In the “What I’ve Learned” podcast, Arianna Huffington sits down with people she loves and admires, in fields from music and technology to sports and business, to explore the lessons they’ve learned over the extraordinary past year about themselves, their lives, and what they truly value.
This week, Jay Shetty, teacher, purpose coach, former monk, and author of the number one best seller, Think Like a Monk joins Arianna to share what he’s learned about happiness, purpose, and why we should all aspire to the monk mindset.
On the benefits of seeking purpose:
“As a monk, we were taught not to seek happiness and enjoyment. We were trained instead to seek purpose and service. The beautiful thing about purpose, meaning, and service is that there’s never a year or day that you can’t find them. There will be plenty of days and even years in your life where happiness and enjoyment may escape you. But actually, purpose and meaning and service are far more enjoyable, and bring more deep happiness in the long term.”
On getting to the bottom of his fears about his family:
“When the pandemic started, my biggest fear was, ‘Oh no, I won’t be able to see my parents in London.’ And then I asked myself, ‘Well, why am I scared of that?’ And I was scared because I thought, ‘Oh, I won’t get to be with them this year.’ And then I asked myself, ‘Why am I scared of that?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, I’m scared of that because I won’t get to tell them I loved them and how much they mean to me.’ So the honest answer at the root, when I kept asking myself ‘why,’ was that I don’t tell them I love them enough right now.”
On the value of stillness in our lives:
“I think stillness is an internal thing. I don’t think it needs to be an external thing. I often think about Formula 1 drivers. Lewis Hamilton is driving over 200 miles per hour, but he’s still and has to be even more still internally to be able to approach each corner and to approach each lap. And I think that’s what all of us have to be. That our lives externally will always move fast. There will always be new opportunities and new challenges, but just like that Formula 1 racer, we remain grounded and seated and centered… When you find your stillness in your day, you can move fast for the rest of the day from that space that you’re carrying within you.”
To hear more from Jay, listen to this full episode of “What I’ve Learned,” available wherever you get your podcasts.