your moments of happiness?

Jonathan offers many guided meditations, and you can find some all over La Minute Yoga, on our YouTube and ITunes channels.

If you have other tips, feel free to share them with us 🙂