This Professor Says Learning To Be Happy Is ‘No Different Than Learning The Violin’

Richard Davidson, professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, touted the importance of being mindful, especially in the workplace.

“I think people in leadership positions are starting to understand the importance of [mindfulness practices],” Davidson told HuffPost Live at Davos. “The cost of burnout is enormous, the cost of employee turnover is enormous.”

Davidson said happiness is a skill that can be continually developed.

“I talk about happiness as a skill. It’s actually something that can be cultivated,” he said. “Everything we’ve learned about the brain suggests it’s no different than learning the violin… if you practice, you’ll get better at it.”

Below, the latest updates from the 2015 Davos Annual Meeting:

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“The nominating process for best picture is maybe a little bit dated,” Gelfond said. “The way pictures are made has changed so rapidly over the last couple of decades.”

Gelfond said the best picture category is “so subjective” and “there’s no guidelines around it.”

IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond

Gelfond weighed in on the Sony hack, saying theater owners got a bad rap.

Mack said people in the U.S. have “failed to appreciate” that labeling was always done for the purposes of safety, and argued that GMO labeling isn’t typically done because GMOs aren’t deemed unsafe.

Michael Mack, CEO of Syngenta, said some of the debate over food technologies like GMOs is “Western luxury.”

Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer Of Facebook, talks with Arianna about meeting the mother of a jihadist.

Dell defended his company’s decision to have manufacturing jobs in China rather than the U.S., saying employment at Dell in some areas has actually increased in the U.S.

“Our employment in the U.S. has grown in areas like research and development and services,” Dell said.

“I think one important point is that if you want people to be employed, you need to have employers,” Dell said. “Employers don’t just spring out of nowhere. So the employers need and environment thats conducive for them to be able to take the risks, create the jobs, and with taking on the risk, there ought to be some opportunity for them.”

Dell said he thinks it should be more simple to get businesses started and change the culture so “there’s more acceptance of risk.”

“If you want to create jobs and entrepreneurship, make it easy for people to start companies,” Dell said.

Dell spoke about the importance of taking risks in order to find success.

“When you hear people talk about risks at Davos, many times they’re talking about risk as a bad thing,” Dell said. “The way I think about risk is, I want to take some risks. The most dangerous thing is not taking a risk.”

The Huffington Post