Life Journal

Welcome to the Life Journal of the “Facilitating Happiness” course. There are fourteen lectures spread across twenty modules.

The structure of the weeks with a lecture is similar to the “Introduction to Happiness Studies” course, with the only difference being that under the GEM assignments instead of a Call to Reflection and a Call to Action, you will be asked to engage in an exercise relating to the weekly module. During weeks without a lecture, you will be given a daily meditation, an exercise relating to the topic of the previous week, and an appreciation exercise. There are no I AMs, no GEM+ or GEM++ during the webinar weeks.

The GEM assignments for the fourteen lecture weeks include the following:

• Mindfulness practice. These daily practices are taken from the Introduction to Happiness Studies course, and follow the same structure—where you’re given seven options for the type of meditation, followed by a reflection and an intention associated with the material of the weekly module.
• Exercise. In place of the Call to Reflection and the Call to Action, you will be given an exercise relating to the weekly module. The exercise may be in the form of journaling or in the form of some activity. You should expect to spend no more than one hour total over the week on the exercise.
• Reading. You will receive a link to a text. Spend 20 minutes going over the text slowly and deliberately. This is about quality of reading rather than quantity.
• Appreciation. At the end of each week, write down at least three things that happened over the past seven days for which you’re grateful. You can write down anything—from an interesting idea you encountered in the course to something delicious that you ate, from progress you made at work to an encounter with a dear friend. Focus on each of the things that you bring up for at least 30 seconds, visualizing it, appreciating it, feeling the gratitude. Then, write at least three things that you’re looking forward to in the coming week—whether as part of the course, at work, or in your personal life. Once again, spend at least 30 seconds on each item visualizing, appreciating, and feeling.

Here are the GEM+ assignments:

• Mindful Music. This is a meditation practice in which you listen to any music that you pick for 10 minutes a day. Write down the name of the piece, and paste the link if it is online, so that you have a record of it. They key is to listen to it mindfully, in other words not as background music while you’re doing other things but as foreground music while sitting up or lying down comfortably. There are, literally, millions of optionsonline—from centuries-old classical music to New Age electronic music with the sound of water in the background, from Adele to Zen. If possible, listen to the same piece of music for the entire week, and each time you listen try to notice something new, perhaps becoming aware of a subtle detail you did not detect previously.
• Call to Reflection. You will receive an additional writing exercise for further reflection, and deeper exploration.
• Call to Action. You will be asked to come up with your own weekly Call to Action—something that will put the theory from the week into practice. Your own Call to Action can come from your Time-Ins, from your writing under the Call to Reflection, or from elsewhere. In addition to describing your own Call to Action in your journal, write it on a note that is always in front of you, or as a recurring reminder each morning on your calendar. Once again, your own Call to Action should not require you to invest much or any extra time. Small changes, over time, make a big difference
• Reading (40 minutes). Once again, this is about deep reading of more material, where quality rather than quantity comes first.

GEM++ includes the following assignments:

• Readings. Through these readings, you will be exposed to some of the most recent research as well as to ancient texts, all around the weekly topic.
• Online Lectures. These are lectures by other experts in the field, related to the weekly material
• Movies. These are two movies related to the weekly topic. They are great movies to watch, and excellent resources for reflection and conversation