William: John Egeland of the
Norwegian refugee council, thank
you so much for being here.
>> Thank you.
William: There's a new series
out this month about traveling
the wide world looking for the
happiest places on Earth.
But you might be surprised by
the travel guide, a man many
know for being stuck at a desk
job, in an office.
Geoff Bennett caught up with
actor rain Wilson during this
mental health awareness month to
discuss his personal and
professional journeys.
It's part of our arts and
culture series canvas.
>> How are you feeling?
>> I don't want to be this cold.
I'm scared.
Reporter: Wilson travels far and
wide from Iceland to Ghana.
And beyond in a six part series.
Wilson is recognizable to many
as Dwight Schroot from "The
office," the critically
acclaimed mokumentary sitcom
series that ran for 9 seasons on
NBC.
Over the years, he has taken on
other projects from films such
as juno, to more recently weird:
The Al yankovic story.
While he continued the comedic
work he also turned inward,
, asking bigger life questions
through a media company he
founded called soul pancake,
and, now with a book "Soul
boom", why we need a spiritual
revolution released this spring.
Rainn Wilson joined me from a
recording studio, to explain why
he took the plunge.
So with this new series, you
wanted to find the key to inner
happiness and you went around
the world looking for it.
What did you discover?
>> So we went to four countries
in this first season.
Iceland, Ghana, west Africa,
Bulgaria and Thailand.
And then back to Los Angeles to
see if I could take what I found
about bliss, joy, happiness,
well-being and apply it to my
life back at home.
And, you know, to boil it all
down, it's not any great
mystery.
The thing that I really came
away with in my heart about
finding bliss is it's all about
connection.
It's all about community.
It's not a big surprise.
The people that were the most
vital and lived the most
meaningful lives did so in
relationship with others.
Reporter: It's interesting.
I use the word happiness and you
use the word bliss.
Do you see a difference between
the two things?
>> I do.
I have a personally, I have a
problem with the word happiness,
because happiness is a result of
certain things being in place.
You know what I mean?
Like you, you lick an ice cream
cone and a butterfly lands on
your shoulder and you feel
happy.
Or the next day you can go like
an ice cream cone and wait for a
butterfly and maybe feel
miserable and anxious and
worried about the next day.
So what are actions that you can
take in your life?
What are initiatives that you
can take?
What's an outlook that you can
shift, a perspective to tweak,
in order to achieve what experts
in that field really call
well-being?
You know, that sense of being
connected, grounded, joyful, and
alive and vibrant on the inside.
Reporter: In this series, you
lay bare your personal
challenges publicly.
How did you feel about that
initially?
Was there any reservation?
>> You know, maybe I've just
been in therapy for too long.
I have no problem talking about
my struggles come my issues, my
traumas difficulties that I've
, had.
And I talk about my anxiety
disorder and depression and
other issues.
And so for me, this journey was
a personal journey, as well as
anything else.
I wanted to find out some of
these answers that, you know, we
Americans, we can be a little
arrogant sometimes.
Maybe we've got something to
learn from the people of Ghana
and the people of Thailand and
the people of Iceland.
And I was excited to try that
out both on myself as kind of a
Guinea pig and to share my
findings.
Reporter: Traveling to find
contentment or bliss is not
something that most people can
do.
Based on your travels, how can
people find that closer to home
or within?
>> What we're trying to do on
the show is not to say, hey,
happiness is what's going to
make you.
What we're trying to say on the
show is not that travel is going
to make you happy, but what can
we learn from other cultures
that we can apply at home?
And I think that there there is
of a wealth of evidence out
there for all kinds of the
things that we're discovering.
For instance, in Iceland, I did
a cold plunge in the arctic
ocean with a group of powerful,
amazing viking women that every
morning they sing songs and hold
hands and they walk into the
arctic ocean.
Cold plunge therapy is something
that you can do at home.
You can do it in your shower.
You don't need to have a fancy
cold plunge in order to do it.
And the vikings have been doing
it for thousands of years.
Reporter: There is a spiritual
thread throughout your recent
work, rainn.
You also have a book calling for
a spiritual revolution.
The book is called "Soul boom"
and you write that we as a
culture have discounted
spirituality, that we've moved
away from faith, we've moved
away from the sacred, and that
we need to return to it.
Tell me more about that.
>> Well, the thesis of the book
is that we've kind of thrown the
spiritual baby out with the
religious bathwater.
In western culture, especially
in big city America, we've so
uniformly rejected religion for
a lot of times for very good
reasons.
You know, we've suffered a lot
of trauma at the hands of
religion.
Some terrible acts of barbarity
have been done in the name of an
all-loving god.
And I understand why people have
left.
But there are spiritual tools at
the foundation of all of the
world's great faith traditions
that we can draw from that can
transform our lives, and more
importantly, that we can use to
help transform our society.
Reporter: How does being
spiritual, being faithful
translate to the work you do in
Hollywood?
>> Well, that's a great
question.
They're often at odds.
But I do feel that in the spirit
of the divine creator, the
creative force that pulses
through every molecule in this
physical plane and an infinite
other number of planes past this
one, that the act of
entertaining can be a service.
And I think people that have
loved and watched "The office"
for decades now feel a great
sense of peace and calm and
serenity in the watching of the
show.
And it uplifts their hearts and
souls.
And I get to be a part of that.
So there's a service element and
that essential element of
creating something where there's
nothing, being an artist,
there's a blank page, there's a
blank stage, there's a silent
room, and you get to be a part
of creating something beautiful,
rich, and magical.
I think that is a divine
process.
I think there's a sacredness and
a sublimity to it.
Reporter: I'd never thought of
it in that way, that the work
you do as an actor in some ways
is a ministry.
On the other hand, to lots of
people, you will forever be
associated with your standout
character on "The office,"
Dwight schrute.
As you see it, is that a
blessing or a burden?
>> [Laughter]
A little bit of both.
I mean, I've played dozens of
roles before I played Dwight and
I've played a good dozen or more
since I finished playing Dwight.
That's the one that has found a
nerve with audiences, and they
love me for it.
And listen, I'm so grateful, I
wouldn't have been able to write
a book.
It has opened so many doors for
me.
Reporter: Rainn Wilson, a real
pleasure to speak with you.