Category: Happiness in Action

An overview of your primary reasons
for implementing happiness practices into your
daily life (what are your life happiness goals?) A summary
overview of the happiness practices you plan to implement (you should include
at least two practices).
–      
Practice 1: BUILD  POSITIVE 
EXPERIENCES 
SHORT 
TERM:  Do  pleasant 
things  that  are 
possible  now. 
INCREASE 
pleasant  events  that 
prompt  positive  emotions. 
Do 
ONE  THING  each 
day     
LONG 
TERM:  Make  changes 
in  your  life 
so  that  positive 
events  will  occur  
more  often.  Build 
a  “life  worth 
living.”   ¬∑
Work 
towards  goals:  ACCUMULATE 
POSITIVES.  
Make 
a  list  of 
positive  events  you 
want.  
List 
small  steps  toward 
goals. 
Take 
first  step.     
ATTEND 
TO  RELATIONSHIPS  
Repair 
old  relationships. 
Reach 
out  for  new 
relationships.  
Work 
on  current  relationships.  
AVOID 
AVOIDING.  Avoid  giving 
up.     
BE 
MINDFUL  OF  POSITIVE 
EXPERIENCES  
FOCUS 
attention  on  positive 
events  that  happen.  
REFOCUS 
when  your  mind 
wanders  to  the 
negative.     
BE 
UNMINDFUL  OF  WORRIES 
DISTRACT 
from: 
Thinking 
about  when  the 
positive  experience  WILL 
END. 
Thinking 
about  whether  you 
DESERVE  this  positive 
experience. 
Thinking 
about  how  much 
more  might  be  EXPECTED  of 
you  now.
–      
Practice 2: What to address in your electronic
journal, from the perspective of your character:
1. First, state whose perspective you are taking and who offended you.
2. Recall the offense in detail. Note: Remember that your feelings are valid
and
it’s important to recognize the extent of the pain you have experienced.
Forgiveness does not mean overlooking the pain.
a. What did the offender do?
b. How did their actions impact your life?
c. How did you feel as a result of their actions?
3. Commit to forgive. Note: Remember that forgiveness does not equal
reconciliation, though forgiveness may be a helpful tool when reconciling.
a. What are some examples of times when you have been forgiven by
others? How does that help motivate you toward forgiveness?
b. How might you benefit from forgiving this person?
c. Verbalize your commitment to work to forgive this person.
4. Empathize with, without excusing, the offender.
a. What do you think led the offender to offend? What vulnerabilities
make them human?
b. How do you think the offense impacted them?
5. Overcome feelings of non-forgiveness.
a. Notice the pain you are experiencing as a result of the offender’s
actions, and work to bear it. Note your observations.
b. What is the silver lining? What meaning/purpose can you take from
your difficult experience?
c. Think of a gift you could offer the offender: what would this gift be?
How does that move you towards a place of forgiveness?
6. Repeat this thought process as necessary. Keep in mind that the process of
forgiveness takes time, sometimes a very long time, and often through
practicing it over and over again. The questions above may look simple, but
in reality may require some complex mental/emotional processing to
address to any extent.
The specific practices you plan to implement, using SMART
descriptions (see below).
You may use practices learned in this course, or you may use
practices learned
elsewhere or which you have developed for yourself. How
these practices will help you
achieve your life happiness goals? You cause what you have
learned in class as well as
research-based evidence to help support your explanation.
References these may
include, but are not limited to, sources that back up your
reasoning for choosing specific
practices.
You may use sources that we have referred to in class. You
may also use this course as a
source. For example, you might cite one of the happiness
practices or one of the lectures. You
can also use sources you have discovered elsewhere, outside
of this class. You should have a
minimum of two references.
APA Style Formatting. This means you should have the
following elements: Title Page, Running header with page numbers, Reference
Page, Double-spaced
See online Purdue OWL website for an example of APA-style
formatting
Minimum of five double-spaced pages. There is no maximum
page limit set.
SMART strategies: SMART is an acronym tool used to help with
evaluating and
identifying goals that are pragmatic and therefore able to
be readily implemented. Using
this tool can help you decide if a happiness strategy
actually makes sense for you given
the resources and motivation available to you. Please
describe the specific happiness
practice you plan to implement using George Doran’s SMART
strategies. This means
that each practice should be…
S – Specific, significant, stretching – Explain the specific
happiness practice you
plan to implement. Think about the “what, where, why, how,
who, when” while
describing details specific to your practicum
M- Measurable, meaningful, motivational – How will you know
if you are making
progress? What will help you stay motivated to continue the
practice?
A – Achievable, attainable, action-oriented – Describe how
it is possible to
implement this happiness practice given the resources
available.
R – Realistic,
relevant, result-based – Explain why is it realistic to expect that you
might be able to implement the practice at the level described
T – Time bound – when do you plan to achieve this goal? Make
sure to allow
enough time that it is meaningful for you but not so much
time that it would be too
difficult to implement practice should be…
Double-spaced