A couple of months ago, I went to go see Professor. Raj Raghunathan speak at an event uptown. Prof. Raj is a professor at the University of Texas (Austin), the author of If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Happy?, and he’s the creator of the Coursera course A Life of Happiness and Fulfillment. Prof. Raj was the keynote at this particular event, speaking about his studies on happiness, and how to ultimately achieve it.
This isn’t my first post about happiness, and it certainly won’t be my last. Like most people, I constantly evaluate my state of happiness. I knew I had to go see Prof. Raj in person, and I’m so glad I did. The Coursera course and the book offer a helping hand to learn how to best maximize your happiness. And of course, that leads to a much more fulfilling life.
Here’s summary (without giving away the whole thing…), and take away on the event:
THE SEVEN DEADLY HAPPINESS SINS
1. Devaluing Happiness
2. Chasing Superiority
3. Desperation for Love
4. Being Overly Controlling
5. Indifferent Pursuit of Happiness
6. Distrusting Others
7. Ignoring The Source Within
In addition to going into depth about why each of these items is happiness killer, Prof. Raj goes into the detail about the seven habits to overcome these ‘sins’, and then seven exercises to instill these habits. My absolute favorite is when Prof. Raj talked about achieving FLOW as an exercise.
WHAT IS FLOW?
“The first feature of flow, is a distorted perception of time. It has to do with an intense focus on the present moment. The second feature of flow is a lack of self-consciousness. When you are experiencing flow, you will be so absorbed in the activity that you will not have any excess capacity left over to evaluate or judge how you’re doing. Everybody seems to have had flow experiences. That’s the beauty of flow. But that’s not the only thing that’s beautiful about flow. There’s a way by which we can get into flow almost whenever we want to. How? By understanding what leads to flow.”
For me, that’s when I’m writing, editing, photoing, and tinkering under the hood of WordPress for this blog. Or practicing with my improv troupe.
Find something that you absolutely love, something that puts you into FLOW
The course and the book will show you how to obtain long term life satisfaction. But you really do need to follow the steps and the guides provided. You know what they say, ‘you get out of it what you put into it.’
It boils down to a few things. If happiness is important to you, you need to give happiness priority. Next, let’s find out the answer to the following two questions:
- What does happiness mean to me?
- What activities make me happy? (see flow above)
For many of us, happiness is a feeling of joy and love. For many of us, we feel this when we are with friends and family, and doing things we love.
You have to be willing to challenge parts of yourself that you might not like to look at too closely. Also, keeping an open mind, try different things out, and see where they take you. Also, know that self compassion and gratitude are two huge things. We’ve talked about that many, many, many times here on Peonies and Bees!
And guys, Coursera is a |f r e e| online program, and Prof. Raj’s Happiness Course begins again on September 26th. I’m retaking his course for a refresher. Join me!