Hidden Brain

Blowing Up Your Life

Most of us are familiar with the pull of a fresh start. But researcher Kristina Olson has found something surprising: people who make dramatic life changes — who blow up their lives — often report higher levels of well-being than those who stay the course, even when the change involves significant loss and hardship.

TED Radio Hour

Less guilt, more joy: A new chapter for climate action

I was thinking how it's kind of a bummer that my life's work on happiness had no bearing whatsoever on what I believe is the most important existential challenge of our time. Then I started thinking about biking. So I bike to work because I arrive in a much better mood than if I drive my car. But of course, biking is also one of the most sustainable forms of transportation. And then it kind of dawned on me that in fact, so many of the things that we need to do as individuals and as societies in order to tackle climate change are also good for our happiness.

TED Radio Hour

Less guilt, more joy: A new chapter for climate action

Happiness is kind of nature's reinforcer. So if we can change our behavior in a way that actually makes us feel better, we are gonna be much more likely to stick with it.

Hidden Brain

What Art Does For Your Brain

Psychobiologist Daisy Fancourt says engagement with the arts can help to regulate our emotions, build resilience, and support long-term well-being.

Hidden Brain

What Art Does For Your Brain

engagement with the arts can help to regulate our emotions, build resilience, and support long-term well-being.

Hidden Brain

How to Combat Pain

Pain is not just a physical sensation — it's also a psychological experience. And that means the brain can sometimes be recruited to fight pain itself. Researchers have found that when people feel cared for or loved, when they feel a sense of meaning or purpose, or when they have a strong sense of control over their lives, they actually feel less pain.

Hidden Brain

Waking Up Your Spiritual Brain: Part 1

People who have a lot of awe in their lives tend to feel that they are part of something larger than themselves. And that sense of being part of something larger — whether it's a religion, a community, or the natural world — seems to be deeply connected to well-being.

Hidden Brain

Waking Up Your Spiritual Brain: Part 1

Most of us think of spirituality as something that happens when we have extraordinary experiences — when we see something beautiful, hear a piece of music that moves us to tears, or find ourselves confronted with the vastness of the universe. But Andrew says the research suggests something different: that spiritual experiences are available to all of us, and that we can cultivate them through intentional practice.

Hidden Brain

Waking Up Your Spiritual Brain: Part 1

People who have more spiritual experiences tend to feel more connected to others, to feel like there's a sense of meaning and purpose to their lives. And interestingly, they also tend to have better mental and physical health outcomes.

Hidden Brain

Waking Up Your Spiritual Brain: Part 1

People who have more of these experiences feel a greater sense of meaning and purpose in their lives. They feel more connected to other people, even strangers. They're less afraid of death. They're more likely to change their behavior in positive ways. And they report feeling a sense of awe or wonder at the world around them.

Hidden Brain

Waking Up Your Spiritual Brain: Part 1

People who have frequent spiritual experiences also tend to be happier, have better mental health, and find more meaning in their lives. And this is true regardless of whether they belong to a formal religious tradition — even people who don't consider themselves religious seem to benefit from these kinds of experiences.

Hidden Brain

Waking Up Your Spiritual Brain: Part 1

People who have frequent spiritual experiences also tend to be healthier and happier. They show lower rates of depression and anxiety, less substance abuse, and they even tend to live longer. And it's not just that healthy, happy people have more time to go to church or temple — the spiritual experiences themselves seem to be driving these positive outcomes.

Hidden Brain

Waking Up Your Spiritual Brain: Part 1

People who have more of these experiences tend to be happier and healthier. They feel a stronger sense of connection to others. They find it easier to cope with adversity. And yet our culture often treats these experiences as suspect — as signs of irrationality or self-deception.

Hidden Brain

Waking Up Your Spiritual Brain: Part 1

People who have more spiritual experiences tend to be healthier and happier. They have lower rates of depression, anxiety, and substance abuse. They even live longer.

Hidden Brain

Waking Up Your Spiritual Brain: Part 1

People who have a lot of awe in their lives tend to have lower levels of inflammatory cytokines, which are markers of stress and immune activation. Awe seems to quiet the self — that internal narrative we have about ourselves, our problems, our concerns — and when the self gets quieter, people tend to feel more connected to others and to the world around them.

Hidden Brain

Waking Up Your Spiritual Brain: Part 1

People who have frequent spiritual experiences tend to be healthier and happier than those who do not. But psychologist Lisa Miller has found something even more surprising: the brains of spiritual people are actually structurally different from those who are not spiritual.

Hidden Brain

Waking Up Your Spiritual Brain: Part 1

People who have more spiritual experiences also tend to have better mental health. They have lower rates of depression and anxiety. They're less likely to die by suicide. They're less likely to abuse substances. They show greater well-being and life satisfaction.

Hidden Brain

Waking Up Your Spiritual Brain: Part 1

People who have frequent spiritual experiences — who regularly feel a sense of awe, or feel that they are in the presence of something greater than themselves — tend to be happier, more generous, and more connected to other people. They are also less afraid of death.

Hidden Brain

Waking Up Your Spiritual Brain: Part 1

People who have more spiritual experiences also tend to report greater psychological well-being. They have higher life satisfaction, more positive emotions, and fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety. In some ways, this makes perfect sense — feeling connected to something larger than yourself, believing that the universe is fundamentally benevolent, these things might naturally make you happier.

Hidden Brain

A Secret Source of Connection

Most people think that small talk is a waste of time, a polite but ultimately hollow ritual. But when researchers have studied what happens when strangers actually talk to each other, they've found something surprising: people consistently underestimate how much they will enjoy talking with others, and how much others will enjoy talking with them.

Hidden Brain

Waking Up Your Spiritual Brain: Part 1

People who have frequent spiritual experiences are better able to cope with stress and trauma. They also report higher levels of well-being, greater generosity, and a stronger sense of purpose and meaning in their lives.

Hidden Brain

Waking Up Your Spiritual Brain: Part 1

People who have frequent spiritual experiences tend to be healthier and happier. They report lower rates of depression and anxiety. They are less likely to abuse drugs or alcohol, less likely to be involved in domestic violence, and less likely to develop dementia in old age.

Hidden Brain

Waking Up Your Spiritual Brain: Part 1

People who have a lot of awe in their lives tend to feel that they are part of something larger than themselves. And when you feel that you're part of something larger than yourself, the petty concerns, the minor humiliations, the day to day frustrations — they recede into the background.

Hidden Brain

Waking Up Your Spiritual Brain: Part 1

People who report a lot of awe in their lives also tend to score high on measures of well-being. They report feeling more connected to others, more curious, and less focused on their own day-to-day concerns. In a sense, awe seems to shrink the self — and in doing so, it might make room for something larger.

Hidden Brain

Waking Up Your Spiritual Brain: Part 1

People who have a lot of awe in their lives tend to feel that they are part of something larger than themselves. And when you feel like you're part of something larger than yourself, your own personal problems and worries seem smaller and more manageable.

EconTalk

Golfing Alone (with Gary Belsky)

No rush, no noise, no one else on the golf course: solo golf is an entirely different game, offering physical, mental, and spiritual benefits that playing with others can't.

Pivot

Is Trump Using the WHCD Shooting as an “Opportunity” to Push His Agenda? | Pivot

The biggest psychological tax cut in history would be if we elected a technocrat who maybe checked in once a month but wasn't in your face every day and dominating the table conversation at dinner.

Semafor

The State of Happiness in 2026 | Semafor Events

Well, I'd have to say happiness. So that's why we do this. And at that time he was doing surveys where he would ask people just tell me how your life is going.

TED

1 Thing You Can Do Today to Be Happier | Sonja Lyubomirsky | TED

It dawned on me that almost all of the interventions that work to make us happier, they work precisely because they help us feel more connected to and loved by others.