The Happiness Course in London
Over the past weeks, I’ve been running The Happiness Course in Sydenham, SE London. I always enjoy such times, but on this occasion it was a little bit special.
There were twelve participants, aged from twenties to seventies, and ethnically very diverse – always a recipe for fun and fruitful conversation. Understandably, participants can sometimes start off a little reticently but this time they wasted no time getting off their starting blocks! I love the interactions that emerge as the course progresses – no two courses are the same, since people are all so different. The facility worked very well (thanks Nigel!) and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.
How does it work?
If you’re not familiar with how the course works, here’s a brief introduction. It comes in four sessions, and each one lasts for about two hours (quite often I have to say, “OK we’re going to have to finish now” as the discussion becomes very deep and diverse). The sessions are all about life: The Happy Life, The Successful Life, The Relational Life and The Meaningful Life. So even from the titles you get the sense that there’s a journey going on. And so it proved this time too.
The Happy Life begins with the simple exercise, “What makes you happy?” and the list of things put up on the flip chart is always fascinating, in terms of what is present – and absent! I’ll let you guess what they were, but I’m certainly not giving much away when I say that relationships figure prominently…
The Successful Life is all about what our culture’s dominant narrative, or storyline is. No prizes for guessing that “things” figure prominently, but the paradox is that people who focus on materialism for happiness are generally disappointed.
The Relational Life – are relationships important for happiness? Well, what do you think? This session nearly always emerges as very significant for participants and can often be very moving, as people connect with past experiences.
The Meaningful Life delves deeper still and for that reason brings up even deeper thoughts and reflections. So much so this time that at the end several people were asking for more time to spend on the key issues that had emerged.
And the outcome?
Everyone had something to say at the end of the course. I’ll give you an idea of what they came up with next time..
Meanwhile, you can discover more about all the issues covered by The Happiness Course by buying my book, Lasting Happiness
Buy the book here
Find out more about The Happiness Course here
Many people have completed the course over the past ten years – one person even said, “This course has changed my life!”
The course will run again in SE London in the New Year.
