Have you ever felt like you have everything in life: family, friends, good grades—and yet you are still unhappy? Despite wishing to be happier you simply do not know how. Well, here is your cure. Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar would teach you how to be happy in his class Positive Psychology, one of the most popular courses in the history of Harvard University. “The course focuses on the psychological aspects of a fulfilling and flourishing life. Topics include happiness, self-esteem, empathy, friendship, love, achievement, creativity, music, spirituality, and humor,” as the course description explains.
The underlying premise of positive psychology is that you can learn to be happier just as you can learn a foreign language, or to be proficient at golf. This rapidly growing field is shedding light on what makes us happy, the pursuit of happiness, and how we can lead more fulfilling, satisfying lives. Dr. Ben-Shahar points out that the academia has been focusing too much on depression but too little on happiness. Where there is one research article on well-being, there are 21 articles on unhappiness. We ask what is not working, but only knowing the bad is not enough—we need to find out what is working. For example, if a patient with indigestion wants to enjoy good food, he not only has to get rid of indigestion, but he also has to find which foods cause the discomfort and avoid them. The course centers around salutogenesis, a term coined by Aaron Antonovsky, meaning the sources of health and happiness.
In his lecture, Dr. Ben-Shahar explains that “Happiness doesn’t spontaneously emerge once the painful experience goes away”. Dr. Ben-Shahar teaches us to be active seekers of happiness through focusing on the right things and asking the right questions.
Wouldn’t you have signed up for that course? I know I would have.