How to teach sustainable happiness

How to Teach Sustainable Happiness

Teaching happiness is possible, owing to the results and findings of positive psychology, and can be introduced to all age groups at educational institutions. Using positive psychology approaches will engage children and young people very fast.

By learning happiness and practising strategies to enhance well-being, children open up, increase academic performances and grow into responsible and happy adults. Positive experiences have a long-lasting effect on their development.

Institutions, who realise the need of well-being education, should incorporate positive education into their curriculum and teach happiness with Martin Seligman’s PERMA model. Discovering what their strengths are, what they do really well already, is another significant step.

It is essential, that lessons, which contain positive education approaches, are given regularly and are sustainable in the long run – so that children can learn practical techniques for boosting positive emotions, build self-confidence and learn how to be active listeners. These activities and lessons will soon become a part of the culture of the school and the everyday life of teachers and children.

Connections with other institutions and educators, who are experienced in teaching happiness is significant to get advice, strategies and support from and to share ideas with.

The role of teachers is extremely important, as through their skills they develop positive pedagogical relationships with students, lead the activities, and they are the ones who collaborate with parents. Therefore, training them to be updated about the recent results and the latest techniques of positive psychology, and to avoid their burn-out is vital.

Teachers are advised to introduce children to positive emotions such as joy, empathy and love to broaden their way of thinking. However, it is also necessary, that children are taught techniques to deal with pressure, failure and negative emotions such as envy or fear.

During the lessons, children should learn about the importance of strong and quality relationships, which are proven to be one of the biggest factors of happiness. They should also discover and celebrate their strengths.

Providing activities and opportunities for children to express their feelings, such as gratitude or appreciation is a major part of each programme working with positive pedagogy.

Brainstorming with students, letting them express their ideas and plans regarding tasks and projects is also a meaningful element of teaching happiness, just like helping students find joy in everyday things.

The benefits of teaching and learning happiness is just endless: positive experiences broaden our thinking, help dealing with pressure, children open up, express their feelings easier, get calmer and learn to care about others, etc. We will all see the positive impacts on our life and on other’s life when we get involved with well-being education.

Чему вы научитесь

Требования

Sustainable Happiness takes you on a journey to discover how you can bring sustainable happiness into your life, how to change patterns and habits that are not beneficial to you, and how to make daily choices that bring greater well-being to your world. A combination of 40 lectures and more than 15 learning applications will bring new insights about how your happiness and well-being are intertwined with other people and our natural environment. Taught by Dr. Catherine O’Brien, professor and author of Education for Sustainable Happiness and Well-Being.

Many courses about happiness focus on individual happiness, but there is so much more to happiness. It’s about you, your family, friends, neighbors, co-workers and countless other interconnections. Every day, you are making choices that contribute to (or detract from) your happiness and well-being. We will explore how these choices can lead to greater happiness and well-being for you, for others, and create healthy, livable communities. Sustainable happiness is about sustaining your happiness but it is also about happiness that contributes to the well-being of others and nature.

If you are interested in increasing your life satisfaction, gaining more control over your life choices, being more mindful, and broadening your understanding of happiness and well-being then you will enjoy this course. You will have the greatest benefit from the course if you complete the learning applications that are designed to deepen your learning.

Why go for True or Sustainable Happiness?

The real key to sustainable happiness is skill based, not circumstance based. If one relies on circumstances (environment, relationships,activities) only temporary happiness that lasts as long as circumstances are favorable. Perspective and mindset can be developed using practical skills and create sustainable happiness where the lowest emotional state a person dips to, even when circumstances are not good, is hopefulness. Hopefulness is above where much of the world lives. Life can be great. It’s up to you.

Sustainable Happiness Defined:

The state of true happiness does not require a constant state of bliss. It is a deep sense of inner stability, peace, well-being, and vitality that is consistent and sustainable. Awareness that one possesses the knowledge and skills to return to a happy state, even when not in that state, is a critical component of sustainable happiness. True happiness is sustainable because the individual deliberately and consciously chooses perspectives that create positive emotions and has cultivated this habit of thought until the natural and habitual response focuses on the positive aspects of any situation.

Anyone can achieve sustainable happiness because it’s skill-based, practical and easy to apply to your life.

Our programs teach you how or if you’re good at learning from a book, our founder’s books show you how. Look for Jeanine Joy’s offerings at your favorite book seller.

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Sure, there were the signs and symptoms of pregnancy. Things like a growing belly, occasional bouts of nausea and happy thoughts of a growing family. But, to be honest, the reality of raising a baby didn’t settle in until more recently. As I progress in my third trimester, this sometimes-intimidating notion is becoming more and more real as the days inch closer to my due date. After all, raising a child is much different than growing one.

What kind of parent will I be? What kind of parent should I be? As I ponder thing like parenting styles, how to teach colors and ABCs, and what my child will be when she grows up, I can’t help but reflect on one very important and sole notion. Above all, I just want her to be happy.

Which is why, when I read an article about how Denmark is the home to the “happiest people on earth” I was intrigued.

What is it about Danish parenting that cultivates happiness in their population? How did they, as a collective society, reach such an impressive country-wide title for self-fulfillment? Mother Mag took it upon themselves to finding out their secrets through chatting with Jessica Alexander, co-author of The Danish Way of Parenting: A Guide To Raising The Happiest Kids in the World , who divulges in a new way of parenting that we should all take note of, whether or not we have kids.

Here are some of our favorite takeaways from the fascinating sit down.

“Danish parents actively teach their children empathy and to value others. They base their success on real teamwork rather than only striving to be the star.”
“Danes don’t over program their kids’ lives. Play is considered one of the most important things a kid can do (and learn from), even into high school. There is a big focus on the zone of proximal development, which means they respect children where they are at in their learning process and try to help them just enough so they don’t lose the joy in learning for themselves.”
“Danes actively teach empathy in school, starting in pre-school. It is as important as teaching Math or English. They ‘keep it real.’ Everything doesn’t have to have a happy ending.”
“Spanking became illegal in 1984 in Denmark. Danes use a diplomatic, avoiding ultimatums approach. As a result, they are a very non-violent culture.”

My takeaway? By focusing on empathy, teaching values without hindering the innocent playful nature that every kid possesses, and recognizing that how we were raised as a culture may have room for improvement, happiness can be cultivated in children.The article as a whole made me think a lot about what kind of parent I want to be, and how to handle important situations like discipline, teaching empathy in an effective way, and embracing playfulness. While there’s no parenting style that is the “right” one, I think the Danes are onto something.

I know I still have a lot to learn, but it’s safe to say that I know where to start. It’s with looking at generally happy people and cultures surrounding me, and exploring what factors have made them this way. I’d love to do my best to emulate these notions in my parenting style, because after all, what is life if it’s not filled with happiness?

If you’re interested in learning more and reading the in-depth interview, read the full article by Mother Mag here!

Catherine O’Brien is a professor of education at Cape Breton University and the originator of the term “sustainable happiness. In this exclusive Green Interview, O’Brien speaks with Silver Donald Cameron about her work at the intersection of happiness, sustainable living and education. She is part of a worldwide network of scholars and researchers who are exploring what makes people happy and whether it is linked to ways of living that recognize ecological limits, relationship and interconnectedness. O’Brien’s research has led her to propose that there are techniques for achieving sustainable happiness and that it can be taught. Indeed, she’s written a book on it and developed the world’s first course in it. She contends that behaving in ways that will bring us deep endurable happiness is also good for our families, our communities and indeed for the planet itself.

In this exclusive Green Interview, O’Brien discusses the concept of “sustainable happiness,” techniques she employs in her course to teach it, and how the recognition that happiness and connection with the natural world are intertwined often leads to a truly transformative experience.

In this exclusive interview with Catherine O’Brien we discuss:

Sustainable Happiness

O’Brien is also the originator of the term “sustainable happiness,”
which she defines as “happiness that contributes to individual, community or global well-being without exploiting other people, the environment or future generations.” She explains that while sustainable happiness is partly about sustaining individual happiness, genuine happiness is not a result of material consumption or navel-gazing, where individuals become too focused on their own individual happiness. O’Brien makes the crucial point that everyone needs to be able to meet their basic needs, but that even those on a low income can be living a life of sustainable happiness: “It doesn’t always mean being at the top end of environmental activism in terms of buying only organic things, or having solar panels on your roof. It can be making other choices or it can be volunteering in your community, it can be growing your own food in your back yard garden. There’s lots of ways where people can be working better at their own health and well-being and contributing to their community.”

How can it be taught?

O’Brien says that in her classes she shows students their choices can contribute to sustainable happiness. “I’ve come to believe that human unhappiness is a major ecological problem and that creating a sustainable world will also create a happier world. In other words, we don’t lose anything when we live more mindfully and responsibly. We actually gain a different but far greater form of wealth,” she tells The Green Interview. O’Brien says that in her courses, when students begin to look at their well-being they realize that their choices are not always beneficial ones. But she says they soon realize that when they change those to “more healthful choices,” they are also often “better for the environment.”

O’Brien says the “formula for sustainable happiness” involves recognizing that we live interdependently, “intertwined with other people, with the air, with the food, with the water” and then combining that with “compassion for yourself and others.” As a result of this insight, O’Brien decided that something she could build into her course to help students recognize this interdependence was to map it: who or what supports their life, who are they connected to, and how do their choices impact others? She says that through this exercise a lot gets “revealed” to them. “I don’t want to tell them how they should live. I want them to discover what choices are going to be meaningful for them…because in the end it actually turns out to be quite liberating to make conscious choices about how you’re living.”

Education for Sustainable Happiness and Well-being

O’Brien tells The Green Interview that leading up to her 2016 book Education for Sustainable Happiness and Well-being, she began to look at all the ways in which people were saying that the education system needed to change. There were calls for a shift away from the “factory model” that had persisted for some time to encouraging more innovation, entrepreneurship, health promotion, and technology. “These were all siloed kinds of approaches,” she observed, “and it struck me that we needed something far more holistic.” O’Brien saw that sustainable happiness was the link: “it immediately takes away those silos because well-being for all brings us everywhere.”

O’Brien’s article begins with an introduction to the concept of sustainable happiness which she states is a happiness that contributes to individual, community, and global well-being without exploiting others, the environment, or future generations. O’Brien states that the discourse of happiness is a recent phenomenon, and only gained importance with the help of the media, scientific research, and the United Nations work on the Global Happiness Index. O’Brien argues that sustainable happiness goes hand-in-hand with economic and ecological sustainability, as the lifestyle choices we make that enhance the lives of others (i.e. fair trade products, volunteering) reward us with a positive sense of well-being.

O’Brien then raises the question as to how we achieve a more sustainable future? And she arrives at the logical answer that sustainability education should fall into the realm of public education. But, as O’Brien points out, teachers are not being trained to model or instruct sustainability. Even in the rare circumstance that a sustainable education class does exist, O’Brien argues that the course is textbook delivered and theory-based rather than results-oriented action-based learning which would foster sustainable lifestyles.

O’Brien also discusses positive psychology and happiness education, focussing on a happiness course at Cape Breton University. O’Brien discusses how this course teaches students to think critically about happiness and how it is manifested, in their lives and the lives of others; this allows them to make decisions in their lives that lead to a greater sense of well-being, and ultimately these decisions result in sustainable happiness. O’Brien uses this data to support her argument that sustainable happiness should be incorporated into all facets of the education sector, including policy and curricula.

O’Brien closes with a reflection on the mental health of students and teachers, stating that the future of the education system must be a focus on the importance of happiness and well-being. She states that the education system does not exist in a vacuum, separate from the rest of society; it is intertwined with all other aspects of social life, and must therefore be a reflection of that society.

I agree with Catherine O’Brien that happiness and well-being are of critical importance in today’s society, and that the responsibility for teaching sustainable happiness falls to society’s educators. Fortunately, it is already a responsibility of teachers to emulate and instill in their students an appreciation of and stewardship for the natural environment; sustainable happiness goes hand-in-hand with environmental stewardship. Scientific research has proven that time spent in nature directly correlates with positive physical and mental health. Critically thinking about the natural environment and its positive effects on human life fosters a love of nature and a desire to protect it for the future.

I think that the idea of a happiness course in university is incredibly valuable, and I wish that it was a course I could have taken. As I grow older I am faced with an increasing number of responsibilities and it seems as though I have less and less time to care for myself and my happiness. I think that this is an experience shared by a majority of young adults, and perhaps even by students in elementary and high school. In the absence of a happiness course, how can we help ourselves and our students to negotiate the complex responsibilities with which we are presented?

I think that foremost it is crucial that teachers are caring, compassionate individuals who build rapport with their students. Having a teacher who cares about a student’s well-being is the first step to teaching sustainable happiness. I also think that teachers should openly discuss the importance of mental health with their students, regardless of age, and students should be taught how to self-assess their well-being, and practise expressing their feelings with their peers; an open dialogue presents an opportunity for sharing and self-discovery. Lastly, I think that instruction regarding sustainable happiness and well-being should be part of classroom instruction, whether it is in the curriculum or not. Understanding the concept of sustainable happiness and how it is achieved without exploiting ourselves, others, or our environment is a crucial element of social understanding, and the inquiry-based learning opportunities are unlimited.

How to Teach Sustainable Happiness

Connections with other institutions and educators, who are experienced in teaching happiness is significant to get advice, strategies and support from and to share ideas with.

Providing activities and opportunities for children to express their feelings, such as gratitude or appreciation is a major part of each programme working with positive pedagogy.

Happiness isn’t something that just happens – it’s a choice.

“What’s making you happy today?” I ask Dr. Saamdu Chetri, the Executive Director of the Gross National Happiness Centre in Bhutan over Skype.

He replies, quite matter-of-factly: “I woke up in the morning and realised I was still alive and had one more day to serve people. That’s what makes me happy, today and every other day.”

Wedged between global giants China and India, the landlocked state and remote Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan holds a mythical reputation around the world for its approach to perhaps the most elusive of pursuits – happiness.

Encased by the Himalayan Mountains, ancient monasteries and magnificent fortresses, 50% of Bhutan is protected as a national park and prayer flags poetically flutter in the breeze. I catch a quick glimpse of this charmed country as Saamdu lowers his laptop for my viewing out the window.

While talking to Saamdu, renowned leader on cultivating happiness in our day-to-day lives, two questions begged attention: what’s the secret to happiness and how do you teach happiness to someone?

In his pragmatic, yet abundantly sincere way, Saamdu explained that there is a widespread misconception about happiness.

“You cannot ‘teach’ happiness. Happiness is a skill you acquire. To teach happiness implies that it exists beyond you, outside of you, and that is not the case… Happiness is within you and the skill is to nourish it mindfully to better understand and accept who you are and life’s realities.”

If you know very little about Bhutan, it’s important to understand that this tiny yet powerful nation rejected Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 1971 as the only means to measure progress and has been championing a different formulaic since. The country prides itself on evaluating the prosperity of its 788,000 citizens according to the principles of Gross National Happiness instead – a set of four purposeful pillars to quantify the spiritual, physical, social and environmental health and wellbeing of its people and ecology. They include good governance, sustainable socio-economic development, preservation and promotion of culture, and environmental conservation.

In addition to the Centre is the Gross National Happiness Commission, which is the key mandate of the government to ensure that the idea of Gross National Happiness is extended beyond the individual and mainstreamed into planning, policy making and implementation processes across the country. The Commission assesses the success of development in business and government according to the contribution made to the Bhutanese community and the world. Saamdu explains: “Will more roads lead to happiness in the long-term if it means more people are driving to work, spending more time alone and there is increased pollution? No.”

Bhutan may very well be an oddity on the global stage because of their priorities for national wellbeing over material growth, but the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has actually forecasted Bhutan to be the third fastest growing economy in the world for the past two consecutive years.

As economies crash, political and social tensions rise and our environment screams out for tender loving care in the face of global warming and great destruction, Bhutan stands alone as a model for slow, sustainable, values-based change that actually works.

“Change doesn’t happen from the top down or the bottom up. It happens from the inside out,” Saamdu explains. “Social change is driven by human change, and as humans, we need to change. We need to embody happiness as a living practice.”

Dr. Saamdu Chetri

So what does gross national happiness look like in action?

“It looks personal,” he replies. “It’s the simple, individual, value-based choices we makes each day mindfully that add up to national happiness in Bhutan.”

“Here in the centre, that looks like 10-15 minutes of meditation in the morning followed by six minutes of prayer. We eat all our meals together and are very open about our feelings. We are grateful and humble for all that we have, and we show love to everyone that we meet. We smile because we are alive and we show great respect to nature, because without the sun, land and water, we wouldn’t exist. We are all connected in this way, interdependently.”

This is the centre’s core mission – to support people all over the world to cultivate happiness as a skill.

“We might not be able to change industries, governments or corporations, but we can change as humans – as consumers. When we change as consumers, the system has no choice but to change as well,” Saamdu explains.

The centre runs regular workshops and retreats at its 58 acres of land in Bumthang, located at the southern entrance of the country’s largest national park, Wangchuck Centennial Park.

“We take people on a deep journey of inner transformation and understanding. We encourage participants to ask the right questions about their life and their purpose. We help them to see the world with their own eyes, to return and reflect on their daily lives and to reach a realisation – a deeper calling – to help them prototype what they want to change in their lives so they can make those exact changes themselves.”

“This type of change starts within, slowly and mindfully at first, and then rapidly transforms your entire way of being.”

Bhutan is now taking their holistic and sustainable approach to happiness to the rest of the world with centres soon to open in Vietnam and South Africa.

According to this way of thinking happiness is no longer a pursuit – it’s a skill that can be developed and it’s all within your control to cultivate it.

Slow Change Experience: Nov 12 th – 22 nd , 2016

The Gross National Happiness Centre together with Humankind Enterprises and Digital Storytellers has designed this program for 20 young Australian leaders, change makers, activists and visionaries who work in the social, government or business sectors. This 10-day experience will explore ‘inner-vation’ and social innovation through the lens of mindfulness, storytelling and wellbeing, leaving you with an enriched sense of confidence in humankind and your role in creating sustainable change through your work. After all, economic wealth does not necessarily guarantee a greater quality of life. This is an opportunity to learn from the Bhutanese first hand.

How to Teach Sustainable Happiness Is your happiness sustainable? I’m not talking about that rush of pleasure we get when things turn out the way we hope and expect. I’m also not taking about the giddy experience we get laughing with friends or the thrill of accomplishment that overtakes us when we get what we want. To me sustainable happiness is the sense of good and wellbeing that comes in the middle of the night when you are alone with your thoughts. It’s a deep and sustaining sense that you are doing what you are supposed to be doing, where you are supposed to be doing it, at exactly the right time in your life. And the good thing about finding it is that regardless of what is happening in our lives or circumstances, we can still count on it comforting us when the going gets tough.

Yet most of the time, most people tend to think of sustainability solely in terms of the environment. But sustainability, or lack of it, actually applies to everything we do. The word, by itself means balanced, durable, ongoing and self-sustaining. In fact, that’s a big reason why the letter “S” in my blog SMART Living 365 stands for sustainability. While I remain deeply committed to creating a more environmentally sustainable world, I also believe that awareness extends to an understanding that a truly happy life must be ongoing, balanced and enduring both within and around my life.

Of course I’m not the only one who cares about the topic. As a long-time reader and supporter of Yes! Magazine I was pleased when they recently offered a book entitled Sustainable Happiness: Live Simply, Live Well, Make a Difference. Filled with a variety of essays from distinguished authors, the book promotes a number of ways people can experience a more sustainable and “real” happiness in their lives. Plus there are other books, articles and even an online course available in the marketplace with a similar theme. But after reading a number of them, I wanted to add a more SMART approach to the subject. That’s why I came up with the following “signs” that I believe demonstrate a person who embraces sustainable happiness.

Practices gratitude and celebrates what she has every single day of her life.
Does her best to stay healthy in body, mind and soul.
Knows how to love, forgive and be compassionate with herself and others as much as possible.
Accepts and appreciates her body, her mind, her personality and her age as uniquely her own.
Feels competent in her work and knows that her life has purpose and value.
Feels like she has options and a level of control about important decisions in her life that positively affect her future.
Values and cares for what she owns and avoids wasteful and disposable products and services.
Recognizes that her worth has nothing to do with how much money she has, what she owns or what titles she possess.
Recognizes the value of time and freedom, over productivity or material goods.
Feels that she is a part of something bigger than herself.

Still, it is important to keep in mind that in order to have an experience of real happiness and wellbeing that is enduring and sustainable, it must extend out to other people and the world around you. And that’s where a more traditional perspective on sustainability comes into play because, as editor Sarah van Gelder says, “Sustainable happiness cannot be achieved at the expense of others.” That’s why I came up with a few more signs of what else is important for sustainable happiness.

Practices compassion and wholeheartedness as much as possible with other people, her community, and the world.
Enjoys deep and satisfying relationships with other people and her community knowing that connection is an important aspect of a healthy and happy life.
Has a certain degree of trust in her community and government, and feels relative safety on a regular basis.
Recognizes that sustainable happiness is not possible when it comes at a cost to other people, the environment, or future generations.
Realizes that helping others find good health, happiness and wellbeing adds to her own happiness and wellbeing every time.

What I happen to find exciting about the growing awareness of sustainable happiness is the fact that many of our leaders and governments are now taking it into account. Just a few years ago in 2011, the United Nations started the trend by adopting a resolution calling for all countries to increase the happiness of their inhabitants. The following year, the first World Happiness Report was completed along with the first UN Conference on Happiness.

Ever since that time, sustainable happiness has begun to be measured in countries around the world. Now, instead of most governments focusing solely on GDP (gross domestic product), a different measurement exists that takes the focus off production and money and instead puts it on the wellbeing, health and happiness of the people who live there and on what really matters. As David Cameron, Prime Minster of the U.K. said, “We will start measuring our progress as a country, not just by how our economy is growing, but by how are lives are improving. Not just by our standard of living, but by our quality of life.”

Of particular note are two trends that the World Happiness Report has highlighted in regards to sustainable happiness. One of them acknowledges that the health of a country’s citizens is dependent upon its mental health as much as its physical health. The other trend is the huge importance of connection and value of social relationships. Taking a focus off the excesses of a consumer-driven culture, and instead putting it on mental and emotional wellbeing, is a key to sustainable happiness.

I think most of us know this. Most of us know that once our basic needs are met, happiness has nothing to do with money. Sustainable Happiness also doesn’t depend on our age or how much stuff we own. But what we may not have realized is that The World Happiness Institute now provides research showing that people who practice sustainability are actually happier than those who don’t. On the flip side of that, studies show that happier people go out of their way to take care of their environment. In other words, happy people take care of themselves, others and their planet. Sustainability and happiness are interconnected.

So, sure we might know this but if you’re anything like me, I want and need to be reminded of it on a regular basis. Real happiness, sustainable happiness is something I plan to experience my entire life and I wish that for others as well. The SMART approach is to remember, like the Happiness Research Institute shows, that when we start appreciating and doing our best to experience sustainable happiness, that extends out into the world and touches everyone and everything we encounter.

For more information about The World Happiness Report.

Kathy Gottberg believes in living healthy, authentic, fearless and SMART. This post originally appeared on her blog with a number of related comments. For similar topics go to SMART Living 365.

HOW TO GAIN SUSTAINABLE HAPPINESS?

How to Teach Sustainable Happiness

Oct 31, 2016 by Stacy Fassberg

Why is it that happiness is fleeting? How could it be that you feel great in the

morning yet that contentedness fades away by the evening? If I would ask you

about your happiest time during the last month your mind will probably wander

to an event or a period of time where you felt good, experienced great pleasure

and were filled with positive emotions. The association of happiness with joy is a

natural one, and yet happiness consists of much more than these positive

feelings. To understand this greater depth of happiness we need to explore

positive psychology theory and research where a distinction is made between

hedonic and eudaimonic happiness. Such a difference would also make it easier

to understand why we experience happiness as a fluctuating emotion.

The first dimension of happiness is hedonistic. This is where a certain event

triggers a fabulous feeling – you are eating a slice of pizza which is fresh, hot and

delicious, being told by your boss that you’re getting a raise, or receiving praise

in school or at work for an assignment. It feels great, and you are glowing inside

– it’s a fabulous feeling of joy and pleasure. This aspect of happiness is easy to

understand as it is based upon a very simple rule: a maximum of positive

emotions and a minimum of negative emotions. In other words, to experience it

you need to feel as much joy as possible but sadness or frustration cannot be

part of the equation. You might be thinking, “Well, of course they can’t be part of

the equation, it’s happiness we’re talking about here”. But as you will see,

happiness is a much more complex phenomenon than commonly thought. To

better understand this intricacy let’s move on to eudaimonic happiness.

If hedonic happiness is the celebrating, carefree brother, eudaimonic happiness

would be its purposeful, aware and deeply contented twin. Eudaimonic

happiness asks “Who are you?” followed by “What do you do?” The relationship

between the answers determines your experience of eudaimonic happiness. Put

simply, if your deeply held values and beliefs are expressed in your life’s choices

and activities then you would feel eudaimonia. This is the kind of happiness that

is based upon the question of meaning in life. Research in positive psychology

shows that people who wake up in the morning with a clear knowledge of their

raison d’etre in their life, experience a deep feeling of happiness and satisfaction.

Their lives are filled with passion and vitality, which are at the heart of

However, as you might imagine, this journey of eudaimonic happiness is not an

easy one. It is filled with challenges, questions, doubts, and the natural obstacles

of life. Indeed, it is highly rewarding for long-term happiness, but frequently

short-term impact might be difficult as you are struggling to express meaningful

insights. Imagine, for example, you are dissatisfied at work. You go through an

agonising period of time where you feel that “who you are” and “what you do”

are mismatched. You then begin a personal journey of realising what is

meaningful to you – and how to achieve it. It might be that you need to take

further studies at university, or move down the job ladder into a new position.

This process in the short-term is challenging and may instill feelings of

frustration, sadness and even pain, as part of this self-actualising experience. And

yet it is a natural part of eudaimonic happiness. Going through this development

might be challenging but it would probably fill you with a highly satisfying and

deep feeling of meaning as you proceed with it. You are investing in your long-

The question “why is happiness fleeting?” might be easier to understand now.

Hedonic happiness, in its essence, is a brief experience of joy and pleasure which

quickly fades away. When you eat a delicious chocolate cake you get short-lived

feeling of pleasure spreading through your body – but it is a fleeting one

nonetheless. Even the gratification of winning an unexpected amount of money

fades away much more quickly than we would have thought. As we equate

happiness and pleasure, Eudaimonic happiness offers an instable experience of

positive emotions. Eudaimonic happiness, as we have seen, is filled with

challenges, making it difficult for us to experience consistent joy. We will no

doubt discover moments of great satisfaction and positive emotion, but the

difficulties along the way would make it feel as if this positivity comes and goes

instead of being constant. And there it is – happiness which we much prefer to

feel as never-ending bliss, becomes a fluctuating, fleeting experience. And yet, as

we walk our personal path of eudaimonic happiness we discover a new kind of

happiness: deep contentment and self-fulfillment. This kind of happiness might

be challenging and lack pleasure and joy at certain points in time, and yet it fills

us with the burning fire, and passion, of those who live meaningful and

How to Teach Sustainable Happiness

What is sustainable happiness?

Sustainable happiness integrates research from positive psychology with sustainability. This means that we are not solely looking at an individual’s happiness and well-being in isolation from how the choices they make impact other people and the natural environment. Research from positive psychology has revealed a great deal about the benefits of positive emotions as well as measures we can take to increase our life satisfaction and enhance well-being. Exploring how our happiness and well-being are intertwined with the well-being of other people and the ecosystems that sustain us expands the significance of positive psychology. It demonstrates the vital fact that our well-being and desire to flourish can contribute to, or detract from, human and environmental health and well-being. We can choose to live in ways that contribute to well-being for all, sustainably.

Is sustainable happiness about sustaining my happiness and is that even possible?

The focus of sustainable happiness isn’t only on sustaining your happiness but on recognizing how your happiness and well-being are interconnected with other people and the natural environment. It’s about discovering how we can live more gently and compassionately with ourselves, with other people, and with Nature. Yes! Bringing sustainable happiness into your life can lead to more consistent experiences of happiness and well-being. How is that possible? That depends, to some extent, on how committed you are to addressing patterns in your life that are not beneficial to you and making choices to enhance your well-being. Since most of us haven’t learned about sustainable happiness through our formal education there is lots to learn!

An exploration of sustainable happiness prompts you to reflect on the choices that you are making on a daily basis that contribute to, or detract from, your well-being, the well-being of others, and the well-being of the natural environment. Inevitably, participants in sustainable happiness courses identify steps that they would like to take to enhance their well-being. We often incorporate a sustainable happiness project. For instance, participants may set goals around healthy eating, physical activity, and obtaining adequate sleep and then set their plans in motion. Taking charge of your well-being can be liberating and uplifting and once this is experienced you can set a virtuous cycle in motion where you want to continue to experience the positive benefits of these choices.

How does sustainable happiness apply to individuals whose income doesn’t enable them to purchase organic food, electric vehicles, and other kinds of expensive but environmentally-friendly products?

This is an important question. One of the first things to recognize is that sustainable happiness isn’t only about environmental sustainability. Nevertheless, inexpensive possibilities for living a more eco-friendly life are flourishing in communities around the world. From growing your own food (at home and in community gardens), choosing to walk instead of drive for short trips, having clothing swaps with friends, helping to fundraise for community initiatives, reducing our consumption of water, and exploring sustainable food options through vegetarian or vegan menus, tiny houses, and diverse forms of collaborative consumption, we are seeing ever increasing opportunities for all income earners. Sustainable happiness is not an expensive undertaking. And, it can even save you money.

There are many choices within everyone’s control that can be made to enhance happiness and well-being. For example, we can look at the health of our relationships, expressing gratitude and appreciation, giving generously of our time, attention, and skills (through volunteering for instance). And ultimately, sustainable happiness can foster more compassionate and caring communities as well as policies that lead to greater social justice and poverty alleviation.

The Center for Sustainable Development supports three primary research and policy projects on happiness and well-being. The World Happiness Report is a landmark, annual survey and analysis of the state of global happiness. The Global Happiness Council is a global network of academic specialists in happiness and key practitioners that identifies best practices at national and local levels to advance happiness and well-being. The Science and Ethics for Happiness and Well-being Initiative is a series of meetings in the coming two years to explore the intersection of scientific findings, philosophical wisdom, and the Church’s teachings on happiness and well-being.

How to Teach Sustainable Happiness

The World Happiness Report (WHR)

The World Happiness Report is a landmark survey of the state of global happiness that ranks 156 countries by how happy their citizens perceive themselves to be. The World Happiness Report is written by a group of independent experts acting in their personal capacities. The report is led by senior editors John F. Helliwell, Richard Layard, and Jeffrey D. Sachs, along with associate editors, Alejandro Adler, Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, Haifang Huang, Shun Wang, and Lara B. Aknin.

The ranking report is produced annually along with five to six additional chapters written by the editors and select experts. Each year the report focuses on a specific theme relating to happiness and well-being. Views expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the views of any organization, agency or programme of the United Nations.

How to Teach Sustainable Happiness

The Global Council for Happiness and Well-being

The Global Council for Happiness and Well-being is a new global network of leading academic specialists in happiness and key practitioners in areas ranging from psychology, economics, urban planning, civil society, business and government. The GHC identifies best practices at the national and local levels to encourage advancement of the causes of happiness and well-being.

Council members oversee the work of six thematic groups (education, workplace, personal happiness, public health, city design and management) who each produce a chapter of policy recommendations in the Global Happiness and Well-being Policy Report, published annually and presented at the World Government Summit (WGS) in support the Global Dialogue for Happiness. The reports provide evidence and policy advice to participating governments on best practices to promote happiness and well-being.

The work of the Council is complementary to the World Happiness Reports and other research on the measurement and explanation of happiness. The aim of the Council is to survey and share best practice policies drawn from the research literature and government experiences around the globe.

How to Teach Sustainable Happiness

The Science and Ethics for Happiness and Well-being Initiative (SEH)

The Science and Ethics for Happiness and Well-being Initiative is a series of meetings in the coming two years to explore Faith, Science, and Ethics for Happiness, Well-being and Sustainable Development (or, in short, Science and Ethics for Happiness and Well-being, or SEH). The objective is an actionable synthesis based on recent scientific findings, philosophical wisdom, and the Church’s teachings. Sessions will cover topics such as the philosophical and theological understandings and underpinnings of happiness, the cardinal virtues and happiness, the natural science of happiness, the sociology of happiness, the politics of well-being, the causes and cures of modern addictions, the global epidemiology of mood and anxiety disorders, the emerging neuroscience of happiness, well-being education and the happiness of the young, digital technologies and well-being, and global economics, sustainable development, and happiness. The “Leveraging the Synergies of Faith, Ethics, and Science for Happiness, Well-being and Sustainable Development” Initiative will build upon and augment the happiness programs now underway, including the World Happiness Report. It will also draw upon the findings of the Ethics in Action program.

Today’s greatest health challenges, the so-called diseases of civilization—depression, trauma, obesity, cancer—are now known in large part to reflect our inability to tame stress reflexes gone wild and to empower instead the peaceful, healing and sociable part of our nature that adapts us to civilized life.

The same can be said of the economic challenges posed by the stress-reactive cycles of boom and bust, driven by addictive greed and compulsive panic. As current research opens up new horizons of stress-cessation, empathic intelligence, peak performance, and shared happiness, it has also encountered Asian methods of self-healing and interdependence more effective and teachable than any known in the West.

Sustainable Happiness is the first book to make Asia’s most rigorous and complete system of contemplative living, hidden for centuries in Tibet, accessible to help us all on our shared journey towards sustainable well-being, altruism, inspiration and happiness.

Excerpts from the Forwards

“At this crucial time, when our troubled world needs both a realistic vision and accessible methods of sustainable living, I am happy to recommend Sustainable Happiness to all who seek guidance from the wisdom of Tibet. The comprehensive system of contemplative living and learning introduced in this book holds enormous promise for helping us all to develop the wellbeing, altruism and inspiration we need now more than ever. I am immensely proud of Dr. Joe Loizzo’s great accomplishment, and absolutely delighted to welcome this magisterial work of his into the light of today!”

—Robert A. F. Thurman

Je Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies, Columbia University, and President, Tibet House, U.S.

“Integration is the source of well-being and health that provides a secular ethic around which we can focus our efforts to bring the world to a scientifically grounded place of positive growth. Integration made visible is kindness and compassion. Whether we come to such integrative practices as individuals seeking lasting happiness through caring relationships in the world, or as professionals seeking to heal, teach or lead, the insights and methods introduced in Sustainable Happiness can inspire us all and offer vitally relevant strategies to all walks of humanity, and to the future of the world, this fragile and precious Earth, the home we all share.”

—Daniel J. Siegel, M.D.

Co-Director, Mindful Awareness Research Institute; Co-Investigator, Foundation for Psychocultural Research/UCLA Center for Culture, Brain and Development and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, UCLA School of Medicine.

By Ilona Boniwell

Health is part of every public-school education. But what is health? It’s more than just nutrition and gym class.

As early as 1947, the World Health Organization defined health as a state of mental and social–not just physical–well-being. Today, more and more schools worldwide are integrating social-emotional learning into their curriculum, teaching skills such as self-awareness, empathy, and active listening.

Research demonstrates that happy people are successful across multiple life domains, including marriage, relationships, health, longevity, income, and academic and work performance. They are better able to multitask and endure boring tasks, and are more creative, trusting, helpful and sociable.

So how do we teach the skills of well-being to students?

A few years ago, working with my colleague Lucy Ryan, we developed a comprehensive Well-Being Curriculum that is now being implemented in many elementary schools and high schools in the UK, France, Japan, and Australia. The Well-Being Curriculum is based on the principles and findings of positive psychology, and can be used with students from about 9-14 years of age. Every other week, for 50 minutes, students learn about the major factors that seem to influence well-being, and they try out happiness-enhancing practices and activities.

A recent study of the program showed that it protected students against the decline in satisfaction with self, satisfaction with friends, and positive emotions–and the increase in negative emotions–that typically occurs in the first years of middle school. Other studies have shown that the schools teaching happiness skills academically outperform the schools teaching a standard health curriculum.

In other words, focusing on well-being can even contribute to the core mission of education. Here are my suggestions for teachers who want to share these lessons with their students.

Teaching positive emotions

The “broaden-and-build” theory of positive emotions, developed by Barbara Fredrickson, shows that positive emotional experiences have long-lasting effects on our personal growth and development. Specifically, positive emotions broaden our attention and thinking, enhance resilience, and build durable personal resources, which fuel more positive emotions in the future.

During this part of the program, we teach the important adaptive functions of both positive and negative emotions, ways to cope with our tendency to focus on the bad things in life, and how to enhance positive emotions through savoring and reminiscence.

We also talk about the importance of relationships, one of the best predictors of happiness. It is well known that strong social ties are at the very core of our well-being, regardless of whether we are introverts or extraverts. Many of the valued strengths, such as kindness and forgiveness, are of an interpersonal nature. Close friendships (not the mere number, but rather their quality) have far greater influence on our happiness than an increase in income.

This part of the program focuses on the basic relationships skills, such as being able to form and maintain friendships, negotiate, listen, and, even more importantly, hear. Forgiveness, kindness, and gratitude are also included, as the main relationship strengths. The stream finishes with happiness across cultures, a lesson that highlights factors that allow countries to flourish, taking the scope of relationships to the planetary level.

How to get started

Teachers often feel pressure to concentrate on forthcoming tests and exams, and spend significant amounts of time on “firefighting”–i.e., dealing with discipline and conflicts. These constraints often mean that it might be difficult, if not impossible, to schedule a well-being class every week.

In this situation, we advise teachers to use the Personal Well-Being Lessons (as well as many other available educational volumes) as piecemeal resources, picking up interventions and activities that can be run one at a time.

Here are a few examples of short activities that you could incorporate into a day’s lesson:

Create a What Went Well wall (a whiteboard with colorful markers would do just fine) and ask all students to write three things that went well for them during the lesson, school day, or school week.
Run the “Can you hear me?” exercise. Ask the class to form pairs. Instruct student A to talk to Student B for one minute about a topic that excites them, such as a holiday, a hobby, or an adventure. B is instructed to deliberately not listen, appearing uninterested and distracted, though they should not leave their seat or walk away. The teacher stops the exercise as soon as 60 seconds is up. In round two, A is instructed to continue talking for a further minute (again about a topic that excites them), and this time, B should listen, acting genuinely interested without going completely over the top. Students are asked to tell the teacher the emotional effect it had on them when they were being ignored vs. when they were being listened to, and the teacher confirms with students how important it is for us to be listened to.
Play “Go fish” with cards from the Happiness Box that also encourage your class to participate in evidence-based positive psychology exercises.

As you begin teaching well-being, don’t be surprised if some of your fellow teachers are a bit skeptical. When we brought the Well-Being Curriculum to two schools in London, one teacher talked about facing resistance from other staff. “They think it’s just loads of clap-trap” because, she said, “it’s not real work, you are not writing stuff down, you are not being tested every week. and there is no nice little certificate that you can have at the end of five years.”

Nelson Mandela said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Given their importance for the future mental health of our nations, happiness and well-being skills deserve to be taken seriously–and teachers can lead the charge, one classroom at a time.

How to Teach Sustainable Happiness

Who would’ve thought that our happiness should be as sustainable as the resources we consume? Right now, would you consider your happiness to be sustainable?

No, it is not those short euphoric moments that pass before you can even fully live in them.

Think about it like this, take into account the happy state of your well-being and making it sustainable. One gets his source of happiness from his most genuine dreams and includes practicing support among built relationships through both good and bad times.

You can find sustainable happiness in a community that is supportive of each other.

It is founded upon the knowledge that well-being is directly related to people around you; knowing that you have a shoulder to cry on and a hand to hold when you feel like it; knowing that all the efforts you contribute are acknowledged and recognized by your neighbors.

Sustainable happiness springs in an environment that values health, equity, and its individual’s fulfillment.

But how exactly can one achieve a sustainably happy lifestyle? Here are a few ways:

Perhaps there have been times where you were in an intimate gathering but you were not able to fully enjoy the company of your loved ones because you were thinking of your bills or your deadlines.

Pause, and take it all in; the experience, the chance to be with those you love, even the smell of the candle that dimly lights your room.

This also is not just about being in special occasions.

Sometimes, it can be the simple rainy afternoons, where you enjoy coffee and a good book to the sound of rain dropping on your roof. Other times, it’s allowing yourself to feel the kiss of the warm sun on your skin.

Whatever it may be, appreciating things around you can go a long way in countering the stress in your life.

When you start to pay attention to your surroundings, you will find that there are things that can give you a natural sort of high.

This could vary for all of us!

Some people find that a certain smell can give them a natural sense of delight. Others like watching their dog sleep. Listening to your body and how it reacts to these experiences can help pave your path towards sustainable happiness.

Journaling and tracking down your everyday activity can help you get a better view of how things impact your life and the lives of those around you.

Perhaps hanging out with that one toxic friend is a source of all the gloom during your weekends. Or maybe finding that not having enough exercise is giving you that stagnant feeling.

Understanding how everything is interdependent gives you a greater sense of belongingness and changes the way you perceive the world in which you move in. You become more aware of the decisions you make knowing that they can have a bigger effect on others or that its outcome may impact others greatly.

It is basically understanding the butterfly effect; the butterfly effect is a theory stating that changing even the tiniest thing of one’s current state can lead to a much larger effect on its later state (i.e., one flap of a butterfly’s wings somewhere can cause a tornado somewhere else)

When you come to terms with this, you would be able to understand the ins and outs of the things you experience in life.

You would also be able to ask yourself which small thing you can change that can lead to sustainable happiness.

Knowing or listing down the things that make you happy is already a big leap on your way to a more sustainably happy lifestyle.

It’s like saving money for a rainy day. Every once in a while, you get to pull out that list because your heart needs a flutter or two.

Then, you can also look at this list and cross out things that make you happy but may harm either you, others, or the environment.

Visualize yourself stripped of your title, your money, and your possessions.

What’s left? These are likely the things that are genuinely valuable.

These could be your relationships, self-love, and your love for life and love itself.

Make sure that you know what these are and that you do not take them for granted. We may use Charles Spurgeon’s quote; “It’s not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness.”

There is a theory called the hedonic treadmill suggesting that no matter how sad or how happy experiences make us, we naturally return to a natural level of happiness.

It’s also different for different people. Some may have a naturally high level of happiness while others may gravitate towards sadness and depression.

And that is okay.

You don’t have to be hard on yourself. Having a support system with you and understanding how we are all naturally different still helps us have sustainable happiness.

These are just a few practices. After you make these a habit, you’ll find more practices that will help keep your happiness sustainable.

These practices are all tailor-fit to our experiences so don’t you worry if it takes time for you.

By Catherine O’Brien • April 20, 2013

How to Teach Sustainable Happiness My new ebook, Lessons in Sustainable Happiness, is out!

I hope you’ll share the news with every teacher you know!

We might ask, who or what teaches us about happiness? Our understanding of happiness can come from many sources, often exposing us to media that equates happiness with material consumption – but is this happiness sustainable?

Sustainable happiness reinforces the fact that we are interconnected and interdependent with all life. Our happiness and wellbeing is intertwined with other people, other species and nature.

Lessons in Sustainable Happiness provides activities for teachers to enhance their own sustainable happiness. These activities are followed with lessons in sustainable happiness for primary, junior and intermediate grades. At a time when teacher wellbeing, student mental health and planetary health need to be addressed, Lessons in Sustainable Happiness offers practical steps for integrating sustainability and wellbeing.

Sustainable happiness takes happiness to a new level.

Sustainable happiness offers a fresh approach that invites reflection on sustainability coupled with opportunities to enhance our quality of life and contribute to individual, community and global wellbeing.

Catherine O’Brien, PhD is an education professor who developed the concept of sustainable happiness and teaches the world’s first university course in this groundbreaking field. She is a leading contributor to the development of the online course in sustainable happiness. Her blog, SH-EXTRA provides inspiring examples of bringing sustainable happiness to life.

Lessons in Sustainable Happiness is currently available in multiple formats through Smashwords and also through Amazon as a kindle book. Amazon provides a free kindle app that works on Macs and PCs.

About Jinendra

Dr. Jinendra Kothari

GOALS : Create Global Ambassadors of Sustainable Happiness to teach ‘3S-WELLNESS for LIFE’.

1. Support Businesses, Corporations, Schools, Communities, Institutions, Organizations, Individuals and Groups to increase their Sustainable Happiness Quotient.

2. Inspire, Educate, Facilitate and support ‘all seekers’ to transcend 3S-issues related to Security, Survival and Self-Esteem in their lives.

3. Organize Youth Development, Community Projects and Outreach Programs for Senior Citizens, Women, Youths, Veterans and other groups.

4. Provide Experiential and Transformational In-House and Outreach Programs/ workshops based on 3S-The New Science of Sustainable Happiness.

5. Support other non-profits by offering training to strengthen their capacity to address unexpected events, finance new opportunities and in-house training to realize strategic goals, develop and hone financial management skills, and reach global presence.

Skills and Expertise : Public Speaking, Teaching, Executive Coaching, Life Coaching, Productivity and Team Building.

Professional Leadership Organizational Skills Master-Teacher (2012) – Center for Sustainable Happiness: Educational Center for training individuals, wellness professionals businesses in 3S-The New Science of Happiness.

Project Director: (05-06) MMSD-ERC / UW-Madison-IRB, 3S Lowell School Pilot, Madison, WI.

Lowell School Behavior Action Team Member: Monthly, Lowell Elementary School, 2005-06, WI.

Chairperson: (01 03) International CAM and Alternative Therapies Workshops/Conference

Chairperson: (2002) All-India Yoga Meditation conference / symposium.

Teaching Experience.

Wholistic Stress Control Institute: Atlanta, GA:visiting Trainer for Qigong, Taichi, Reiki, Yoga and Meditation, Nutrition Cooking classes.
MaryC O’Keefee Cultural Center Ocean Springs, MS: Breath for Happiness, Mudras for Health, Self-Empowerment DHM Meditation.
Ashe Arts and Cultural Center, New Orleans:3S-Trainer at Douglas Reed Summit.
Cardinal Stritch University: Milwaukee Madison, WI: Adjunct Faculty Instructor- Education Outreach: 3S Smart Learning System: Pathway to Positive Emotions,
Merriter Hospital: Madison, WI – Health Wellness Outreach Classes: Divine Heart, Divine Cleansing Meditation; Managing Pain and negativity; and 3S for Children Classes.
MMSD- Madison Metropolitan School District:Professional Development Classes.
UW-Madison WI Association of Mediators Adjunct Faculty Instructor: “ Meditation Than Mediation”.
Olbrich Botanical Gardens, Madison, WI: FREE PUBLIC MEDITATION, daily 6.00 AM 7:00 PM sessions at Thai Pavilion.
Well Within Center for Yoga Health, WI:Meditation, Breathing, Mudra Alternative Therapy Classes.
SIMS-Symbiosis Institute of Management Sciences, Visiting Scholar: Entrepreneurship

Educational Conference Presentations:

WI-DPI sponsored: Symposium for Best Practices in Health wellness Education July 30-31, 2008.
National Wellness Conference: UW-Stevens Point, WI, July 14-18, 2008.
WI Early Childhood Association, Madison, WI Jan 11-12, 2008.
Cardinal Stritch University: Educators’ Retreat February 10, 2007 March 1, 2008.
WEAC–State Teacher Convention: Exhibitor Presenter, 2005-08, Milwaukee Madison, WI
University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh (2007) 41st Statewide Special Education Conference.
Wisconsin Association for Middle Level Education – (2007) Olympia Resort Spa, Oconomowoc, WI.
Wisconsin Branch of the International Dyslexia Association (WIBIDA), WI Dells, April 2007.
Wisconsin Youth Company, Inc/Celebrating Youth: “Options and Alternatives in Education”,Madison, WI, January 2007.
Madison Metropolitan School District –Autism Institute, 2007.

Honors/Awards:

Chairperson – 3rd Annual Douglas Redd Cultural Summit, LA-2011.
Walk with the Guardians Of The Flame Mardi Gras Indian tribe-2010.
Team Member – 13MoonWalk4Peace, walk across 28 States, USA-2010.
Guest speaker at ATD Fourth World, New Orleans-2010.
Chairperson – Best Practices in Health & Wellness Education, WI-2008.
Speaker – National Wellness Conference, WI- 2007.
Recognition and Appreciation by E. Burmaster, WI State Superintendent of Public Instructions, 2006.
Parkhe Induatrial Award from MCCI, India- 1980.
Deans Honor roll Univ. of Illinois 1970 and Univ. of Michigan-1971.
Received ‘Industrial Scholar Award’ – Soc. of Mfg. Engineers, USA-1971.
Rotary’s International Excellence Award, IL-1965.

Books/Publications/Audio Recordings Books:

3S-Smart Science of Sustainable Happiness.
Pilgrimage to Self: Pathway to Happiness.
3S Healing Foods & Vegetarian Cooking.
Maxims of Happiness.
Mudras for Health and Healing

Posters:

3S Basic Exercises.
3S Advanced Exercises
Mind-Body Healing System
Classroom Posters

Meditation Audio CD’s / 3S DVD’s:

Dynamic Heart Meditation
Dynamic Cleansing Meditation
Dynamic Journey into Consciousness
Dynamic Love Meditation

Motivational Pocket card / Book Mark series

A to Z of Happiness
A to Z of LIFE
A to Z of Friendship
Mantras for Happiness
Elixir of Happiness
Jinendra Speaks
Know your self

Global/Regional Media Coverage:

WLOX TV-13, April 3, 2012: FREE Meditation on the beach.
Mary C O’Keefe Cultural center: Jinendra returns for Meditation & cooking classes.
WI Policy Research Institute, Feb. 17,2008:Sammis White’s recommendations for applying 3S Interventions in Milwaukee Public Schools.
NBC-15 (WMTV)- Madison, WI, Sept 14, 2007.
Adrenaline Radio-Make Me Happy show, Live interview, Oct 12, 2007.
The Indian/Down Under-Sydney, Australia, Feb-Mar, 2007-Meeting of Minds.
East Side News-Nov-Dec, 2006-East side schools leading vanguard for 3S Smart Learning system.
The Capital Times-Feb 4-5, 2006- Taking Control of Restless Energy.
NBC-15 (WMTV)-Live at 5, April 2005
NBC-15 (WMTV)-Morning Show-Jinendra Live at Olbrich Botanical Garden, 2004
The Capital Times-June 18, 2004- Free Public Meditation at Olbrich Gardens.
WORT-FM radio, Live Interview, 2004.
Edge Life Magazine – Articles Sept 2005- Pilot Program In Madison To Teach Students How To Manage Emotions June 2004-Madison hosting free meditation events Feb-Mar-April, 2004 – Pathway to Sustainable-Happines Jan-2004-Jinendra Messenger of Sustainable-Happiness.

How to Teach Sustainable Happiness

Research shows that giving back is good for our mental health.

W hat if giving to the greater good was good for you?

Why is it when we give back we instantly feel better?

There is something rewarding about giving to others versus ourselves.

We often hear that the getting is in the giving.

When we focus out we get a break from what consumes us in our daily life.

We get a chance to step outside of ourselves and make a difference in someone else’s life.

I have been a generous person most of my life and have found happiness in giving to people.

In one study, researchers asked participants to spend $5 on themselves or someone else over a period of five days.

The participants who spent money on other people showed continued joy and sustained happiness from the first day to the last day.

When we give back something happens in our bodies that we have no control over.

Our brain’s pleasure and reward centers activate and we get a boost of feel-good endorphins.

Oxytocin, the pleasure hormone or the “love hormone” gets released.

This hormone impacts the way we bond and create emotional responses such as trust, relaxation and empathy.

When we give to others it gives us an opportunity to build a new schema of the world and how we relate.

There is a difference between giving back and over-giving.

Over-giving depletes us and leaves us feeling emotionally exhausted.

When we over-give we aren’t taking care of ourselves or our needs.

We may feel resentful, depressed, angry, or sad.

Over-giving can come from an unhealthy place where we want to be loved, approved or accepted.

We may find it uncomfortable to “receive” from others or ask for help.

This way of being doesn’t really serve us and forces us to live in a toxic cycle of distorted thoughts and prolong depression.

Giving back comes from a place of unconditional generosity.

We aren’t really seeking to “get” anything from it except the joy that may result.

Science has confirmed three theories on why we give.

Altruism. — We give because we like being of service to the public such as feeding the homeless and care about making an impact.
Warm glow. — We give because we get pleasure out of deciding how much value to give and to whom.
Status or social value. — We give because we like the idea of increasing our social status and want to be viewed as wealthy, powerful or generous.

Knowing why we give can help us to discern what truly motivates us.

It can also help to bring awareness to unconscious insecurities or unhealthy thoughts that drive us to give from an empty place.

We can learn how to build a healthy relationship to the culture of giving back and also to ourselves.

Gratitude. — A thank you can go a long way to the stranger who serves you your coffee in the mornings or to your loved ones who just need to feel appreciated.
Time. — Give your time to someone. This may be to help a neighbor with a task or listen to a friend who needs to vent.
Compliment. — Complimenting someone can have a huge impact on their self-esteem and their day! Give someone an honest compliment on what you love, admire or like about them from their fashion sense to their practical way of thinking.
Unexpected cards in the mail. — Is there someone you have been thinking of sending a card to? Check out the card section of your local stationary store and grab a card for someone. Write some words of wisdom, love and send it off!
Gifts. — Give a small token of gratitude through a gift. Maybe it’s buying someone’s coffee or getting lunch for a friend. Give within your means.
Teach. — What do you have expertise in? This doesn’t have to be a skill or work trade. It can be knowledge in gardening, motherhood, parenting, saving money, you get the idea. Perhaps you can host a free workshop somewhere and give back to your community some golden nuggets of wisdom.

Giving back is a practice that we can consistently come back to create long-term sustainable happiness.

How to Teach Sustainable Happiness

Today I want to share with you a reflection about happiness and the resolution of problems from a reading that has caught me from the first page. The fragment that I want to share with you is a reflection about how to teach a child and teach to be happy from the resolution of problems.

Therefore, in this article I will not be the one who speaks – or writes, – but I will let it be the famous blogger Mark Manson through his bestseller entitled The subtle art that (almost everything) you give a shit who will teach you a maximum that I have gotten from the book and that says: “Happiness is achieved by solving problems.” Keep reading: How to improve cooperative work through play

Do you want to know a little more about this reading? If so, I invite you to read the rest of the article.

How to teach a child happiness?

How to Teach Sustainable Happiness

Without further delay, we set sail …

Happiness is achieved by solving problems

As I said at the beginning of the article, I want to reproduce the reflection of Mark Manson because I believe that, from his simplicity and sincerity, he tackles an essential theme for our lives: the search for happiness.

The text or extract I want to reproduce is the one that follows (extract pages 41-44):

” Problems are a constant in life. The problems never end, they are simply exchanged or improved.

Happiness is achieved by solving problems. The key word here is to solve. If you are evading your problems or feel that you have none, then you will become miserable yourself. The secret sauce consists in solving the problems, not in not having problems from the beginning.

How to Teach Sustainable Happiness

To be happy we need to solve something. Then, happiness is a form of action; it is an activity, not something that is passively granted to you.

Happiness is a constant process in development because solving problems is a permanent process in development: solutions to today’s problems will lay the foundations for tomorrow’s problems and so on. True happiness only happens when you find the problems you enjoy having and solving.

Whatever your problems are, the concept is the same: solve problems, be happy. Unfortunately, many people do not perceive life that simple because they spoil things in one of two ways:

1. Denial: People who deny that problems exist. This makes them feel good in the short term, but it leads to a life of insecurity.

2. Victim mentality: Others choose to believe that there is nothing they can do to solve their problems […] Victims seek to blame others for their problems or blame external circumstances. That may make them feel good in the short term, but it leads to a life of anger, helplessness, and despair.

How to Teach Sustainable Happiness

People deny and blame others for their problems for the simple reason that it is easy and feels good while solving problems is more difficult and feels bad. “

When happiness is based on solving problems. In conclusion. What do you think of Mark Manson’s reflection on happiness? I have read the text several times and agree with him about the fact that every time I am able to solve a problem no matter how small, I feel much better, something happier.

I think it is a very practical lesson to make known to the people around us, in my case my students.

In fact, from the extract of the text that I have selected, I would like to highlight these phrases:

Problems are a constant in life
Happiness is achieved by solving problems
Happiness is a form of action
Solve problems, be happy

Talking about happiness is never easy. Teaching what happiness consists of or how we can achieve it seems to mean even more complex task, especially when we have young people who are increasingly fragile, more overprotected, more intolerant of frustration and less resilient.

Lyubomirsky (2005) theorised that the relative importance of genetics, circumstantial factors (demographics like age, or life events like childhood trauma or marriage) and intentional activities (e.g challenging negative thoughts) was genetics: 50%, intentional activity: 40%, circumstances: 10%.

Brown and Rohrer (2019) criticised Lyubomirsky’s findings:

Second, the decomposition of the variance in chronic levels of happiness into three factors suffers from a major conceptual issue (the three factors do not additively affect well-being in isolation); and certain omissions (error term, other potential determinants) that bias the analysis towards assigning higher percentages to volitional activities.

Consequently, there is little reason to believe that 40% is a reliable estimate of the variance in chronic happiness attributable to intentional activity—for example, if Lyubomirsky et al. had chosen a different (but, in our view, at least equally plausible) set of estimates, they might just as easily have concluded that as little as (100% − 80% − 15% = 5%) of variance in chronic happiness can be attributed to volitional activities. Of course, because of the conceptual issues that we have discussed, we do not believe that such an estimate would necessarily be more reasonable or more interpretable’

Lauren Knight

When I think about what I want for my children as they grow up, I think of the kind of people I’d like them to become: Adults who are kind, thoughtful and grateful, who laugh often and find passion in life. I hope they surround themselves with whatever brings them joy, that they find a career they love and that they forge meaningful relationships with people who cherish them as much as I do. Above all, I want them to be happy.

As parents, it is our job to guide our children in so many areas. We toilet-train them, we teach them self-care and manners, we teach them how to read, what to do in an emergency, how to cross the street safely. We might teach them how to play a musical instrument or a sport we loved growing up. But can we teach them how to be happy?

Mike Ferry, a longtime school teacher, father of four and author of Teaching Happiness and Innovation, maintains that we can. Contrary to what many believe, success does not always bring happiness, but research has shown that the reverse is true – happier people are more likely to be successful at school and work and in their personal lives. Ferry defines happiness as “an optimistic, communal, and disciplined perspective on life.”

The happier we are, the more successful we become. And Ferry explains that, thanks to the plasticity of our brains, happiness and innovation can be taught, nurtured and practiced. He goes on to say what Shawn Achor, author of The Happiness Advantage, has expressed: that when we are in a positive mind-set, “our brains become more engaged, creative, motivated, energetic, resilient and productive at work.”

It turns out we can teach our children how to be happy by encouraging certain habits.

The first is gratitude. Teaching children to be grateful in a world of overabundance can seem like a daunting task. It is easy to get sucked into the consumer mentality of society; children are constantly inundated with the idea that more is better and that they need the next new gadget or toy and then on to the next.

But the importance of saying no to children in order to instil a grateful attitude cannot be overstated. Help them focus on being grateful for what they already have rather than on what they want next. Another way to teach this is to get into the habit of observing a “moment of gratitude” every day. This may be upon waking up or as the family gathers around the dinner table. Take a moment to reflect, then go around the table taking turns sharing one thing for which you are grateful. For older children, encourage them to keep a gratitude journal. Practicing gratitude daily can rewire our brains to recognise appreciation rather than to dwell on disappointments. In turn, we will become happier.

Kindness is another skill we can teach our children to help them find greater happiness. Ferry highlights research that has shown a link between the “feel-good” brain chemical dopamine and kindness. Acting with kindness increases the flow of dopamine within the do-gooder’s brain, making him feel happy.

We can encourage kindness in children first and foremost by modelling it within our homes. Be kind, especially during disagreements, and praise even small acts of kindness. Teach tolerance, highlight opportunities to give back to your community and volunteer as a family if possible.

Happy homes can also inspire creative minds. Our brains, and those of our children, are most receptive to new information when we are relatively stress-free, happy and engaged, according to Ferry. That means happiness is crucial for learning and critical thinking. We can inspire creativity by embracing humour, curiosity and open-mindedness at home.

Encouraging creative ideas from children can come in the form of including them in family decisions (such as planning holidays or designing bedrooms). You can also play games that involve open-ended questions to inspire them to think critically. Allowing children plenty of time for unstructured play helps, too. Ferry’s book contains a wonderfully detailed list of suggestions and examples.

We should also celebrate the unconventional people in our lives by talking about how some of the most unconventional people in the world have had great impact (think Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Einstein, Nelson Mandela and Thomas Edison).

Happiness is not something that falls out of the sky and into our children’s laps. It is a wonderfully complex state of mind that can be strengthened with practice. And I’m willing to bet that we all want our children to experience happiness and joy in life.

How to Teach Sustainable Happiness

Happiness is the “Holy Grail” of parenting. While all of us want our kids to be happy and successful in life, we may not know exactly how to achieve this goal. Fortunately, the “science of happiness” can show us the way. Years of research have revealed certain habits and beliefs that make us happier, more creative, and more effective in everything we do. Rather than waiting and hoping that emotional wellbeing will descend from the heavens, we can show our children how to forge happy lives.

Since learning about this branch of psychology, I have been on a mission to share this knowledge with parents. I wrote a book, Teaching Happiness and Innovation, to help parents identify the habits of happiness and teach them to their kids. We are all thirsting for guidance in this department, and I hope that my efforts make a difference.

I’d like to give you seven ways to point your children towards lives of joy and meaning. These ideas come from my free 21-day “Happy Family” challenge. As is the case in other areas of life, practice makes perfect if you want to form the habits of happiness!

Write down the names of three people, places, or things you are grateful for. If you want to learn more about the importance of gratitude, please sign up for my email list. As a thank-you gift, you can download the “Gratitude” chapter from my book for free.

Spend some time in quiet prayer or meditation. Nurturing our spirituality is an important aspect of happiness.

We feel better when we are creative and thoughtful. Create and send a homemade card to Grandma, Grandpa, or another special person in your family’s life.

Challenge yourself to learn something new. Do you know the countries of Europe? If not, start learning them here.

Combine these five words to form a short story. If your story is hilarious and unrealistic, that’s just fine.

Think about a time when someone was kind to you. Give yourself a quiet space to reflect on this happy memory.

Bake cookies for a neighbor. When you deliver them, talk about the fun you’ve been having with the “Happy Family” challenge! Maybe your neighbor will enjoy the experience as well.

How to Teach Sustainable Happiness Mike Ferry is the author of Teaching Happiness and Innovation. A middle school history teacher in Richmond, VA, Mike is raising four (mostly happy) children with his wife, Jenny. For more information about teaching happiness to children, visit Twitter @MikeFerry7

Posted by Elise Morgan on Jun 10th 2019

Sustainability is a broad concept that can be hard for adults to grasp, much less children. Teaching children what sustainable living really means is not just about giving them a glimpse of the big picture. Although it’s important for children to know why they should develop sustainability practices, the actual steps in teaching them need to clear-cut, and kiddos need to have fun in the process.

Why Sustainability is Important

Although sustainability is a multi-faceted and far-reaching philosophy, the reason it’s important is straightforward: We cannot maintain quality of life for ourselves and future generations without it. A lack of sustainable living in the world will result in little or no fossil fuels, forests and lumber, or healthy air to breathe. Sustainability is essential for our survival. It’s also important and relevant because it is attainable. We can foster it in our ecosystem, our communities, our homes, and our children.

Why Teach Children About Sustainability?

Teaching children sustainability is vital for many reasons, including some that don’t even relate to the concept directly. The main point is to teach them how their actions affect the world we live in, of course. They also learn important skills within that lesson, however, such as problem-solving, innovation, creativity, and self-awareness. By engaging in activities with children that relate to sustainability, you help them to understand how what they do connects to a larger plan. This takes them out of co-pilot mode, places meaning on their actions, and introduces the concept of being intentional with their behavior and engaging fully in their life.

3 Lessons to Teach Children About Sustainability

1. Gardening and the Benefits of Plants

Plants are all around us, so it’s easy for them to blend into the background and not acknowledge how important they are to sustainability. You don’t have to take on a whole vegetable garden to teach children this concept. You can plant seeds in tin cans and repurpose other containers you have around the house to germinate seeds or grow plants on your deck or indoors. Teach them how plants purify the air and provide us with oxygen to live – and don’t forget to connect the concept to deforestation. Let them grow a plant in their bedroom. They can even name it to make it more personal.

2. What Happens to Your Home’s Recyclables

It’s not only important to teach kids how to help with recycling in your home, but to also show them where it goes and what happens to it when it leaves your house. Visit a recycling center so that they understand the scope of how much trash would go into a landfill if it weren’t for people like you and them that have the awareness to recycle.

We know it’s almost impossible to avoid purchasing plastics and thus impossible to reduce the need for landfills. But we also know that cheap, disposable products that provide short-term benefits so that consumers purchase more often is part of the past. By informing our children that there are companies, like EcoEnclose, out there that are looking to reduce waste through using as much recycled content as humanly possible, they can grow up aware of the alternatives to the all-too-common mindset of “take-make-waste” that drives so much of the world’s corporations today.

3. Conserving Water

It’s hard to understand how much water gets wasted around your home because it washes down the drain. Out of sight, out of mind. It’s the same concept with rainwater that rushes from gutter spouts only to be soaked away. If you have rain barrels below gutter spouts, allow your children to be involved with putting it to use on your plants or to see how it’s connected to an irrigation system. For indoor water, teach them to turn off the water while they’re brushing their teeth or lathering their hands.

Remember to have fun while you teach your children the importance of sustainability. This will make the lesson soak in more effectively and provide them with valuable lessons to pass on to their children.

Elise Morgan is a freelance writer living in the mountains of North Carolina. She found her passion writing about sustainability and “going green” when she was in an environmental science class in college, and hasn’t looked back since! When Elise isn’t writing, she is probably taking her fur babies on a walk through the mountain trails, attempting to practice yoga, or trying out a new recipe at home.

As educators strive to transform education from an industrial model of education towards 21st century learning, we are hearing calls for incorporating innovation, creativity, digital literacy, character education, entrepreneurship, and much more. Essentially, we are seeking to repurpose education. What if we embraced a vision of wellbeing for all, sustainably? What if we sought happiness and well-being for all, while respecting the natural environment that sustains us?

Sustainable happiness, – happiness that contributes to individual, community, and global well-being, sustainably – offers an opportunity to explore how to achieve this, for educators and for our students.

Lessons in Sustainable Happiness provides activities for teachers to enhance their own sustainable happiness. These activities are followed with lessons in sustainable happiness for primary, junior and intermediate grades. At a time when teacher wellbeing, student mental health and planetary health need to be addressed, Lessons in Sustainable Happiness offers practical steps for integrating sustainability and wellbeing.

Sustainable happiness takes happiness to a new level.

Sustainable happiness offers an innovative approach that invites reflection on sustainability coupled with opportunities to enhance our quality of life and contribute to individual, community and global wellbeing.

How to Teach Sustainable Happiness

CONTENT: Press Release

Nearly two-thirds of teens in the United States are stressed out and many don’t know how to handle it. The inability to reduce and cope with stress negatively impacts health, friendships, relationships with parents, and academic performance.

That’s why Discovery Education teamed up with LG Electronics USA to create the Discover Your Happy program. An extension of LG’s Experience Happiness initiative, the Discover Your Happy program offers science-based tools and activities aligned to the Six Sustainable Happiness skills: mindfulness, human connection, positive outlook, purpose, generosity, and gratitude.

Happiness is a skill that flourishes with attention and practice.

Discover Your Happy provides dynamic digital curriculum and standards-aligned resources teaching happiness as a skill at no cost to youth, educators, and families. All the resources from Discover Your Happy makes growing the happiness muscles accessible with activities for the whole family, as well as digital lesson bundles for the classroom.

The Six Sustainable Happiness Skills are tools based in science to soothe and calm the brain and nervous system. When practicing the skills, people learn to identify and cope with emotions when they feel when sad, angry, disappointed, or frustrated. The Happiness Skills don’t make those emotions disappear, but they do help better manage responses and return to a happier state of mind.

Start practicing happiness skills and grow resilience to help manage life’s challenges with these brand-new resources from Discover Your Happy:

Activities
Be Thankful
Students explore the meaning of gratitude and its connection to happiness from both a scientific and a personal perspective by creating gratitude journals.

Judge Less, Reflect More
Students learn how the power of self-reflection can keep snap judgments in check and help foster a more positive outlook in their day-to-day lives.

Agree to Disagree
Students use group simulations to discover how the art of disagreeing respectfully helps them overcome destructive habits and achieve sustainable happiness.

Digital Lesson Bundle
Digital Interactions
Meet students where they are using digital interactions to help them understand the Six Sustainable Happiness Skills. Inspire students to examine the effects of digital media on their emotions and use technology in ways that will increase their happiness.

Through Discover Your Happy, LG and Discovery Education empower students, families, and educators alike with the content needed to sustain happiness with lasting impacts. The evidence-based tools support recent research from City Year and Johns Hopkins University’s School of Education reaffirming that social and emotional skills boost academics. Learn more through the virtual learning platform Discovery Education Experience social and emotional learning channel.

In these challenging times, Discover Your Happy offers communities the ability to connect to themselves and each other by learning the science behind happiness and building sustainable happiness.

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CEO of Fearlessly Positive, Co-founder of Digital Wellness Collective, Happiness and Digital expert.

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Why you should book speaker Amy Blankson:

She brings the dedication. Drawing on over 17 years of management and consulting experience with businesses, foundations, and nonprofits, Amy Blankson brings both passion and practicality to her keynotes
She dives deep into understanding. After graduating from Harvard College and Yale School of Management, she has focused her work on understanding how to cultivate happiness in a digital era.

Amy Blankson is the only person to be named a Point of Light by two Presidents (President Bush and President Clinton). She received a Presidential appointment to serve a five-year term on the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National Service and was one of the youngest delegates to the Presidents’ Summit for America’s Future. Amy received her BA from Harvard and an MBA from Yale School of Management. She went on to co-found the Future of Philanthropy Conference at Yale University, and in 2007, joined GoodThink on the ground floor to develop and scale the company as it sought to bring the science of happiness to life.

She is currently researching in partnership with Google to determine how to make positive psychology strategies stick and create sustainable positive change. Amy is the author of the award-winning children’s book Ripple’s Effect and has three beautiful daughters who teach her about the joy of positivity and the importance of gratitude daily.

Fearless Positivity: Rethinking Stress in the Midst of Uncertainty

Fearless positivity is not the absence of fear, but the audacious opportunity to move through it by focusing on what matters most. In this inspiring research-based talk, customized to address your audiences current challenges, Amy highlights leaders who have courageously chosen positivity in the midst of adversity.

Leveraging learnings from positive psychology and behavioral science, she examines how negative mindsets hold us back, why some fear is actually good for us, and strategies to reframe stress to better serve us.

Understand why a positive mindset is crucial for agile/transformative leadership
Learn 4 actionable strategies for mastering mindset
Implement simple “J-GAME” habits that foster resilience
Empower teams to rethink stress and leverage optimism

Conscious Innovation: Leveraging Mindset to Thrive in Disruption

In the midst of disruption, a positive mindset is crucial for agile and transformative leadership. Research shows that although the brain receives 11 million bits of information every second, it can only process 40 bits, which means that our ability to “see” opportunity and connect
resources depends on our mindfulness in the moment, particularly in times of stress.

Individuals who are able to leverage positivity have been linked with 3x more creativity, 40% more productivity, and 23% less symptoms of fatigue. In this talk, Amy will teach audiences how to use appreciative inquiry to rethink stress, reframe circumstances, and retrain their
brains to prioritize information in real-time.

Understand the brain science behind innovation
Learn how perception of circumstances shapes outcomes
Utilize appreciative inquiry to see new opportunities and decrease stress
Embrace up-sourcing and collaboration to accelerate growth

Digital Flourishing: Strategies for Balancing Productivity and Well-being in the Digital Era

Mindful attention is a scarce resource. As one of the world’s leading experts on the connection between happiness and technology, Amy Blankson unveils five strategies that successful individuals use to find a sense of balance between technology, productivity, and wellbeing in the Digital Age.

In this talk, you will learn how to move from partial attention to full intention, how to hack your distractions to achieve maximum productivity and life satisfaction, and how to rid yourself of the tech graveyard in your office drawers to create more mental and physical space to do the things you love. By rethinking when, where, why and how we use technology, we can begin to recapture our focus, deepen engagement, and find flow in our everyday activities and relationships.

Discover the impact of distraction on your productivity and happiness
Establish positive technology boundaries to shift from a mindset of inattention to one of
full intention
Learn healthy habits for tech use to maximize flow and engagement
Understand how your technology use impacts your perception as a leader
Increase your flow and engagement by using brain-training techniques.

Creating a Habitat for Happiness: How to Make Working from Home Work for You

While uncertainty and disruption may be our new norm, fear does not have to be. In this talk, Amy Blankson, working- from-home veteran and mother of three, will share her top secrets for creating a habitat for happiness, offering actionable strategies for maintaining a positive mindset, rethinking stress, and moving forward with resilience in the midst of change.

Organize your workspace to maximize focus and productivity
Utilize a virtual commute to jumpstart your day
Effectively communicate physical and digital boundaries with colleagues and family members

Increasing Diversity in the Tech Industry: Why It Matters and What We Can Do About It

While stories give us snapshots into the challenges that women in the field face, we would be remiss to simply push for different hiring quotas for women without answering the underlying concerns and misconceptions about women in the field: Why should there be more women in tech? Who are the women who are leading the tech industry? How did they get there? What challenges have they faced? In this talk, Amy will highlight the stories of dozens female leaders within the tech industry whose stories give context and insight to these questions, as well as a path forward for leaders on any gender.

Uncover shared characteristics of some of the world’s most successful women
Learn why gender parity in tech is vital to the health of the entire industry
Explore current challenges for women in leadership
Discover best practices for recruiting, retaining, and promoting top female talent.

How to Teach Sustainable Happiness

It’s one of the great paradoxes of life that we all want to be happy, yet so few of us seem to know exactly where happiness comes from. Happiness itself can be defined in many different ways, it may have all kinds of components, it may be a life’s work, or even no work at all, but we are, most of us, in pursuit of this elusive goal.

Psychologists have good and bad news about our search for happiness. The bad news is that we have essentially no control over 50% of our happiness levels. Happiness, like many of our other attributes is partially set by our genes. While these do interact to a certain extent with the environment, on a day-to-day basis this 50% can be considered immovable.

What about the other 50%? This is the start of the good news (almost).

Happy circumstances

First there are the overall circumstances of our lives, our ‘demographics’. This includes things like how much money we have, our education level, whether we live in rich or poor countries, how old we are, whether we are married or not and whether we are religious.

All of these factors have some relationship to happiness. For example, higher levels of education are associated with more happiness, as is higher age and even being married (I know, I know!).

These are all factors which, generally speaking, are difficult to change. Granted, it is easier to get married than it is to become younger, but they are both still relatively long-term circumstantial factors.

While circumstantial factors do matter, the surprise is how small a contribution they make to our happiness. Sheldon and Lyubomirsky (2007) estimate it at only 10%. This is completely dwarfed by the genetic contribution to happiness.

So if we can’t change our genes and we can’t, broadly speaking, change our life circumstances, what on earth can we change?

Intentional activity

The only thing that is left is what we actually do every day. What Sheldon and Lyubomirsky refer to as ‘intentional activity’. They see the activities we take part in as moving our happiness levels within the set range determined by our genetics and our life circumstances.

But which activities to choose, and how should we carry out these activities? Answering this question is all about understanding how quickly humans adapt to new and exciting experiences.

The first time we try something stimulating that we find enjoyable, it is likely to increase our happiness levels considerably. Whether it’s that first parachute jump, the first kiss with our partner or just a new and exciting book we’re reading. New experiences tickle our pleasure centres and we feel good.

Unfortunately when presented with that very same stimulus again and again we soon become used to it. This is what psychologists have called ‘hedonic adaptation’. The amount of pleasure we can get from the same experience tails off with repeated exposure. The first chocolate tastes a damn sight better than the last.

This lead Lyubomirsky, Sheldon and Schkade (2005) to suggest that the activities we choose should have three characteristics:

They should fit our needs and our personalities. E.g. If you don’t crave excitement parachuting is unlikely to fit with your needs. That doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be perfect for someone else.
Their content should vary. Do you always run around the same circuit? Or fly your kite on the same hill? Or walk the same route through the forest? Varying the routine is likely to minimise the effects of hedonic adaptation.
Their timing should vary. This also helps to avoid hedonic adaptation.

Change of priorities?

When I think about the proportions which genetics, life circumstances and intentional activities contribute to happiness, it makes me think about our priorities in life. The genetic component is essentially a write-off – there’s precious little we can do about this until gene therapy or some equivalent lets us adjust our pre-set happiness levels.

This means that our sustainable levels of happiness are down to our life circumstances and our everyday activities. But, crucially, our everyday activities are four times more important, in terms of happiness, than our life circumstances.

To provide a rather cliched example: consider whether it is better to be at work trying to get a promotion, to get a raise to increase your life circumstances or to be at home with your family (this presumes your family make you happy!).

Of course it’s quite possible to get more pleasure out of being at work than being with your family – although not many will admit to it.

The here and now

There’s another interesting implication from this finding about what contributes to our happiness. Some might say that this balance of 10% life circumstances to 40% everyday activities means that to be happy, long-term plans and goals should be ignored in favour of the here and now. After all, why bother to strive for a better job if it won’t increase your happiness? Surely it’s better to just do whatever makes me happy right now?

Long-term plans do, of course, contribute to our day-to-day happiness, but indirectly. A better job, leading to more money can mean we have more freedom to do those day-to-day things which we like. Life circumstances and day-to-day activities clearly interact. To talk of one without the other doesn’t make sense in the real world.

These qualifications acknowledged, people often do place much more importance on their life circumstances to the detriment of everyday pleasurable activities. What the psychology research suggests is that it’s those quotidian pleasures that have the power to make us happy and keep us happy, provided they hold enough variety.

Lyubomirsky, S., Sheldon, K. M., & Schkade, D. (2005). Pursuing happiness: The architecture of sustainable change. Review of General Psychology, 9, 111-131.

About the author

Psychologist, Jeremy Dean, PhD is the founder and author of PsyBlog. He holds a doctorate in psychology from University College London and two other advanced degrees in psychology.

He has been writing about scientific research on PsyBlog since 2004. He is also the author of the book “Making Habits, Breaking Habits” (Da Capo, 2003) and several ebooks:

Sheldon, K. M., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2007). Is it possible to become happier? (And if so, how?). Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 1, 1-17.

The New Science of Happiness

→ This post is part of a series on the new science of happiness:

10 Ways Teachers Can Achieve Happiness Inside and Outside of the Classroom

How to Teach Sustainable Happiness

M.S., Education, Buffalo State College
B.S., Education, Buffalo State College

The stereotype around elementary school teachers is that they are always “peppy” and “happy” and full of life. While this may hold true for some elementary school teachers, it sure does not for all teachers. As you know, having a job in the teaching profession can be quite challenging. Teachers have a lot of pressure on them. Not only do they have to learn and teach the common core standards to students, but they also have the challenging job of making sure that their students are ready to be productive citizens once they get out of school. With all of this pressure, along with the responsibilities of lesson planning, grading, and discipline, the job can sometimes take a toll on any teacher, no matter how “peppy” their nature. To help relieve some of these pressures, use these tips on a daily basis to help you deal and, hopefully, bring some joy to your life.

1. Take Time for Yourself

One of the best ways that you can achieve happiness is to take time for yourself. Teaching is a very selfless profession and sometimes you just need to take a moment and do something for yourself. Teachers spend so much of their free time scouring the internet looking for effective lesson plans or grading papers, that they sometimes end up neglecting their personal needs. Set aside one day of the week for lesson planning or grading, and set aside another day for yourself. Take an art class, go shopping with a friend, or try that yoga class that your friends are always trying to get you to go to.

2. Make Your Choices Wisely

According to Harry K. Wong in the book “How to Be an Effective Teacher” the way a person chooses to behave (as well as their reactions) will dictate what their life will be like. He says that their are three categories of behavior that people can exhibit, they are protective behaviors, maintenance behaviors, and enhancement behaviors. Here are examples of each behavior.

Protective Behavior –These are people who are full of excuses, who complain a lot, and are good at justifying their behavior. You probably always see them in the teachers’ lounge complaining about everything and anything that is happening in their classroom as well as at the school.
Maintenance Behavior – These are the people who are very hardworking and who spend a lot of time wishing (I wish I won the lottery, I wish I had a bigger classroom). They tend to get along well with others, and don’t complain or put people down in the teachers’ lounge. They are concerned with their own individual survival, health, and safety.
Enhancement Behavior –These individuals enjoy active learning and participating in groups. They go to every teacher conference and meeting, and are known around the school as a leader.

Now that you know the three types of behavior, which category do you fall into? Which type of teacher do you want to be? The way that you decide to act can greatly increase or decrease your overall happiness and well-being.

3. Lower Your Expectations

Let go of the expectation that every lesson has to go exactly as planned. As a teacher, you will always have misses along with the hits. If your lesson was a flop, try to think of it as a learning experience. Just as you teach your students that they can learn from their mistakes, so can you. Lower your expectations and you will find that you will be much happier.

4. Do Not Compare Yourself to Anyone

One of the many problems with social media is the ease with which people can present their lives in any way they wish. As a result, people tend to only portray the version of themselves and their life that they want others to see. If you are scrolling down your Facebook news feed you may see many teachers that look like they have it all together, which can be quite intimidating and result in feelings of inadequacy. Compare yourself to no one. It’s hard not to compare yourself to others when we have Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest in our lives. But just remember that it probably takes some of these teachers hours to create the perfect-looking lesson. Do your best and try to be satisfied with the results.

5. Dress for Success

Never underestimate the power of a nice outfit. While dressing up to teach a bunch of elementary students may seem like a bad idea, research shows that it can actually make you feel happier. So the next morning that you want an instant pick-me-up, try wearing your favorite outfit to school.

6. Fake it

We’ve all heard the expression, “Fake it ’til you make it.” Turns out, it might actually work. Some studies that show if you smile when you are unhappy, you can trick your brain into feeling like you are happy. The next time your students are driving you crazy, try smiling—it might just turn your mood around.

7. Socialize with Friends and Colleagues

Do you find that you tend to be alone a lot when you are feeling unhappy? Studies found that the more time unhappy people spent socializing with others, the better that they felt. If you’re spending a lot of time by yourself, try getting out and socializing with your friends or colleagues. Go eat lunch in the faculty lounge instead of your classroom, or go for that drink after school with your friends.

8. Pay it Forward

There have been so many studies conducted that show that the more that you do for others, the better you feel about yourself. The sheer act of doing a good deed can make a huge impact on your self-esteem, as well as your happiness. The next time that you are feeling down, try doing something nice for someone else. Even if it’s just holding the door open for a stranger or making extra photocopies for your colleague, paying it forward can really improve your mood.

9. Listen to Music

Studies find that focused listening to music that is upbeat, or even just reading lyrics that are positive, can improve your mood.

Classical music is also said to have a mood-boosting effect on people. So the next time you’re sitting in your classroom and are in need of a pick-me-up, turn on some upbeat or classical music. Not only will it help to boost your mood, it will help your students’ moods as well.

10. Express Gratitude

A lot of us spend a lot of our time focusing on what we don’t have, rather than focusing our time on what we do have. When we do this, it can make you feel sad and unhappy. Try expressing gratitude and focusing all of your attention on the positive things that you have in your life. Think about what is going right in your life, and all of things that you are grateful for. Each morning before your toes even hit the ground, say three things that you are grateful for. Here are a few examples of what you can do each morning to express gratitude.

Today I am grateful for:

My health and the health of my family
That I have food, clothes and a roof over my head
That I have a wonderful job that helps me provide for my family

You have the ability to control how you feel. If you wake up feeling unhappy then you have the ability to change that. Use these ten tips and practice them daily. With practice, you can form lifelong habits that can increase your overall happiness.

How to teach sustainable happiness

Чему вы научитесь

Требования

Why go for True or Sustainable Happiness?

Sustainable Happiness Defined:

Anyone can achieve sustainable happiness because it’s skill-based, practical and easy to apply to your life.

In this exclusive Green Interview, O’Brien discusses the concept of “sustainable happiness,” techniques she employs in her course to teach it, and how the recognition that happiness and connection with the natural world are intertwined often leads to a truly transformative experience.

Sustainable Happiness

How can it be taught?

Education for Sustainable Happiness and Well-being

HOW TO GAIN SUSTAINABLE HAPPINESS?

The World Happiness Report (WHR)

The Global Council for Happiness and Well-being

The Science and Ethics for Happiness and Well-being Initiative (SEH)

Excerpts from the Forwards

Teaching positive emotions

How to get started

About Jinendra

We get a chance to step outside of ourselves and make a difference in someone else’s life.

When we give back something happens in our bodies that we have no control over.

This hormone impacts the way we bond and create emotional responses such as trust, relaxation and empathy.

Over-giving depletes us and leaves us feeling emotionally exhausted.

Over-giving can come from an unhealthy place where we want to be loved, approved or accepted.

Giving back comes from a place of unconditional generosity.

How to teach a child happiness?

Happiness is achieved by solving problems

Lauren Knight

Download Now!

Non-binding request for Amy Blankson

Why you should book speaker Amy Blankson:

Fearless Positivity: Rethinking Stress in the Midst of Uncertainty

Conscious Innovation: Leveraging Mindset to Thrive in Disruption

Digital Flourishing: Strategies for Balancing Productivity and Well-being in the Digital Era

Creating a Habitat for Happiness: How to Make Working from Home Work for You

Increasing Diversity in the Tech Industry: Why It Matters and What We Can Do About It

Happy circumstances

Intentional activity

Change of priorities?

The here and now

About the author

The New Science of Happiness

10 Ways Teachers Can Achieve Happiness Inside and Outside of the Classroom

1. Take Time for Yourself

2. Make Your Choices Wisely

3. Lower Your Expectations

4. Do Not Compare Yourself to Anyone

5. Dress for Success

6. Fake it

7. Socialize with Friends and Colleagues

8. Pay it Forward

9. Listen to Music

10. Express Gratitude

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