Joe Rogan & Derren Brown - The Idea of Happiness

why did you write a book about happiness I wrote a book about happiness because the Stoics had really resonated with me I was I like I I studied law I was supposed to be a lawyer and I graduated and I kind of was living in Bristol this lovely city in England and making my living as a magician because I wasn't the hobby that it I'd started and I was just kind of thinking what I need to some point would this just grow into a job I don't know but I I know that my priorities are just kind of I want my life my days to feel like this is good everything's in the right place and this is kind of an enjoyable and worthwhile pastime and that was while existence and I never really thought beyond that so I've never had any kind of ambition genuinely a bit of any any sort which is why you know I don't really I'm not have a whole goal-setting thing particularly so but the trouble with thinking like that as you grow up and become successful with what you do is you start to feel like a kid like everyone else has have grown up and you're the kid and and you've slightly embarrassed that you don't seem to care enough about the things that everybody else cares about mmm the businessí things and the viewing figures and then this I my interest was genuinely am i enjoying what I'm doing and is it worthwhile and then I read the Stoics and although that's not like their central message it's a big part of their what they write about you know not not trying to control things that are out of your control not attaching yourself to things that leave you kind of emotionally kind of vulnerable and you know just your relationship to the present moment and so on and it really resonated so I I read up I read a lot and it took me off into other directions and I started writing and I wrote this book on happiness after it took me three years to write it while I was on tour so three years but blocks of blocks of writing not like three solid years but also that meant by the end of it I kind of had grown and changed and felt differently and I think for anyone that knows about stoicism and it's so immensely valuable resource in terms of if what you want is a sense of feeling centered and a kind of emotional robustness in your life and you know if you suffer from anxiety and so it's it's it's phenomenal I think they wear it wear it slightly doesn't deliver is the importance of anxiety it's all about avoiding anxiety that image of happiness was a sort of tranquility avoiding disturbance that actually cause disturbance is really important anxiety is important in life because how do you change how do you grow other than you know unless some anxiety triggers that you know lets you know that something's wrong yes we just look for security all the time and I say this because I know I'm like this like this is my my problem is that I'm too I'm very good at avoiding stress very good avoiding anxiety but the dangerous I am I gonna grow I'll you know I'm just gonna just be too comfortable that's not you know that's not necessarily a good thing so so yeah by the end of the book I was I kind of could feel the edges of stoicism in terms of the importance of anxiety and you know and not just living too comfortably but it is it is a and that's not yeah they were movers and shakers like there are people that change the worlds Marcus Aurelius you know greatest philosopher King really was an emperor most powerful man and ever was probably ruled the earth and was a was a one of the great Stoics so they're not like it's not a recipe for complacency which you can often sound like when you talk about this kind of tranquility and non-attachment but it is it's it's it's just it's a very robust kind of language they talk about being like a rock where the waves are lashing against you and I I prefer the image of this sort of I don't if you know Martha Nussbaum who's a American philosopher writes a lot about these things but she she talks about being more porous like a rock that the the waves the water can move through and I think that's a more helpful image I think that's a that's a good way I think of stepping out into life is if you can have a a sort of a robustness but at the same time they're kind of an easy porous relationship with what's going on that gives you that easier relationship to fate and fortune and all those things that they used to honor and recognize so much more than we do now because we don't read tragedy so we don't think in terms of those things it's all just you know pride and hubris now that they had lessons about back then and you know but I think that's a very I think that's it that's a good that's a good starting point for life so I wrote I wrote this book happy it is it's actually just become available in the in the US on Amazon I don't think you'll find it any book shops but um because of the I company hope you're doing a Broadway show next year and these Netflix specials and things that you know so they it is now available and and ironically the moment I finished writing it I was out giving talks on happiness feeling oddly sad and I couldn't work out why it was because this amazing three-year writing project it ended and I realized yeah I the importance of some kind of creative pursuit or something that brings you out of yourself is so important that's fascinating that in the embracing of the anxiety of the difficulty of the task and finding upon its completion that you feel sad oddly oddly sad well it's kind of proof of concept that yeah right I mean what you're saying is to like in this theme that you keep saying over and over again that putting yourself into something bigger than you something something that you're you're attempting to work through and that through this difficulty and all the struggle and trying to put this something you you gain some sort of intangible benefit from this mmm you feel like you seem like you're someone that seeks out those things you seem you know you've always like immerse yourself fully and things that would it would do that yes I'm a firm believer in the importance of difficult tasks I think I think seeking comfort is one of the worst things a person can do in terms of achieving overall happiness I think overall happiness a lot of it comes through this amazing sense of wonder and the unknown and possibilities and working towards things with this embracing of you know having no idea how that what the result is going to be no idea where this is gonna go and being genuinely nervous about it every step of the way and you find that goes normally being having the language for something means that it doesn't come naturally because if that came in charlie naturally all the things I'm saying if they completely just I'd always been like that you wouldn't have the language the entirely unconscious so you found this is stuff that you've found and then learn to articulate but because that's not it's not an easy thing it's not a not an intuitive thing that maybe life is is essentially difficult and on these lovely happy moments we have are wonderful but they're not the kind of they're not the central force of life which is that it is it is difficult not if you want a philosophy of life it has to work in those has to work at the different moment otherwise it's not really it's not really gonna support you I think it's also the attitude in which you embrace those difficult moments and how you approach them you know if you if you relish them and and understand that there's going to be some genuine benefit from getting through these and whether it's a physical thing or a mental thing whether it's a creative thing whatever it is it's difficult like just embrace this massive struggle and enjoy this just the puzzle of it all the majesty of the unknown and then when you get through it on the other end you get a different level of happiness yeah you have this powerful earned happy because you grow yeah you don't cross the road on your own without having to let go of your mother's hand at some point yeah something this is this is the death and resurrection isn't it that's why these myths do have some resonance yeah something has to die before something new before something you can grow you have to something has to be let go of in order to step forward so if you're gonna grow you have to there has to be anxiety and disturbance and some kind of some sort of death in the metaphorical sense know if there's toughest and doesn't come easily no it does it come easily but that's also what's beautiful about it if it just came easily I don't think you'd be appreciated exactly you wouldn't be doing it and there's all this resistance to even engage in in the first place it's hard to write the first word of a book write the first word sometimes you're just sitting there or anything you're trying to do get it the first step of a 10 mile run all those things are the most difficult thing once you once you're going it's not nearly as hard it's getting going there's something about overcoming all this anticipation and although the weirdness of it all you know and then once you do it and you realize you can do it it enriches you in all your future attempts

Channel: JRE Clips

Views: 117,930

Rating: 4.9161291 out of 5

Keywords: Joe Rogan, JRE, Joe Rogan Experience, JRE Clips, PowerfulJRE, Joe Rogan Fan Page, Joe Rogan Podcast, podcast, MMA, Joe Rogan MMA Show, UFC, comedy, comedian, stand up, funny, clip, favorite, best of

Id: E3DigsvZCXo

Length: 8min 39sec (519 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 09 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/NoWarForGod]

I've been watching JRE lately and two of the extreme athletes mentioned Marcus Aurelias/Meditations/Stoicism.

David Goggins is a beast of a human who runs ultra marathons (like 200 miles in 24 hours) and the other was Ross Edgley who recently spent 6 months swimming around the coast of the UK. Don't have the timestamps, unfortunately.

Edit: Found a mention in the Ross Edgley interview here.

[u/[deleted]]

JR's idea of happiness is a joint going by the thumbnail :P https://screenshots.firefox.com/g3FLf1qK1CfceCQz/www.reddit.com

[u/s7827]

Correct me if I'm wrong, Stoicism doesn't advocate avoiding anxiety/stress as Darren here is telling. That's more of an Epicurean philosophy. Right?

[u/NorthernBerserker]

After reading 'Happy' by Derren Brown i've bought it for 4 different friends, some just as I knew they'd enjoy it, some who were going through difficult patches (one in particular) and every single one said it changed their lives, one said it may have saved it.

​

Even as a long time practicing (and at times failing) stoic, the book was incredible for me, for people who hadn't had previous exposure to stoic philosophy, it blew them away, can't recommend it enough.

[u/dconnors2009]

....the idea.

[u/nrosko]

After briefly mentioning Richard Bandler & discussing 'The Secret' it would of been interesting in this show to have talked about his opinion on NLP which has been scientifically proven as a sham. I wondered if Derren is still a proponent of it?