I am tired of posters everywhere I go
every doctor’s office professors desk
waiting room classroom every place that
I go they follow me shoot for the moon
and even if you miss you’ll land among
the stars don’t be afraid to be
different do what makes you happy but
they don’t tell you is that if you miss
the moon you’ll die within seconds in
the vacuum of space if everyone just
focused on being different then we’d all
just be hipsters and do what makes you
happy
look these phrases are simple and catchy
and yet repeated endlessly until I can
no longer quite remember what they once
meant I’m sick of these posters showed
down our throats at every occasion every
convocation and celebration a
culmination of an entire generations
worth of brainwashing these grains of
truth turned into meaningless adages
hiding behind frames
stock images is this what I’ve come to
I’ve spent so much of my life trying to
be happy
told to do what I love and to love every
moment and yet I find myself on this
treadmill of goals and wishes that just
goes on and on and on and on wondering
why I’m not able to reach that trophy
that I so desperately crave not
realizing that it’s literally two steps
in front of me in front of this machine
that I can’t seem to turn off we are
taught that happiness comes from
defining who you are from following your
passions as if happiness is just some
hedonistic reward for being unique and
different completely ignoring the
meaning the purpose the importance that
comes behind sacrifice giving pain for
it’s only when we’ve lost ourselves that
we stand to gain
everything we’ve become so obsessed with
passion that we’ve forgotten about
compassion
so was self-centered that we’ve lost our
ability to just center ourselves I’m
done with these posters I’m over being
told to keep running I’m ready to turn
off this treadmill I’m here hello
everyone my name is Suraj and I’m a
writer a student here at Georgia Tech
and perhaps most meaningful to me an
instructor for a form of meditation
called heartfulness what you just heard
was a spoken word poem that I wrote a
year ago called posters for so long I’ve
felt immersed in a culture that is
obsessed with happiness has a campus and
the generation we are constantly being
told to do what makes us happy and to
follow our passions and yet despite
being in an era that’s arguably more
connected more comfortable and more
affluent than ever before
so many of us including myself have
found ourselves feeling empty and
unfulfilled over 300 million people in
the world suffer from depression which
is the leading cause of disability
worldwide why is that why it despite
this constant narrative to be happy am i
not that’s the question that I asked
myself what is it that I haven’t figured
out first I had replaced happiness with
pleasure if I look back at the moments
of my life where I consider myself to be
happy they really fall into two
categories there are the exhilarating
moments like where I got my first
PlayStation 2 or went to the music music
Midtown with for music festival over the
weekend with my friend
or I won my first high school debate
competition
these moments were these exhilarating
Heights and then almost inevitably
followed by an equally extreme low the
second kind of moment are more subtle
like the time where I first held my baby
cousin and I was terrified of letting
him go but he held on to me or the smile
that I would get at the front desk every
time I walked past the front doors of my
internship these moments felt like they
were giving me a sense of joy that could
last forever neurologically speaking the
exhilarating moments can be explained by
dopamine a pleasure hormone that gets
triggered every time that we achieve a
goal or talk about our accomplishments
they are almost like a sugar rush where
you get that high and then inevitably
have that crash the more subtle moments
can be explained by oxytocin or
serotonin which are triggered every time
that we engage in in an unselfish act
like charity or a behavior of trusts and
bonding they may not give us that
exhilarating high but they give us they
lift our moods and they tend to last
much longer for me I had almost wholly
replaced happiness with those
exhilarating moments I remember my first
year in college I dreaded having to come
back to my dorm room because I’d be
having so much fun on campus exploring
events around town and having fun with
my friends but I knew that inevitable
crash was a meet awaiting me at the
moment I would go back into my dorm
second I made happiness about myself I
still remember when I was small and
whenever I would have a nightmare or
growing pains my mom would hear me cry
in the middle of the night and then just
rush over to make sure that everything
was okay in those moments at 2:00 a.m.
in the morning my mom was definitely not
happy having to sit with me press my
feet give me water and just lay down
next to me until I could go to sleep I’m
sure no parent enjoys having to be
sleep-deprived because their child is
waking up again and again in the night
but in that moment no matter how cranky
or unhappy that my mom was she came and
it was out of love for years I’ve had
these days where we have existential
crisis or after existential crisis
thinking about Who am I and am I really
happy and last year when I found myself
in the similar situation sinking deeper
and deeper until a hole of self-doubt
the most unexpected thing helped pull me
out of it was gardening I started with a
few seeds and some pots of soil out in
my balcony and it was amazing because
for the first time in my life when I
woke up in the morning my first thought
wasn’t oh my gosh I want to go back to
sleep or how dreadful is my day gonna be
today my first thought was how are my
plans doing how can I water them have
they grown yet that simple act of
tending to this garden was helping to
pull me out of the self-obsession
and really add perspective to my life
and my own struggles in a way happiness
became no longer about just myself and
this move from ourselves to others is
further confirmed by a study at Harvard
conducted by a dr. Michael Norton
two groups one told to spend $20 on
themselves and another told to spend $20
on themselves inevitably the group that
spent $20 on other people reported
consistently higher levels of happiness
and thus a concept of pro-social giving
been further confirmed by other studies
to have longer lasting positive health
benefits beyond just feelings of
connection or that incremental mood
boost but then the question arises why
do so many of us spend a majority of our
resources on ourselves and not others
finally I was caught on this treadmill I
in the past four years that I’ve been
meditating and the last two years that
I’ve been an instructor a question that
I often get asked and I’ve even asked
myself is if I feel content
how will I accomplish anything what will
happen to him my mission as if feeling
fulfilled and still aspiring to improve
are completely different and
incompatible as a result I found myself
falling into this trap of if only I
if only my friend would apologize if
only my parents would let me go to that
party if only I can get into the right
college then get the right grade on this
test then get the right internship the
right job at the right location and
before you know it you get lost in the
cycle and implicit in that statement is
always if only I get X then I’ll be
happy then everything will be okay in
the words of the happiest man in the
world a 71 year old Buddhist monk named
Matthew Ricard
happiness is not the endless pursuit of
a Secession of experiences that’s more a
recipe for exhaustion than happiness
happiness is a way of being for me this
is the role of meditation I’ve spent so
much of my life being conditioned by
external factors telling me that in
order to be happy and finally get there
I just have to keep working and working
and working outside of myself not
realizing the importance of just
pausing letting myself unravel and
expanding my understanding of the
situation beyond the chaos of that
moment when we want to get to know
someone and the conversation is going
really well
what do we do we put away our phones and
our distractions we give that person in
our full attention and we just listen
meditation is an opportunity to do the
same with yourself where you put away
distractions you take a pause relax
give yourself your full attention and
you just listen to what your heart has
to say
the more that I’ve done this the more
that I find myself letting that state of
calm and of balance become a way of
being and this just isn’t my experience
studies from UCLA Harvard Yale and
universities across the world are
finding how a daily meditation practice
doesn’t just help lift your mood or
reduce your stress but also physically
changes your minds in ways that make
these changes more positive and
longer-lasting the most important thing
is that you don’t have to wait until you
have a weekend to go to the mountains
meditation is something that you can do
anywhere at any time
I did it before the two tests that I had
today I did it before this event I’ve
done it in the middle of an airport
because I know that no matter where I am
and no matter how chaotic or how
peaceful my life is going it’s there for
me today with online courses mobile apps
and volunteer instructors across the
world meditation is more accessible than
ever all you have to do is give it a try
so going back to that question that I
asked myself why despite this constant
narrative of being happy
am I not for me I realized it was
because one I was making happiness all
about pleasure I had made happiness all
about myself and I was caught on this
treadmill my personal discovery was that
getting off the treadmill means shifting
away from those seeing happiness as
those exhilarating moments shifting the
focus away from just yourself to
including others whether it’s people in
your community or a few plants in your
balcony and ultimately using meditation
as a tool to help achieve that state of
balance
become that way of being ultimately my
hope is that we can screw being told to
find happiness to pursue that endless
secession of experiences that each one
of us can say we’re done running on our
treadmills and that we’re ready to just
be here thank you
[Applause]
every doctor’s office professors desk
waiting room classroom every place that
I go they follow me shoot for the moon
and even if you miss you’ll land among
the stars don’t be afraid to be
different do what makes you happy but
they don’t tell you is that if you miss
the moon you’ll die within seconds in
the vacuum of space if everyone just
focused on being different then we’d all
just be hipsters and do what makes you
happy
look these phrases are simple and catchy
and yet repeated endlessly until I can
no longer quite remember what they once
meant I’m sick of these posters showed
down our throats at every occasion every
convocation and celebration a
culmination of an entire generations
worth of brainwashing these grains of
truth turned into meaningless adages
hiding behind frames
stock images is this what I’ve come to
I’ve spent so much of my life trying to
be happy
told to do what I love and to love every
moment and yet I find myself on this
treadmill of goals and wishes that just
goes on and on and on and on wondering
why I’m not able to reach that trophy
that I so desperately crave not
realizing that it’s literally two steps
in front of me in front of this machine
that I can’t seem to turn off we are
taught that happiness comes from
defining who you are from following your
passions as if happiness is just some
hedonistic reward for being unique and
different completely ignoring the
meaning the purpose the importance that
comes behind sacrifice giving pain for
it’s only when we’ve lost ourselves that
we stand to gain
everything we’ve become so obsessed with
passion that we’ve forgotten about
compassion
so was self-centered that we’ve lost our
ability to just center ourselves I’m
done with these posters I’m over being
told to keep running I’m ready to turn
off this treadmill I’m here hello
everyone my name is Suraj and I’m a
writer a student here at Georgia Tech
and perhaps most meaningful to me an
instructor for a form of meditation
called heartfulness what you just heard
was a spoken word poem that I wrote a
year ago called posters for so long I’ve
felt immersed in a culture that is
obsessed with happiness has a campus and
the generation we are constantly being
told to do what makes us happy and to
follow our passions and yet despite
being in an era that’s arguably more
connected more comfortable and more
affluent than ever before
so many of us including myself have
found ourselves feeling empty and
unfulfilled over 300 million people in
the world suffer from depression which
is the leading cause of disability
worldwide why is that why it despite
this constant narrative to be happy am i
not that’s the question that I asked
myself what is it that I haven’t figured
out first I had replaced happiness with
pleasure if I look back at the moments
of my life where I consider myself to be
happy they really fall into two
categories there are the exhilarating
moments like where I got my first
PlayStation 2 or went to the music music
Midtown with for music festival over the
weekend with my friend
or I won my first high school debate
competition
these moments were these exhilarating
Heights and then almost inevitably
followed by an equally extreme low the
second kind of moment are more subtle
like the time where I first held my baby
cousin and I was terrified of letting
him go but he held on to me or the smile
that I would get at the front desk every
time I walked past the front doors of my
internship these moments felt like they
were giving me a sense of joy that could
last forever neurologically speaking the
exhilarating moments can be explained by
dopamine a pleasure hormone that gets
triggered every time that we achieve a
goal or talk about our accomplishments
they are almost like a sugar rush where
you get that high and then inevitably
have that crash the more subtle moments
can be explained by oxytocin or
serotonin which are triggered every time
that we engage in in an unselfish act
like charity or a behavior of trusts and
bonding they may not give us that
exhilarating high but they give us they
lift our moods and they tend to last
much longer for me I had almost wholly
replaced happiness with those
exhilarating moments I remember my first
year in college I dreaded having to come
back to my dorm room because I’d be
having so much fun on campus exploring
events around town and having fun with
my friends but I knew that inevitable
crash was a meet awaiting me at the
moment I would go back into my dorm
second I made happiness about myself I
still remember when I was small and
whenever I would have a nightmare or
growing pains my mom would hear me cry
in the middle of the night and then just
rush over to make sure that everything
was okay in those moments at 2:00 a.m.
in the morning my mom was definitely not
happy having to sit with me press my
feet give me water and just lay down
next to me until I could go to sleep I’m
sure no parent enjoys having to be
sleep-deprived because their child is
waking up again and again in the night
but in that moment no matter how cranky
or unhappy that my mom was she came and
it was out of love for years I’ve had
these days where we have existential
crisis or after existential crisis
thinking about Who am I and am I really
happy and last year when I found myself
in the similar situation sinking deeper
and deeper until a hole of self-doubt
the most unexpected thing helped pull me
out of it was gardening I started with a
few seeds and some pots of soil out in
my balcony and it was amazing because
for the first time in my life when I
woke up in the morning my first thought
wasn’t oh my gosh I want to go back to
sleep or how dreadful is my day gonna be
today my first thought was how are my
plans doing how can I water them have
they grown yet that simple act of
tending to this garden was helping to
pull me out of the self-obsession
and really add perspective to my life
and my own struggles in a way happiness
became no longer about just myself and
this move from ourselves to others is
further confirmed by a study at Harvard
conducted by a dr. Michael Norton
two groups one told to spend $20 on
themselves and another told to spend $20
on themselves inevitably the group that
spent $20 on other people reported
consistently higher levels of happiness
and thus a concept of pro-social giving
been further confirmed by other studies
to have longer lasting positive health
benefits beyond just feelings of
connection or that incremental mood
boost but then the question arises why
do so many of us spend a majority of our
resources on ourselves and not others
finally I was caught on this treadmill I
in the past four years that I’ve been
meditating and the last two years that
I’ve been an instructor a question that
I often get asked and I’ve even asked
myself is if I feel content
how will I accomplish anything what will
happen to him my mission as if feeling
fulfilled and still aspiring to improve
are completely different and
incompatible as a result I found myself
falling into this trap of if only I
if only my friend would apologize if
only my parents would let me go to that
party if only I can get into the right
college then get the right grade on this
test then get the right internship the
right job at the right location and
before you know it you get lost in the
cycle and implicit in that statement is
always if only I get X then I’ll be
happy then everything will be okay in
the words of the happiest man in the
world a 71 year old Buddhist monk named
Matthew Ricard
happiness is not the endless pursuit of
a Secession of experiences that’s more a
recipe for exhaustion than happiness
happiness is a way of being for me this
is the role of meditation I’ve spent so
much of my life being conditioned by
external factors telling me that in
order to be happy and finally get there
I just have to keep working and working
and working outside of myself not
realizing the importance of just
pausing letting myself unravel and
expanding my understanding of the
situation beyond the chaos of that
moment when we want to get to know
someone and the conversation is going
really well
what do we do we put away our phones and
our distractions we give that person in
our full attention and we just listen
meditation is an opportunity to do the
same with yourself where you put away
distractions you take a pause relax
give yourself your full attention and
you just listen to what your heart has
to say
the more that I’ve done this the more
that I find myself letting that state of
calm and of balance become a way of
being and this just isn’t my experience
studies from UCLA Harvard Yale and
universities across the world are
finding how a daily meditation practice
doesn’t just help lift your mood or
reduce your stress but also physically
changes your minds in ways that make
these changes more positive and
longer-lasting the most important thing
is that you don’t have to wait until you
have a weekend to go to the mountains
meditation is something that you can do
anywhere at any time
I did it before the two tests that I had
today I did it before this event I’ve
done it in the middle of an airport
because I know that no matter where I am
and no matter how chaotic or how
peaceful my life is going it’s there for
me today with online courses mobile apps
and volunteer instructors across the
world meditation is more accessible than
ever all you have to do is give it a try
so going back to that question that I
asked myself why despite this constant
narrative of being happy
am I not for me I realized it was
because one I was making happiness all
about pleasure I had made happiness all
about myself and I was caught on this
treadmill my personal discovery was that
getting off the treadmill means shifting
away from those seeing happiness as
those exhilarating moments shifting the
focus away from just yourself to
including others whether it’s people in
your community or a few plants in your
balcony and ultimately using meditation
as a tool to help achieve that state of
balance
become that way of being ultimately my
hope is that we can screw being told to
find happiness to pursue that endless
secession of experiences that each one
of us can say we’re done running on our
treadmills and that we’re ready to just
be here thank you
[Applause]
Please follow and like us: