Harvard and Yale are offering free online courses on Happiness. The instructors are two of the best-known in the field.
Managing Happiness is led by Arthur Brooks at Harvard. It includes six sessions of two to three hours each. His brief introduction begins with this:
What is Happiness? What makes you happy?’ Can you get happier through study and effort?
Maybe you have pondered these questions over the course of your life, but haven’t been able to come up with any definitive answers. Still, you’d like to think that Happiness is something you can understand and manage, right?
This class answers these questions and shows you how to use the answers to build a happier life. It introduces you to the modern science of human well-being and shows you how to practice it.”
Laurie Santos’s is the most popular in Yale’s history. The Science of Well-Being is 10 weeks (19 hours) and is described as follows:
In this course you will engage in a series of challenges designed to increase your own Happiness and build more productive habits. As preparation for these tasks, Professor Laurie Santos reveals misconceptions about Happiness, annoying features of the mind that lead us to think the way we do, and the research that can help us change. You will ultimately be prepared to successfully incorporate a specific wellness activity into your life.
Both classes are introductory level. No tests, no grades, just absorb and, if you choose to enter the Laurie Santos virtual classroom, take on her “challenges.” These are a step up from the usual self-help books and blogs.
You might have heard the old saying, “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” These courses suggest there is. They wait for you to partake of them.
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The photo shows Dawn Patrol and a Crescent Moon at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, October 2023. It is the work of the superb photographic artist Laura Hedien, with her permission: Laura Hedien Official Website.
I’ve heard about these but have never taken them. No time like the present. Thank you Dr. Stein. In the spirit of the courses, thank you for this wonderful gift.
Glad you are going to enter, Brian. You are welcome!
Same! I have a friend who’s taken the Harvard course but I forgot all about it. Thanks, Dr. Stein! 🥰
Always glad to be informative, especially to myself! Thanks, Vicki!
Welcome, welcome! 🥰
I’ve signed myself up for the Harvard course for now. They both sound excellent. Thanks for the suggestion, Dr. Stein.
You are most welcome, Crystal. There is always more room for happiness!
Thanks, Dr. Stein! I just signed up for the well-being course. Happy 2024!
Indeed, 2024 is already on the way toward happiness with your enrollment! Good luck!
Mah…my first reaction reading about these classes on Happiness (capital H?) was of doubt, even a laugh…
What? which more ridiculous idea will humans invent? Mah…
I myself since I was a teenager read tons of books on wellbeing, finding inner peace, becoming a better human being, dealing with an injust and cruel father, with colleagues’ jealousy, etc etc etc
Some of these books are still on my bedside table, Rabbi Nachman, the Tao Te Quing, Anthony Mello, Thich Nat Hahn, Christophe André, as they still accompany my many moments of sadness, despair, tears but also the glorious, happy ones!
I also all my life along was searching for good human beings, good friends, maestri di vita and yes! was blessed to meet some.
You are now one of these, dottor Stein, and I’m so happy you accompany me and take me by hand, even if an ocean separates us!
In this precise moment, I have three good friends of mine, three marvelous persons who go through some inferno.
I asked yesterday Padre Giancarlo to elevate his hand in benediction for them. He did.
This is all I could possibly do.
This is for me profound happiness (and “happiness” doesn’t need a capital, it’s already radiant and scintillating upon Universe!)
Your description of how you have found your way is immensely touching, Micaela. Friends, faith, great, books, music, etc. I cannot argue with that. Thank you, my dear.
Grazie, caro dottor Stein.
You know one thing?
I’ll tell you a secret!
I doubt we’ll meet in “this” world but for sure we will embrace each other sometimes somewhere in the realm of the Gods!
A sweet thought!
I have heard both Arthur Brooks and Laurie Santos on podcasts and found them to be so illuminating. I didn’t realize their courses were open to the public. Thank you for pointing us to these great resources, Dr. Stein!
You are very welcome, Wynne. They take the subject to a new level.
And, I should add, your affirmative message to those who haven’t heard them means a lot. Thank you!