The Happiness Course: Here What's Some Learned - The New York Times - 0 views
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Over 3 Million People Took This Course on Happiness. Here’s What Some Learned.
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The Yale happiness class, formally known as Psyc 157: Psychology and the Good Life, is one of the most popular classes to be offered in the university’s 320-year history
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“Everyone knows what they need to do to protect their physical health: wash your hands, and social distance, and wear a mask,” she added. “People were struggling with what to do to protect their mental health.”
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The Coursera curriculum, adapted from the one Dr. Santos taught at Yale, asks students to, among other things, track their sleep patterns, keep a gratitude journal, perform random acts of kindness, and take note of whether, over time, these behaviors correlate with a positive change in their general mood.
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“It’s hard to set those boundaries with yourself sometimes and say, ‘I know this book is really exciting, but it can wait till tomorrow, sleep is more important,’”
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“That’s discipline, right? But I had never done it in that way, where it’s like, ‘It’s going to make you happier. It’s not just good for you; it’s going to actually legitimately make you happier.’”
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“I found myself looking inward. It helped me become more introspective,” she said. “Honestly, it was the best thing I ever did.”
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“There’s no reason I shouldn’t be happy,” she said. “I have a wonderful marriage. I have two kids. I have a nice job and a nice house. And I just could never find happiness.
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Since taking the course, Ms. Morgan, 52, has made a commitment to do three things every day: practice yoga for one hour, take a walk outside in nature no matter how cold it may be in Alberta, and write three to five entries in her gratitude journal before bed
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“When you start writing down those things at the end of the day, you only think about it at the end of the day, but once you make it a routine, you start to think about it all throughout the day,”
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some studies show that finding reasons to be grateful can increase your general sense of well-being.
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“Somewhere along the second or third year, you do feel a bit burned out, and you need strategies for dealing with it,”
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Matt Nadel, 21, a Yale senior, was among the 1,200 students taking the class on campus in 2018. He said the rigors of Yale were a big adjustment when he started at the university in the fall of 2017.
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While the class wasn’t life-changing for him, Mr. Nadel said that he is more expressive now when he feels gratitude.
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“I think I was struggling to reconcile, and to intellectually interrogate, my religion,” he said. “Also acknowledging that I just really like to hang out with this kind of community that I think made me who I am.”
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negative visualization. This entails thinking of a good thing in your life (like your gorgeous, reasonably affordable apartment) and then imagining the worst-case scenario (suddenly finding yourself homeless and without a safety net).
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If gratitude is something that doesn’t come naturally, negative visualization can help you to get there.
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“That’s something that I really keep in mind, especially when I feel like my mind is so trapped in thinking about future hurdles,
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“I should be so grateful for everything that I have. Because you’re not built to notice these things.”