All language subtitles for Pole_To_Pole_With_Will_Smith_S01E04_WEB-Rip_rus_eng_Track04

For most of my life,

I felt really confident

that I could build
anything I wanted.

I'd built all of the dreams
that I ever dreamed.

But a couple of years ago,
after the Oscars,

I realized that...

nothing can last forever.

That shook me a little bit.

So, what do you do?

Collapse?

Dissolve?

I began to ask myself
the question...

..."How can I be happy knowing
that everything falls apart?"

For the next leg
on my Pole to Pole journey,

I've landed
in the Kingdom of Bhutan

to join a scientific expedition

in search of one of life's
most elusive treasures,

the secret to happiness.

Hey, Will. Welcome to Bhutan.

Hey!

- Dacher and Denkar.
- Yes.

Absolute pleasure, man.

Off to explore.

Yes.

Heading up the expedition

are Bhutanese writer
Denkar Tshering...

The road trip begins.

...and Dacher Keltner,

one of the world's
leading professors

in the science of happiness.

How did you make your way
to the study of happiness?

I got interested
in it because

I think it's one
of the biggest questions

we can ask about life.

You know, are you happy?

I've been studying happiness
and emotions for 30 years.

In that time, the data tells us
people are getting richer,

people live longer,

but what's astounding
is that for many of us,

our sense of well-being
is actually going down.

Because it doesn't matter
who we are.

We have a lot of bad ideas
about what makes us happy.

I haven't been
this excited in a long time.

This is coming at a really
interesting time in my life.

You can have a lot of successes

and it just doesn't bring you
a lot of happiness.

Yes. Definitely be interesting
to get a sense of why that is.

- Right.
- So, what do we do?

- You come to Bhutan.
- You come to Bhutan!

Bhutan is very different

compared to
rest of the world.

Everything we strive for
is people's happiness.

In our country,

we measure our development
through the well-being

and happiness
of the people here.

You measure
the wealth of a nation

by the happiness of the people.

That is beautiful.

And there's even the village

where the happiest people live.

They have been living
in the mountains for centuries

at 13,000 feet.

We're actually heading to Laya.

- Laya?
- Yep.

It's literally at
the top of the country.

It's like, one of the highest
settlements in the world.

So, I wanna show you

what's going on
in that community.

This is like
the perfect Disney movie:

The Journey to the Top
of the Mountain

to Find the Secret
of Happiness.

Oh, yeah.

- I'm ready.
- Let's go.

On our journey up to Laya,

I'm going to introduce Will

to some of the most important
principles of happiness

by putting him to the test in
some extraordinary experiments.

I thought it was
really wise to start

with the most simple
source of happiness,

where people very often
run into trouble.

What is pleasure to me?

Oh.

You know, the big three.

Money, sex, power.

You know, when I set out,

I told myself
I wanted to be

the biggest movie star
in the world.

And I was gonna have
as much money as I could have.

And I was gonna be happy
all the time.

As you can imagine, uh,
that idea came crashing down.

So I'm hoping
you got something for me.

Yeah, we're gonna need to
explore pleasure in the body.

- Oh, love it.
- What's it feel like

in our heart,
what happens in our brain.

Alright. Let's have some fun.

Yeah.

We're stopping.

Here we are.

Alright,
so what are we doing?

So in this exploration
of pleasure,

I need you
to jump off that bridge.

Oh, my God.

See, 'cause you said
we were doing pleasure.

I don't think
you understand pleasure.

We are wired to

go out into the world
and find exciting things.

We seek out sex.

We seek out delicious foods,
and even extreme sports.

Very often we find pleasure in
pushing our body to the limits.

We're gonna track your
heart rate and your breathing,

all the way down
through the whole experience.

So go right across there?

Yeah, that's right.

Dacher went out on a limb.

You just can't ask somebody
to jump off a bridge

when you first meet 'em.

Your parents
would say that to you.

If your friends jumped off
of a bridge, would you do it?

And... apparently, yes.

Oh, check that out.

How's that heart rate doing?

The heart rate is certainly up.

You'll be fine.

Not ready. Not ready.

Will!

Whoa! Ho-ho-ho!

Yes, Will!

Whoa! Whoa!

There you go!

I think I pooped.

Wow! That was exciting!
He did it.

Alright, now it's
starting to get beautiful.

Will, are you
coming up anytime soon?

I certainly hope so.

This was a radical experiment.

He's falling through space.

And we're gathering
measures of, you know,

down to the millisecond
of what his heart is doing,

and what
his respiration is like.

So, here's your heart,

clipping along,
you're kinda nervous.

And then you step up
on the ledge,

and your heart is almost
160 beats per minute.

- Wow!
- Wow!

And then you jump.

And as you start to
reframe this acute stress,

like, I'm not dying,
the ropes worked,

that then activates dopamine.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter

that is activated
by sources of pleasure.

We have this quick high,

and then by design,
our body calms down.

It's how we are
chemically constructed.

Pleasure is not meant to last.

This is the hedonistic view
of happiness.

We could call
that the Will-onistic view...

of, of, of happy...

I've lived most
of my adult life here,

climbing the mountain
of success,

climbing the mountain
of money, you know,

sex and power and fame.

And I absolutely believed

that would bring me happiness.

That wasn't the case.

I got a deeper understanding
about the concept of pleasure.

It's like drinking salt water.
It just makes you thirstier.

So, Will,
yesterday, we explored

the pleasures of the body,

and you chose to
jump off a bridge.

Yep.

You got a lot
going on in your life,

and, what about your mind
gets in the way?

So, the second part of the
happiness equation is stress.

My father was military.

So I was raised
with that military mindset,

and I've always felt,
like, you know, bring it.

I'll handle whatever.

But I'm starting to look at it

as something that's
damaging to my health.

I can always tell
when I'm stressed.

I'll usually wake up
and my neck will be locked,

you know, and I'll be looking
around corners like this.

- Here we are, sir.
- Okay.

You're gonna
swab this around your cheek

to get cortisol,
which is a stress hormone.

- A stress hormone?
- Right.

And we're gonna read
your cortisol levels

and see how are you doing.

Up or down
as you probe me through the day.

Yes, exactly right.

Cortisol prepares your body

to deal with threats
and struggles of life.

The problem is when
it's chronically high.

We tend to suffer in terms of
our mental and physical health.

Hello!

- Hello, everybody!
- Hey, hey, hey.

- Hey.
- Hey.

People call me
the happy farmer.

Hello, Mr. Will. Hey!

People think
I'm a very positive person.

So I heard you were
exploring happiness here?

Yes, and I can feel
your energy already.

So, I want some of that.
I want some of that.

I want some of that
from you too.

Happiness for me

is having right relationship
with nature.

And to Denkar.

Nature has a profound effect
on our mind,

which helps us
to overcome any stress

that we may be
carrying in our body.

Can I invite you
for nature bathing?

- Nature bathing? Okay.
- Yeah, let's do that then.

I don't know what that is,
but I'm with you.

You're alright.

You can join me.

I wanna remove my shoes
and I want to feel the ground.

Remove your shoes
and feel the ground.

Would you love to do that?

I wouldn't, but I will.

I'm a city boy.

So I was resistant
to the nature bathing.

I'm in nature
sometimes without any clothes.

I was like,

old boy better keep his robe on.

Surrender.

Okay.

Ow.

Smell the soil.

You can join me.

[exhales deeply] Really?

Maybe we can lie here.

It's a real test to just stop.

Just relax.

It's almost
like my mind's

a thousand miles per hour.

"You can't just sit there.
You gotta take a walk.

Your back hurts, Will.
Get up, stand up, stretch."

The energies of my mind
almost attack.

Like Mr. Will,
many years ago,

I live in the city.

I had a 9:00 to 5:00 job.

So, my mind was
full of negative emotions.

But I was looking for peace.

So... what happened?

In 2009,
I had a auto car accident.

Wow.

I was disabled.

I could not move.
My whole body was casted.

From there,

how did you discover here?

I was bedridden
for around nine months.

Nature is a place
where I go find myself.

When I was in physiotherapy,

I went to many
natural spring waters.

I was there for months
soaking in nature.

It was a very profound
experience for me.

I was able to let go
of the stress in my life.

I'm gonna get well,

to live a life
in harmony with nature.

The sun.

The sound of river
down the valley.

Research was finding that
any relationship to nature

can calm the body down.

Birdsong...

and the wonderful sounds
of running water

have positive effects on mood.

The sense of smell,
the flowers and trees...

makes you better able to focus.

Open your eyes.

You don't need to
radically transform your life.

Just 20 minutes a week
can deactivate stress.

Look at the butterfly.

And you're gonna be happier.

I think we heard you
howling out there.

I know. Yeah, yeah!

How'd it go in there?

It was interesting.

I realized when my mind
is going,

it's like, my eyes
and ears are off.

- Yeah. Yeah.
- Right.

And then I relaxed into it.

I could see and feel
why it was beautiful.

Let's take a quick look
at these, at these data.

Um, stuff we gathered
from the cheek swab.

What you see is
as you hike up the hill

to get ready
for your forest bathing,

you see a rise in cortisol.

That's exactly
what you would expect.

And then remarkably,
after being in nature,

you drop precipitously
in cortisol.

Yeah, I certainly felt that.

But, like,
when you look around here,

it's a whole lot easier
to manage your cortisol

than in traffic
on the 405 in LA.

You know.

My friends used to say

that I only had one gear,
and it was go.

All the time.

It's now pretty clear to me
that for most of my life,

I didn't have a release valve.

I was a cortisol bomb
just ready to explode.

I just wish I could have
known that long ago.

This is the last stop
before our trek to Laya.

So here you are.

Wow.

It’s like from a different era.

So, Will,
on our search for happiness,

- we've kinda covered pleasure.
- Yep.

And then stress.

But, um, there's
a lot more to happiness

- than the individual body.
- Mm-hmm.

It's about meaning, you know,

how we find purpose in life.

And so what we
thought is, you know,

we'd bring you to a place

where they've been
thinking about this

for hundreds of years.

So here you are. The Monastery.

For most of my life,

I've had absolute purpose.

You know, I was striving to be

the biggest movie star
in the world.

I set very high standards
for myself.

Signing every autograph,
and shaking every hand,

and kissing every baby.

And this is our dorm.

I had a
relentless focus on

outward perfection.

But it certainly didn't
turn out as I had planned.

Um...

Uh, first of all,

sitting like a monk
is very difficult.

It's really difficult.

That's why
I couldn't be a monk.

So, for you,
what is happiness?

How we find happiness
is by realizing,

like, everything that happens
outside is impermanent.

Everything is changing.

And we use many examples,

we can be rich and poor.

Sometimes we can be very popular
and sometimes not.

I-I know about that personally.

I tasted the top
of my success,

fame, uh, money,

and then watched it fall apart.

I'm trying to find ways
to stop worrying about that.

All the attachment you have

is never gonna lead you
to happiness.

So by trying to hold on

to those things so hard,

becomes the actual source
of my unhappiness.

Tha-that-that's, um...

pretty accurate.

I can see the emotion in,
in you, in your face.

- Yeah.
- And that is actually

the starting of our wisdom.

When we encounter
a very bad moment,

or incident in our life,

there is no other way
to find happiness

than within yourself.

Within me where?

Death.

I've never really thought about

death or dying.

What is the,
the theory behind death?

So turn your full attention

to the idea of your death,

to contemplate what's important
and what's unimportant.

We would like
to offer you the monk's robe.

Thank you.

And it's funny
talking about death.

I just don't think about it,

and I feel, like, I... maybe
I'm hiding from it a little bit.

Um...

My death.

That's a heavy thought for me.

Unlike Bhutan,
one of the real shortcomings

in our Western view
of happiness...

is we ignore death.

And I am, like,
a classic example.

Ralph was my younger brother.

We really did
almost everything together.

Five years ago...

he, uh...

So, Ralph got colon cancer.

So I get a call,

drive two and a half hours
to his house.

He was in
a unconscious state...

and then passed away
at 6:00 a.m. I think.

And I was blown off the map.

I was at my low point in life.

Nothing made much sense.

And so I went to the mountains.

And I talked deeply
to the brotherhood of monks.

Reflecting upon death
changed my life.

And I sharpened my sense
of what really matters.

And for me, that's helping
people find happiness.

And I wanted Will to find
his own sense of understanding.

So we had to put him
to the test.

I have
a very active imagination.

When the masked dance started,
I was like, "Oh, no."

This is it.

The music, the fire,

those frightening masks
and darker energies,

I know that it's set up
and it's a ritual,

but it forces you
to look deep down inside.

Will Smith!

Grammy-winning rapper,

one of the biggest movie stars
in the world right now.

I make this look good.

Please welcome Will Smith!

I was always attractive
when I was young.

It clicked in the studio,
it's almost triple platinum now.

While the other guy's sleeping,
I'm working.

You have
this phenomenal career!

As long as they're screaming
"Will," I'm cool.

The infamous slap,

it was seen around the world.

Not your highest moment, Will.

- Unacceptable.
- Stunned.

Has he blown it forever?

That's when
the devil comes for you.

So last time
we saw you,

you were going into
the monastery, man.

Yeah.

And the dance,
what was that like?

I was like,

"Yo, this is scary for real."

And at the same time,
it's your own mind.

- Yeah. Yeah.
- It's like,

what you're scared of is you.

- And I know this is so weird.
- Right. Right.

Um...

after the Oscars...

I mean, that night
was brutal for everybody.

But for me, I had
a bizarre sense of relief...

- Right.
- ...that the image

of Will Smith was dead.

And it was like, "Whew...

- I can be me."
- Right.

Somebody who's
actually flawed and scared...

- Right.
- ...and embarrassed.

- Yeah.
- And staring down

your fears of death,

introduces you
to that space of freedom.

After my time at the monastery,

now when something presents
itself to me and I'm like,

"Am I going to care
about that on my deathbed?"

And if the answer's no,

then I'm not gonna let myself
care about it now.

We're good to go?

I think we've got
some miles ahead of us.

This is
gonna be a real walk.

Hey, watch it.

I was very eager
to take Will to Laya

because I wanted him
to discover

what happiness looks like
high up in the Himalayas,

in one of the most
remote communities.

We've begun
our ascent into Laya.

It's the highest settlement
in Bhutan.

Yes.
And the happiest.

So it's high
in multiple ways.

As we were walking up
the mountain towards Laya,

it just felt mythological.

This hard road climbing to...

the highest altitude
I've ever been.

It feels very...
hard to breathe.

This is the road
to these people's town.

I don't know if you can see
how little that road is.

Is it gonna get colder
or warmer as we go up?

Super cold.

It's gonna be super cold.

We're heading
into trouble, man.

Yeah, jeez.

We are here, uh...

at mid-camp.

Um...

It is 29.9 degrees.

That's not enough degrees.

We're at 12,000 right now.

I can't even tie my damn shoes
without getting winded.

But tomorrow,
we're going to 13,000 feet.

What makes people live up here?

And they the happiest people
in the country.

They're gonna have to show me.

There you go, sir!

Wow.

Every five years,

there's a nationwide
happiness survey.

And the happiest people
have been in Laya.

Today, we regard them as
the guardians of the mountains.

Finally, we're here in Laya.

Thank you for,
for your beautiful song.

She's, like, "You're handsome."

Oh, absolutely.

That's beautiful.

Wash your hands.

Wash your hands? Okay.

I-I don't cook much.

And by much, I mean,
like, not at all.

We went quickly from,

"Hey, how you doing?
Nice to meet you."

to, "Come in my kitchen
and cook with me."

- La is yes?
- Yeah, yeah.

La. La.

It doesn't happen
in Philly like that.

Okay.

Alright. Let me try. Let me try.

And I'm scared 'cause I don't
wanna chop my finger off.

How am I doing?

We need more?

How many people
are we cooking for?

- A hundred people?
- Hmm.

We should hurry up.

I feel like I'm good at this.

Good, good. Very good.

Very good...
Good, good?

You can say, "That's hot."

- That's hot. That's hot.
- That's hot.

You're hot.

Aum Passang, you know,

I could tell
she thought I was cute.

She was happy I was there.

I am so intrigued by Laya,

and the joy that you exude.

How did you learn
this way growing up?

So, you're here, um, alone?

Aum Passang has suffered

excruciating circumstances.

I don't think that
it's a coincidence

that life in Laya is difficult,

yet they are some of
the happiest people on Earth.

I don't totally see it yet,

but I can definitely feel
that there's a correlation.

Life in Laya, it's cold,

and it's remote.

Electricity only
recently arrived.

There's no running water.

It is hard.

But it's the way this community
faces these challenges,

that I think is essential
to their happiness.

Festivals are
very important here.

And central to
festivals here is archery.

In fact,
it's the national sport.

It brings people from all walks
of life to witness the match.

You have your team
set there waiting for you.

- Oh, my team?
- This is our team.

- This is our worthy opponent.
- Okay.

The game of archery in Bhutan

is very different compared
to the rest of the world.

Instead of shooting
at one direction,

the archers actually shoot
across each other.

Wait, we shooting
at each other?

Is this tournament to the death?

Tell me the truth.
When was the last time

somebody accidentally
got hit with an arrow?

Tell me the truth. Be honest.

- Maybe a month ago.
- Oh.

At the end of the part
of the village.

Oh, okay. I was making a joke.

Let's have some fun.

I am a very competitive person.

Good shot.

People say it's not
whether you win or lose,

it's how you play the game.

It's your turn.

Growing up in America,

you would only say that
'cause you lost.

Argh!

But I did love that,

hit or miss, we all dance.

This is crazy, no, sir?

This is wild.

The event is being called
because of the wind.

Does that mean we win?

Uh, no, it's not fair to say

that we won the matches.

Damn it.

Oh, that was fantastic.

You know, the wind shut us down.

It was one to zero,

and somehow in Bhutan,
that's a draw.

I saw you bust out some moves
in dance after that archery.

It's so funny. I wasn't
even thinking about that.

But it's like, all of a sudden,
I felt accepted.

- Right. Right.
- I'm a part of their group

if they're letting me
do the dance

and learning the words.

But it's like...

Wow. Okay.

So something just dawned on me.

- It's collective harmony.
- Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah.

- It's about togetherness.
- Yes, it is.

- Mm-hmm.
- What do you make of that?

Of course I want that.

You know, everybody wants
a tight-knit family.

But you certainly can't do that

if your priority
is something else.

- Mm-hmm. Agreed.
- Yeah.

You know,
as a scientist,

I really take heart
in what Charles Darwin wrote.

A lot of people think
he was all about dog-eat-dog,

- survival of the fittest.
- Mm-mm.

- And he wasn't.
- Right.

Darwin was really about survival
of the kindest or friendliest.

- Yes. It's a mentality.
- Yeah.

I had a goal. I had a mission.

I wanted to be the biggest
movie star on Earth.

Right.

But I'm not one of
the best friends on Earth.

I'm not one of
the best fathers on Earth.

It was my kids
that started making me aware

that my heart
wasn't as available.

Yeah.

It's a big part of why I'm here.

Yeah. "I got work to do."

Or you look up
and your kids are 28,

and they don't come home
for Christmas.

Aw.

The Layans
people are so happy...

because they spend

enormous amounts
of time together.

They share food.

They revel with dance.

They are kind
and warm to each other.

So they're doing all the things

that we are hungering for.

We have a need to belong.

When you're deprived of that,
it's like being deprived

of food or water or sleep.

I guess we're going in.

One, two, three,
right, left, right.

Come on, turn it up.

I know.

It dawned on me

we might be asking
the wrong question.

How can I be happy?

But it seems like
the question might be...

how can we be happy?

That's the question
they ask in Laya.

Good morning.
Good morning.

- I just got a chill.
- Really?

Today is my father's birthday.

- He would have been 81 today.
- Ohh.

- Eighty-one?
- He would have been 81.

- That's great.
- Alright, I'm ready.

- Alright, let's go.
- Let's go. Okay.

We are all dropped

into this existential confusion

and given the job
to figure it out.

Now I'm kinda realizing,
you know, if you let life lead,

it'll take you
really interesting places.

Walking up to the highest point

to have the flag
reach for the heavens

as an honor to those
who have passed on.

It's a beautiful ceremony.

In that moment
of suffering and loss,

we were connected by letting go.

I never really
thought of letting go

as being a part of happiness.

My mindset was always
about gaining and keeping,

but there's something
in surrendering

that is ecstatic.

Papua New Guinea is the land
of the unexpected.

We are renowned
for being cannibals.

- Okay.
- Me especially.

Alright.

Let's go.

Beneath us is a whole new world.

- I'm not a great swimmer.
- I don't care.

I want you to get underwater
right now.