What is happiness, and how can we all get some? In this video, a French scientist turned Buddhist monk answers these questions.

Matthieu Ricard has devoted his life to studying this subject, and his answer blends elements of faith and science: We can train our minds in habits of happiness.

Video - TED: Habits of Happiness

As soon as I saw this, it made me want to do two things: take up meditation, and go to Tibet.

I got 2 days into meditation, then my recurring problem came up. Time. There’s always something more important — pressing, concrete things that need doing. “How can I just sit here thinking, when there’s all this work on my desk?” And the fact that I’m an unskilled meditator makes it seem all the more like totally wasted time.

But hey - if this is the key to happiness, what could be more important? Could it really be this easy — something that everyone in the world could learn with a bit of training and practice? Surely if this guy is known as the “happiest man in the world”, he must know something I don’t! Maybe I’ll get back to meditating soon…