Isn’t happiness just a shallow, superficial thing? Just a feeling? Shouldn’t we concentrate on more important things?

Yes, happiness can be a passing feeling, but as this course explores, true, deep, long-lasting happiness is much more than that. Deep happiness comes through exploring what’s really important in life, through building strong, healthy relationships and through searching for deeper meaning and purpose.

To discover true happiness is to grapple with life’s most important questions. Wellbeing is a concept that increasingly appears on local and national government agendas. Official agencies are seeing that traditional indicators – such as unemployment statistics or school league tables – only go so far when it comes to measuring how people feel about their lives. In fact, the last generation has seen a huge economic leap forward, but people are no more content than they were 40 years ago. Depression is fast becoming one of the most significant medical issues of our times, and loneliness is reaching epidemic proportions.

Session 1: The Happy Life