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In ancient Egyptian mythology, the Goddess Ma’at stands at the gate of the underworld. In order to pass through the gate, the deceased must answer to Ma’at’s 42 principles, declaring I have not stolen, I am not deceitful, I have not spoken angrily or arrogantly, I have not closed my ears to truth, I have not polluted the water, I have not made anyone cry (and 35 more).
Should the deceased vouch they have not committed any of the grievances and that they have lived honorably and been kind, Ma’at then weighs their heart on a set of scales. Ma’at places their heart on one side of the scales and places a feather on the other side. If the heart does not tip the scale, then the person may enter the hall of the Gods’ domain.
(There is no description of where the souls go if their hearts weigh more than a feather. Perhaps to Los Angeles.)
The principles of Ma’at have a peripheral place in our material culture, which is generally geared toward accumulation, competition, fear and control. Our media constantly focuses on crime, disease, terrorism, impending apocalypse and our disastrous politicians.
With this bombardment of bad news, it is very difficult for anyone to have a heart as light as a feather. And it is not surprising that the CDC website reports the prevalence of depression has risen 300% from what it was in 2019 — three out of four people are now depressed. We are not a happy culture.
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So what do you do when every day the news and local gossip is filled with statistics of woe? What is your part in changing the atmosphere of our culture? Well, a couple of Ivy League universities created classes for that.
Yale University offers Psychology 110: Psychology and the Good Life, created by Professor Lauria Santos. A quarter of all students at Yale take the class (remember three out of four being depressed?).
There are a lot of exercises and assignments in the class, and one of them is to remember to be present in the moment, aware of your surroundings and what is happening right now instead of doom-scrolling or living in past regrets or fantasizing a future that resembles “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” Students team up to contact each other once an hour or a few times a day and ask the question: Where are you?
Professor Santos offers Psychology and the Good Life for free on coursera.org. The class started on Jan. 10, but you can probably jump in. (The class is also being taught in high schools in low-income areas across the country — there’s some good news.)
And at Harvard University, Professor Tal Ben-Shahar created the most popular course in the history of Harvard — Positive Psychology 1504. It was described as a class about fulfillment, friendship, empathy, love, happiness and more. He no longer offers the class at Harvard, but you can watch some of his lectures at talbenshahar.com.
Professor Shawn Achor, a guest lecturer for Psychology 1504, developed a happiness seminar for businesses with the selling point that fulfilled and happy workers are more productive and have less sick-time.
One of the assignments of the seminar was that each day, the attendees were to find a way to be kind to someone. Six months after the seminar, Achor returns and speaks with employees who had attended to find out what had changed for them. The majority of them said that in performing acts of kindness, their own lives had changed substantially and lifted their spirits.
Achor also promotes the concept of gratitude or appreciation, which is an act of humility as opposed to entitlement. (Anyone living above the snow-line in Nevada County recently will have a new appreciation for electricity which, in some cases, is also a source of getting water from their wells.)
From listening to happiness lectures and reading books, I created what I call “Happy Class.” It just takes a few minutes a day and includes three questions I ask myself:
1. What am I grateful for?
2. What are the best three things that happened in the last 24 hours?
3.What act of kindness did I perform in the last 24 hours?
Each of these exercises causes my mind to focus on the positive things in my life and moves my focus from judgment, criticism, blame, and bad news, at least for those few moments, and I feel happy.
If you try this, let me know how it goes.
Alana Cash lives in Penn Valley.
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You would think that by age 80, I should not be too surprised or shocked by anything I read about our human species – especially our youngest generations.
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Monday was the first day candidates could formally declare for office. Are our election seasons too long?
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