1. HAPPINESS is Serious Business

2. Magnitude of the Problem
24 % of people in the US will be diagnosed with mental illness each year;
450 million people currently suffer from mental illness, 9.6 million Americans;
65-80% of the worlds population will be diagnosed with a mental illness;
By the year 2020, Depression will be the second leading cause of disability in the world;
Two-thirds of people with mental illness never seek help from a health professional;
41,000 Americans died in 2013 from suicide;
33% of countries allocate less than 1% of their total health budgets to mental health;
One psychiatrist per 100,000 people in 50% of the countries in the world
40% of countries have less than one bed reserved for mental disorders per 10,000 people

3. DSM-V Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-Fifth Edition
157 Diagnoses spanning 22 categories

4. Psychological Diagnoses
Negative side- severe diagnoses
Positive side- well-being

5. Happiness Scales Satisfaction with Life Scale (Deiner et al., 1985)
CES-D Scale- Center for Epidemiological Studies- Depression (Radloff, 1977)
Use in reverse order
OQ-45- Outcome Questionnaire-45 (Lambert et al., 1994)
VIA-IS- Values in Action Inventory of Strengths (Peterson & Seligman, 2004)

6. Nearly all people are capable of much more than they achieve thus far
“Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to their grave with the song still in them”.
- Henry David Thoreau

7. God’s Plan for Happiness
Fully Alive
Vice and Virtue
Balance
Sacraments
Blessings

8. Mindfulness Meditation
Paying attention to purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally, to the unfolding of experience from moment to moment
Intentional, accepting, nonjudgmental focus on one’s attention on the emotions, thoughts and sensations occurring in the present moment
“Drop in on yourself”
Thoughts and feelings are constant
Not facts- can be chosen or not chosen

11. This is God on Your Brain…
Franciscan Nun Study

12. Lectio Divina

13. Gratefulness & Self-Sacrifice
“You say grace before a meal. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and the pantomime, and grace before I open my book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing, and grace before I dip my pen in the ink.”
“Gratitude produced the most purely joyful moments that have been known to man.” - G.K. Chesteron

15. Epigenetics & Epidemiology: What can we control?

16. The Nun Study: Aging & Alzheimer's
668 School Sisters of Notre Dame
Only positive feelings predicated longevity
Age 85
90% most cheerful quartile alive
34% least cheerful quartile alive
Age 94
54% most cheerful quartile alive
11% least cheerful quartile alive (Dunner et al, 2001)

17. They all have the same “habits”

18. Education & Support Groups Using Science & Faith

19. Educational Platforms
Happiness and Wellbeing
Hope
Redemptive Suffering
Empathy and Compassion
Meditation and Prayer
Mercy and Forgiveness
Grief and Loss
Relationship Development and Emotional Virtue
Striving through Adversity

20. Happiness is SERIOUS. God WANTS us to be happy, So LETS GET SERIOUS!