Hey Joy, Where You At?

Joy. I can’t remember the last time I consciously felt joyful. It’s not that I haven’t felt joy, but I don’t remember noticing at the time.

Yale University started a “happiness” course in 2018. It has become the most popular class in 300 years. According to CNN, In April 2019, the course had 22,522 new enrollments. But in April 2020, as the pandemic started to take off, the class saw 860,494 new enrollments – and it has only continued to skyrocket. So far, more than 3.7 million people have enrolled in the class, which is available for free online through Coursera and is also being taught in person for the second time this semester.

“All of us want to be happier,” Santos said. “The problem is that we have a lot of misconceptions about what really will make us happy. We think we need to change our circumstances in major ways, but often simply behavioral and mindset changes can make a big difference in our sense of well-being.” One of the main things the class aims to teach us is that our happiness or joy doesn’t come from our circumstances. It comes from our behaviors. What a concept!

Inspired by what I have read about the course, this week, instead of focusing on my circumstances and looking for joy, I’ll focus on my behaviors and make sure they line up with creating joy. No time for a college course? There is a podcast by the professor, Dr. Laurie Santos. I’m going to check that out as well.

XX,

MG

TEA IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD