The Habits of Happy People – January 2023

Schedule

Session 1

Morning Poem by Mary Oliver

Assignment: Pick a time of day to have a 5 minute reflection at the same time every day. Ask yourself what made it happy and what made it less happy. Be specific. Pick one small thing you can do differently tomorrow.

Session 2

Love After Love, by Derek Walcott

Assignment: Once a day, write down three things you are grateful for. Also be aware of thought patterns that are not a friend of your happiness.

How Gratitude Changes You and Your Brain

Session 3

Assignment: Notice it, brush it aside.

Session 4

The 7 Minute Workout (New York Times)

Wild Geese, by Mary Oliver

Assignment: Consider the three practices: 20 minutes, movement, kindness and what integration you can make. Remember to stack habits.

Session 5

The Five Thieves of Happiness – book summary by Skip Pritchard

The Five Thieves of Happiness Quiz

The Journey by Mary Oliver

Assignment: Focus on the habits that have been working for you. See if you notice any thieves show up this week.

Session 6

I will not live an unlived life by Dawn Markova

Poem by John Izzo

Two days left to walk

And the way has not answered

The questions you came to ask

What if, when you arrive

All you have are sore feet, aching knees and the same nagging riddles

That drove you to walk in the first place

Consider for a moment The gentle quiet calm of every stream you crossed

The steady stately pose of every tree that granted you shade

The way each bird sang for you Their one true song

And all the weathered smiling faces that wished you well as you strode along

Each stream knew its source and destination

Every tree stood on its own solid ground

No bird longed to fly in some new formation

The answer was never in arrival

But in the walk itself

The way each day you found yourself walking more deeply into the world How each step became itself a lifetime

not merely movement towards a hoped for destination

The way in each face you met a part of the God

you came here to remember

In each moment alive to the world without struggle,

open to everything that might arrive

Two days left to walk and the way had changed the questions you came to ask

Reunion Session