What would you say if I told you that happiness can be taught? It sounds a bit strange, right? We’re taught so many things in school and growing up. But one thing that is completely skipped over is emotions; how to manage them and how to tap into the emotion everyone wants to constantly feel: happiness. I’m a woman who is in tune with my emotions, so when I heard that there was a whole course on happiness, I was very intrigued. I’ve spent the past few months, watching, learning and taking notes while doing the Natura Rescue Happiness Course.
Natura Rescue’s Happiness Course
Natura Rescue launched its Happiness Course in March of this year. It’s a 5 episode course hosted by bonafide happiness professor, Shareen Richter. Now I know, you might be thinking that the words ‘course’, ‘happiness’ and ‘professor’ don’t usually go together, but Shareen has studied scientifically proven ways for us to feel happy. And in each episode, she shares realistic and everyday ways we can tap into happiness throughout the course.
Here are my three favourite hacks to happiness:
Happiness Hack: Smile and Laugh – Even if you don’t feel like it
We seem to live in a society that sometimes finds it odd to smile for ‘no reason.’ But as social beings, smiling is something we do to connect to people naturally. I see it with Kenzo and of course other babies. At just 6 or 7 weeks old, babies can smile – genuinely. It’s pretty irresistible to not smile back at a smiling baby. So it was no surprise that smiling and laughing, even when we don’t feel like it actually starts a chain reaction in us physically. Starting from the outside and letting that work its way in really can kickstart a mood lift.
Happiness Hack: Spread happiness – it works!
Something Shareen said in one of the episodes really resonated with me. She mentioned that everyone is vibrating in frequencies, it’s something that our hearts radiate. So even if you can’t necessarily see if someone is a bit down or feeling angry, you can feel their energy. Of course, the opposite is also true – that if someone is in a good mood and happy, it’s quite hard not to be positively affected by that. This is something I’ve kept in mind, especially around Kai and Kenzo. That my mood will affect theirs. So when I’m feeling good, I make it a point to speak positively to everyone in my house. I also laugh more so it rubs off on them too.
Happiness Hack: Think Happy – It’s a choice
What we think matters. Before following this course, I didn’t think that my thoughts could have as much power as they do. But thoughts have everything to do with our perception, which of course then becomes our reality. We only take action on things we’ve thought about and eventually we can speak them into existence. Shareen mentions that we all remember different types of stories throughout our day – positive ones and negative ones. Which ones we hold onto will affect our overall mood and memory of the entire day. So in thinking happy, there is also a chain effect that happens. Being conscious of this has been so key for me to not wallow in the bad stories of the day, but focus on the good ones. This isn’t accidental, or by luck, like how I previously thought happiness was.
One big thing I really appreciated Shareen saying was that happiness isn’t about feeling happy and cheerful all the time. But it’s the inner feeling of knowing “I’ve got this, I can keep it together” which is really all of our goals, right?
You can catch all of the episodes of the Happiness Course brought to you by Natura Rescue on Facebook Watch. Bring your pen, journal and open heart.
How do you tap into happiness? What’s a simple hack you can share to help another woman lift her mood?
Sponsored by Natura Rescue.
Photography by Vije Vijendranath
