Welcome to the first week of Raising Happiness Homestudy! I’m so excited to have you in class! Please don’t forget to use the comment section to post your observations and questions.
Happy people learn that happiness, like sweat, is a by-product of activity.” –Frank Pittman III
Want Happy Kids? You Go First.
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Listen now: [audio:https://www.raisinghappiness.com/audio/5600_DR%20CARTER_RH_WEEK1_02_1-2.mp3]
The mere search for higher happiness, not merely its actual attainment, is a prize beyond all human wealth or honor or physical pleasure.” –Cicero
This video begins Theme One: “How and Why to put your own happiness first.” It is a shorter class; if you are just starting today, please also watch the introductory videos.
Here is what I want you to get out of the video this week: We need to prioritize happiness in our lives, and our children’s lives, over all other things.
Please understand that I’m not meaning to say that we need to prioritize pleasure, or gratification, or that we need to prioritize happiness over basic needs like food and shelter (the absence of which makes happiness much more difficult). Rather, we need to prioritize positive emotions and resiliency. This class will help you build the skills you need to foster both positive emotions (like compassion) and resiliency in your family.
In this week’s class I talk about how Aristotle viewed happiness as the “chief” or “highest” good. I like the way that Darrin McMahon explains this in his dense but interesting book Happiness: A History:
What, then, is the highest good of the craft of life, the good for which all others are simply means, the end that is complete in and of itself? In Aristotle’s view, this final end is happiness…It is our natural telos—the end we ought to reach if we live well—and our highest attainment to be won by cultivating the faculty that sets us apart from all other creatures and acting accordingly…Happiness, Aristotle concludes, is an “activity of the soul expressing virtue.”
I am so glad that you are joining me on this exciting journey towards greater happiness.
This week’s practice
In addition to setting up your first meeting with your Happiness Buddy or Raising Happiness Discussion Group, I’d like you to set aside a few minutes for reflection. Please take time to answer the following questions in your journal or in the comment section below:
- Look at how you spend your time. What “roads to happiness” are you already on? What beliefs, activities, and habits do you have that routinely bring greater happiness and meaning into your life? Don’t forget to consider activities that deepen your connection to others, including your children.
- Look at what you want for your children, and correspondingly, how you have shaped how they spend their time. What activities do they do, and to what end? Which of their activities—include family routines and such—do you think will ultimately bring them the greatest happiness?
The goal here is to reflect on what you are already doing well.