From marketing to social media, today’s world preys on your values. Here’s how to reclaim them and find true happiness.

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Johann Hari received the most poignant wake-up call of his life at his local fast-food joint. It was Christmas Eve 2009, and to his horror, the staff had written him a huge Christmas card, declaring Hari their “best customer.”

It wasn’t just the realization that junk food had taken over his life that startled Hari. It was the grim reality that vast swathes of humanity are ruled by desires that only serve to make us unhappy, unhealthy, and unfulfilled. Yet we listen to those desires again and again, driving ourselves into chronic states of depression and anxiety.

Many of these damaging desires are what Hari calls ‘extrinsic values’ — motivations driven by external factors such as societal expectations, and accelerated by advertising and social media. But we can combat extrinsic values by developing our own intrinsic values: motivations that stem from genuine joy and passion. By challenging and dismantling these "junk values," we can rediscover what truly matters and alleviate the mental anguish they cause.

Read the full video transcript: https://bigthink.com/the-well/intrins...

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