Happiness starts with YOU.

Welcome to happiness! We’re glad you’re here :)

We will all work together to learn the science and psychology behind living a well-lived life full of positive engagement.  By putting this new knowledge to practice, we will increase our sense of well-being and skillful life engagement.

Have you ever wanted to take a course in Neuroscience and Positive Psychology? Or perhaps you took our course and want continued access to the materials for you, your friends, and family? You are in the right place! This website is an extensive synopsis of the course: Bi 170 Happiness: a Neuroscience and Psychology Perspective offered at the University of Oregon each fall.

The next offering of this course is Fall, 2024 and the CRNs (course reference number) are 10761 for in person and 10772 for online!

Click on the “Lectures” tab above to jump right in to Happiness!

Our Purpose

What is it you yearn for most in life? What is it that brings the heart-enthralling feeling that livens you each day? For many people, the answer is happiness — but what does happiness really mean? In this course, we will all venture through the cartography of our lives. We will not only study the neural pathways of our minds, but brave the journey with action through agency, daring to fail in the pursuit of progress. Equipped with the helpful tools of neuroscience and positive psychology in our backpacks, we will learn to skillfully sail the seas of our emotions, valiantly climb the mountainous challenges of our lives and relationships through vulnerability, calmly tread through the ups and downs of our past, present, and future experiences, all while deeply and purposefully connecting with ourselves, the moment, and others - to engage in a fulfilling and meaningful life.

Expect to learn how to…

Live Skillfully

Manage Stress, Anxiety, and Depression

Increase Feelings of Self-Worth

Increase Long-Term Happiness

Cultivate Mental, Physical, and Spiritual Well-being

Build Healthy Relationships

Advice from the Ancients…

  • “One who conquers himself is greater than another who conquers a thousand times a thousand men on the battlefield. Be victorious over yourself and not over others.”

    Buddha

  • “There is only one way to happiness and that is to ease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.”

    Epictetus

  • “Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.”

    Laozi

  • “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.” "This world is one family."

    Ancient Sanskrit

  • "The activity of happiness must occupy an entire lifetime; for one swallow does not a summer make."

    Aristotle

  • "The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not."

    Seneca

  • "The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less."

    Socrates

  • "The myriad things are complete in us. There is no greater joy than to reflect on ourselves and become sincere."

    Mencius

  • "Fear is the cheapest room in the house. I would like to see you living in better conditions."

    Hafiz

  • "To love is to will the good of the other."

    St. Thomas Aquinas

  • "Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished."

    Laozi

  • "The wound is the place where the light enters you."

    Rumi

  • “We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then to return home.”

    Australian Aboriginal proverb

If you are an undergraduate student at the University of Oregon - Join our Positive Psychology Club! UOPostitivePsych.org