Using the Pope's Top Ten Tips for Happiness in Your Community Pope Francis recently spoke about his Top Ten Tips for Happiness in an interview; these were reproduced and discussed everywhere from newspapers, to twitter and beyond. It is hugely encouraging to see the leader of around 1.2 billion Catholics around the world, joining the growing conversation about happiness and wellbeing. Over the past few years, an increasing body of evidence has emerged which supports the Pope’s views; equally there have been numerous lists published on this matter, with many sharing commonalities on what it means to live a meaningful, ‘happy’ life. Either way, the overriding message is clear; our wellbeing matters and adjustments to our lifestyle can have a tremendously positive impact. But the question is how do you put it into practice? This is always the tough part! It can be very intimidating looking at someone like the Pope whose lifestyle clearly illustrates a deep commitment to ‘practicing what he preaches’ in the pursuit of a happy, more fulfilled life. Clearly we can’t all be like the Pope, but his top ten tips offer up a real opportunity for us to start to look at our lives and see where we can make changes in the quest for happiness. The growth of research into wellbeing points to clear themes which support the Pope’s views. For example: get out of life’s fast lane; develop a culture of optimism; practise acts of kindness; savour simple things in nature and care for the environment, are all things that have been shown to promote life satisfaction. It is noticeable that none of these have a specific focus on material things – developing relationships and a greater sense of meaning and purpose are shown to be much more significant. In fact, research shows that the less materialistic you are, the happier you become. What is clear, is that wellbeing research is increasingly confirming the Biblical principles that Christians have sought to build their lives upon for centuries. This is not just specific activities like nurturing relationships and practising kindness and gratitude amongst others. It is about living beyond material things, and the link between our individual lives and communal social and global wellbeing, point us to an understanding that our happiness goes much further than
looking at ourselves. With this in mind how do we, as Church, enable our communities to look at their wellbeing beyond what our culture suggests we need? The Pope has engaged the worldwide community in the conversation about happiness, and talks about the need to live a live that goes deeper than the ten headings he suggests. It is through this example that the Church will grow, and that the good news of the Christian story will be seen. We can encourage our immediate communities and church, to engage further in this conversation. Why not try and encourage those around you to pick out one of the Pope’s ten tips to try out in their life over the coming week eg. ‘stop being negative’ and ask them if they have noticed any difference in their lives? As a community, why not start looking at a ‘wellness’ programme? Look beyond physical health, to mental and relational wellbeing too. As wellbeing and happiness are increasingly talked about everywhere, why not consider drawing your church into a wider conversation about how you can best offer to improve the wellbeing of your community? Through this we can continue to enact Isaiah 58:12: You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You’ll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, Make the community livable again. (Message version)
Written by Andrew Parnham, wellbeing associate at Livability and founder of the Happiness Course (www.livability.org.uk/happiness) 29/09/14
www.livability.org.uk/church
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