Yale’s most popular class ever: Happiness


College is such an exciting place these days, and there is so much you can learn if you want to. Quite apart from the important life lessons and skills you will learn during your time in college, there is also a massive array of classes and courses you can take as well. And many people like to look at taking courses they feel they are good at, or that they enjoy.
However, it is also important to consider the fact that you need to think about your life and your lifestyle. These days there is so much stress and strain in the world, and you might want to look at ways of boosting your life through study. If you’re still a little puzzled, it’s time we introduced you to Yale’s most popular class ever – Happiness.

Yale’s most popular class ever: Happiness

The course

The full name of the course is actually ‘Psychology and the Good Life,’ and it’s taught by professor Laurie Santos. Incredibly, more than 1,200 people have already signed up to take this course – totaling a quarter of all Yale undergrads! The focal point of the bi-weekly lectures focuses on teaching students how to be happier and how to lead a more fulfilling and contented life, as well as the things they can do to achieve that. This is, as you’ve probably guessed, a more recent class, but has proven exceedingly popular.

The importance of happiness

The popularity of this course clearly shows that people are placing a high level of importance on leading happy and fulfilled lives. We all seem to have much more stress and chaos in our lives these days, and it’s important to stop and smell the roses sometimes. Learning what we can do to let go of some of the stress in our lives, and make things more peaceful is really important. A class about happiness seems like the sort of thing we could all benefit from, particularly these days.

Mental health crisis

Dr. Santos has speculated about why students seem to be enjoying her class so much. She suggests it could be to do with the fact that they had to put their happiness to one side during high school years, in order to gain admission to college. And many adopted harmful life habits that have led to a mental health crisis. By showing an interest in this course, these young adults recognize that they want to be happier and more grounded people, and this could go a long way toward helping them battle mental health issues.

Yale’s most popular class ever: Happiness

Stress, anxiety, unhappiness, and depression are all things that can affect people no matter their age or life experience. It’s easy to look at someone and think they are too young or carefree to be suffering, but that’s not how it works. We seem to have a big problem these days confronting the issues of mental health.
But, with great classes like this one that Yale are offering, we have a real opportunity to confront and help fight this problem. Encouraging young people to be happier is really important, and, if you feel that your life could do with an injection of happiness, this is the sort, of course, you need to look at signing up for.

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