Happiness Tip: Take a Free Happiness Class

Did you know that happiness is much better thought of as a set of skills you can learn and practice than it is an inborn personality trait? Believe it or not, it is! Research suggests that 40% of our happiness depends on our daily activities.

This means that we can become markedly happier by changing our habits and simple day-to-day-behaviors! How happy we are is as much knowing what to practice as anything else.

Guess what? UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center is offering a free, eight-week online course, called “The Science of Happiness.” This class will offer you practical strategies for nurturing your own happiness, and you’ll be able to engage with some of the most provocative and practical lessons from this science. Each week, you’ll learn a new research-tested practice that fosters social and emotional well-being—and be able to track your progress along the way.

The course’s co-instructors, Dacher Keltner and Emiliana Simon-Thomas, are both leading authorities on positive psychology and gifted teachers skilled at making science fun. They’ll be joined by world-renowned experts discussing themes like empathy, mindfulness, and gratitude—experts including Rick Hanson, Barbara Fredrickson, Paul Ekman, Sonja Lyubomirsky, Kabat-Zinn and yours truly!