The Secrets of Living Well

As a school teacher, I’m highly motivated by the impending summer. At the beginning of this summer, however, I found myself significantly bummed, frustrated and overwhelmed by my own ambition. I knew I wanted to get a ton of creative projects done, but the thought of expending energy exhausted me. That’s when my wife showed me this free online course Yale was offering through Coursera. It promised the secrets of living well.

The course itself is called “The Science of Well-Being,” and I highly recommend it.

Dr. Laurie Santos, a Yale professor, leads the course, which includes pre-recorded chats with her students and weekly challenges based on what science has shown to improve one’s happiness–things like sleep, exercise and random acts of kindness. Though the recommendations seem like common sense when listed out, the sheer amount of research she highlights puts teeth to those suggestions. As a result, you begin to find clarity and a more sustained joy. At least, I certainly did.

The thing about happiness is that it isn’t just a self-centered pursuit that affects only the newly happy. I’ve seen it affect my creativity, as I’ve finished all but the illustrations in two upcoming resource books for Game Masters. (These books will join my two recently-published resource books, Off the Shelf and On the Table.) I’ve allowed myself to really listen to those in my household and have deeper, longer conversations with them. I’ve been knocking out my to-do list–even those things like selling my childhood action figures or comics collection that I’ve been putting off my entire adult life.

Though I’m only halfway through the 10-week course, I’ve certainly found value in it, and I think you will, too. At the time of this writing, I’m getting no kind of kickback for recommending the course. I just like it that much, and I think it can do wonders in battling the effects of anxiety, depression, ADHD and chronic distractedness. I’m not a doctor, so I’m certainly not implying that one should stop the medications, therapies and other treatments that are already working and replace them with this course! Still, I’ve found it to be a tremendous supplement to what works for my high-maintenance brain, and I think you will, too.

Dive into the course and let me know in the comments below what you think!