Click here to download the brochure
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Pre-conference workshop
Wednesday 7 May, 9am - 5pm
Day 1
Thursday 8 May, 8.50am - 5:30pm
Day 2
Friday 9 May, 8.50am - 5:30pm
Post Conference Workshops
Saturday 10 May
Morning Workshops 9am - 12pm
Afternoon Workshops 2pm - 5pm
› Add this to my calendar
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All the excitement of the 2nd Annual Happiness & Its Causes Conference is now available on DVD.
We captured over 10 hours of footage from the conference and compiled it into a 4-disc set of DVDs. All of the speakers and all of the panel discussions from the 2-day conference are included.
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"Absolutely fascinating, uplifting, enjoyable, funny, insightful & entertaining. If I could live in this conference every day I'd be elated…Thank You." Samantha Bell, Consultant, VIC
"Nice synthesis of different perspectives - science to spirituality, well grounded… Authentic." Kerry Tabour, Spirit of Design, VIC
› To see more testimonials
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Workshops
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Wednesday 7 May 2008
9:00am – 17:00pm – full day workshop,
Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre, Darling Harbour
Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill
Learn how to develop the inner conditions for true happiness! A unique opportunity to hear from the French monk dubbed by scientists as “the happiest man in the world”.
About the workshop:
Instinctively, we tend to put all our hopes and fears in the outer world. Yet, our control over the world is limited, temporary and often illusory. Although outer conditions matter and we should improve them as much as possible, it is the mind that translates them into happiness or suffering.
If happiness is the “goal of goals”, we therefore need to identify and cultivate the inner conditions for genuine wellbeing – altruism, compassion, inner strength, freedom and peace. Simultaneously, we need to gradually phase out from our mind the mental toxins – hatred, craving, mental confusion, arrogance and envy – which destroy our own happiness and that of others.
In essence, through sustained training we need to familiarize ourselves with a new way of being, to transform ourselves to better transform the world and contribute to a more
compassionate society.
Workshop participants will:
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Identify mental states that are conducive to well-being and
those that destroy it
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Learn how to train in and meditate on loving kindness and
compassion
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Explore how to go from the lose-lose situation of
selfishness to the win-win attitude of altruistic love
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Hear current scientific research that is providing fresh
insights into the capacity of the mind for change
About your workshop leader
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Matthieu Ricard
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Matthieu Ricard is a Buddhist monk at Shechen Monastery in Kathmandu and French interpreter since 1989 for His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He received his PhD in Cellular Genetics at the Institut Pasteur in France, before forsaking his scientific career to concentrate on Tibetan Buddhist studies. He received the French National Order of Merit for his humanitarian work setting up clinics, schools and orphanages in the Himalayan region. Mr. Ricard’s photographs of the spiritual masters, the landscapes and the people of the Himalayas have appeared internationally in books and magazines. The dialogue with his father, Jean-Francois Revel, The Monk and the Philosopher, was a best seller in Europe, and The Quantum and the Lotus reflects his long-standing interest in science and Buddhism. His new book, Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill, explores the meaning and fulfillment of happiness.
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Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill
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Never has happiness as an emotional and physical state been so widely
discussed. Matthieu Ricard is one of the most compelling voices on
the subject, and one of the few who can bring together the teachings of
eastern and western thought. In this accessible new work, Ricard provides a straightforward assessment of how to create true and lasting happiness.
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» Register now!
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Post conference workshops
Saturday 10 May 2008
Morning workshops 9:00 am - 12:00 pm
Afternoon workshops 14:00 pm - 17:00pm
Make your choice of one of the four morning and one of the four afternoon workshops
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Positive Psychology & Positive Interventions
with Dr Martin Seligman, Director,
Centre for Positive Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, USA,
Best Selling Author: Authentic Happiness
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Positive psychology is the study of five modes of “well being”: positive emotion, positive traits, positive relationships, meaning and accomplishment. Each of these is separately measurable and each is buildable.
A “full life” has all these elements although there are serious tensions among them. Controlled tests of the effectiveness of positive interventions to enhance each of these modes is well underway. Dr Seligman will present examples of such validated interventions, and will suggest that psychology in the coming decade will supplement its focus on healing mental illness with a new focus on understanding and building what makes life worth living.
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Doing Good, Living Well – A Life Program
with Dr Stephen Post, President, Institute for Research on Unlimited Love, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, USA;
Co-author: Why Good Things Happen to Good People
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Drawing on his book, Why Good Things Happen to Good People, Dr. Post will focus on happiness in relation to ten different modulations of “other-regarding” love, such as compassion and forgiveness, the hub of a wheel of virtue. For purposes of this workshop, a working definition of love will be offered: when the happiness and security of another means as much to me as my own happiness and security, or even more, I love that person.
We will devote equal time to each modulation or “way of love” in relation to its benefits for those who give love, focusing on happiness and health, and where research permits, longevity. Practical “selfassessment” and “self-help” approaches in each of these ways of love will be presented and discussed. The intersection between the new science of love and the various spiritual traditions of happiness will be considered as well. Participants will be invited to actively develop a useful life changing program.
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Happy Parents, Happy Children – Applying the Powerful
Principles of Positive Psychology
with Dr Timothy Sharp, Founder and Chief Happiness Officer,
The Happiness Institute Author: The Happiness Handbook
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All parents want their children to be happy. Some parents believe this requires sacrificing their own happiness. But according to Dr. Timothy Sharp these should not be mutually exclusive outcomes as he believes that the most effective way to raise happy children is to be a happy parent.
In his typically engaging and interactive style, Dr. Sharp will show you how you can get so much more out of life and as a result, help your children truly flourish. So come along and learn how you can choose to be a happy parent, as well as how you can help your children to:
• Think optimistically
• Develop the skills for building positive relationships
• Understand and utilise their inner strengths
• Develop resilience so they cope effectively with life’s inevitable setbacks
• Learn about “positive discipline”
• And much, much more…
Achieving happiness requires nothing more than practicing a few simple disciplines every day…so why not learn these disciplines now. After all, life’s too short not to be happy!
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An Introduction to the Quiet: Simple Steps to Peace and
Contentment
with Paul Wilson, international Best-Selling Author: The Quiet, Little Book of Calm. Simple steps to peace and contentment..... without spending the restof your life on a mountaintop
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Is there a place where you can’t be touched by the noise and tensions of the modern world? Where, no matter what’s going on around you, there is time and space to be content and at peace? For decades Paul Wilson has been studying the habits and mental attitudes of long-term
meditators, with a view to streamlining their methods for a noisy, shortattention- span world. His motivation has been to help others find this “place” within themselves – through meditation, acceptance and minor attitudinal adjustments. He calls these the Quiet practices.
An Introduction To The Quiet will be experiential and experimental. It may help simplify your meditation practice, but more will be gained by exploring where it can take you. Think of it as a mini retreat. We will have succeeded if at the end of the program you feel relaxed, involved and inspired.
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Reflections on a Mountain Lake
with Tenzin Palmo, Founder, Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery,India; subject of best seller Cave in the Snow,
Author: Reflections on a Mountain Lake
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Disturbing emotions are not inherent to the mind. They are like dark clouds covering the sky. But they are not the sky. Behind the thickest and most threatening cloud bank the sky is always blue and vast and clear. Likewise, the intrinsic nature of our minds is empty, clear awareness which is always present. The problem is that we do not recognise our true nature and identify instead with our impermanent fleeting thoughts and feelings.
Buddhism has many methods at all levels for dealing with our negative emotions, including substitution, transformation, recognition and release. We can cultivate positive emotions such as love, compassion, patience, kindness and equanimity through meditation techniques and use daily life to practise these qualities.
In this workshop, Tenzin Palmo explains the techniques for enhancing our ability to stay calm and centred under all circumstances, to be clear and aware, less distracted and more relaxed. Thus negative emotions are recognised and dealt with and positive emotions are encouraged. We become masters of our minds: we do not have to be the slaves of our thoughts and emotions.
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Positive Psychology – the New Science of Happiness
with Tal Ben-Shahar, Positive Psychology Lecturer,
Harvard University, USAAuthor: Happier
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Positive Psychology, “the scientific study of optimal human functioning,” provides practical tools for better living. This new subfield withinpsychology is unique in that it creates a bridge between the Ivory Tower and Main Street – making rigorous academic ideas accessible. In this workshop, Tal Ben-Shahar discusses current research related to the science of happiness and introduces ideas and tools that can actually make you happier. Topics that will be covered using the lens of positive psychology include:
Giving ourselves the permission to be human
Our obsession with perfection – our fear of failure and rejection of negative emotions – leads us to suboptimal performance as well as unhappiness. Being open to learning from our failures and embracing negative emotions allows us to fulfill our potential and attain lasting happiness.
Simplifying our lives
We are, generally, too busy, trying to squeeze in more and more activities into less and less time. Participants will be introduced to tested ways of enhancing both productivity as well as creativity – so that simplifying their lives will not only make them happier, it will also make them more successful. Participants will also learn to recognise the mind-body connection, and re-focus on the positive.
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The Happiness Trap – Stop Struggling & Start Living with the New Acceptance & Commitment Therapy
with Dr Russ Harris, Medical doctyor and Psychotherapists, Acceptance Commitment Therapy Trainer, Author: The Happiness Trap
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Escape from ‘the happiness trap’ with a revolutionary new psychological approach, called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). ACT helps you to live in the present moment, find meaning and fulfillment, and effectively handle painful thoughts and feelings through the development of mindfulness skills. Until recently, we in the West could only develop mindfulness skills via long, slow, ancient Eastern practices, such as meditation or yoga – but now, with the innovative methods of ACT, you can learn these skills in a few minutes.
Workshop participants will:
- Learn why many popular methods of trying to control our thoughts and feelings are ineffective or self-defeating.
- Learn simple techniques to instantly reduce the impact and influence of negative thoughts (without any need to challenge, change or eliminate them).
- Learn to handle painful feelings far more effectively, without trying to control them.
» Register now!
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