The Science of Well Being - A Summary
Course - The Science of Well Being (
)
Teacher - Laurie Santos
NYTimes had this
on how a happiness course in Yale is the most popular course in campus and how it is available on coursera as well. Immediately, I was hooked. My motivation was not that I am unhappy but the following -
With this, I immediately enrolled in the course and finished it last week. Overall, I think the course is very well structured and covers both theoretical aspects with practical activities to really make one happy. I will admit that I did not follow the practical activities (called rewirements) to the dot. However, although Dr. Santos claims that "Knowing is not half the battle", it is definitely non-zero and my attempts to get better on them continues on.
The course is structured in two parts. Every week, we go over some of the theoretical aspects of the science. At the same time, there are exercises such as make more social connections, or meditate for 10 mins. These exercise are designed to bring us more happiness as there is enough evidence to suggest that they really do. In this post, I will summarize the theoretical aspects of this course.
Warning - This will be a long post.
This is a good question to begin this exercise. Here are some common responses and before starting the course, I would also agree to few of them