詹妮弗·k·森田著

2023年3月17日

Money may not buy happiness, but students and faculty at 萨克拉门托 State’s first Happiness Day celebration learned that acts of gratitude and free hugs from Herky can.

The Department of Psychology hosted the March 16 event to help the campus community understand the benefits of happiness – and that those benefits are both essential and attainable.

“Happiness is not a luxury, it’s a necessity in our lives,” said Meliksah Demir, 囊状态’s endowed professor in happiness. “The research shows there are tons of benefits of happiness. Happy people live ten years longer, they’re more successful at work and in life.

“During these stressful times, we should focus on being happy. In contrast to past assumptions that if you work really hard, you’ll be happy, the evidence shows being happy contributes to success.”

快乐日的参与者了解了关于快乐的好处的研究，包括改善健康和更好的人际关系。

大约二十几名学生帮助组织了这次活动，其中包括关于金钱、感恩和社会关系等主题的海报展示。 一张海报详细介绍了科学家如何衡量幸福，并邀请与会者完成一个快速的在线幸福测试。

参与者还了解了一些公认的促进快乐的活动，比如花点时间给心爱的人发短信，或者给校园里的某个人写张感谢卡。

大黄蜂Herky甚至在Good Vibes车站给人免费拥抱。

“Happiness is also good for our communities,” Demir said. “Happy people donate blood and their money and time. They’re more likely to wear a seatbelt while driving.”

Hosting the event is one of the goals Demir had when he arrived on campus in 2021 as 囊状态’s first endowed professor in happiness. 由于当地商人、企业家和校友Rekhi Singh的捐赠，该大学设立了这个职位。

During the event, President Robert S. Nelsen formally presented Singh with the President’s Medal for Distinguished Service, which Singh was unable to accept in person when the award was given in 2021.

德米尔还开设了一门关于幸福的新心理学课程。 但由于该课程于2021年春季首次开设时，校园大部分仍因疫情而关闭，学生们在Zoom上了这门课。

现在，德米尔和他的学生们能够享受到面对面授课的好处。

“This semester was the first opportunity for us to start celebrating and practicing happiness and promoting activities,” he said. “The pandemic was not easy for most people, but now that we’re back on campus we can engage with our community and find ways to be happy.”

It’s no accident Happiness Day took place during midterms week.

“Students are experiencing a lot of stress and anxiety right now,” said Daniela Santellanez, a graduate student studying the psychology of gratitude who helped organize the event. “We just wanted to promote happiness for our students so they can increase their well-being.

“They’re learning a lot and are surprised by some of the activities you can do to increase happiness such as texting someone a grateful message. It’s a simple thing that you wouldn’t expect.”

Saying “thank you” is also something that is easy to forget, said psychology student Sydnie Paul.

“You’re so used to having people around you every day, and it’s the small things they do that you forget to acknowledge,” Paul said. “It’s important to be reminded to show that appreciation.”

德米尔说，人们惊讶地发现快乐可以延长寿命。

“Mission accomplished,” he said. “Because now they know why happiness matters and that happiness is a necessity not a luxury.”

几名学生参加了“快乐日”活动，为他们的课程获得额外的学分，但离开时却得到了有用的信息。

“Looking around at the posters, I realized that we don’t really talk about happiness in everyday life,” Psychology student Areli Perez said. “I feel like it’s really important to come here and learn about it.”

组织者还希望提高人们对即将到来的3月20日国际幸福日的认识。

联合国于2012年设立了这一节日，以承认幸福是人类的基本目标，并鼓励制定促进幸福重要性的公共政策。

“We believe having an event such as ours will prime people to start thinking about and perhaps motivate them to do something to celebrate happiness on March 20,” Demir said.

“This was our first event, but we are hoping to have other small-scale activities on campus to raise awareness about the importance of happiness.”