Happiness
More Than You Can Imagine
By Lynne Hoft, EdD
In the mid-1970’s a group of mental health researchers were looking for effective therapies. They were told that a man, Syd Banks, near Vancouver, BC was giving lectures where the participants’ levels of well-being and happiness were much higher than previously thought possible. Several of these researchers went to BC to see for themselves. They agreed that the results produced in Syd’s talks were way beyond what they were accustomed to seeing in therapy as they knew it.
Roger Mills, head of the research project stated, “It wasn’t that they were coping a little better with the stress in their marriages, or fighting a little less, or handling their disagreements with a little more dignity – they stopped fighting altogether. They saw the ridiculousness of fighting period. And they fell in love again. The quality of the feelings in those marriages and families was a hundred times nicer and more positive than from any kind of therapy or approach that I’d seen. The results were light years beyond anything I’d seen before.” (Modello, a Story of Hope for the Inner City and Beyond. Jack Pransky: 1998)
This was the beginning of a series of programs, loosely connected, with various titles teaching a core of understandings that dramatically change people’s lives. Teachers using these tools have commented that their students began to have a positive attitude, “they weren’t screaming at you anymore, and grades were going up”. It was reported that teachers who were using these strategies with their students saw marked improvement in classroom management and in student achievement. There is a whole body of work which documents these findings.
In Hawaii schools, 85% of the students in special programs using these tools showed significant improvement. In a Florida study there was a 78% improvement in student grade point averages, attendance, and their overall sense of well-being. A Florida Community project showed parents going back to work, a 65% decrease in child abuse, and a number of self referrals to chemical dependency programs. In an Oakland, CA community, crime rates significantly dropped, gang warfare ceased, and collaboration among community agencies significantly improved.
In Utah, in a hospital for emotionally disturbed youth, subjects expressed a new hope in resolving their present problems and circumstances because they knew how to recognize their moods, thoughts, and feelings as their internal problem creators vs. their external circumstances. Over and over it’s been reported that when people learn not to take their thoughts seriously they can change their lives and move toward happiness.
Our philosophy and programs in Back to Brilliance come out of this early research and have expanded over the last 25 years to include our 12 Keys to The Art of Living Happy.
My own life is a marked testament to the results of this awareness. 25 years ago I was a single mother recovering from the alcoholism and severe anger patterns in my family. When I found myself getting angry over nothing and yelling at my son, I knew I had to change. I didn’t want to take these patterns into another generation. I made a commitment to fully integrate these skills so that I could live them. And in the process I began teaching them to my students, to my friends and to anyone who’d listen. Ten years ago I noticed that I had surpassed all of my goals for peace of mind, serenity, and pursuit of happiness. During the past 10 years I’ve continued to grow beyond my dreams and to watch those around me find their core of brilliance and to create the lives of their dreams.
These 12 Keys have allowed me to be the best person I am capable of being, to have one of my best friends as a business partner, and to have a business that exceeds my dreams.
For anyone who has big goals, dreams, hopes and aspirations, these 12 Keys can smooth the way. At the same time you’ll find that the whole of your life is impacted. Brilliance is holistic and is expressed through the whole of life. Besides growing the career of your dreams, you’ll find your relationships improving, your level of joy and fun in living growing, and you’ll know and like who you are becoming.
©2007, Back to Brilliance.
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