The Science of Well-Being

                                      

I’m currently learning and attending course about “The Science of well-being”, hosted by Dr. Laurie Santos. I learn it from Coursera and I found this platform attractive and Coursera give great free courses until this May, in case you’re interested or need activities to do during this sty at home period.

So, it’s my second week to attend the online course.

At the first week, we learnt and took time to measure our own score of happiness through some Quizzes. I tried all the tests and found out that I had a pretty not good grades (lol). We’re going to re-take the quiz at the end of the course and let’s so if there is any changes in that.

At week two, Dr. Santos gave lecture about how things are not actually make us happy. It based on the researches that have been conducted since long time ago. Basicly, good grades, good job, good relationship, good-looking appearance or losing weight don’t really influence our happiness.

Some factors that are found to influence happiness are Genetic (50%), Life Circumstances (10%), and Action/Thoughts (40%).

We can’t change or really do anything to the genetic or life circumstances, so you’d better focus on your action/thoughts. But many people seeks happiness at the wrong direction, so it’s even harder to attain that goal.

PERMA Quiz Result

Example of the Quiz

We can build happiness through simple habits. But we need to do it CONSISTENTLY. And the simple habits that are recommended from this session are Savouring and Gratitude. Savouring means being fully present to what we are doing and genuinely enjoy it. Give yourself time to appreciate the books that you’re reading or the activity that you’re doing. And it’s stated that there are some techniques to enhance this savouring moments such as sharing the experience with another person, thinking about how lucky you are to enjoy such an amazing moment, keeping a souvenir/photo of the moment and it’s highly recommended to spare 5-10 minutes of your time every night to write a gratitude journal and write down 5 things that make you become grateful that day.

Besides savouring, gratitude is a habit that must be developed. Gratitude is positive emotional state  in which someone appreciates and recognizes what they have in life. This habit is important to do as if oneself doesn’t feel grateful, they will keep on wanting for more and can’t be happy even though they already have more than what they need. In this course, there is one study where people with different salary were studied about their financial situation and if they feel that their salary is enough for living. Based on that research, it turns out that they don’t feel enough and want more salary, even though one of them has earned more than what the average person usually earn. 

This is why gratitude is important in order to reach happiness.

As I mentioned above, I just attended week two for the courses, so I will end the story here and may be I’ll come back and tell more stories later :)

If you’re interested to take the courses, here is the link.

How’s your stay at home moment guys? I hope we can get through this tough moment and this too shall pass.

Stay happy, healthy and maintain yourself! See ya the other time :)