(Photo: Emily Schneider)
By: Alyssa Gomez, Staff Reporter
As a part of International Happiness Day on March 20, the Communication Department, along with Dean John Hickey, welcomed one of the most amazing speakers to Regis! Dr. Amy Lopez is a Regis graduate who obtained her degree in social work and soon after, decided to go on a journey to find exactly what makes her truly happy.
During this happiness seminar, students learned new things about happiness, things that no one really thinks about on a daily basis. For example Lopez told students that you do not need to find your fulfillment through your job, you can find your happiness through other things and people. Relationships are one of the building blocks of happiness and it such a great joy in life to cultivate and build those relationships. Additionally, students and staff learned that happiness truly beings and ends with a change in mindset.
She revealed to the audience that in her recent study about happiness that people who are naturally happy tell themselves every day that “it’s going to be okay” and people who are unhappy talk negatively to themselves and may say that “it’s going to be okay” but do not necessarily believe it. We realized the importance of speaking kindly to ourselves and pointing out amazing things about ourselves and not the things we are uncomfortable with.
Dr. Lopez made those in attendance stop and think about what truly makes them happy and had them attempt to define what they happiness really feels like. She stated that you should take what you know what makes you happy and try to promote it in your life and do more of it. As groups, she had the attendees actually sat down and charted out what makes us happy. Activities like hiking, being with family, or travel. They all charted out the amount of time and actually set aside time to do that activity and promise to do more of because we all deserve to be truly happy and do the things we love.
Dr. Lopez made it so clear that although it is fun to do something new every day, it is also equally as important to take time for yourself to just do nothing. Especially in regards to our hectic lives as college students. This was such an amazing seminar that truly made us think about how to bring more happiness and light into our lives and how important it is to have our busy lives but not forget to focus on ourselves as to not get lost in the crazy world we exist in.