Matthieu Ricard, 69, is a Tibetan Buddhist monk originally from France who has been called "the world's happiest man."
Here's his advice for how to be happy:
- Stop thinking 'me, me, me'
- Start training your mind like you'd train to run a marathon
- Just spend 15 continuous minutes a day thinking happy thoughts
And if you do that training every day, even just two weeks later you can feel positive mental results. And if you practice that for 50 years like Ricard has, you can become a happiness pro too. That's backed up by neuro-scientists, by the way. Davidson found in his study that even 20 minutes of daily meditation can make people much happier overall.
"The mind is malleable," Mr Ricard told The Independent on Sunday yesterday. "Our life can be greatly transformed by even a minimal change in how we manage our thoughts and perceive and interpret the world. Happiness is a skill. It requires effort and time."