WOHASU Recap

Mei Xu - I am honored to have met US Surgeon General Dr. Marthy, who traveled to London last week to attend the World Happiness Summit. Listen to his interview with CNN’s Christian Amanpour on the alarming rate of loneliness in the US (40% of the population) and its particular impact on those born after 1997!

CNN’s Christiane Amanpour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hGTUVcpBc0

I was also present in person at the summit and spoke on how our sense of smell can help us make mind-body connections more easily during our busy days and use aroma to help our mental and physical health. I discussed this important topic with NIH’s Dr. Paule Joseph, who recently was selected to be the Co-Director of the Center for Smell.

Here are some lessons we learned from the summit and other speakers, including Dr. Marthy:

1: The US and many developed countries worldwide have seen over 40% of their population complaining of loneliness. Particularly alarming is the age group of those born after 1997.

2: While technology has been cited, and social media has been named, as the catalyst behind such a rising sense of loneliness, other factors, including working from home and increasingly busy schedules, are often additional reasons

3: All the experts at the summit also emphasized that well-being is something individuals can try to learn and practice to achieve, and there are certain underlying principles to well-being.

4: One is seeking friendships and maintaining constant contact with friends and families in good and bad times.

5: Another is finding a passion beyond work, looking for joy in satisfying one’s inner curiosity beyond work, which can help us find sources of excitement and longer-lasting happiness

6: Finding purpose, not just status symbols or financial goals, but purpose, in life often helps us choose the kind of paths that lead to more satisfaction in life

7: Happiness is wanting what you have; stress is wanting everything else than what you have (Professor Fred Luskin, Director of Stanford Forgiveness Project)

8: Forgiveness is the beginning of achieving happiness

9: Dr. Joseph and I also suggest to the participants that humans have an amazingly complex olfactory system from our evolution that is meant to impact our physiological and emotional well-being profoundly. Stopping and smelling the roses during our busy day, making a mind and body connection from time to time, and following our nose to happiness is what we at Blueme always promote.