Yale University’s most popular course ever is all about wellbeing – and you can take it FREE online

The nation’s thirst for knowledge about all things health and wellbeing seems to show no signs of abating.

And if you’ve already exhausted your supply of self-help books, podcasts (opens in new tab) and more, you’ll be excited to hear that there’s a popular wellbeing course on offer that you can take entirely for free – and it’s penned by none other than US Ivy League University Yale.

In 2018, Yale Psychology Professor Laurie Santos unveiled a new course: “Psychology and the Good Life”, which centred on the subject of happiness (opens in new tab).

It soon became the most popular course ever in the 317-year history of the University.

With growing demand for the course’s teaching a free version entitled The Science of Wellbeing (opens in new tab) was launched on online learning platform Coursera, and has garnered an impressive average 4.9-star rating.

Subjects covered in the course include the following, delivered in weekly instalments, with approximately 20 hours to complete in total:

• Misconceptions about happiness
• Why our expectations are so bad
• How we can overcome our biases
• Stuff that really makes us happy
• Putting strategies into practice

Those who’ve already taken the course have left glowing reviews, with a selection included below:

‘I absolutely loved this course. Easy to follow, interesting, scientifically backed, and just a joy to participate in. The professor was fantastic, and I learned a lot of easy strategies for myself, and to share with others, to increase happiness in every aspect of life. Thank you Yale and Coursera!’

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‘This course has been super enlightening and through the use of actual qualitative studies has shared and shown the effectiveness of some incredibly easy and meaningful techniques to improve one’s own well-being.

‘The casual discussion format is easy to follow, and several times I’ve found myself surprised at the inaccuracies of what I thought I knew about increasing happiness versus what I’ve learned in this course. Also a great introduction to so many accessible resources to continue on after the course ends! Thank you!’

‘Fabulous course. I didn’t want it to end! It gave me so many strategies, but also time to just sit, think, reflect and action those strategies. Well laid out course.’

Will you be signing up?