Sustainable Happiness

Originally appears in the Summer 2011 issue

Environmental educators tend to be nice folks. We’re the first to encourage a child to join us on a hike, and the last to leave a party when there are recyclables that need to be sorted from the garbage. A love of life drew many of us to this profession: a love for bugs and birds and early morning canoe trips or muscle-burning mountain hikes.

The irony, of course, is that much of what we teach is depressing. Global climate change, endangered species, habitat destruction, plastics pollution: our job is to chronicle the destruction of the very things we care most deeply about, and to raise the alarm to others. All too often, we end up being unwitting harbingers of doom and gloom. Is this the most effective way to inspire engagement? What if we could return to our jovial roots? What if exploring happiness and all those things that make our heart sing, rather than the threat of demise, turns out to be the best way to inspire greener lifestyles amongst our students and other educators?

We’ve been investigating these questions as new findings from environmental psychology, positive psychology and resiliency research provide fresh understandings about the way we engage with sustainability issues.  The result is an innovative field that links happiness with sustainability: Sustainable Happiness.

Sustainable Happiness is happiness that contributes to individual, community and/or global well-being, without exploiting other people, the environment or future generations. (O’Brien 2005)

Happiness is at the heart of who we are and turns out to be an ideal entry point for underscoring the interdependence of all life on the planet. For the group of student teachers attending the first course in Sustainable Happiness at Cape Breton University last spring, spending class time exploring why some people are happier than others, or the links between happiness and health, was intriguing but unfamiliar territory. Who would you choose, for example, if asked to interview the happiest person you know?

Happiness is a universal desire. But in a consumer society, where consumption and happiness tend to be inextricably linked, it is easy to confuse the “path to the ‘good life’ as the ‘goods life’.¹ And in most industrialized countries, our pursuit of happiness is often at the expense of other people and the natural environment.

Here’s the intriguing and optimistic news. Research suggests that “authentic happiness” is associated with positive health and well-being.² Authentic happiness is derived through relationships with family, friends, meaningful work, and engagement in our community rather than relentless striving for material possessions. There is also evidence that once basic needs are met, substantial increases in income do not translate into substantial increases in happiness.³ We’re discovering that over-consumption in consumer societies is neither the ultimate path to authentic happiness nor the path to sustainability.

The concept of sustainable happiness draws attention to the positive and negative consequences of how individuals, communities and nations pursue happiness. In a globalized world, everyone’s actions have repercussions on distant lands and people. Some impacts are merely short-term while others have enduring effects. Sustainable happiness can guide the daily actions and decisions of individuals to account for far-reaching consequences; it reinforces the need to consider social, environmental and economic indicators of well-being so that community happiness and well-being are sustainable at the national and international level, for now and into the future.

You may be drinking a cup of coffee while reading this. It’s a momentary pleasure familiar to many of us. Being mindful of such simple sensory delights is enjoyable and relaxing. Viewed through the lens of sustainable happiness, your daily coffee can be placed in a wider context. Is your pleasure enhanced when you drink fair trade coffee, knowing that workers in the coffee plantation have been paid fairly and that the coffee was grown with regard for the environment? Sustainable happiness reminds us to reflect on whether the positive emotion derived from the coffee (or anything else for that matter) has come at the expense of other people or the natural environment.

The importance of considering more hopeful approaches is underscored by the experiences of children. Nearly a decade ago, David Sobel, director of the teacher certification program at Antioch New England Graduate School in New Hampshire coined the phrase “eco-phobia” to describe what really happens when we lay the weight of the world’s environmental problems on eight and nine year-olds already haunted with too many concerns and not enough real contact with nature. “Ecophobia,” he writes, “[is] a fear of ecological problems and the natural world. Fear of oil spills, rainforest destruction, whale hunting, acid rain, the ozone hole, and Lyme disease. Fear of just being outside.”⁴

Albert Zeyer of the University of Zurich demonstrates that many high school students today are fully aware of our looming environmental crises, yet feel powerless to change things.⁵ “They suffer latent environmental depression,” Albert explains. The result of decades of “gloom and doom” messages is a generation of informed but disillusioned and depressed youth. As one teenager in the study puts it: “We don’t have a chance.”

Despite this, environmental education research is largely silent about dealing with the emotional implications of the environmental crisis on kids or teachers. Words like grief, despair, or anger rarely appear in our writings, and there is virtually nothing in the literature addressing appropriate ways to deal with the emotions associated with environmental degradation.

At first glance, it may seem odd for a researcher recording children’s experiences of hopelessness and despair about the environment to team up with a researcher working on sustainable happiness. What we share is an interest in exploring the emotional aspects of environmental education, and the need to acknowledge the feelings children and teachers experience, both positive and painful. Sustainable happiness reinforces the fact that our lives are inextricably linked with other people, other species and the natural environment. It serves as a vehicle to identify options for creating more hopeful, joyful, and sustainable legacies.

 

The activities below are drawn from the Sustainable Happiness and Health – Teachers Guide by Catherine O’Brien.  This new resource that offers curriculum-based activities and lesson plans for grades K to 6 that are linked to health education outcomes, with many cross-curricular applications. Available for free in both English and French, the Guides can be found at <www.sustainablehappiness.ca/for-educators>.

Elin Kelsey’s newest children’s book, Not Your Typical Book About the Environment (Owl Kids 2010), aims to allay children’s fears about environmental doom by showing them what a remarkable time they live in. Smart technologies, innovative ideas, and a growing commitment to alternative lifestyles are exploding around the world. The book won both the 2011 Green Earth Book Award and the 2010 Moonbeam Children’s Book Award and is short-listed for the 2011 Canadian Children’s Book Awards. Learn more at <www.elinkelseyandcompany.com>.

 

Notes

[1] Kasser 2006, p. 200.

2 Seligman 2002.

3 Diener & Seligman 2004; Stutz 2006.

4 Sobel, D. (1995). Beyond Ecophobia: Reclaiming the Heart in Nature Education. Great Barrington, MA: Orion Society.

5 Zeyer, A., & Roth, W.-M. (2009). A mirror of society: a discourse analytic study of 15- to 16-year-old Swiss students’ talk about environment and environmental protection. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 4(4), 961–998.

 

Activities

 

Natural Happiness (all grades)

Objectives: 1) Students will identify the positive emotions related to simple, natural experiences. 2) Students will recognize that they can choose to experience natural happiness every day.
3) The activity should reinforce the empathetic experience of enjoying the natural happiness of other students.

Instructions: Introduce the concept of “natural happiness”: happy/positive experiences that come ‘naturally’ (i.e. other than those that come from material possessions, playing computer games, or watching television). Offer some examples of natural happiness such as:

• Feeling the sun on your face
• Snuggling under warm covers
• Hugs
• Smelling flowers
• The cold side of a pillow
• An unexpected high five
• Finding something I didn’t know I lost
• Doing something that makes my best friend smile
• Sun sparkling on snow (or water)
• Jumping

Have students pair up and tell each other as many of their natural happiness points as they can. You may want to let groups have the class guess the natural happiness points they come up with by playing a game of charades, or simply ask each pair to give you a couple of their favourites. These can be collected by you and displayed on large chart paper.

Use the discussion to draw out the feelings associated with natural happiness and the positive experience of hearing about the natural happiness of other people. Guide students towards the awareness that they can choose to experience, create and share natural happiness. Alternately, ask students to draw one of their natural happiness points and use these to create a display in the classroom. You may want to reinforce the concept of natural happiness by asking students to share a natural happiness point they experienced each day.

 

Happy Feet, Happy Earth   (Grades K-6)

Objective:   Students will identify links between happiness and walking, and the benefits for the community and the earth when people choose to walk rather than use motorized vehicles.  They will convey these benefits through at least one art form.

Lead class on a walkabout around the schoolyard and/or neighbourhood (you may need parent volunteers or older students). Ensure that required permissions are obtained if students are leaving the school site. Before returning to class, ask students to name all the reasons they can think of why walking makes them happy; then how it makes their community happy; and how it makes the earth happy.

Back in the classroom, students work with a partner to determine how they want to convey the benefits of walking. They can create a poster, make up a song, write a story, create a skit, make a puppet show. Each team shares their work with the whole class and you may want to share this with other classes.

 

Happiness Interview (Grades 4-5)

Objective:  Students will explore the concept of happiness and what it means to different people. They will discover that for most people, happiness comes from relationships with family and friends, doing meaningful work in the community, feeling connected to other people or the natural environment, or from spiritual beliefs. Sustained happiness is less often attained through material possessions.

Instructions: Explain that this activity is about discovering what contributes to lasting happiness and well-being. Instruct students to interview someone from home, school or the community – ideally the happiest person they know. In the interview, ask the following questions, plus any additional ones that they care to ask.

* What kinds of things make you happy?
* What lessons have you learned about happiness through the tough times in your life?
* What advice do you have for my generation about having a happy life?

Once the students have completed their “happiness interview,” prepare a chart made of four large pieces of paper. Three of the pieces should include one of the above questions. The fourth sheet is for any other questions students asked. Students contribute to the four sheets by summarizing the answers they received for each question (this may be done in point form).

Once the chart is complete, review the answers with the class as a group. Ask the class to point out similarities and differences. What are some of the key lessons from this? Do students agree with the advice that has been given? How does the interview information compare with the information that the media gives us about happiness?

Follow this up with some key points about happiness and well-being from the list below:

The relationship between happiness and health:
Happy people tend to seek out and act on health information
Happiness and well-being have been associated with reduced risk of cardiovascular disease Positive states of well-being tend to correlate with better physical health
Happy people tend to live longer
Positive moods can lower blood pressure
Hope has been associated with increased chances of survival for cancer patients
Immune systems are positively affected by high levels of positive emotions
There is some evidence that happy people are less susceptible to cold and flu viruses

The relationship between happiness and social interaction:
Social relationships are essential to well-being
Happy people tend to have healthy social relationships
Interpersonal skills have a strong association with life satisfaction
People who report high life satisfaction and happiness may have a greater tendency to volunteer in the community
Social and community service has a strong association with life satisfaction

 

Happy Places   (Grades K-3)

Objectives:

1) Students will identify places that make them feel happy
2) Students will understand the qualities of that place and why these qualities make them feel happy
3) Students will appreciate the people who may have created that place or the natural environment
4) Students will understand the value of respecting and protecting these happy places.

Invite students to think of a place in their home, neighbourhood or nearby that they would call a happy place. This is a place that makes them feel happy. Ask students to share with the class what that happy place is, what it looks like and why it makes them feel happy. Use this discussion to guide students to understand that these kinds of places contribute to their health and well-being because positive emotions are very healthy for us. The nature of the discussion will determine for you how to draw out some of the following points:

• places that are beautiful are often happy places – we can help to keep these kinds of places beautiful by not littering or breaking things
• happy places may be fun places to play – let’s appreciate the people who created those places and respect the places because it might be someone else’s happy place
• perhaps the happy place is in their backyard or inside their home – appreciate the people who have helped to make it a happy place
• the happy place may be a natural area such as a beach, forest, or lake – reinforce the value of protecting these areas because it is a happy place for others, animals, trees and plants
• perhaps they have helped to create a happy place – by planting a garden, creating an art piece that is on display at home, etc.

Conclude the lesson by having students paint a picture of their happy place. The picture could include a caption about the place.

Assessment Suggestions:

Teacher-student conference to provide a caption and feedback on student understanding.

(Objective 1&2)  The place shared with the class & painting created by student

(Objective 3&4)  On the back the students write a note of thanks “thank you: creator, Mother Earth, mom, dad, etc”. “I promise to _________ to help protect the happy place you’ve provided me.”

 

Walk with me (Grades K-3)

Objective:       Students will initiate an activity that promotes walking.

Walking with parents and friends is an activity that is healthful for people, the community and the environment. The positive emotions that people experience while walking is an example of sustainable happiness. Students can encourage adults to engage in this activity with them. Perhaps they would like their parent/guardian/grandparent or an older sibling to walk with them to school, the playground or a friend’s house.

Lead a discussion about the places that students enjoy walking, who they like to walk with and why they enjoy the trip. Assist students to create an invitation to someone with whom they would like to walk. Their picture may show where they want to walk or the person they would like to walk with. Some key words that they may need to create their invitation could be generated through class discussion. E.g. “Walk with me,” “Let’s go for a walk.”

Students can give the invitation to the person they want to walk with and report back to the class once they have gone for the walk.

Assessment Suggestions:

Observe individual student ability to articulate the benefits of walking.

(Objective 1) The invitation, participation and response to their walk. The response could be oral, written, or both.

 

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Elin Kelsey, PhD, lives in Pacific Grove, California where she works as a consultant with Stanford University, the Monterey Bay Aquarium and other institutions . She is spending the summer studying hope and resiliency as a Visiting Scholar at the Cairns Institute, in Queensland, Australia. Catherine O’Brien, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Education at Cape Breton University in Sydney, Nova Scotia.  Both authors are eager to hear from readers and researchers who are working with these concepts. Contact them at Catherine_OBrien@cbu.ca and elin@elinkelseyandcompany.com.