At the ‘Happiness and its Causes’ conference

It’s not often that we take the time out to really sit back and think about the way we are leading our lives. Most of us are way too busy with the doing, the earning, the buying… And never really allow ourselves the opportunity to just listen, think and learn.

I was lucky enough to go to the ‘Happiness and its Causes’ Conference last week in Sydney. I loved the title right off the bat. It didn’t assume that happiness just happened, was just something we either had or didn’t, but that we should look more carefully at it, and what its causes are.

The format of the conference was perfect for the subject matter too. One giant room with a few thousand people inside, and a new speaker onstage every 15 or so minutes. No choosing, no running around from room to room, and everyone walked on stage to their own boppy theme music.

The speakers were from all over the world, and were amazingly diverse. Among them were the first lady of Tibet, Kirsty Sword Gusmao, Naomi Wolf of ‘The Beauty Myth’ fame, Gretel Killeen from Big Brother, neurologists, survivors of some horrific events, journalists, writers and so on and so on. A chef cooked for us while talking of her great love of food and feeding her family and friends, a hiphop performance put into dance the message from the kids at Street University, and volunteers gently ushered us around the place between food breaks. I was able to sit in on a 3 hour workshop with Dr Edward De Bono, creator of the ‘six hats’ method of thinking and problem solving. The guy knows his stuff!

There was a festival on at the same time, where you could participate in laughter yoga (hilarious!) or watch the Tibetan monks create (and dissolve) their beautiful Madala.

What I liked the best was that not everyone agreed. Each person had their own message, their own take on ‘happy’ and how to get it, and no one assumed they knew better than the other.

I’m really not usually the gushy smiley type, but this conference truly did blow me away, made me think and energised me. It gave me the time I needed to think about things, and hear how others were dealing with their lives.

I can’t remember which speaker presented the below quote, but I loved it! If you get the chance to go to next year’s conference in Brisbane (hosted by the Dalai Lama) I would wholeheartedly recommend it. I will hopefully be there again too!

The Two Wolves

A Cherokee elder was teaching his grandchildren about life.

He said to them, “A fight is going on inside me… it is a terrible fight between two wolves. One wolf represents fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, hatefulness, and lies. The other stands for joy, peace, love, hope, humbleness, kindness, friendship, generosity, faith, and truth. This same fight is going on inside of you, and inside every other person, too.”

The children thought about it for a minute. Then one child asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”

The Cherokee elder replied…

“The one you feed.”