Super Soul Special: Shawn Achor, Part 1: The Secrets of Happy People

Summary

Oprah’s Super Soul Podcast

Special Guest: Shawn Achor, Part 1 — The Secrets of Happy People

Host: Oprah Winfrey
Date: May 28, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this engaging episode, Oprah Winfrey sits down with best-selling author and positive psychology researcher Shawn Achor to dive into the science and practice of happiness. Together, they explore whether happiness is a matter of genetics or choice, how to redefine what true happiness means, and the concrete, practical habits that can help anyone become a happier person. Blending accessible science, personal anecdotes, and actionable advice, this conversation illuminates the secrets of truly happy people and how listeners can apply them to their lives.

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Main Themes & Discussion Points

1. The Harvard “Happiness Class” Phenomenon

• Shawn describes co-teaching Harvard’s most popular class ever—on happiness—and how its popularity revealed a universal yearning for happiness education.
  • “We got one out of every six Harvard students [taking] this class... more popular than economics, which is incredible.”
    – Shawn Achor, 03:36

2. Is Happiness Innate or Learnable?

• Oprah asks about the common belief that happiness is fixed at a genetic baseline.
• Shawn explains that while genetics play a part, research shows habits and mindset shifts can fundamentally alter one’s happiness:
  • “If people change their habits, if they change their mindset, they could move dramatically away from not only their genes, but their environment and their childhood as well.”
    – Shawn Achor, 04:23

3. Defining True Happiness & Joy: Pleasure vs. Meaning

• They discuss the struggle many have with defining happiness, and why fleeting pleasures don’t equate to lasting happiness.
• Shawn presents an ancient Greek definition:
  • “Happiness was defined by the ancient Greeks as the joy that we feel striving for our potential.”
    – Shawn Achor, 06:07
• Oprah calls it a “tweetable moment” and celebrates the reframe:
  • “That is what that is. It. Joy is the joy we feel striving towards our potential.”
    – Oprah, 06:16

4. Cross-Cultural Grounding: Happiness Around the World

• Shawn contrasts optimism in Zimbabwean farmers and disappointment among wealthy Swiss bankers to show that circumstances don't guarantee happiness.
• The universal trigger for happiness: meaningful social connections.
  • “The breadth and depth and meaning in our relationships is one of the greatest predictors of long term levels of happiness.”
    – Shawn Achor, 08:00

5. Expectations, Perspective, and the Internal Source of Happiness

• Oprah marvels at the joy of children playing with nothing but sticks, questioning how happiness emerges despite poverty.
• Shawn shares that only 10% of our long-term happiness is due to external circumstances; 90% is how we mentally process our reality:
  • “Happiness is not forced upon us by the external world... happiness can be a choice.”
    – Shawn Achor, 09:23

6. The Broken Formula: Why Success Doesn’t Equal Happiness

• Oprah references the ingrained social belief: work hard → success → happiness.
• Shawn reveals the science: achieving success rarely leads to lasting happiness. Instead, happiness and positivity actually precede and promote success.
  • “Being successful doesn’t automatically make you happier, but being happier, being more positive, makes you more successful.”
    – Shawn Achor, 16:36

7. Optimism, Social Support, and the Power of Connection

• They discuss research showing that optimism and social connectivity—not intelligence—drive 75% of work and life success.
  • “Social connection is as predictive of how long we’ll end up living as obesity, high blood pressure, and smoking.”
    – Shawn Achor, 17:36

8. Nature, Nurture, and Raising Baselines

• Oprah and Shawn agree some people are naturally happier, but everyone can raise their happiness baseline.
  • "But if we choose to do some simple things in our life... what we find is that choice for happiness starts becoming easier and easier and easier."
    – Shawn Achor, 19:44

9. The Glass Half Full? Beyond Old Metaphors

• Oprah and Shawn upend the classic “glass half full or empty” metaphor:
  • Shawn: “It doesn’t matter if the glass is half full or half empty... if we looked for other ways, we can actually fill up that glass.”
    – Shawn Achor, 21:22
  • Oprah: “Life is the pitcher. The world itself is the pitcher.”
    – Oprah, 21:54
  • Oprah: “I could care less if it's half empty or half full if you have the pitcher to fill it up.”
    – Oprah, 22:16

10. Happiness Hygiene: Habits that Trump Genes

• Oprah introduces the idea of “happiness hygiene”—daily habits that, like brushing teeth, keep us psychologically healthy.
• Shawn insists change only requires “two minutes a day” and shares specific, research-backed habits:

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Five Essential Happiness Habits

(Starts at approx. 25:49)

1. Gratitude Practice (27:34)

   • Write down three new things you’re grateful for each morning for 21 days.
   • “If you do this for 21 days, even people who were testing as low level pessimists... were now testing as low level optimal 21 days later.”
   • “Gratitude changes your vibrational frequency in the world.”
     – Oprah Winfrey, 28:26

2. Journaling Meaningful Experiences (29:05)

   • Each day, spend two minutes writing about a positive experience from the last 24 hours—to relive and embed the memory.

3. Expressing Appreciation (29:54)

   • Send a two-minute email, text, or phone call thanking or praising someone new each day for 21 days.
   • “When we ask you about your social connection, the breadth and depth of your relationships, you have incredibly deep social support.”
     – Shawn Achor, 30:16
   • Phone calls and face-to-face expressions are even more powerful.

4. Exercise (31:06)

   • Just 15 minutes of enjoyable, mindful cardio each day.
   • “The reason why exercise is valuable is it trains your brain to believe my behavior matters, which is optimism."

5. Mindful Meditation (31:18)

   • Even two minutes of focusing on your breath daily can rewire the brain, reduce stress, and increase happiness.
   • “It gave their brain a new pattern... their happiness levels improved, stress dropped, and amazingly, the stress of the people around them dropped as well.”
   • Meditation’s benefits “cause this chain reaction to other people, creating that ripple effect.”
     – Shawn Achor, 32:20

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The Three Big Conclusions of Happiness Research

(32:42)

1. Happiness Can Be a Choice

   • “Scientifically, happiness can be a choice.”
     – Shawn Achor, 32:42

2. Happiness Spreads

   • “When we choose happiness, it actually makes it easier for other people to choose happiness.”
     – Shawn Achor, 32:44

3. Happiness Is an Advantage

   • “When we create happiness and positivity in the present, we’re better at making a better world for other people.”
     – Shawn Achor, 32:47

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “We’ve been taught calculus and we’ve been taught multiple languages, but we hadn’t been taught about how you deepen optimism or how you deepen social connection.”
  – Shawn Achor, 03:50

• “Happiness is the joy we feel striving toward our potential. Joy is something you can feel in the ups and downs of life.”
  – Shawn Achor, 06:21

• “90% of our long-term happiness is how your brain processes the world.”
  – Shawn Achor, 08:59

• “The opposite of happiness isn’t unhappiness; the opposite of happiness is apathy.”
  – Shawn Achor, 14:26

• “If you eliminate all the negatives in your life... you’re still not a positive. The absence of disease is not health.”
  – Shawn Achor, 24:52

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Quick Reference: Timestamps for Key Segments

• Introduction & Shawn’s Background – 01:27–03:34
• The Harvard Happiness Course & Its Lessons – 03:34–04:23
• Redefining Happiness & Joy – 05:01–07:15
• Cultural Perspectives on Happiness – 07:30–09:00
• Science of Internal Happiness – 09:00–10:57
• Why Success Doesn’t Bring Happiness – 15:11–16:36
• The Power of Social Support – 17:06–18:11
• Happiness Baselines & Choices – 19:01–20:40
• Glass Half Full/Empty Analogy Update – 20:47–22:22
• Happiness Hygiene & Habits – 25:49–32:42
• Top 3 Conclusions of Happiness Research – 32:42–33:02

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Tone and Closing

The conversation is candid, energizing, and full of curiosity and warmth, with Oprah playing both student and seasoned guide. Shawn’s insights are practical, research-driven, and empowering, offering hope that anyone can consciously move towards greater happiness through small, intentional shifts.

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Final Takeaway:
Happiness is not just a fleeting feeling or a genetic gift. With just two minutes a day for 21 days, anyone can practice simple habits—like gratitude, journaling, appreciation, movement, and mindfulness—to meaningfully rewire the brain, spreading positivity to others and themselves. Happiness, as Shawn says, “can be a choice, it spreads, and it’s an advantage for all.”

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[End of Part 1.]

Transcript

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[Jeff Bridges]

Morning Zoe Got donuts.

[Dana]

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[Jeff Bridges]

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[Oprah Winfrey]

Data 1H2025 Visit T mobile.com I'm Oprah Winfrey. Welcome to Super Soul Conversations, the podcast. I believe that one of the most valuable gifts you can give yourself is time. Taking time to be more fully present. Your journey to become more inspired and connected to the deeper world around us starts right now. Best selling author Shawn Accor says that while many of us believe we're either born happy or not, his research has proven that we all have the power to become happier people. Born in Waco, Texas in 1978 to an English teacher mom and a neuroscientist dad, it looked like Shawn was going to follow in his father's footsteps from an early age. After high school, Shawn left home to attend Harvard on a military scholarship. And after studying religion as an undergrad, he was inspired to continue his studies at Harvard's Divinity School. There he Became fascinated with the big questions in life. Why we love, why we wake up in the morning, and how we discover meaning and purpose. He was introduced to an emerging field called positive psychology, which, simply put, is the study of happiness. Shawn was hooked and was tapped to help develop and teach the most popular class at Harvard, known on campus as the happiness class. Today, Shawn travels the world training people and professionals on how to rewire their brains to become more positive. He is the author of four books, including the bestsellers the Happiness Advantage, and his latest, Before Happiness. What began as an experimental college course is now at the heart of Shawn's inspiring work. When I heard that there was a course at Harvard, not just a course, but the most popular course at Harvard, and it was on happiness, I was thinking, gosh, I would either like to be in that class or teach that class. And you were one of the teachers of that class.

[Shawn Achor]

I got to be both, Right?

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yes.

[Shawn Achor]

It was incredible. We didn't know how many people would come. It ended up. We got one out of every six Harvard students ended up taking this class on Harvard.

[Oprah Winfrey]

One out of every six.

[Shawn Achor]

It was more popular than economics, which is incredible, right?

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah. Which is why people are going to Harvard.

[Shawn Achor]

Exactly. Right?

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yes.

[Shawn Achor]

But what it taught us was that success wasn't leading directly to happiness, that you could be incredibly intelligent, but that happiness was something that you had to cultivate in a completely different way. And that oftentimes we've been taught calculus and we've been taught multiple languages, but we hadn't been taught about how you deepen optimism or how you deepen social connection.

[Oprah Winfrey]

So is it a fact that everybody sort of has a baseline level of happiness, but that we can, with certain practices, up that baseline and be happier?

[Shawn Achor]

Well, it depends on who you talk to. So when we look at genes, when we look to see, you know, is happiness just based upon your genes? Well, the average person doesn't fight their genes very much. So whatever you're born with, basically, is how you end up being right. But what we're finding is that when we started doing this research in positive psychology, that if people change their habits, if they change their mindset, they could. They could move dramatically away from not only their genes, but their environment and their childhood as well, to actually have a different. A different life.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Okay, well, one of the things that you say in before happiness is that before you can actually be happy, you have to be able to define it for yourself. And what's interesting, as you know, I did 25 years of the Oprah Show.

[Shawn Achor]

Yes.

[Oprah Winfrey]

And I started to notice around the 90s, like when. Because I had my own, like, focus group at the end of every show.

[Shawn Achor]

Yeah.

[Oprah Winfrey]

And so when I would ask people, what do you really want? People would stand up and say, I just want to be happy. And I'd say, what does that look like? People had trouble defining what it really looked like.

[Shawn Achor]

Right. One of the things I think is amazing, it's just as you're trying to change the discussion about how we define spirituality and God as we're talking about this, and I've seen it on so many of your shows, and Arianna Huffington is having the third metric. Let's redefine what success is. I think along with those, we've got to redefine happiness as well. Because if happiness just means pleasure, if it just means that we feel good in the present moment, pleasure is so short lived. Right. I eat a chocolate bar and then I feel bad about it five minutes later. So I might feel happy for a second, but it doesn't last. I studied at the Divinity School before getting into positive psychology. And one of the things that I saw there is that happiness was defined by the ancient Greeks as the joy that we feel striving for our potential.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Oh, tweetable moment.

[Shawn Achor]

I will say love this. It changes the way I love that.

[Oprah Winfrey]

When I read that, I went, that is what that is. It.

[Shawn Achor]

It changes the way we pursue happiness. Right. Because if.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Isn't that a great definition? Joy is joy. We feel striving towards our potential.

[Shawn Achor]

Yeah. Joy is something you can feel in the ups and downs of life. You can feel it even when things are not pleasurable. So I just.

[Oprah Winfrey]

So what's the difference between joy and happiness?

[Shawn Achor]

I think we need to redefine happiness so that they're linked. That the more that we think about happiness purely as pleasure, I think it causes us to pursue happiness the wrong way.

[Oprah Winfrey]

That's right. Because that pleasure comes, it goes, it leaves. You know, you go to the amusement park, you have a happy day, you get a bouquet of flowers from your bow. It's a happy moment, but it doesn't last.

[Shawn Achor]

Joy is inextricably linked to meaning. You can't pull those two apart from one another. Joy is something you feel with ups and downs of life, but it's also something we feel on the way to our potential to find who we are as a human being or to be an altruist or to be a parent or a teacher. But it's not something that happens once we hit that point. And I think that's the problem, we make two mistakes. Right. We think it's pleasure or we think that happiness is going to come once we've reached some plateau.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah.

[Shawn Achor]

It doesn't. Right. Like it's got to be linked to the way that we live our lives. We have to pursue that happiness in a completely different way.

[Oprah Winfrey]

So the joy you feel while striving towards your potential, is that true? I know you've lectured in over 50 countries.

[Shawn Achor]

That's right.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Different cultures respond to happiness differently.

[Shawn Achor]

They do, yeah, they do. I mean it's been amazing. I feel like I've had an incredible education after Harvard where going to visit these countries and hear about how farmers in Zimbabwe who had lost their lands. I came to talk to them about optimism and to listen to them. Incredibly optimistic people. And then I flew from Zurich speaking to Swiss bankers who didn't get their bonus once and were shattered. And what I realized was while we all come up with different definitions of happiness, I would like us to start changing the way that we define happiness. While we might have different definitions of happiness, the triggers for happiness are similar worldwide. It's a deep social connection. The breadth and depth and the meaning in our relationships is one of the greatest predictors of long term levels of happiness. We have meaning.

[Oprah Winfrey]

So in communities where people or in areas of the world where people have a strong sense of community, you have happier people.

[Shawn Achor]

Right.

[Oprah Winfrey]

And Sean, is it also based upon our expectation? Because you know, I've like you traveled in countries where people had nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing. And you see the children in the yard playing with two sticks. They don't even have a ball.

[Shawn Achor]

Right.

[Oprah Winfrey]

And they're laughing and they're so joyous. I don't understand it really.

[Shawn Achor]

I think what is it?

[Oprah Winfrey]

Because there isn't a great expectation, there are lower expectations.

[Shawn Achor]

I found people, you know, that are living in extreme poverty who, some of them are playing in the dirt and are very happy and some are sitting there bored and unhappy.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yes.

[Shawn Achor]

And what we found in this research, some of the top researchers in positive psychology found that only 10% of our long term levels of happiness is based upon the external world. 90% of our long term happiness is how your brain processes the world. We find ourselves in this beautiful day, this beautiful place we're in right now. How our brains process that changes how it affects us. And that's true when we're.

[Oprah Winfrey]

And it's also how we process everything.

[Shawn Achor]

Everything. And I want to, I think all this research in positive psychology comes down to this idea that happiness is not forced upon us by the external world, it's not forced upon us based upon your childhood or your genes even that happiness can be a choice.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah, absolutely. What is your own personal definition of happiness?

[Shawn Achor]

Well, I think the thing that I find that causes me the most happiness is the fact that I feel like that what I do matters to create more meaning, that I can see that things matter. I mean, we talked about this earlier, that I can actually be very successful. But if I don't enjoy it, if I'm not grateful for it, if I don't feel any of that, I don't experience any of that happiness, we should actually be in the happiest time in human history right now.

[Oprah Winfrey]

We should be.

[Shawn Achor]

If you're looking at the external world, we've got the fewest number of people dying from diseases, percentage wise, fewest number of people dying from war is a conflict. And yet we're not finding that it's leading to greater levels of happiness. We're finding elevated rates of depression, elevated rates of suicide.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Because we're chasing that bar, we're chasing that bar of success.

[Shawn Achor]

We're chasing happiness in the wrong way. And so what I'm hoping is people will start listening back to all these people who have been saying this all throughout time, that there are some things that really do lead us in a positive direction towards greater levels of happiness. And I think that what they're all saying is, is that this external world is great. We want to make it a better external world for other people. But that actually isn't the end of the story, that there's something more about the way that we perceive the world. There's something more of the connection that we feel with the meaning.

[Oprah Winfrey]

You know, this is true when you get still with yourself or even when you're not still, there's this nagging yearning that we all feel as humans. We all know that there's more to it than the day to day grind. There's more to it than just going through the motions of your life. There's more. There's more, there's more.

[Shawn Achor]

This is the reason I was so excited to come talk with you. Because with Super Soul Sunday, you've tapped into a hunger. People are starving for something that they feel like we've lost. And I think that people who see that there is that meaning out there, that their happiness levels rise as well, that their meaning in their life rises as well, they feel more connected to other people because what they're doing really matters.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah.

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[Jeff Bridges]

Morning Zoe. Got donuts.

[Dana]

Jeff Bridges why are you still living above our garage?

[Jeff Bridges]

Well I dig the mattress and I want to be in a T mobile commercial like you teach me so Dana.

[Dana]

Oh no, I'm not really prepared. I couldn't possibly at t mobile get the new iPhone 17 Pro on them. It's designed to be the most powerful iPhone yet and has the ultimate pro came camera system.

[Jeff Bridges]

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[Dana]

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[Jeff Bridges]

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[Dana]

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[Oprah Winfrey]

One of the things that you say is that they. Which I love, is that the opposite of happiness isn't unhappiness. The opposite of happiness is.

[Shawn Achor]

Is apathy.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Is apathy.

[Shawn Achor]

For so long, I thought unhappiness was bad, right? Yeah. And then people. People ask me all the time, so you study happiness, you go around the world, talk about happiness. I'm sure you get this as well. And are you ever unhappy? And yes, I am. But unhappiness, I find, actually motivates me sometimes make good changes. Like it tells me I'm not in the relationship I should be, or it tells me I need to start changing some of the patterns in my life.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Another one of the things that you say is that most people believe that if they work hard, they'll be successful and happiness will follow. Why do you say, I'm sure most of you all, we've grown up with that, right? We work hard and you do all the things you're supposed to do. You will be successful and happiness will follow. And you say that model is now broken.

[Shawn Achor]

It's broken and it's scientifically broken for two reasons. The first reason is that because success is a moving target, even if you hit success, you immediately change what success looks like for you. So when we tell our kids that, oh, once you do this, you'll be happy. Once you get into this school, you'll be happier. Once she loses weight, you'll be happy. All these types of things make us think it's gonna happen, and then it doesn't. It keeps getting pushed off for the future.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah. I call it the bigger towel theory, because when I first started out, I'd gone to a friend's house who was, you know, she had a trust fund. And I'd never known anybody who had a trust fund. And I saw her mom's linen closet, and they had these amazing towels. It looked like a linen store. So my goal was to get a linen closet with towels like that. And then what happens is, what happens is once you get those towels, they come out with bigger towels. Now they have not just towels, they have, like, bath sheets.

[Shawn Achor]

Yep. Yeah.

[Oprah Winfrey]

And now it's not just the bath sheets. It's the thread count on the sheets. So it keeps. Yeah, yeah. It keeps growing and growing.

[Shawn Achor]

They keep moving it because otherwise, once we had something really good happen, then we'd be happy for the rest of our lives.

[Oprah Winfrey]

That's right.

[Shawn Achor]

But I have to savor it. I have to do some things with it. Right. And that's the other side of it, is basically, when we study it, we find that your happiness levels don't actually move very much as your success rates rise. Yeah, but flip around the formula. If we change the way that we pursued happiness, here comes the key.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun.

[Shawn Achor]

This is it. This research is incredible. It says that being successful doesn't automatically make you happier, but being happier, being more positive, makes you more successful, makes you more successful.

[Oprah Winfrey]

This is so good. It's like in the old days where people thought having the high IQ and companies would hire people with a high iq.

[Shawn Achor]

Yes.

[Oprah Winfrey]

And I read this. And for happiness, they would hire people with a high iq. And then we found that people with a high IQ didn't necessarily make the best people for the job.

[Shawn Achor]

You're so right. So one of my favorite researchers.

[Oprah Winfrey]

I'm right because I read it in the book.

[Shawn Achor]

I love that. I didn't know it before then, but Marty Seligman at University of Pennsylvania, he started positive psychology in 1998, and he. He did this study where he found that at MetLife, amongst insurance salesmen, they found that the top 10% of insurance salesmen in terms of optimism, were outselling the other 90% by another 89%. It was extraordinary. And what we started learning was that intelligence only accounts for 25% of our job success. 75% of our successes in life, and not just about jobs, but within the working world. 75% of what causes our kids to be successful causes us to be successful is not about our intelligence and technical skills. It's how we process the world. It's our optimism, like the belief that our behavior really matters. It's our connections. Social connection is as predictive of how long we'll end up living as obesity, high blood pressure, and smoking.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Wow.

[Shawn Achor]

Which is incredible.

[Oprah Winfrey]

You mean real social connections, not just what we're tweeting to each other.

[Shawn Achor]

I get so many people that say because of television and because of social media, that the entire world is becoming less happy because we're disconnected. And I think the research doesn't hold that up. I mean, what it shows is how you use those is how they affect you.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah.

[Shawn Achor]

And I believe that the technology can actually dramatically deepen social connection if we use it the right way.

[Oprah Winfrey]

If we use it the right way.

[Shawn Achor]

Right.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Are there people who are born happy?

[Shawn Achor]

Yes.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Okay. Were you one of those people?

[Shawn Achor]

I think so, But I was also born, I believe, with genes for depression as well. So I'm optimistic by nature, but also went through a period of depression myself. And so part of what I think is just having a newborn myself, that one of the things I'm so excited about is he's born with genes that already predispose him to things. Predispose him to.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Sean has a newborn. His name is Leo. Leo. Leo.

[Shawn Achor]

Leo. So cute. He's wonderful. And I'm learning so much about happiness.

[Oprah Winfrey]

You know, I said, that's gonna be a happy baby.

[Shawn Achor]

Yeah. I'm married to a happiness researcher. He's forced to be happy.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Wow.

[Shawn Achor]

But what's interesting, he's already got genes that predispose him for different levels of intelligence or creativity or extroversion or obesity. And I believe some people are born where happiness is an easier choice than it is for some people. And what we're finding, though, that's where most people stop. And I think the thing that's revolutionary.

[Oprah Winfrey]

When people hear, my friend Gail is just a. She's a naturally happy person.

[Shawn Achor]

Right.

[Oprah Winfrey]

I am not. I think we all have our baselines, right?

[Shawn Achor]

We have our baseline.

[Oprah Winfrey]

And you can improve your baseline.

[Shawn Achor]

That's the revolution, right? That's the revolution.

[Oprah Winfrey]

I can be happier today.

[Shawn Achor]

You can, because what's amazing is we go back to it and say, well, this is how I was born, or this is my childhood, or this is what I've gone through. And what we find is that, yes, if you don't fight your genes, if you don't move away from your previous experiences, or if you're just defined by your environment, your happiness will be entirely your genes and your environment. But if we choose to do some simple things in our life, if we choose to do some of the things you've talked about before, about being grateful, if we create positive habits in our life, what we find is that choice for happiness starts becoming easier and easier and easier. The happiest people in the world, the top 10% of happiest people, are not happy all the time. Actually don't get to study people that are happy all the time, because that's a disorder, actually, to be happy all the time, if you're happy, because that's not normal. It's not normal.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Because to be Human. And be happy all the time.

[Shawn Achor]

You've got to feel even to be aware of the suffering that's going on in the world or the frustrations that people feel. It makes us human. It makes us compassionate and empathetic.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yes. Listen, I've been doing a lot of talking a lot of years. So when somebody comes up with something I hadn't heard.

[Shawn Achor]

Yeah.

[Oprah Winfrey]

That I can talk to them about in a setting like this. It's so exciting. Something particularly as profound as for years, you all have all heard it. Is the glass half empty or the glass half full? And I beat myself up because sometimes I look at it and I go, it's definitely half empty, Right? Yeah. And some days it's half full. But what does it matter if you have. If you're saying, what does it matter if you have a picture nearby?

[Shawn Achor]

That's right. I think that there's a different way of even looking at this. And that's why we've been studying in positive psychology.

[Oprah Winfrey]

I love this. I love this. I love this.

[Shawn Achor]

I love this.

[Oprah Winfrey]

It doesn't matter if the glass is half full or half empty.

[Shawn Achor]

Yeah. Because we get so focused on the glass. Our entire brain is focused on the glass, whether it's half full and half full. We can argue forever and ever between optimists and pessimists and both can say that they're being unrealistic. But it doesn't matter if we could scan more of the world. If we looked at more of the world and saw that there's a pitcher of water that's sitting next to it. What I love about that is that positive psychology and spirituality. I think that what they're doing is.

[Oprah Winfrey]

What about the people who say, I don't have no picture?

[Shawn Achor]

I think that we do. I think that we do. The more we connect to other people around us.

[Oprah Winfrey]

You say the world itself is the picture.

[Shawn Achor]

Yeah.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Life is the picture.

[Shawn Achor]

The life is the picture. And we're missing the picture sometimes when we're so focused on that one element. But if we look for other ways, we can actually fill up that glass. And. And so I actually could care less about whether it's half full or half empty right now if I could fill it up. And so that's what we have. People start to look for, is how do I connect to other people around me? How do I believe my behavior?

[Oprah Winfrey]

Boy, that changed me. That's good. Oh, God, that's a good one.

[Shawn Achor]

Wonderful.

[Oprah Winfrey]

I could care less if it's half empty or half full.

[Shawn Achor]

Yes.

[Oprah Winfrey]

If you have the picture. To fill it up.

[Shawn Achor]

That's right. We just need to look for it. We need to be able to look and scan the world in a completely different way. And if we're starting to look for those things, we can start to not only fill up our glass, but allows us to fill up the glasses of other people around us.

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[Shawn Achor]

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[Shawn Achor]

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[Shawn Achor]

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[Oprah Winfrey]

Is so great for super solars around the world. You can be happier after this show today.

[Shawn Achor]

Absolutely.

[Oprah Winfrey]

And by the end of the show we're going to actually talk to you about. And I've tried them.

[Shawn Achor]

Yes.

[Oprah Winfrey]

I mean actually I do three out of the five you recommended. But now and just today I added one. It was amazing.

[Shawn Achor]

Right.

[Oprah Winfrey]

If you actually do these five things you get happier.

[Shawn Achor]

Yes.

[Oprah Winfrey]

There are people who are happy like Gayle who's who just sees the world through my friend Gayle sees the world through sort of colored lenses. I don't, but I have a baseline of contentment.

[Shawn Achor]

Yes.

[Oprah Winfrey]

So Is happiness and contentment the same thing?

[Shawn Achor]

I think that they're connected and it depends if contentment is just I'm okay and resilient in the present. I think that it misses out on the positive side of the curve sometimes.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah, I'd like to be happier actually.

[Shawn Achor]

Yeah. Because I feel like we focus so much on resilience. But you can eliminate all the negatives in your life. You can eliminate all those bad things, get rid of all the baggage and problems, and you're still not a positive yet. Right. Like the absence of disease is not health. The absence of these negative doesn't necessarily make us more positive. What I want is we want to be resilient, but I think we also want to feel that joy that starts to emanate out to other people more and more where we actually have this overflowing of it so that it causes other people to choose to be happier as well.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah. Okay, so everybody, you've been waiting to get happier. You say that there's actually happiness hygiene. Just like we have a certain amount of sleep that makes us function well. Eating the right food makes us feel better. Brushing our teeth obviously makes us feel better and not offend other people. That there is also happiness hygiene. So what are the principles for happiness hygiene?

[Shawn Achor]

So it actually just takes one thing.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Happiness habits.

[Shawn Achor]

Yeah. We need to create a single positive change in our life that shows us that our behavior matters. So what I was looking for is if we brush our teeth for two minutes a day, we know we do that because we want to be healthier, because it makes us live longer or something like that. Right. Same thing is true with all this research we've been doing in positive psychology for over a decade. That what we found is we can actually take somebody's wiring or their genes or their environment and we can raise their levels of happiness up if we can get them to do even something as simple as a two minute habit for 21 days.

[Oprah Winfrey]

A two minute habit. Now, if you're not willing to give.

[Shawn Achor]

It two minutes a day, two minutes, that's it.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Two minutes.

[Shawn Achor]

But we give so much to happiness all the time striving for it, we do it the wrong way, Right?

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah. Okay, so this is going to be the right way.

[Shawn Achor]

Well, here's some of the things we found that work that are so powerful that they trump even your genes in your environment.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Okay, hold that thought as I ask this question because I'm so excited my brain's doing this. Okay. I've read where you say in before happiness that sometime a Simple smile. Now people say that, oh, just smile. And it changes your brain chemistry. Does it?

[Shawn Achor]

It does really?

[Oprah Winfrey]

Well, we started this campaign with a magazine with just say hello. Because if you just said hello to people, because sometimes people are so lonely, right? That would make a difference in their day. And yours just saying hello.

[Shawn Achor]

And it shows you how much power you have, right? Because I talked to this guy who he said he moved into a neighborhood and everyone used to wave and then no one waves anymore. So he describes it as, here's what the world's doing to me. But what we got him to do was just a wave. So we have him wave and say hello to other people. And people are learning, this is the social script. This is how I'm supposed to treat other people in this neighborhood. So now he says everyone waves and says hello.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Okay, so let's go back to the two minutes.

[Shawn Achor]

Okay?

[Oprah Winfrey]

Okay.

[Shawn Achor]

So we found something as simple. This is some of the work that was originally done by Martin Seligman. Originally, they found that if you woke up every morning and practiced saying three things you were grateful for. New, they have to be new each day. You have to come up with new things you're grateful for.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Right.

[Shawn Achor]

They found if you did this for 21 days, even people who were testing as low level pessimists, on average, we're now testing as low level optimal 21 days later. Now, that doesn't sound that huge. But here's the amazing thing. We can do this with 84 year old men with genes for pessimism. Not that all 84 year old men are pessimists, but we found some that were. And if you do this for 21 days, what we find is that even if you practice pessimism for eight decades of your life, even if you were born with genes for pessimism, when people practice these, I would never guess before this research that literally two minutes could trump your genes and your environment.

[Oprah Winfrey]

So you just do it for two minutes each day.

[Shawn Achor]

Less than two minutes.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Less than two minutes. I have found this, that gratitude changes your vibrational frequency in the world. So you're saying the same thing.

[Shawn Achor]

That's exactly what we're finding.

[Oprah Winfrey]

The research, it literally changes what you draw to yourself. It changes your outlook. Gratitude changes your vibrational frequency.

[Shawn Achor]

That's exactly it. Because you're constructing a world based upon the facts you have. And if you're looking at all the negative facts, you've got a negative world. But if you're looking for the things you're grateful for, you've got A world that your behavior matters. Right. And that's what happens when you do these happiness habits.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Okay, so two minutes of gratitude.

[Shawn Achor]

Two minutes of gratitude.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Two minutes, 21 days.

[Shawn Achor]

For 21 days, another thing you could do is think of one meaningful experience you had over the past 24 hours. One meaningful thing that's happened to you. It doesn't have to be huge. It could be something like a conversation or a sunshine or somebody held a door open for you, held up a door, something meaningful. And in two minutes, you just write down every detail you can remember. And the reason for that is you're trying to get your brain to relive the experience. We can't tell much difference between visualization and actual experience. When we journal about the meaningful experience, we literally double it. And if you do it for 21 days, it creates this connection between that meaning in our life. We actually find a trajectory of meaning running throughout our lives. They sound like tips or tricks, but they're actually the building blocks of how human beings can change.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah. Another one of the suggestions I like that you bring up in for happiness is the sending a thank you to someone. Like emailing someone.

[Shawn Achor]

Yes. We love this one. So we got to work with a couple social media major companies and we had them write a two minute email every morning. I hope everyone will do this today. Write a two minute email or tweet or Facebook message or text message praising or thanking one person. You know, it's so simple. Two minutes is usually two or three sentences and you do it a different person for 21 days. What we found, first of all, it makes you happy immediately when you do it. But the reason is great is 21 days later, when we ask you about your social connection, the breadth and depth of your relationships, you have incredibly deep social support. And social support, as I was mentioning, is as predictive of how long we'll live as obesity, high blood pressure, and smoking. And we fight so hard against the negative and we forget to tell people how powerful a 2 minute positive email could be.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Does it have to be an email? Can you make a phone call?

[Shawn Achor]

Phone calls are even better. Even better. Face to face. That eye contact. Oh, well, yeah, but that's. I mean, that's the honors class.

[Oprah Winfrey]

That's honors. Okay. What else could we do?

[Shawn Achor]

So we know exercise, 15 minutes of fun, mindful cardio activity trains your brain to believe your behavior matters. So when people exercise, we talk about endorphins, but endorphins are just short term. It's pleasure.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Right.

[Shawn Achor]

But the reason why exercise is Valuable is it trains your brain to believe my behavior matters, which is optimism, which causes you to create an entire constellation of positive habits around your body.

[Oprah Winfrey]

That's right.

[Shawn Achor]

Meditation. We've been doing this.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Oh, meditation.

[Shawn Achor]

Big, Huge. And you've had some absolute experts. Come on. What I do and what I'm trying to do in this research is keep the bar as low as possible possible.

[Oprah Winfrey]

We're not asking you for 20 minutes of TM.

[Shawn Achor]

Yes.

[Oprah Winfrey]

You're just saying. And Adi Ashanti said this recently. Can you. The more time you can spend in stillness or silence with yourself, you're just going to have exponential benefits.

[Shawn Achor]

It's exactly it. I would love people to do this more and more. I would love myself to do this more and more. For me, meditation's hard because I feel like I have developed cultural attention deficits disorder where because we have so much stimulation, I feel like I have trouble focusing on things for very long. So when I try to meditate, my brain gets so scattered. I hear so many people say I can't meditate because my brain goes everywhere.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah.

[Shawn Achor]

But what I think what we really want is when somebody practice. Here's what we found. For two minutes, watching their breath go in and out, literally two minutes. It gave their brain a new pattern where I'm going to try, instead of multitasking to single task, their accuracy rates improved, but their happiness levels improved. Stress dropped. And amazingly, the stress of the people around them dropped as well. It starts to cause this chain reaction to other people, creating that ripple effect. And what we find with all five of those habits is that all of them create a positive ripple effect to other people, which is amazing.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Which brings us to the conclusion here. You say a decade of research on happiness comes down to three conclusions. What are they?

[Shawn Achor]

Scientifically, happiness can be a choice.

[Oprah Winfrey]

It's a choice.

[Shawn Achor]

Happiness spreads. When we choose happiness, it actually makes it easier for other people to choose happiness. And that happiness is actually an advantage. When we create happiness and positivity in the present, we're better at making a better world for other people. Afterwards, we wait for success. It just doesn't work.

[Oprah Winfrey]

I'm so much happier now.

[Shawn Achor]

Thank you. Wonderful. Me too.

[Oprah Winfrey]

I'm Oprah Winfrey and you've been listening to Super Soul Conversations, the podcast. You can follow Super Soul on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. If you haven't yet, go to Apple Podcasts and subscribe rate and review this podcast. Join me next week for another Super Soul Conversation. Thank you for listening.

[Dana]

Check out the new season of Reasonable Doubt, now Streaming on Hulu, L.A. s most successful attorney, Jack Stewart, defends a young actor accused of murder. Follow Emayatsi Coronaldi, Morris Chestnut, Joseph Sakura, and guest stars Kash Doll and Lori Harvey as they fight their personal battles in the spotlight of the year's most sensational trial. In the pursuit of justice, every move counts. Reasonable Doubt, Season 3, now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney for bundle subscribers. Terms apply.

[Oprah Winfrey]

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