Are You…Happy?

For Mother’s Day my husband and daughter gave me a Yale course on The Science of Happiness. This was a super thoughtful, terrific gift for me. I like learning. And I like school. A lot. Always have. I enjoy taking classes and learning more about the things that interest me – from trying to pick up a foreign language to learning new photography techniques, I see a classroom as a place where I will get to rub elbows with a super smart teacher alongside a bunch of like-minded people who are interested in the same kinds of things I am. What’s not to like? (By the way, since I am doing this course from home, I consider those of you reading my blog to be my classmates in this journey.)

So, all that to say, being given the gift of 10 weeks of assignments and work might sound like a real drag to some, but I was, I amexcited. The topic did give me pause. The Science of Happiness. Am I not happy enough? Am I a glass-is-half-empty person? To be honest, it’s neither half empty or half full when I look at it. I look at the glass, or rather, I look at life (enough with the glass analogy) and generally see the positive.  I am, however, acutely aware of the negative. 

When Coco was 2-years old she asked me, “Are you happy, Maman?” To which I replied, “Oui, ma chérie, you make me happy. I am the happiest Mommy ever because I have you.” She seemed pleased with that response, twirled and ran off.  But her question threw me for a loop. Am I not happy enough? Does she think I’m sad? Jeez, I don’t want her to think I’m sad. I’ve got to try harder. I tortured myself a while longer, cause that’s what I do, and then I went and had a tea party with her and her stuffed bear, who coincidentally, is named Happy.

So, when I was given this gift, the gift of a happiness class, the glass half full part of me who loves school thought “This is awesome!” and the what’s-the-catch side of me thought, “Jeez, have I been moping? I’ve got to try harder.”

Rest assured, I am okay. I am more than okay. And I haven’t been moping around. At least I don’t think I have. But I’m not a rainbows and unicorns person, either. Don’t get me wrong, I like rainbows and unicorns as much as the next gal, and I see the magic that surrounds me every day, but I can see the rain clouds and monsters lurking around the corner just as well.

As for learning about the science of happiness, turns out a lot of people are using this social distancing time to figure out how to be happier.  The course is Yale’s most popular online class. And so, when my super thoughtful hubby read about it, he thought of me. 

One of the things I had to do in Week 1 is identify my top Character Strengths. I did this by filling out an online survey called the VIA Character Strengths Survey. 

According to the VIA Institute, my top 4 characters strengths are: 1. Love 2. Love of Learning 3. Curiosity and 4. Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence. I was surprised at the result and a bit sceptical. Not because I necessarily expected a different result (Is love really my top strength?), but because I test well and that I have a tendency to answer the thing I think I’m supposed to answer vs the thing I actually think. Then again…there’s a fine line between what I think I would do and what I would actually do in any given situation. Does that make any sense?

So why am I telling you all this?  Because I’d love for you all to take the survey too, so that we can discuss our respective scores together. It’s a free, scientific survey of character strengths. The data is used anonymously, but you can use a fake name and a fake e-mail address if you’re paranoid. It only takes 15 minutes and it’s meant to reveal your greatest strengths so that you can better your life by tapping into the power of your own character strengths. 

So, what are your top 4 character strengths? Do you feel the survey results are bang on? Or completely off? Drop me a line. I’d love to know.