To receive announcements write to us at  learnmore@pathwaystohappiness.com.

Living Your Strengths The happiest people in the world use their top character strengths daily.  The result is passionate engagement and the fulfillment of serving their unique purpose.  This class will help you to give your best to your own life and the world around you.  

• Discover your top character strengths
• Apply your character strengths to challenges and difficulties in your life
• Use your strengths to enter into flow, or passionate engagement, more frequently
• Use your knowledge of strengths to bring out the best in the people around you
• Clarify your purpose in life

To learn more about the 24 character strengths, the result of a search for values held by humans around the world and throughout history, please click here.

   9 weeks, Sept 17 through November 17. 
   Weekly Inspiration Calls, in "real time" Weds, 12:30 to 1:30 PM (recorded for later listening) 
   Weekly Discussion Calls, Mondays, 7:30 to 8:30 PM
   Weekly homework and partner calls by arrangement    

   See Course Logistics for more details.    $450       See what participants have said.     Register here.

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Maximizing Joy!  Presence, or Mindfulness, and Positive Emotions are two of the  proven pathways to increasing happiness.  You will learn to direct your attention in ways that favor your own health and well-being, while also having an impact on your family, your community, and the larger world.   You will learn:

• Practices to increase Positive Emotion and how these enhance intelligence and creativity.
• Practices to increase Presence for less reactivity and greater peace of mind
• How gratitude is linked to happiness and how to cultivate it in your life.
• How to emphasize the positive for more fulfillment in relationships at home and at work.
• Ways to bring your thinking brain into balance with your “ancestral mind” for increased joy and serenity.

   7 weeks, January 7 through February 23, 2009.
   Weekly Inspiration Calls, in “real time” Weds, 12:30 to 1:30 PM (recorded for later listening) 
   Weekly Discussion Calls, Mondays, 7:30 to 8:30 PM 
   Weekly homework and partner calls by arrangement    

   See Course Logistics for more details.  $350  See what participants have said.   Register here.

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Loving Relationships Open-hearted loving is one of the most powerful routes to happiness.  Research over the past 50 years has consistently shown that some important patterns in our ability to love and be loved are determined for all of our lives in the first year of life!  As we journey through life, however, the patterns can change, through learning emotional self-care and with the help of people who love us.  

• Practice being mindfully present in your important relationships
• See how human bonding can both wound AND heal us
• Care for yourself in the ways you long for with “a little help from your friends.”
• Feel more trusting and secure in your relationships
• Be a better lover (in all senses of the word)
• Be more grateful and forgiving in your relationships  

   6 weeks, March 4 through April 13, 2009. 
   Weekly Inspiration Calls, in “real time” Weds, 12:30 PM (recorded for later listening)
   Weekly Discussion Calls, Mondays at 7:30 PM 
   Weekly homework and partner calls recommended    

   See Course Logistics for more details.  $300  See what participants have said.      Register here.

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Disarming the Inner Critic – Learn to Think Like an Optimist! Pessimists think they are more “realistic.”  Not true!  As we travel into the future, we are creating much of the reality that we encounter.  Pessimists talk themselves out of going for what they want and suffer more when things go wrong.  It turns out that optimists are happier and more successful in love, in sports, and in their work.  Optimists are less likely to become depressed or anxious and they bounce back from failure. The good news is we all can learn to think optimistically!

• Recognize the insidious voice of your inner critic for what it is.
• Learn what it means to think optimistically.
• Identify and dispute the core beliefs that underlie the inner critic's monologue
• Embrace and act upon an optimistic of yourself and the world.

   7 weeks, May 6 through through June 23, Monday evenings, 7-8:15 PM e.s.t, 
   Note different format: There is one weekly call that combines Inspiration and Discussion.  It will be
   recorded for those who have to miss.  Homework is 20 min practice daily, partner calls 
   recommended.   $240    See what participants have said.    Register here.

Free sample class: Listen to a recorded free sample class by clicking on this link: "An Introduction to Optimism" and waiting for the audio to begin. Or, right click and "save target as" to download it to your computer.  Share it with anyone you wish.