This course and experience of online learning FAR exceeded my expectations. After reading about the course and it's goal for the student, I expected this to be of great interest to me (I'm a science, stat, human behavior person) and exploring my own happiness level and where I could improve to be worthwhile, especially during this pandemic. Each week's lecture & discussions were very interesting and well presented. I found that I did much more reflection of my state of mind and areas to improve than I expected. I was constantly impressed on how the class was structure and brought me to a logical point to put some new habits into place. It all fell into place like a 5 course, 5 star meal. (I also like to cook - can you tell?) Even following the final assignment in week 10, I had the "aha" moment that many of my greatest strengths have existed in my subconscious. This class pulled them out to the conscious part of me which made feel liberated in a way and great about who I've always been. What a great happiness building moment for me. Dr. Laurie Santos is a solid professional in her field and great instructor in the online venue. Thank you for this wonderful experience!!

Where do I start? Love this course. I am going to post this course in/on as many things as I have access to. Ms Santos is engaging, well spoken, organized, charming, and well versed. How she presented the course and herself were confident, knowledgeable, related, and bright. The statistics, related studies, and articles were monumental and life changing. I am astounded and humbled at what I thought I knew and/or related to was being challenged and studied ever; let alone, the question of well-being being studied years back. I loved the stats, the quizzes were great, the studies profound, and the solutions/adjustments applicable and obtainable. Thank you for sharing this knowledge Ms Santos (Yale). I strongly suggest that you continue down this path and offer additional courses like such. You have the power, professors :), influence, and reach to enhance peoples lives. Use your platform!

If anyone is reading this and wondering, if they should take this class please don't even think twice. Give this to yourself. I've taken approximately 8 such courses on two different online platforms and by far this is superior. Enjoy.

The Experience in General was surprisingly wonderful, since I finally understood it is almost always so difficult for us to be happy in life, and why so much value to material things when they should not have it. It also allowed me to better prioritize my goals in life and especially to dedicate more time to those activities that are worthwhile and that in the end are the most satisfactory and that are almost always the ones we already have and that do not cost us anything financially speaking. I am very grateful to God and to life for allowing me to have the opportunity to receive this course, which has definitely allowed me to be a better person and especially to have achieved a greater integral well-being in my life. I think that everyone should have the opportunity, especially young people, to receive a course like this "THE SCIENCE OF WELL-BEING" since in this way I am sure that the World would be better. Special thanks to LAURIE SANTOS for the dedication, patience and professionalism of this course. Many thanks also to all the colleagues who did their best to achieve the goals they set for themselves.

Dr. Santos data driven approach to happiness and well being is EXACTLY what I needed to make some shifts in my life. Thank you, Dr. Santos, and all those involved in making this course.

The only way for this course to make a lasting difference is to put the tools we've learned to use. By dedicating the last 4 weeks of this course to "rewiring" assignments, Dr. Santos has given us the time to apply our knowledge and make us accountable to ourselves as well as others taking the course. As an academic, the first 8 weeks are like learning any other topic. I'd suggest that the final four weeks is more like learning a new sport. When I was an athlete, one of my coaches suggested there are four levels of learning: 1) you don't know that you don't know, 2) you know that you don't know, 3) you know that you know, 4) you don't know that you know. By following the final four weeks rewiring assignments, we're pushing towards being at stage 4 of learning... when habits become habits that we don't even have to think about because we simply DO them. So, as Nike said, so long ago..."Just Do It."

An Incredible course and an amazing professor!

What I love about the course is the balance between theory and practice. The Science of Well-Being is for anyone, whether you are passionate about psychology or a very different field. This course shares insightful information about happiness through looking at psychological studies and ideas, but more importantly, it informs us of how we, ourselves, can be happier. The use of weekly tasks helps with this. Although not graded, the activities, in my opinion, help us develop "intrinsic motivation", which is a term that is discussed in the course. In other words, this course may not guarantee someone to become happier but certainly provides them will the tools needed to do so.

In addition to the material, the professor is lovely. Her examples make the information comprehensible and her touch of humour ensures that you are engaged. It is clear that she put in a lot of effort for all of her students to learn about positive psychology and about themselves. I really hope she will be sharing more online courses in the future.

Gracias a Laurie Santos por hacer este curso aprendí demasiado sobre mi y como debo llevar mi vida, antes de comenzar este curso padecía de DEPRESION y ANSIEDAD, por que terapia y los medicamentos psiquiátricos no me ayudaban a mejorar, así que después de que conocí el curso y llevando al pide de la letra, pude salir de ello, mi vida a cambiado totalmente, ya no voy a terapia ni tomo medicamentos antidepresivos, ahora todos los días hago ejercicio, medito, agradezco e incluso ha sido tan importante para mi el ejercicio en mi vida que pienso certificarme en pilates para ayudar a personas.

La ANSIEDAD y la DEPRESION son enfermedades mentales que duele demasiado existir, agracias a este curso evito que cambiara mi forma de ver la vida, inclusive podría decir que me salvo de cometer un error, por que antes de esto no dejaba de pensar en el suicidio, pero ahora quiero compartir con el mundo la persona que soy y lo bonita que es la vida a pesar de sus altibajos, la felicidad esta sobrevalorada, la verdadera felicidad es disfrutar cada momento.

GRACIAS LAURIE SANTOS

This course has been extraordinarily helpful and very engaging. The rewirement exercises were very beneficial.

One of the rewirement that I picked for the final challenge was Kindness - increasing my acts of kindness. A month ago, my friends and I started the "Care Package" initiative. It's a word-of-mouth initiative aiming to bring the local community together in the service of its underprivileged members, especially during times of political and economic uncertainty that have ravaged Lebanon.

As the gap between the poor and the wealthy is in gradual expansion in what feels like a sudden crash of social and economic order, our goal is to offer support for our destitute and most vulnerable brothers and sisters!

Each care package contains food supplies, personal hygiene and protective equipment. We have narrowed down our list into what we have deemed as essential. Contributors can then donate as many items from a curated list as possible based on their purchasing power. We were able to deliver 12 boxes in just 4 weeks and this has been very rewarding!

I thought this course was remarkable. If you are a person who aspires towards wellbeing or desires greater authentic happiness this course maybe for you. If you want the leverage that only understanding can generate -I strongly recommend you take this course. You will want to pay close attention to this very skilled and delightful educator and do the work of creating new habits based on real science. How refreshing and useful to embrace all our misconceptions and miss-wanting. To learn to say -we may have been mistaken and and move towards crafting better ways of wanting and being.

Personally I adored this course and wish to thank Professor Santos, Yale and Coursera for this magnificent work of education. It was so well crafted, accessible and timely. I found myself so eager, happy and grateful to be learning that I ordered up a Yale sweatshirt and signed up for two more courses. I thank you for this quality classroom and profoundly important subject matter.

Yours with much gratitude and a deep love of learning,

Carrie Lee Kelley

Laurie,

Thank you very much for letting me be part of your course for the past 10 weeks. I have enjoyed it very much. I retired from my HR job 2 years ago but during the 34 years of working for the same company, I had many opportunities to attend seminars/classes. It always amazed me that even though I was learning things to help me in my job, I could also, almost always, apply what I learned to my every day life. I saw on facebook that this class was being offered during this COVID19 Stay at Home order, at no cost. I read more about it and decided to sign up. It has surely been an eye opening experience and I have learned exactly where I need to focus my attention. There is always room for improvement in everyone's life. It will be a challenge but I really think I can do it, thanks to you. You're kind, courteous and very good at what you do. Every aspect of the course was explained in great detail and in terms everyone could understand. I thank you for that. I hope you are well and I wish you much success in the future. Nancy Sharp

This course really helped me out.

Before starting this course I had way more social anxiety and I was unhappy most of the time.

By starting this course I had to do something other than procrastinating, the first 2 week were the one where I was most excited because I was thinking about what a great person I maybe would have become.

By sticking to the course, I learnt the main techniques that help you do stuff. By practicing them and some others strongly reccomanded, my happiness was at its peak and so it was my productivity, of course in these two months there were times when I didn't feel to do this and that, I obviously skipped some days of meditation, workout and journaling but if this happens to you, it only mean one thing, there still is room for improvment, you should always meditate, workout, journal and so on.

Even if you see little to none progress you're still in a better position that you started with and if you stop you will go back to that bad feeling.

Apologies if my english is not the best, I'm still learning

The overall experience was very pleasant, I feel this has ‘lit a fire’ enabling me to pick up and keep better habits in general. At first I felt the rewirement would cost me a lot of time. In the end it did not feel like that, I feel I ‘took’ the time from useless things we all do in our spare time.

Overall the course has really helped me see things in another perspective. I feel less inclined to do things like watch TV of spend time playing games or messing with my phone. What’s strange is that I would think beforehand I would feel ‘busier’ and ‘would have no time for myself’ but it turns out that a lot of these new habits are exactly that, they are time for yourself, just better spent.

I would recommend this course to everybody. I feel this course and the classic book ‘Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’ have had the most profound impact on my self regulation I’ve ever experienced. A sincere thank you from the bottom of my heart goes out to all involved, including my fellow students reading this.

Thank you!

First of all, I'd like to thank all of people that have contributed - don't matter what everyone has done - to offer this amazing course. It was a great experience for me.

As a gratitude exercise I'd like also to share with you a personal achievement throughout this course. My wife has been diagnosticated as a depressive patient since last year. So, when I had the opportunity to know about the science of well-being, I've thought: "yes, I can try to help my wife sharing and discussing with her these concepts and techniques". And few weeks later er're harvesting the fruits. The average of my wife's well-being improvement was close to 46%, and right now she's getting better and better. My family, including my daughter and son, have been doing dialy pointing about their level of well-being in a tool that I've built during the course. I've called this tool Well-being Daily Monitoring.

Again, thank you so much professor Laurie Santos and The Science of Well-being team for this "gift" for all of us.

Be happy.

How happy are you?

Do try to really think about it.

How often do you savor the pleasure of everyday life, or really (make an effort to) connect with somebody?

Do you offer a helping hand to a stranger out on the street, or show random acts of kindness?

How about expressing gratitude to your loved ones, and others around you?

Could you allow yourself a daily break from your daily routine just to STOP, "smell the flowers", and/or meditate ?

How about making room for some more exercise, and improving your sleeping habits?

Have you ever thought what are your SIGNATURE STRENGTHS, and how to best cultivate them, in order to improve not just your life, but the life of the people you care for, too?

It's completely fine to draw a blank on some of these, and it's okay if you don't have all the answers.

But, you could be one step closer to a healthier, happier, and more productive you - thanks to Coursera in partnership with the prestigious Yale University, and their wonderful professor Laurie Santos!

Happy learning!

I had heard about this class awhile ago but it was recent mention on BBC News that brought it to my attention. It was my great fortune! I gained so many insights into myself as well as others, but the increased awareness of who I am and my relationships to others was dramatic. I found a level of internal calmness develop that carried into my daily life. When I read that a wandering mind was an unhappy mind, I thought not my wandering mind. Then it sank into my being that indeed my wandering mind was unhappy. This led me to chose meditation as my project. As I submitted my final paper I felt comfortable to title it, “My wandering Mind has Unpacked her Suitcase.” Although I’ve only been doing this for 43 days, it has become a part of my day; rising at 6:30 to meditate for 10 mins to begin my day with this practice. This is still a "practice" but one I will take with me throughout my life. It has shown me a way to keep my mind focused and it bags unpacked. .

Thank you!

M. Patricia O'Connell

it was an incredible 10 weeks of practice and useful information! This course opened up a new world of research and scientific knowledge for me! I asked questions to my teachers at the university - does yoga affect the physiological properties of the brain or is it just self-hypnosis? 2 teachers could not answer this seemingly simple question for me! And it turns out that my questions were not in vain asked. Too bad teachers don't care. so endless thank you for my new world! for my new habits! for new knowledge! discoveries! and oh my, how many books have not been translated into Russian! and I don't understand why. I'm sad that the course is over. Thanks to Laurie Santos, Yale, and everyone involved. With such teachers and courses, you want to live, find the meaning of life and the desire to make this world a better place becomes huge! I want to hug everyone involved! I don't know if you have such an expression, but in Russia there is "send rays of good." fell in love. forever yours.

This Science of Well-being course was a real eye opening to negative human behavior that we think will help us throughout our daily lives, but in fact is leading us in the pursuits in life. After the last five years of both my grandparents passing, my best friend since kindergarten dieding suddenly after child birth and then my cat of 13 years (also my close best friend to be honest) and then the outbreak of the corona-virus (which has really put a cover on my pursuing my dream job and education); i was really looking for the meaning of life. I think this class gives you new focus and insights on what should really matter in your life. To be happy, you must spend more quality time with family and friends, exercise more for your benefit, eat healthier, don't sweat the small stuff, find humor in the world, meditate every once in a while and learn that buying the most expensive stuff isn't going to make you happy in the long run. Thank you, Professor Santos for a wonderful class.

This is a really effective course. If followed right you will really see results in your overall well-being. Before I took this course. I was going through a bad phase - anxiety caused by the pandemic something I never realised I had until it happened. Through this course I not only got rid of my anxiety but I have learned to be more mindful, to be more in the moment, to be more appreciative of what I have, it has helped my relations with friends, family, and coworkers, I can't be more thankful to Dr. Santos and Yale University for putting this course out here. I loved the practical aspect of it and i think that's what made all the difference. Best thing about it is that what I learned in this course is not something that just ends with finishing the course but something I will take with me in every walk of my life. I am grateful that I stumbled upon this course. I would definitely recommend this course to everyone that wants to live their life a little better.

If you answer the "What is the meaning of life" by saying "The meaning is to be happy" or if being happy is part of meaning of life in your opinion this course can show you the scientific data that tells us what actually makes us happy. You will find a great professor (Thank you, Laurie Santos, for this course!) who is very enthusiastic about the topics in the lectures, who has a lot of knowledge when it comes to ( Positive) Psychology and the topics and themes discussed in this course. There will be exercises and challenges for you. The main goal of these is to implement the knowledge and findings that you will get into your life and create habits. This is very important because (as you will learn pretty much in the beginning of the course) knowing is not half the way, implementing and practicing is far more difficult than it might seem.

I loved this course. 10/10. Would recommend and do recommend.

Take your time and complete this course. Chapeau!

I enjoyed it so much, Professor Laurie Santos. You are a remarkably fluent presenter--the words flow from your mouth as the curly locks from your head :) I have also appreciated your warm, inviting manner.

In thinking about the course, I have learned the value of sleep, savoring, gratitude, exercise, and kindness, among other aspects of Well-Being. While one might say, "Of course, those are the essentials to happiness," the strength of the course, for me, lies in these 3 aspects: at heart the secret of happiness and well-being is simple, but it is helpful to be reminded of that; the careful studies which bear out the previous point; and finally the powerful notion that not only do we inculcate gratitude, kindness, and so forth, we can wire it right into our physical selves, the brain and nervous system.

Thanks again and good luck with the next 3,000,000 students. You are making history in education at Yale.

Sincerely, William C (Bill) Rives

One of the most important classes I’ve ever taken, if not the most important class. As a current Master’s student in psychology, I was fascinated with learning about the things that make me happy and affect my happiness. I started this class and then 5-6 weeks in, covid-19 appeared in the U.S. and changed all of our lives drastically. The first week of starting the class, I took 2 different assessments to measure how happy I was. Yesterday, I retook both assessments to see if the scores changed. My overall happiness had gone up. Amazing in that during a time of crisis and so much uncertainty, my happiness improved. I remember being in constant panic when it started. Thankful for this course because it made me realize while bad news doesnt make me as sad as I would think, the same applies for good news. I’m excited to keep learning about the Science of Well Being on my own and will definitely recommend this course to others. 5/5 without a doubt.

I really enjoyed the course. I met a great group of people for weekly chats - from all over the world (US, New Zealand, Australia, Canada). We are still going after the course.

I think the main improvement for the course would be to do the student interviews about their progress every week from week 7 to 10 - with a new set of students. I felt the course went into a lull when the lecture stopped. I get it that we need to be on our own to experience and do stuff, but more reflection on how people went would be good - give a sense that everyone finds this hard and there are ways to keep at it. I felt when that interview came in in about week 9 or 10 it really made sense again. I felt I needed that earlier.

My PERMA score went up by about 1.5 points. I've cultivated some great habits. Now it's a question of keeping "air in the tyres [as we Australians spell it]". This course is very worthwhile for anyone I think. I would really recommend it.

This course was so much more than a typical "How to Change Your Life in ## Steps". The course looked critically on common misperceptions about happiness and gave credibly researched findings on what actually makes us happy as well as strategies for change.

Laurie herself was wonderfully honest about presenting these findings and sharing a bit about how she also struggles to make changes. She accepted in her students that making progress is difficult and offered encouragement, almost as a dare to change.

I'd love it if there were a post-grad experience where folks could pick up with the learning if they were unsuccessful at first, or be supported in continuing with new habits once the course ended. I read a couple of comments from other students (including myself) that suggest this might be welcome.

Thanks again. This was an excellent introduction to Coursera. I've already signed up for 4 more courses and completed 2 already!

This course is amazing! At the beginning of the course I was the same like the other persons who believed that money, fame, accolades, a sexy body and a good romantic relationship are all the things that can make me happy. This way of thinking made me to be more competitive and more eager to raise myself up whether at work or in any situation or instances. Taking up this course made me realized that the very things I wanted to achieve/reach are the things that were causing me stress and made me unhappy. Now I understand that these things that most people sought after will not make us genuinely happy, although I must admit they can be an adjunct to our happiness. I realized that happiness can be achieved through sharing, kindness, being mindful and being appreciative and grateful of what one has. Indeed, there is no cost on being happy. W just have to alter our way of thinking and appreciate the beauty that is in front of us.

If you are like me, you could be thinking to yourself that you SHOULD be feeling happier or maybe your blessings aren't aligning with your gratefulness or perhaps you're just so tired of feeling like you should be enjoying your life more. For whatever the reason, this class has helped me TREMENDOUSLY put things into perspective and helped me to see exactly why I kept feeling like I should have more, or feel happier or be more satisfied and the tools that it has been providing thus far, have genuinely made a profound impact on the way I view every day life and all that I have taken for granted for so long. I would strongly suggest this course to anyone, even couples as a team event, and what have you got to lose? There are absolutely no harmful effects of learning how to be HAPPIER. This class is the first step to a new outlook on life and how to make yourself feel better about the one you're living.

This course has been exceptionally helpful for my overall happiness. The strategies provided to increase happiness are not complicated, but just take dedication and practice. We are provided with so many blessing each and everyday and we need to train our minds to view the present moment and leave the future ahead of us. One of my favorite lessons from the class is the idea of reference points and how I am programmed to use the incorrect points to assess my own success. Now when my day does not seem to be going as well as I had hoped, I think about women my age are forced to live without the freedom I have in America. I am free to "change" my circumstances of my life for the better while many women as "stuck" in their circumstances due to religion, poverty, laws, lack of education, etc. When I keep these ideas in mind, I am reminded not only of blessings, but also my power to create change.