Course that is teaching happiness
AT FIRST I was amazed that a course on happiness is proving the most popular ever at America’s elite university, Yale.
Why, I thought, does anybody think it can be taught? Learn proper philosophy instead! Read a 19th century novel!
As a student, I worried about work, of course. Is there really more pressure now? Then I took my inner fuddy-duddy to task. Just because my generation would have been astonished that happiness could be deemed worthy of formal study doesn’t mean it isn’t a brilliant — and essential — idea for a much more complicated age.
Professor Laurie Santos (a youthful 43-year-old) became worried about the crisis in mental health among students on both sides of the Atlantic (and I imagine there’s a similar situation in Europe).
Inevitably, she concluded that smartphone technology has played an incalculable role in adding to the stress young people experience.
Reduced eye contact and verbal communication; the endless comparisons made on social media; fake news . . . you name it. It showers down on the young, night and day, like a Biblical plague. No wonder so many are depressed.
The answer? Giving people the means to analyse what is going on and combat it. The 21-week course promises ‘a set of scientifically validated strategies for living a more satisfying life’.
Reading about it, I was fascinated to notice elements which have also featured in this column — such as keeping a gratitude journal, believing you
can rewire your mind, random acts of kindness, exercise, daily meditation (gazing at flowers, for example, and really seeing them) and so on.
Oh, and of course, talking to people and switching off that bloody smartphone.
It’s not rocket science, is it? Yet people need to be told that the key to a ‘good life’ lies within ourselves. Just don’t expect it as a gift. As Prof Santos says: ‘Happiness takes intentional effort every day of your life.’
Bel answers readers’ questions on emotional and relationship problems each week. Write to Bel Mooney, Daily Mail, 2 Derry Street, london W8 5TT, or email bel.mooney@dailymail.co.uk. Names are changed to protect identities. Bel reads all letters but regrets she cannot enter into personal correspondence.