Wednesday, October 8, 2008

The Happiness Hypothesis

A story that was told by my ex boss, a story of 'the rider' and 'the elephant.'



Jon Haidt in The Happiness Hypothesis suggests the metaphor of a rider on an elephant for how we live life. The rider is our conscious thoughts (and emotions). The elephant is our unconscious emotions (and thoughts).



An example: Its 7 am and your alarm is ringing. you(the rider) know u have to wake up to report to work at 8.30am. But you( the elephant.) simply just press the alarm and go back to sleep. How do we work in harmony with our elephant? Train your elephant?


2 comments:

Unknown said...

Yes, I remember the story!!

The story that made us all go back with a question mark inside our head... hahaha...

slegna said...

yes this is very deep.
i am also left with a question mark in my head.

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