Meet Dr. Weil

On November 8, 2011, Dr. Andrew Weil's book Spontaneous Happiness debuted and became an immediate bestseller. It's been hailed by critics as "immensely beneficial" and "a comprehensive roadmap for the prized path to true happiness." The book guides readers to safe, natural means that can alleviate mild to moderate depression. It also aims to help the rest of us acheive peak emotional wellness via lifestyle, behavioral and dietary changes that are safe, natural and inexpensive.

Convinced that his program would work well online, Dr. Weil then conceived and guided the creation of SpontaneousHappiness.com - and after months of work, the site is up and running! It takes members through an eight-week series of articles, videos, tools and community interactions, all aimed at fostering and maintaining emotional sea level. He discussed it with Brad Lemley:

What led you to create this website?
I've been gratified by the response that my book has received. At the same time, I've always believed that to help the largest possible number of people, you need to communicate using as many kinds of media as you can. I saw the potential of the Internet in the early 90s, and have directed DrWeil.com, one of the leading medical websites on the Internet, since 1996.

So all along, I planned to follow Spontaneous Happiness with SpontaneousHappiness.com. An online program would have the advantage of interactivity: people would be able to use tools, chat with each other in online forums, track their moods and so on. It would also offer a multimedia experience: we could make extensive use of videos, photo albums, music and more.

Who do you think can derive the most benefit from this site?
I think just about anyone who is comfortable with online interaction - which is a lot of people these days - would get value from it. But it's possible that the audience for this website will be a bit younger than the one for the book. In my experience, many young people prefer interactive media.

A basic premise of both the book and the website is that modern lifestyles - which are typically sedentary, socially isolated, and characterized by information overload - are conducive to depression. I think such lifestyles are more common among younger people - in many cases, it is the only way of living they have ever known. So I want to attract as many of them as I can to a website that encourages exercise, community and bringing digital devices under control.

Yes, one point you make in both the book and the website is that chronic overuse of digital media can lead to depression. So does it seem at all contradictory to offer an online program that aims to improve emotional well-being?
It might seem that way at first, but it's all about moderation and balance. Most other websites out there don't warn you against spending too much time on the Internet. This one does, and gives you some specific strategies for limiting your exposure. I think it's likely that people you use this site will ultimately spend much less time web surfing, watching pointless videos and otherwise going down various digital rabbit holes that can eat up so much time and leave us distracted, lonely and depressed.

In your view, what's the most useful aspect of SpontaneousHappiness.com?
That's difficult to say, because there are so many good components. We assembled a terrific team of experts for this site. For example, Susan Piver, a leading meditation advocate, provides some wonderful instruction. Joshua Leeds, a brilliant musician, contributed music that was specifically selected to elicit positive emotional changes in the listener. And my good friend Steven Gurgevich, PhD. discusses the value of self-hypnosis, a great therapeutic aid for establishing emotional well-being.

Along with these experts, I spent a good deal of time creating exclusive videos so that I could speak directly to the visitor. People who've seen these tell me they find the human element - a familiar face and voice helping them at a difficult emotional time - to be very valuable.

Learn more, and enroll in a free, no-obligation trial at: SpontaneousHappiness.com