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TED Talks: Watch The 10 Best TED Talks For Finding Happiness In Your Life

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 20:54 PST, Feb 3, 2016

TED Talks inspire so many people, but certainly happiness makes the world go round – or was that money? No, it is indeed happiness and the following TED Talks are the most inspirational when it comes to proving that.

1. Learn Out Loud brings to the attention of the world some of the best TED Talks on happiness, but who would think that a talk about a stroke could relate to happiness in an inspiring way? Jill Bolte Taylor is able to do just that in her talk “Stroke of insight,” in which she tells about how her stroke brought her to a place of extreme bliss and how the human brain has the ability to define a person and connect them to the world.

2. What about the concept of Positive Psychology? Martin Seligman offers up one of the best TED Talks on happiness because he is opening the world to the concept of positive psychology, in which people can learn to go past what are considered the standard methods for seeking happiness and learn practices that will bring true meaning to life. Learned optimism is at the heart of it.

3. Dan Gilbert gives one of the best TED Talks on happiness in his talk called “Why are we happy? Why aren’t we happy?” The core of his talk is research that has proven that what people generally think will make them happy actually does the opposite. Humans also have the ability to think about the future, which allows us to better prepare for it and still be happy regardless of what happens.

4. Business Insider reveals that Dan Gilbert has given another of the best TED Talks on happiness, “The Surprising Science of Happiness.” (http://www.businessinsider.com.au/TED-talks-on-happiness-2014-8#harvard-psychologist-dan-gilbert-says-we-have-a-psychological-immune-system-1) It appears that happiness can come when people choose not to give in to misery.

5. Something as simple as not giving daily problems the weight most people do will lead to happier lives. Tania Luna gives on of the best TED Talks on happiness, “How a Penny Made Me Feel Like a Millionaire.” Her perspective comes from surviving Chernobyl with her family when she was a child.

6. All of these TED Talks on happiness and more are available on TED.com. One of the best of the TED talks on happiness is by David Steindl-Rast and it is simply called “Want to be happy? Be grateful.”

7. Graham Hill also gives one of the most powerful TED Talks on happiness, “Less stuff, more happiness.” Graham outlines life in less space and provides three rules that will allow anyone to edit their own life.

8. Matt Killingsworth contributes to TED Talks with “Want to be happier? Stay in the moment.” This talk reveals that people are happiest when they are lost in the present moment and can be least happy when their mind wanders.

9. Why does a country measure its success based on its productivity, rather than based on the happiness and wellbeing of the people who live there? This is a question Nic Marks asked and the topic of one of the best TED Talks on happiness, “The Happy Planet Index.” This Happy Planet Index is able to track national wellbeing against the use of resources and reveals which countries are ranked the highest.

10. Nancy Etcoff provides insight into happiness in her TED Talk “Happiness and its surprises.” She explores the ways that people try to achieve and create more happiness and how this is not attached to the real circumstances in their lives. She also explores the effects of this pursuit of happiness on the body.

[Composite image containing photos by Photos by Michael Loccisano, Gaye Gerard / Getty Images]

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