0:00:03.629,0:00:07.926
I admire washing machine repairers

0:00:07.926,0:00:10.475
because there is something special [br]about them.

0:00:10.475,0:00:12.590
When one comes over to my house,

0:00:12.590,0:00:15.208
I feel for this person,

0:00:15.208,0:00:17.859
because I have absolutely no idea [br]how to do the things he or she can do,

0:00:17.859,0:00:21.807
an extremely important sense of recognition.

0:00:21.807,0:00:23.176
And when I feel this,

0:00:23.176,0:00:25.659
not only the washing machine is repaired,

0:00:25.659,0:00:28.324
but in fact I also live longer.

0:00:28.324,0:00:31.360
But how exactly do I live longer?

0:00:31.360,0:00:33.692
I present to you David,[br]David Servan Schreiber.

0:00:33.692,0:00:35.708
David was a psychiatrist.

0:00:35.708,0:00:36.775
David Servan Schreiber

0:00:36.775,0:00:38.425
was my cousin.

0:00:38.425,0:00:41.925
And, a little over a year ago,[br]he was taken over

0:00:41.925,0:00:44.426
by a type of brain cancer.

0:00:44.426,0:00:46.574
When he was 30 years old,

0:00:46.574,0:00:48.659
the first tumor was detected on him.

0:00:48.659,0:00:51.291
We couldn't exactly say [br]that David was someone who,

0:00:51.291,0:00:54.075
statistically speaking, [br]had luck on his side.

0:00:54.075,0:00:56.908
From then on, he mobilized

0:00:56.908,0:00:59.926
all of his knowledge,[br]all of his energy

0:00:59.926,0:01:02.725
to try and find out how he could live,

0:01:02.725,0:01:06.641
not only as long as possible [br]under these circumstances,

0:01:06.641,0:01:09.759
but also the best possible way.

0:01:09.759,0:01:11.159
So what we know about him

0:01:11.159,0:01:13.592
is that he changed his diet,

0:01:13.592,0:01:16.257
practised meditation,

0:01:16.257,0:01:20.109
and exercised every day.

0:01:20.109,0:01:23.091
But what we don't know, [br]because he didn't make these things public,

0:01:23.091,0:01:26.760
is the amount of attention he paid

0:01:26.760,0:01:30.791
to all the details [br]and the small things in his life.

0:01:30.791,0:01:35.474
Up to his last breath, David was

0:01:35.474,0:01:38.875
someone full of thanks and gratitude.

0:01:38.875,0:01:43.428
Gratitude is an emotion

0:01:43.428,0:01:46.514
of recognition that we feel

0:01:46.514,0:01:52.147
when we realize the flavour [br]of the lives we're living.

0:01:52.147,0:01:55.713
It is, for example, [br]a ray of sunshine on the deck,

0:01:55.713,0:01:58.514
the fragrance of a baby,

0:01:58.514,0:02:00.613
especially when it's our own child.

0:02:00.613,0:02:04.163
It's the act of pushing yourself [br]to go out and learn new things

0:02:04.163,0:02:05.781
one evening.

0:02:05.781,0:02:07.980
It's, for us, the absolute pleasure

0:02:07.980,0:02:12.630
to have the chance to present to you [br]what we are passionate about.

0:02:12.630,0:02:15.297
But why did David guide me into all of this?

0:02:15.297,0:02:17.598
We talked a lot about psychology together.

0:02:17.598,0:02:18.930
It's because there are

0:02:18.930,0:02:22.480
entire labs and departments that study

0:02:22.480,0:02:27.214
the circumstances [br]and consequences of gratitude.

0:02:27.214,0:02:30.532
There's a gentleman called [br]Prof. Robert Emmons

0:02:30.532,0:02:33.233
who works at UC Davis in California,

0:02:33.233,0:02:34.797
he's very fortunate,

0:02:34.797,0:02:37.566
for 12 years of diligent study [br]and research in the field

0:02:37.566,0:02:39.199
of positive psychology

0:02:39.199,0:02:41.599
he has been trying to understand

0:02:41.599,0:02:44.733
how it works and the effect [br]it can have on us.

0:02:44.733,0:02:46.967
And here's what he realized.

0:02:46.967,0:02:49.415
First of all, on a psychological level

0:02:49.415,0:02:52.514
when we know that we appreciate

0:02:52.514,0:02:54.248
all the small details

0:02:54.248,0:02:55.698
that surround you in your everyday life,

0:02:55.698,0:02:57.599
from the temperature in your room

0:02:57.599,0:02:59.615
to being able to arrive on time,

0:02:59.615,0:03:05.177
we feel happier,

0:03:05.208,0:03:11.599
we feel more connected with others,

0:03:11.599,0:03:13.648
we feel more alert and aware,

0:03:13.648,0:03:15.832
and we feel more alive.

0:03:15.832,0:03:17.798
And next, we have the secondary benefits

0:03:17.798,0:03:19.633
that deal with relationships.

0:03:19.633,0:03:22.248
Above all, being the fact that we feel

0:03:22.248,0:03:23.816
a lot less lonely.

0:03:23.816,0:03:26.531
This is because gratitude [br]always comes from

0:03:26.531,0:03:28.514
something or someone

0:03:28.514,0:03:30.432
who is separate from us.

0:03:30.432,0:03:32.717
This is an emotion that makes us humble,

0:03:32.717,0:03:34.850
that makes us want

0:03:34.850,0:03:36.917
to take our turn to give.

0:03:36.917,0:03:38.815
But all of this is nothing.

0:03:38.815,0:03:41.431
The most shocking are the effects [br]that were discovered

0:03:41.431,0:03:43.448
on the physiological level, or simply

0:03:43.448,0:03:44.914
how our body works.

0:03:44.914,0:03:46.914
Here I'd like to talk about a study [br]that was conducted

0:03:46.914,0:03:49.849
in Minnesota in 1986.

0:03:49.849,0:03:51.881
A researcher hypothesized the following,

0:03:51.881,0:03:53.415
and asked

0:03:53.415,0:03:56.999
whether there was a link between

0:03:56.999,0:03:58.481
feeling grateful,

0:03:58.481,0:04:01.933
thus knowing how to appreciate things, [br]and longevity.

0:04:01.933,0:04:04.165
So how do we study something like this?

0:04:04.165,0:04:07.998
We have to find people[br]who live in the exact

0:04:07.998,0:04:09.814
same way, who eat the same things,

0:04:09.814,0:04:11.764
who breathe the same air,

0:04:11.764,0:04:14.226
who have the same job,

0:04:14.226,0:04:16.109
who have the same number of kids,

0:04:16.109,0:04:17.909
which is especially important with women,

0:04:17.909,0:04:19.142
with zero being an ideal number.

0:04:19.142,0:04:22.276
Furthermore, if everyone could be married [br]to the same person,

0:04:22.276,0:04:23.927
that would be great.

0:04:23.927,0:04:25.792
And they found these people.

0:04:25.792,0:04:29.228
They found them in an abbey.

0:04:29.228,0:04:31.094
More specifically in an abbey

0:04:31.094,0:04:34.276
with 150 years old archives.

0:04:34.276,0:04:35.643
When these young women

0:04:35.643,0:04:37.093
arrived at the abbey,

0:04:37.093,0:04:38.343
at the age of 20, [br]the first thing they were asked to do

0:04:38.343,0:04:40.678
was to write a letter [br]that introduced themselves

0:04:40.678,0:04:42.111
and told their life story.

0:04:42.111,0:04:43.961
They did the same thing[br]at the age of 40,

0:04:43.961,0:04:45.961
and at the age of 70.

0:04:45.961,0:04:50.210
We had 150 years of biographical letters.

0:04:50.210,0:04:53.722
We also had 150 years of medical records.

0:04:53.722,0:04:57.141
We passed these letters on to semanticists,

0:04:57.141,0:04:59.771
those who study diction [br]and the content of vocabulary,

0:04:59.771,0:05:03.772
and asked them to quantify the nature

0:05:03.772,0:05:06.622
of words used that expressed

0:05:06.622,0:05:08.305
appreciation, optimism,

0:05:08.305,0:05:10.473
or gratitude.

0:05:10.473,0:05:13.423
And then we could correlate

0:05:13.423,0:05:17.390
the level of gratification of these women

0:05:17.390,0:05:19.939
with, not only their health,

0:05:19.939,0:05:21.607
but also their lifespans.

0:05:21.607,0:05:24.356
It was found that the more of these words

0:05:24.356,0:05:26.223
that expressed gratitude and appreciation

0:05:26.223,0:05:29.473
were used after the age of 20,

0:05:29.473,0:05:31.023
the longer the women lived.

0:05:31.023,0:05:32.972
We could quantify it to such an extent

0:05:32.972,0:05:34.490
that we know these women [br]had a life expectancy

0:05:34.490,0:05:37.391
longer than their sisters by 7 years.

0:05:37.391,0:05:38.375
The same data comparison was conducted

0:05:38.375,0:05:40.692
with more current cases

0:05:40.692,0:05:42.126
concerning the middle class,

0:05:42.126,0:05:45.809
and the same results were yielded.

0:05:45.809,0:05:47.924
I'm like some of you here,

0:05:47.924,0:05:51.242
I was born and raised in Paris,

0:05:51.242,0:05:53.242
it's probably not the most appropriate thing

0:05:53.242,0:05:56.655
to talk about what's going well[br]and what makes us grateful.

0:05:56.655,0:05:59.188
However, after having visited David [br]so many times,

0:05:59.188,0:06:02.005
after having read [br]all of these documents and articles,

0:06:02.005,0:06:04.655
I still wanted to try

0:06:04.655,0:06:06.288
and see.

0:06:06.288,0:06:08.912
I had to look at the hard evidence.

0:06:08.912,0:06:10.547
Martin Seligman, very influential

0:06:10.547,0:06:13.697
in the field of positive psychology [br]and researcher at the University of Pennsylvania,

0:06:13.697,0:06:15.997
we definitely speak about him [br]quite a bit today,

0:06:15.997,0:06:19.546
recognized the following:

0:06:19.546,0:06:23.714
In a day, it's enough to

0:06:23.714,0:06:27.214
identify 3 events,

0:06:27.214,0:06:29.297
moments, interactions,

0:06:29.297,0:06:31.480
tastes, sensations

0:06:31.480,0:06:33.247
that made us feel good

0:06:33.247,0:06:34.647
and that made us want to say,

0:06:34.647,0:06:37.847
"Thank you." --

0:06:37.847,0:06:40.858
to improve one's level [br]of happiness permanently

0:06:40.858,0:06:45.407
after only 3 weeks.

0:06:45.407,0:06:47.874
I read this, I went home

0:06:47.874,0:06:50.357
relatively excited by this information,

0:06:50.357,0:06:53.538
sat down at the table [br]with my husband and 3 kids,

0:06:53.538,0:06:56.325
who are between 8 and 14 years old,

0:06:56.325,0:06:58.108
and I told them [br]that I read something crazy today

0:06:58.108,0:07:01.908
that says that if you can spot in a day

0:07:01.908,0:07:04.257
a moment, "here's a great moment"

0:07:04.257,0:07:05.738
in brief,

0:07:05.738,0:07:06.788
what I told them, was that

0:07:06.788,0:07:10.186
if you can spot 3 good things in your day,

0:07:10.186,0:07:11.754
you'll live longer,

0:07:11.754,0:07:14.720
you'll be in better health, [br]and you'll be happier.

0:07:14.720,0:07:17.104
And we started to do so.

0:07:17.104,0:07:19.255
It's not easy for everyone.

0:07:19.255,0:07:20.270
It's not obvious.

0:07:20.270,0:07:23.255
Our immediate level of access [br]to gratitude is a bit

0:07:23.255,0:07:25.172
different from person to person.

0:07:25.172,0:07:26.637
It was especially difficult for Léon,

0:07:26.637,0:07:28.061
the youngest of my kids.

0:07:28.061,0:07:29.860
He was under pressure,

0:07:29.860,0:07:31.194
he didn't even want to play.

0:07:31.194,0:07:33.078
One of my proudest achievements as a mom

0:07:33.078,0:07:34.827
is that today Léon is 14

0:07:34.827,0:07:36.344
and he can come down these stairs

0:07:36.344,0:07:37.960
and stand right in front of you[br]to tell you all,

0:07:37.960,0:07:40.542
"Here, my 3 good things are [br]this, this, and this."

0:07:40.542,0:07:42.927
My children have learnt this.

0:07:42.927,0:07:44.009
It's a way of doing things.

0:07:44.009,0:07:46.493
When we do this with people we know,

0:07:46.493,0:07:47.444
people we live with,

0:07:47.444,0:07:48.544
people we work with,

0:07:48.544,0:07:50.193
people who we don't know,

0:07:50.193,0:07:51.478
people who we've just met,

0:07:51.478,0:07:52.929
something very special happens,

0:07:52.929,0:07:54.211
because it's not a common

0:07:54.211,0:07:55.861
conversation topic.

0:07:55.861,0:07:59.092
If it moves you, it moves me.

0:07:59.092,0:08:02.572
When we listen to others talk about[br]what made them happy today,

0:08:02.572,0:08:03.908
there's a rule we need to follow;

0:08:03.908,0:08:06.026
that is not to comment or criticize it.

0:08:06.026,0:08:09.825
When someone chooses to share [br]their spot of happiness, we listen,

0:08:09.825,0:08:11.058
we absorb and generally,

0:08:11.058,0:08:13.009
we realize that we also [br]have this event to appreciate

0:08:13.009,0:08:15.610
and we add it to our own lists.

0:08:15.610,0:08:17.111
This is one way to do it,

0:08:17.111,0:08:18.990
level zero.

0:08:18.990,0:08:20.640
And then we have level one.

0:08:20.640,0:08:22.490
If you don't necessarily want[br]to talk about it,

0:08:22.490,0:08:23.941
in fact you can

0:08:23.941,0:08:25.141
start to keep a little notebook

0:08:25.141,0:08:26.567
on your night stand.

0:08:26.567,0:08:28.151
I like to call it a "book of happy things",

0:08:28.151,0:08:31.285
and in laboratories they call it [br]a "journal of gratitude".

0:08:31.285,0:08:33.569
It lets you write down [br]your sources of gratitude

0:08:33.569,0:08:35.701
before you go to sleep, [br]and it's the last thing

0:08:35.701,0:08:36.883
you do before sleeping.

0:08:36.883,0:08:39.051
When you turn off your iPad,

0:08:39.051,0:08:40.934
you can pick up your little diary.

0:08:40.934,0:08:43.018
Dr Emmons has discovered

0:08:43.018,0:08:44.083
that when doing this is the last thing

0:08:44.083,0:08:46.236
we do in our day,

0:08:46.236,0:08:47.803
we sleep deeper,

0:08:47.803,0:08:49.319
for a longer time,

0:08:49.319,0:08:51.467
and if we suffer from a chronic pain

0:08:51.467,0:08:54.068
the pain weakens and wears off.

0:08:54.068,0:08:57.501
And the next level

0:08:57.501,0:09:00.053
is the letter of appreciation.

0:09:00.053,0:09:02.751
And here's what happens in our brains

0:09:02.751,0:09:04.268
when we associate ourselves

0:09:04.268,0:09:06.637
with feelings and emotions of appreciation.

0:09:06.637,0:09:08.618
It is impossible for our brains to,

0:09:08.618,0:09:11.569
at the same time,

0:09:11.569,0:09:15.018
feel resentment or anger.

0:09:15.018,0:09:17.052
And hence the moment when you sit down

0:09:17.052,0:09:18.751
and say, "I'm going to write to someone",

0:09:18.751,0:09:20.286
we can recollect our thoughts

0:09:20.286,0:09:22.102
to realize the wonder

0:09:22.102,0:09:23.669
that we have around us.

0:09:23.669,0:09:26.435
For one year I made no presents;

0:09:26.435,0:09:28.902
the only gifts I made

0:09:28.902,0:09:31.220
were letters that I'd written [br]for my friends' birthdays.

0:09:31.220,0:09:33.035
I wrote them letters of appreciation.

0:09:33.035,0:09:35.219
I examined and re-examined

0:09:35.219,0:09:36.936
my friendships, my relationships,

0:09:36.936,0:09:39.186
and I suddenly became aware

0:09:39.186,0:09:40.918
of how fortunate I was.

0:09:40.918,0:09:42.052
This was a letter, in fact,

0:09:42.052,0:09:46.387
that let me say, "If you weren't in my life,

0:09:46.387,0:09:48.237
here's what I wouldn't become,

0:09:48.237,0:09:50.271
and here's what I wouldn't know."

0:09:50.271,0:09:53.039
It lets us get a grasp of the scope

0:09:53.039,0:09:55.454
and depth of the relationships

0:09:55.454,0:09:57.304
we have with others.

0:09:57.304,0:09:59.821
And so now what Martin Seligman did,

0:09:59.821,0:10:02.933
was that he sent these messages of gratitude

0:10:02.933,0:10:06.710
by visiting the receiver. [br]You'd write the letter,

0:10:06.710,0:10:09.461
and instead of sending it, [br]you'd take it to a meeting

0:10:09.461,0:10:11.061
with the recipient, [br]wouldn't tell them anything,

0:10:11.061,0:10:12.562
why you came,

0:10:12.562,0:10:15.544
and you'd go and read him your letter.

0:10:15.544,0:10:18.895
I've done this once, I confess, not more.

0:10:18.895,0:10:19.995
It's hard,

0:10:19.995,0:10:22.010
and I needed quite a bit Kleenex [br]during the experience,

0:10:22.010,0:10:25.878
quite a bit of Kleenex [br]when I was getting feedback.

0:10:25.878,0:10:29.794
I wrote a letter of appreciation [br]to my husband,

0:10:29.794,0:10:30.961
who's sitting here tonight,

0:10:30.961,0:10:32.147
and I've never said this in front of him, [br]but I'll say this

0:10:32.147,0:10:34.761
even if he's here.

0:10:34.761,0:10:38.161
We've been together for 25 years.

0:10:38.161,0:10:41.760
In 25 years together,[br]a list of complaints

0:10:41.760,0:10:46.196
would be very, very easy to write.

0:10:46.196,0:10:47.545
But that's not the point.

0:10:47.545,0:10:50.411
The point is in telling him, [br]"If you' were not in my life,

0:10:50.411,0:10:54.960
if I had not met you, [br]if I hadn't fallen for you that day,

0:10:54.960,0:10:58.110
here are all the things [br]that I wouldn't have become."

0:10:58.110,0:10:59.728
And I did just that.

0:10:59.728,0:11:02.146
And I'll tell you a secret, sorry, Alex,

0:11:02.146,0:11:04.829
Alex reads on the toilet.

0:11:04.829,0:11:07.511
And when I sat down to write this letter

0:11:07.511,0:11:10.578
I realized that

0:11:10.578,0:11:12.745
without his pile of magazines

0:11:12.745,0:11:15.377
I would've never learnt so many things.

0:11:15.377,0:11:16.361
I owe it all to him.

0:11:16.361,0:11:18.509
I heard myself telling that to him.

0:11:18.509,0:11:20.028
I told him.

0:11:20.028,0:11:22.877
And here is exactly what gratitude does.

0:11:22.877,0:11:26.897
It's simply living the exact same life,

0:11:26.897,0:11:27.813
but better.

0:11:27.813,0:11:29.779
I haven't changed any characters,

0:11:29.779,0:11:32.330
I haven't changed any details.

0:11:32.330,0:11:36.645
And where it truly gets extraordinarily useful

0:11:36.645,0:11:39.080
is when things aren't going so well.

0:11:39.080,0:11:41.328
It's when life doesn't give us

0:11:41.328,0:11:41.802
what we want,

0:11:41.817,0:11:43.504
and when life gives us the opposite

0:11:43.504,0:11:44.394
of what we want.

0:11:44.394,0:11:47.629
When the time that we've spent [br]and have yet to spend

0:11:47.629,0:11:51.263
with someone we love, is limited --

0:11:51.263,0:11:52.236
we realize,

0:11:54.114,0:11:57.464
in looking at things through this lens,

0:11:57.464,0:12:00.031
despite everything that's happening,

0:12:00.031,0:12:02.062
how fortunate we are.

0:12:02.062,0:12:03.195
For me, luck is to be there

0:12:03.195,0:12:06.797
with all of you today,

0:12:06.797,0:12:08.664
sitting patiently.

0:12:08.664,0:12:10.397
I sincerely thank you all.

0:12:10.397,0:12:14.397
(Applause)