How the Action for Happiness course is changing lives
02 Jun 2017 | Action for Happiness
In September 2015, our Patron the Dalai Lama helped us launch our 8-week Exploring What Matters course at
a big
event in London.
This article shares an update on the roll-out of the course in
communities across the UK and beyond. It's still very early days,
but we're delighted with how things are going so far. We want to
say a HUGE thank you to everyone who's been involved so far,
especially all the wonderful volunteer course leaders who have
given their time and energy so generously.
Volunteer course leaders
- 3,500 people have signed
up to show interest in leading a course
- 560 volunteers have gone on to complete
our full Leader Registration process
Courses & participants
- Over 250 courses have been submitted
(each is run by two co-leaders) and over 150 are already completed
or underway
- Over 2,300 participants have taken the
course so far (average of 15 per course)
Impact of the course
- 93% of participants would recommend the course
to others
- 91% say the course has had a Positive
impact on their life (vs 9% Neutral, <1% Negative)
- Participants experience significant increases in Life
Satisfaction (+21%), Mental Wellbeing
(+14%), Compassion (+9%) and Social
Trust (+17%), based on comparing standardised survey
measures taken before and after the course.
But perhaps most important of all are the human stories and
personal feedback we receive all the time. Here are a few
examples:
"The course has been life changing for me I
cannot express how thankful I am that I attended thank
you"
~ Judy, participant
"Thank you for the course. I felt very disconnected and shut down
from people before but I have a sense now that connecting with
others is of equal benefit to me and to them. I have greater sense
of equality between all people, and feel more open to people in
general, and more inclined to relax and trust others. I'm delighted
that I did the course and plan to continue meeting with the group
in the future"
~ Tina, course participant
"I just wanted to take this opportunity to say how blown away I've
been by the Action for happiness local programme design and set-up
by you and your people. I'm helping to run this in Henley. As a
full-time coach I thought I knew quite a lot about happiness. It's
been life-changing! For me and others on the course. The design is
superb and I wanted to let you know and thank you and your team. (I
used to design training and this means I'm even more
impressed)"
~ Joy, volunteer course leader
And finally here is a lovely list of things people say they're
going to do as a result of the course..
- "Listen better and invite others views and be
considerate of other perspectives"
- "Keep my work and recharge times in balance, so I can be at my
best for myself and others"
- "Express more gratitude and compassion to myself and
others"
- "Be more mindful in my daily life. Show greater kindness to
strangers"
- "Start volunteering and taking a more active role in my
community"
- "Do more to help others to realise that finding more
contentment in life is possible"
- "Introduce science of happiness into my workplace and
run a wellbeing group"
- "I gave up smoking and alcohol, began actively looking for and
applying for new roles, stepped more into myself and who I truly
want to be"
- "Plan to run my own course in the future"
- "Go out of my way to help others and keep challenging
myself"
- "Definitely have more resilience than when I started
the course"
- "Volunteering a lot more and also taking time to chat to
strangers whenever possible"
- "I am telling others about the course and what I
learned on it"
- "I'm now part of a group from the course who plan to do more
for the community"
- "I have been trying to be more gentle with myself and
others"
- "I feel a stronger sense of responsibility for my own
happiness"
- "I hope to meditate every day and try to see other
people's point of view"
- "I will continue to act with kindness and compassion towards
people, but with more confidence and pride that that is a good way
to live"
- "Notice when I am in a defensive mode and try to open
out to others more"
- "I am changing my career and direction in life. I am doing more
things for no financial reward. I am connecting with others in my
community more"
- "Make a conscious effort to lead a more meaningful and
happy life"
- "Spread the word about action for Happiness wherever
possible"
- "Take more notice of the good things in life, less
stress over silly things"
- "Think about how I treat other people"
- "Try to help others more, have more compassion. Have
more courage to face more personal difficult issues"
-> Find out how you can Join or Lead a course