In 2002 Dr Tal Ben-Shahar first taught a psychology seminar at Harvard to explore what he believed to be the question of questions: how can individuals, communities and society become happier? Eight students signed up of which two dropped out. The following year 380 students signed up and the next time the course was offered, 855 students enrolled, making it the largest class at the university with soon after one out of every five students signing up for his course.
I love to read and I love to research so looking for any information I can find on happiness has led me to a place where I feel like the proverbial kid in the candy store. From psychologists to the dalai lama, from happiness pursuers such as Elizabeth Gilbert with her novel Eat, Pray, Love, to Oprah, I have collected an incredible library of resources and information that I am hungrily working through and in doing so, experiencing some incredibly profound yet simple learnings.
It’s now time for action.
My goal for the next year is to identify and implement simple changes in my life that will (hopefully) lead me to a journey of conscious happiness.
Each week I will define a small area of my life where I will slightly adjust my sails so that the wind of my behaviour leads me into an altered direction. I truly believe it’s the small things, the simple disciplines that over time, step-by-step can make the most worthwhile and most sustainable changes in life.
I am someone who believes that I have really understood something when I can teach it, so I will also share some of the information I have discovered in my happiness library. I will resist the urge to dump the truckload with long and detailed blog postings. I’m not sure about you but succinct, to the point and useful information is what I look for when I’m sitting at my computer, so being clear and to the point will be my promise.
So please come back tomorrow and I will share my activity for week one of My Happiness Project. See you soon.
Debra xo
