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Happiness advocates Nadia Muijrers and Fatima AlSaad aim to spread joy and positivity throughout the kingdom by staging an eight week course supported by the Dalai Lama.
The course, entitled Exploring What Matters, was developed by Action for Happiness, a UK-based movement and charity backed by leading experts from diverse fields including psychology, education, economics and social innovation to help make the world a happier and brighter place to live in. The organisation has more than 100,000 members from around the world, taking action to increase the wellbeing in their homes, workplaces, schools and local communities.
“As a patron of Action for Happiness, I am delighted to see the work being done by members of this movement to create a happier and more caring society,” said The Dalai Lama. “I wholeheartedly support the Exploring What Matters course and hope that many thousands of people will benefit from it and be inspired to take their own action to help create a happier world.”
Bahraini Dutch Nadia, a multidisciplinary consultant, lecturer and founder of Alphard Consulting living in Janabiyah and Bahraini Fatima, a writer, private tutor and energy healer from Muharraq, have teamed up to share the movement’s message and vision in Bahrain.
Nadia, 36, who volunteers as a facilitator with Soliya’s Connect cross-cultural programme and with Injaz Bahrain training university students in work readiness skills, found out about the charity while working in London. She had attended a number of their events and talks there and has been wanting to organise the community course in Bahrain ever since.
She is thrilled to finally be staging it at Bait AlSalmaniya in Salmaniya, on a voluntary basis, alongside Fatima, who is also an art curator, on January 12.
“I’m very excited to be running this course and to extend the Action for Happiness movement to Bahrain,” said Nadia, who is a lecturer at the Arab Open University, Bahrain in the Business Administration department. “This course will help spread more awareness around mindfulness, happiness, positive psychology and so on. It will also encourage community discussions, help people grow and give back to the community.
“We believe that this course is needed everywhere because, come on, who doesn’t want to be happier, more fulfilled and be able to build deeper connections with others? We could all do with a bit more reflection and discussion about the things that really matter in life. No matter where we are in our individual journeys, we can always continue to grow.”
In Exploring What Matters, local groups will meet once a week, every Saturday from 4pm to 6pm until March 2, with each session exploring a big question.
“Each week we will focus on a particular question such as “What really matters in life?” and from this we seek to learn, reflect and discuss as a group,” said Fatima, who has co-curated, written and conducted several exhibitions, art installations, workshops and musical concerts. “A successful outcome for us would be to connect, support and inspire each other. It will include videos, minimal lecture notes and group discussions.”
The next meeting gets people pondering over what really makes them happy and then followed up with sessions on dealing with adversity, having good relationships, caring for others, and creating happier workplaces and communities. The course ends with the question- “How can we create a happier world?”
Analysis of the course has found that it leaves people both happier and more pro-social, with participants reporting increases in levels of life satisfaction, mental wellbeing, compassion and social trust.
The course is also being described by Dr Mark Williamson, the director of Action for Happiness, as a challenge to the promotion of materialism and individual success which is predominant in Western culture.
“In the modern world we are bombarded with false messages about what makes for a happy life,” Mark said. “This course helps people discover for themselves that real success has much less to do with what we earn or consume - and much more to do with our inner attitudes, our relationships with others and our contribution to society.”
Provision of the course is also based on a model which aims to encourage generosity and fairness.
“The course is donation-based,” said Fatima. “We are running the course as volunteers to help spread happiness in our local community. Anyone who joins the course can decide if or how much to donate, which goes directly to the charity, Action for Happiness.
“It costs the charity about $120 per person (around BD45) to support each course so we ask all participants to give whatever they can to support themselves and others when registering. You can choose to either give the recommended donation or give more or less depending on your circumstances.
“We welcome everyone to the course equally and whatever they are able to give.”
Seats are limited. To register, visit https://afh-manama-bh-12-jan.eventbrite.co.uk
