WEBVTT 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is a great opportunity to share with you 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 somebody's experiences and some other things I learn 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 while making a film exploring the true causes of happiness. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The project started when a friend of mine called me on the phone 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and he said he read an article that morning 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in the New York Times about happiness 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and essentially the article said 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we're very rich country but not a very happy country. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We're number 23 on the list 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 no matter we have lots of money 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and this friend of mine..his name is Tom Shadiac 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 he is a guy in the right 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 he has make literally tens of millions of dollars 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 directing huge blockbuster Hollywood films 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 like the naughty professor, Bruce Almighty, liar liar, patch atoms 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He said," Look, I know what its like to have a lot of money 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and I hang up with people who are more wealthy than me 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 who are more talented,more successful 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 better looking...and many of them are not happy. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And in fact the people who sweep the floor in my house 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and who tend the garden on my estate 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 often have more a genuine smile on their faces 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 than the millionares 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that I work with everyday in Hollywood. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I said" I know what does us make happy 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I wanna know what does 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 so he suggested that we make a documentary film exploring happiness 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 he said ," Look, I am not the documentary and you are." 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 What do you think? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It sounds great. And he said," I'll happy pay for it." 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 What do you think about exploring happiness. Sounds it amazing. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I immediately got online and discovered a couple interesting things. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 One is that there's new science exploring happiness called positive psychology 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 which some people would heard of by now 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Its the first time really 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that the western science has looked 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 very acutely at the idea of human flourishing. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 For thousand of years we've studied what happened to people 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 who are having problems 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to mental illness and pathology 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But only recently do we study the other side of the spectrum. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And one of the exciting things that I learn kind of immediately 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 is that happiness is good for you. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Your immune system gets boosted 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You are more creative 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You have better relationships 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You are healthier and 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you even live longer. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And when I though of living long 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I was trying think who we'll gonna put 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in our movie beside the scientist 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I did not wanna make a movie of people talking about happiness 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I thought that it will really boring 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So I knew I wanted to find people who storage of life 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 could illustrate this scientific concept 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and I remember being a child 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and I love the guinness book of records 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 There was often the oldest person in the world 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 came from Japan. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And specifically from an island in the south called Okinawa. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And I remember that and I though 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Ok, if happy people get to become old 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 maybe a lot of this elderly people in Okinawa are happy. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And at that the time we couldn't find any research on it 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But because my producing partner is Japanese 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He said,"Look, I 'll get excuse to see my Mom 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 why don't we go and check it out. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So we went to Okinawa to find out 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 An absolutely beautiful place 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And the firt stop was at the community center. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And what we discovered among other things 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 is that its easy in Okinawa to feel tall. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That's me and my film maker friends in the back row 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Class picture I was never in the back row 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The other thing we learn is that this tradition of meeting 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in the community center has gone on for probably thousand of years 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It looks like a modern building now 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But they've been doing this 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 since it was grasp up with palm leaves on the roof. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And what I saw was crazy 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This people in their mid nineties 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 some were in the mid eighties 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but they were laughing and making jokes with each other 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and they were blasting a boom box 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It's a traditional Okinawan music 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But it was blasting just like any teenager bedroom would be on the weekend 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and I sort of don't like buying souvenirs when I travel 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 cause the world has enough crap in it 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and it just feels like a waste sometimes 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but I saw this women dancing 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 once they gets up and do this hula dance 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and I though," I wanna take that back," 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I wanna learn one of this dance steps 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 its kind of paying attention to one 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I was trying to figure out 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and then I looked at the other woman 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and she was doing a different steps 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It looks similar but different 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I couldn't figure out 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 so finally I said 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Hey, would you please teach me this dance step 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And the woman laugh and she said 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Oh, we don't have a traditional dance step 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in Okinawa you can do whatever you want. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Now, I have been to.. I've been extremely lucky 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I've been about fifty different countries in the world 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And I have never discovered that a traditional dance step is freestyle 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But in Okinawa it is 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 My producing partner Eji in the middle 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He had a great idea, he said 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Let's see what a hundreds years old person looks like 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 when they two or three years old. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Where we'll be able to see the seed of a long 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and happy life at that early stage 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So we went to a pre school 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And the teacher apologized, she said," I am so sorry," 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But today is one day every couple of weeks 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we'll gonna spend outside of the class room. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We'll gonna have a foot race through town. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So we followed this fifty kids or so 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 They started the race and we noticed that at the other.. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 at the end of the block 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 there was a group of grand mothers converging. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And the grand mothers were there 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 as every kids crossed the finished lined the grand mothers hugging them, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 they were clapping, they were cheering them on 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and if somebody's falling they skin their knee 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 They'll be there to nurture them 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and it was a beautiful scene 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and I went to first grand mother just to make a small talk 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and I said," Hey congratulations on having such a speedy grand child." 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and she looked at the kid who I was referring to and she said 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Oh, that's not my grand child 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 She kind of looked at me up and down and she said 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 My grand children are older than you. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And so I looked at her friends, about fifty grand mothers there 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Whose grand child is that?