During Dr. Harry Cohen’s interview with Joseph Jaffe, with CoronaTV, Joseph asked Harry about how he discovered the fundamentals of being heliotropic.

Dr. Harry Cohen replied with his story about how he has been fascinated with this and been a seeker of it since he was 16. Harry lived in an ashram in India, looking to understand the nature of god and the universe. Harry told Joseph, he wanted to know the truth. Empirically the sages have written for thousands of years that we should practice virtuous behaviors. Harry pointed out this is not new information, all the ancient paths articulate, do good in some form or fashion, so Harry felt like ..hey I got this covered.

Harry talked about as he was seeking, he really looked to find out if there is some more empirical realities, and he learned, oh yeah there is all kinds of empirical truth around the practice of these virtuous behaviors. These virtues like; gratitude, compassion, forgiveness, kindness, authenticity, vulnerability, Brene Brown speaks about it beautifully. They are fabulous, they are not just good feeling things. They infuse your world with goodness and health and well-being. Harry often says when you are at your best, do more of that! So in this case as he learned that these virtuous behaviors bring you goodness, health and well-being, Harry says, WOW..lets do more of that!

Harry told Joseph, how he discovered these fundamentals, after being a seeker for many years, was when he learned that there is science behind the positive benefits of these virtuous behaviors. The study of positive deviance. This is people who seem to be incredibly happy, and fulfilled and successful and joyful, no matter what is going on in their world.

Harry stated, that he has been practicing this for a long time, but it is not his stuff, he is just trying to distill it to make it easier for people.

Harry reminds us to just do some good. When you practice doing some good, you can say to yourself, you know what, I did some good today. It can be anything from helping someone across the street, helping someone clean their garage etc. But just ask yourself, did I do anything good today, and see if you did. This is the practice of being heliotropic. There is no down side to being kind, compassionate, forgiving, humble, hard -working, and considerate, these are qualities that when we practice them, we are doing some good. That’s it!

It is helpful to remember you are not in traffic, you are traffic. In other words, you are not in the culture of your organization or your family, you are the culture. Meaning every single thing that you do reflects on what happens around us. If you want to create a culture where you do a lot of good, you do a lot of good. Don’t worry about anybody else doing good on you, or anybody else needing to do good.

All you have to do is practice doing good yourself. That’s it, no more, no less, there is no down side to being kind, period.

Watch the whole interview with Dr. Harry Cohen and Joseph Jaffe here.