1: “In an early 2000s study on the impact of meditation,” Sahil Bloom writes in his book The 5 Types of Wealth, “psychologist Richard Davidson asked Matthieu Ricard to meditate while covered in sensors and wires.”
Matthieu had earned his PhD in cellular genetics before leaving academia to become a Buddhist monk in India.
“Along the way,” Sahil notes, “he worked as a French interpreter for the Dalai Lama, became a bestselling author, and won France’s National Order of Merit.”
On this day, Matthieu “sat calmly as hundreds of electrical sensors and wires were attached to his face and bald head,” Sahil writes, “his traditional Buddhist red-and-gold robes accentuating the bleached medical whiteness of the 256 sensors.”
2: Something remarkable happened when the results of the study came back.
Matthieu’s brain produced gamma waves—linked to consciousness, attention, learning, and memory—at levels “never reported before in the neuroscience literature.”
“Further,” Sahil notes, “the monitoring identified increased activity in his left prefrontal cortex compared to his right, which researchers noted might be what gives Ricard a high capacity for happiness.
“These findings, along with a fair bit of creative journalistic spin,” Sahil observes, “led to Matthieu Ricard being dubbed ‘the World’s Happiest Man.'”
Matthieu isn’t particularly fond of the title.
It’s a good title for journalists to use, but I cannot get rid of it,” he says.
3: Building from this scientific insight, Sahil points out that “the underlying insight should be of interest to everyone.”
This week and last week, we are exploring the three pillars of “Mental Wealth” from Sahil’s book: purpose, growth, and space.
“Space is as simple as finding where we can slow down and breathe new air in our lives,” Sahil notes. “Space is what enables us to think, reset, wrestle with the big, unanswerable questions, manage stressors, and recharge. . .
“We can create space,” he explains, “literally by going to a physical location to be alone and disconnected or metaphorically by going to that location in our mind.”
Meditation and mindfulness help us create mental space, which in turn can improve consciousness, attention, learning, memory, and happiness. These benefits support a healthier and more successful life.
More tomorrow!
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Reflection: Where in my week can I intentionally create more “space”—through meditation, solitude, or quiet reflection—to recharge my mind and cultivate deeper happiness?
Action: Block off 10–15 minutes each day for the next week to sit in quiet mindfulness, treating it as essential space for my mental wealth rather than an optional extra.
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