Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche Shares 9 Happiness Lessons as Brain Scans Show Off-the-Charts Joy Activity
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Aug 14
Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche Shares 9 Happiness Lessons as Brain Scans Show Off-the-Charts Joy Activity
2 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Aug 14
Summary
Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche distilled nine lessons on happiness into practical habits, urging people to sit with boredom, make small changes and use breathing to shift their emotional baseline.
Brain scans cited in the report found unusually high activity in his left prefrontal cortex, linked to positive emotion, and tests at age 41 reportedly showed a brain resembling that of a 33-year-old.
His advice centers on accepting discomfort rather than fighting it: meditate amid noise, treat panic like a passing storm, and catch anger early so awareness can dissolve automatic reactions.
Mingyur drew on his own experience, including a 2011 retreat as a homeless yogi and childhood panic attacks, to argue that change, gratitude and compassion can be trained in everyday life.
The broader message is that lasting happiness comes less from convenience or external rewards than from attention, habit-building and helping other people.