Be happier in 2015 – apply the science of happiness to your life. The Year of Happy is a year-long experiment for people around the world starting on January 5. Positive psychology, the science of happiness, is learning new things every day about how to bring more positive emotions and meaning to our lives. But the trick is sorting through the mess of sensational media headlines and dry academic papers and applying those lessons – can we do it?
In this course, each month of 2015 will focus on one skill or activity proven to make us happier, like optimism, relationships, meaning, and goals (see below). As we practice new life habits, we’ll also be learning through readings, videos, and discussions. Each month is structured like this:
- Week 1: What is it?
- Week 2: How to cultivate it. This is where we start the happiness practice, which will continue for the next three weeks.
- Week 3: How it makes you happier.
- Week 4: Keeping it real. Learn tips for overcoming resistance, staying motivated, and avoiding the common pitfalls.
The content is free, and all you need to participate is an Internet connection and a little bit of self-motivation. It should take no more than 1-2 hours per week – a great Sunday afternoon activity, or a calming way to start or end your day over a cup of tea. Just enter your email address below, and you’ll get a weekly email with each week’s happiness practice and readings.
(Even if the course has already started, you can still sign up and jump right in, no matter what month it is. Each month can stand on its own and doesn’t have any prerequisites. And all the content will be posted below on this page as it goes up, so you can catch up at your leisure.)
This year, let’s make (and keep) the most important resolution there is: to be happier.
Monthly Themes
The monthly themes come straight out of Sonja Lyubomirsky’s book The How of Happiness, which details 12 research-backed happiness practices:
January: Gratitude
“Gratitude is a way of life,” says psychologist Robert Emmons. Learn to cultivate gratitude, and we won’t just be saying “thank you” more often. Our brain will form a habit of scanning the world for the positives; we may start to feel wonder and awe at the gifts of nature or the smiles of our loved ones. If you’re skeptical, we dare you to watch some of the inspirational, gratitude-inducing videos in this section and try not to get goosebumps.
February: Optimism
Optimism isn’t just seeing the glass half-full or believing things will turn out okay. It’s a more deeply rooted habit of how we talk to ourselves – was that mistake we made evidence that the world is unfair and we’re failures, or was it just a fluke? Our childhood and life experiences have led us to cultivate an optimistic or pessimistic style, but the good news is that we can change. Learn to challenge your knee-jerk pessimism and you’ll be more successful, more resilient to stress, and more confident.
March: Avoiding overthinking and social comparison
When we log onto Facebook, it prompts us with a question: “What’s on your mind?” We have swung wildly in the direction of introspection, obsessed with knowing our thoughts, feelings, and desires. But some of the time we spend analyzing our brains is counterproductive, tainted by pessimism, rumination, and passivity. This month will give you the tools and know-how to stop the spiral of negative thoughts before they get out of control.
April: Kindness
No, we won’t be volunteering at soup kitchens the whole rainy month of April. The kindness that brings us happiness can be far more humble, and barely seem like effort at all – holding a door for a stranger, grabbing a latte for a coworker, or spending an extra 15 minutes reading to our kids. Once we’ve mustered up the energy for a few acts of kindness, we’ll see that kindness isn’t such a chore at all – that being kind to others is a way of treating ourselves to its mood-, health-, and relationship-boosting benefits.
May: Relationships
“Happiness is love. Full stop.” These are the famous words of George Vaillant, the principal investigator in a 75-year longitudinal study of Harvard graduates, The Grant Study. He’s summing up what they’ve learned about what brings satisfaction in life. But as we all know, relationships can also be one of our biggest sources of unhappiness – so this month will look at what happy relationships have in common and how to diversify and deepen our connections.
June: Coping
No happiness course would be complete without a section on how to deal with the downs of life. Luckily, this month should be far from depressing: most traumatic events are much less of a blow to our happiness than we expect. And we’re beginning to understand how some people emerge from trauma feeling happier, more grateful, and more purposeful. This month, we’ll learn how to prepare for the worst so we don’t have to fear it so much.
July: Forgiveness
Forgiveness might seem like a great way to make other people happier, but how does it make us happy? Well, it turns out that forgiving someone can be something we do entirely for our own well-being, to decrease feelings of bitterness, anger, and regret and to move on with our lives. As one popular quote goes, “Resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die.” This month, we’ll take the antidote.
August: Engagement
You know that feeling when time stops and you forget about your worries and your hunger – you forget about your body and mind altogether – because you’re so immersed in what you’re doing? That feeling is called engagement or flow, and it’s so crucial that it’s one of the five pillars of well-being. But many of us go through our lives without much flow, feeling mostly boredom or anxiety. If that describes you, this month will give you lots of fun and interesting ideas about how to get more engaged in life.
September: Savoring
A dense, moist chocolate cake punctuated by layers of light, fluffy vanilla icing. A pink sunset, reflecting on apartment buildings and covering the street in a rosy glow. A friend’s laugh, eyes creasing up and obnoxious chuckles. Everyday life is filled with opportunities for savoring, but we often let them pass by without tasting, seeing, or hearing fully. This month, we’ll learn to be more present and find happiness in life’s ordinary moments.
October: Goals
If you sign up for this course, you’ll already have an idea of what it feels like to work toward a significant goal. Goals give us a sense of structure and meaning: we can see the goalposts up ahead and we know where we’re going in life. We happily anticipate accomplishing them and start to feel more confident and efficacious because we’re making progress. If life is about growing and learning, goals are what help us stay on that path.
November: Body
As the holidays approach, we’ll turn to the physical body – and how to boost mood on a physiological level. You’ve probably heard that exercise makes us happier, but we’ll go deeper into why and when that works – and how daily slogs on the treadmill might not be the best option. Expect lots of smiling and laughter.
December: Meaning and spirituality
If you’re concerned that the pursuit of happiness seems superficial or hedonistic, this month is for you. Psychologists recognize that not all happiness involves smiles and boisterous laughter; sometimes we find fulfillment in the struggle, the challenge, or even the trauma. We’ll look at how to find purpose and meaning amidst the rush and minutiae of life, and how secular and religious spirituality can play a role. And congrats! The science of happiness is now working for you, and you have habits and practices to last a lifetime.
Join me as I take this journey with a few friends as we work on our Year of Happiness – A year to find our own Upeksha (equanimity in the midst of wordly fluctuations) For me…it is to find my InnerJasmine
Click the link to sign up. Re share – Post your story – Join us!
Re-shared from: http://positivepsychlopedia.com/year-of-happy/