Happiness Roundtable Recommendations for the Happiness Movement
We align with a growing body of evidence that recognizes the planet’s climate and natural capital are gravely and irreversibly threatened by economic policies that prioritise wealth accumulation over natural and social systems. We believe Bhutan’s concept of Gross National Happiness (GNH) and the knowledge of indigenous peoples around the world offer solutions to global and local problems. In this belief we know that generosity, compassion and kindness are as much born to us as competitiveness, greed and hierarchy, and that what we practice directly relates to who we are and the future of life on our planet.
To chart a more sustainable future we call for a short, accessible definition of happiness for the happiness movement. We offer a definition of happiness as “life satisfaction founded in the balanced development of all facets of life that are essential and inextricably connected to the health and flourishing of each other, other species and mother nature”.
We call for a Common Agenda and we pledge to continue working together to further define and advance this Common Agenda. We offer as a working concept a framework for a Common Agenda that connects individual happiness and systems change in our social, economic, environmental, and personal environments, with the goals of (1) reconnecting to nature and inclusion of accounting and caring for natural systems within which every other system operates including every individual life, and (2) mending and fostering a social fabric that creates the life conditions for happiness and wellbeing through sharing and caring, and (3) the courageous pro-offering of actionable items that individual people and policy makers can provide to mend our planet’s ecosystems and our social fabric to reconnect us to our mother nature. Through individual and collective action, we propose these action items include (a) a fundamental and absolute emphasis in schooling systems to teach emotional intelligence, (b) radical redesign of common space at local levels to reconnect to each other and to nature, (c) multifaceted national and local media campaigns to encourage and reward prosocial, generous and compassionate behaviors to shift our cultures from greed and wealth accumulation to care, (d) a transformation of workplaces to provide incentives centred around intrinsic motivations, and (e) a revolution in healthcare founded in relationships and synergies connecting mental and physical health with life circumstances.
We call for a massive global awareness of the GNH and Beyond GDP agenda through a suite of short videos that link with wider interventions that capture inspirational stories and models for participation and leadership. We see value in promoting viral online petitions to bring about change. We call for a grassroots uprising and non-violent resistance to challenge and reverse economic and political systems that concentrate wealth and power among the few. We offer to work together and invite others to join towards this end.
We call for a diversity of transformation with immediate short-term, here and now individual actions that aim for systems change. Through the Happiness Roundtable we offer the work we are doing as individuals and organisations to provide models and resources to stimulate change and empower others to provide leadership for GNH inspired change. We offer the Happiness Agoras as an opportunity for learning as well as taking leadership in communities and cities around the planet. We offer the Happiness Alliance’s Happiness Index and resources for its use in order to measure happiness and facilitate an experiential understanding of what really matters in life. We offer Action for Happiness courses as a way to learn about happiness habits. We offer the master classes and other courses at the GNH Centers in Bhutan, France, Thailand, Germany and a growing number of countries. We offer the GNHUSA model for spreading the concept of GNH among all neighbourhoods and communities. We offer the Happiness Roundtable as a forum for bringing other thought leaders, innovators and activists together for open conversation, debate, collective effort and action.
We call for a grassroots upwelling of transformation at a personal level with conscientiousness to produce systems change. We offer the concept of reconnecting the self with the self through spiritual traditions, reconnecting to each other with the realization we are at once separate individuals and all one, and that by reconnecting to nature we will realise that we are not superior or better than nature, but we are nature.
We call on each of us as individuals to model the changes we call for, with continual openness to learning from each other and without judgement. We offer continued connection to each other and to all our brothers and sisters as well as to the nature and natural systems of this beautiful planet.
To chart a more sustainable future we call for a short, accessible definition of happiness for the happiness movement. We offer a definition of happiness as “life satisfaction founded in the balanced development of all facets of life that are essential and inextricably connected to the health and flourishing of each other, other species and mother nature”.
We call for a Common Agenda and we pledge to continue working together to further define and advance this Common Agenda. We offer as a working concept a framework for a Common Agenda that connects individual happiness and systems change in our social, economic, environmental, and personal environments, with the goals of (1) reconnecting to nature and inclusion of accounting and caring for natural systems within which every other system operates including every individual life, and (2) mending and fostering a social fabric that creates the life conditions for happiness and wellbeing through sharing and caring, and (3) the courageous pro-offering of actionable items that individual people and policy makers can provide to mend our planet’s ecosystems and our social fabric to reconnect us to our mother nature. Through individual and collective action, we propose these action items include (a) a fundamental and absolute emphasis in schooling systems to teach emotional intelligence, (b) radical redesign of common space at local levels to reconnect to each other and to nature, (c) multifaceted national and local media campaigns to encourage and reward prosocial, generous and compassionate behaviors to shift our cultures from greed and wealth accumulation to care, (d) a transformation of workplaces to provide incentives centred around intrinsic motivations, and (e) a revolution in healthcare founded in relationships and synergies connecting mental and physical health with life circumstances.
We call for a massive global awareness of the GNH and Beyond GDP agenda through a suite of short videos that link with wider interventions that capture inspirational stories and models for participation and leadership. We see value in promoting viral online petitions to bring about change. We call for a grassroots uprising and non-violent resistance to challenge and reverse economic and political systems that concentrate wealth and power among the few. We offer to work together and invite others to join towards this end.
We call for a diversity of transformation with immediate short-term, here and now individual actions that aim for systems change. Through the Happiness Roundtable we offer the work we are doing as individuals and organisations to provide models and resources to stimulate change and empower others to provide leadership for GNH inspired change. We offer the Happiness Agoras as an opportunity for learning as well as taking leadership in communities and cities around the planet. We offer the Happiness Alliance’s Happiness Index and resources for its use in order to measure happiness and facilitate an experiential understanding of what really matters in life. We offer Action for Happiness courses as a way to learn about happiness habits. We offer the master classes and other courses at the GNH Centers in Bhutan, France, Thailand, Germany and a growing number of countries. We offer the GNHUSA model for spreading the concept of GNH among all neighbourhoods and communities. We offer the Happiness Roundtable as a forum for bringing other thought leaders, innovators and activists together for open conversation, debate, collective effort and action.
We call for a grassroots upwelling of transformation at a personal level with conscientiousness to produce systems change. We offer the concept of reconnecting the self with the self through spiritual traditions, reconnecting to each other with the realization we are at once separate individuals and all one, and that by reconnecting to nature we will realise that we are not superior or better than nature, but we are nature.
We call on each of us as individuals to model the changes we call for, with continual openness to learning from each other and without judgement. We offer continued connection to each other and to all our brothers and sisters as well as to the nature and natural systems of this beautiful planet.
This Statement is a collective expression of the First Happiness Roundtable.
It does not represent any one individual or organization.
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The Happiness Roundtable is a nonprofit project.