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Learner Reviews & Feedback for The Science of Well-Being by Yale University

4.9
stars
37,278 ratings

About the Course

NEW TEEN VERSION AVAILABLE HERE: https://www.coursera.org/learn/the-science-of-well-being-for-teens In this course you will engage in a series of challenges designed to increase your own happiness and build more productive habits. As preparation for these tasks, Professor Laurie Santos reveals misconceptions about happiness, annoying features of the mind that lead us to think the way we do, and the research that can help us change. You will ultimately be prepared to successfully incorporate a specific wellness activity into your life. THE SCIENCE OF WELL BEING WAS PRODUCED IN PART DUE TO THE GENEROUS FUNDING OF THE DAVID F. SWENSEN FUND FOR INNOVATION IN TEACHING....

Top reviews

RK

Jun 26, 2023

Great content! Well paced. Videos and readings are helpful. The class concludes with a 4 week challenge designed to make a lasting impact, which I found very insightful. I highly recommend this class.

DM

Jan 8, 2021

This course has the power enough to change the course of your life. It can be a journey from misery to well being, if you follow the instructions given in this program. A must must must attend course.

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576 - 600 of 10,000 Reviews for The Science of Well-Being

By Rachna S

Aug 23, 2020

Ms. Laurie Santos is an amazing teacher who has explained each and every concept wonderfully with scientific evidences. Whether it was savoring, random acts of kindness, preparing the gratitude journal or doing a gratitude visit, strengthening our signature strengths, which were unknown to me before joining this course, making social connections, exercising, taking adequate sleep, meditation, a week of time affluence to enjoy and the final rewirement challenge, I have cherished each and every thing.

I owe my gratitude to Ms. Laurie Santos for this incredible course.

By Victoria F

Jul 4, 2020

Highly recommend this course to anyone. Informative and well rounded. No matter your background, this course will help you to acquire tools for progress, unlearning traits that hold you back (we all have them- apparent or not). Rewire is a great tool that I will always carry with me (and on my phone app). I now have increased my happiness, execute daily practices to combat my depression and anxiety and maintain a better relationship with friends and family.

Dr Santos and the team at YALE/COURSERA have done a stellar job in providing this course to the world! Thankyou

By Sharon C

Jul 4, 2020

This course has brought about some serious act to put in place if we want to witness happiness within us. Many of times, we say we're going to do but never do it. Going through this course helps break down the impact we see in ourselves or on others when we take that certain action. Happiness is not achieved overnight but our incremental actions will eventually lead us to the realm of happiness, and sometimes eternal happiness. (But it does take a lot of work!). And people surrounding us will benefit from it, too.

There is no easy ticket to happiness destination. :D

By Charles D Q

Jun 11, 2020

I suffer from PTSD and anxiety following several military deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. I was looking for a way to learn how to achieve and sustain an improved state of mental health. This course helped guide me down a path to begin that journey. Using the rewirement of meditation I ventured that we all breath and using the practice of observing the breath to place the mind in the body is the closest natural process of anxiety reduction that I could imagine. It seems as though it was a good guess as I am feeling better and enjoy the control of helping myself.

By Courtney H

May 28, 2020

So glad I took this course. I had been eyeing it out for over a year and decided to finally take it once I was home all the time due to the pandemic. I learned a lot from this course, much more than I expected, and I have been telling everyone I know to take it as well. Dr. Santos is warm and engaging which makes the course content easy to learn and understand. My happiness levels have increased significantly since completing the course and I honestly can't recommend this course enough. If you even have a slight inclination toward taking this course, just go for it!

By Dawn S

Jun 17, 2020

This course has supported me through this Covid -19 lockdown period. I have found much benefits and self development over the whole 10 weeks.

I have been supporting UK front line health-care workers with their emotional and mental wellbeing via counselling, and this was a restful place to return to and engage in my own grounding and kindness to self practices again.

I would recommend this course 100% to anyone wanting to tap into their own experiential learning and self-development as I have grown much and reflected lots on my 'New' choicefulness and requirements .

By Kirsten M

Jun 2, 2020

I enjoyed this short course as a dive into what makes us happy and to challenge what we *think* makes us happy. The interesting lectures and assignments to work through flow well and give you just the right amount of work without feeling too overwhelmed, making it suitable for someone in a full-time position or those not working at all. I would recommend this course to anyone wanting to check in with your own thoughts on the issue, to make adjustments and to really make lasting changes that can help make your personal well-being journey attainable on a daily basis.

By Merza I

May 23, 2020

I’ve learned more about myself. I am very grateful for the Rewirement Challenges, because Dr. Santos showed, which activities can be done to make us happier. These activities are very effective, they are for free and can be done in all kind of circumstances – it’s hard to say any excuse why someone can’t do the Gratitude Rewirement, as it can be done during traveling or if someone is sick. Lot of times we think we need to buy something to be happy, and after the course I am more aware of the advertisings which refer to this – “Buy me to be happier/more beautiful!”.

By Kimberley F

Apr 30, 2018

Great course, very practical suggestions that have easy to use suggestions to guide you. I like simple changes you can make with daily habits that are not hard to work in. I Like the supported science behind it, for clarity and answering the why's. It is encourages positive daily reflection time that directs and re-redirects you look at problem solving for yourself and As a high school teacher, I like that I can take this information and use it with my students, who are finding it useful to accomplish their goals. They especially like using the WOOP strategies.

By Kristiina H

Jun 8, 2020

Changing personal habits is hard. But when you learn about the science and the evidence behind what works and what doesn't work you feel supported in your efforts to learn habits that contribute to your happiness and well being. This course is based on research and it is presented in digestible chunks. This makes it applicable to act on. I highly recommend this course because as individuals increase their sense of happiness, the whole world benefits. Maybe, when the collective mind gains a better sense of wellbeing, we are actually contributing to world peace.

By Gay P A

Sep 30, 2023

I have thoroughly enjoyed the science of well-being course, particularly the exceptional pacing and the fascinating topics that have been covered. Each class has been a delightful exploration into the realm of well-being, and I have found great value in the insightful discussions and lessons. The course has provided a rich learning experience, and I truly appreciate the effort put into delivering engaging content that has captured my interest and kept me motivated. I commend the course organizers for creating such a positive and enriching learning environment.

By Janis G

Jun 13, 2020

I highly recommend this course. I accomplished the goal of improving my mind set to a more positive one. I love learning about what brings about true happiness. Many of the things we think will make us happy don't have a lasting effect. Most importantly the course taught me great strategies for improving my well- being. I got to put these strategies in action long enough for them to become a more frequent habit. It was nice to see I was on the right path and also learn how to progress in a way that was meaningful to me. As the famous quote goes..."Just Do It!"

By Eve B

May 21, 2022

This course is excellent, scientifically sound, and - if you dedicate yourself to it - life-changing. The concepts and strategies I learned here have veritably changed how I lead my life, and have made me a happier person. I know now that happiness requires daily effort, and that the effort is not as demanding as I anticipated and far more rewarding than I expected. I would recommend this course to anyone who's feeling unhappy with their life and doesn't understand what they're doing wrong. This course answers so many questions and puts you on the right path!

By Ramón C

Jan 20, 2021

A very pleasant and inspiring course. Prof. Santos does a cheerful job here. The course has exercises called "rewirements" that help understanding the presented information but, most important, help building actual routines heading for real, sustainable well being, if done as indicated (this also means following the pace of 10 weeks the course is designed for). I recommend it to everyone looking for a fun still effective programme that helps building resilience and well being.

Thank you very much for this course. / October 2020 (after 10 weeks of "rewiring").

By Renee B

Jul 27, 2020

I was recommended this course by a friend. It seemed interesting enough, and since we are on quarantine I figured, why not? I have plenty of time. The lecture videos were interesting and not too long in length. The additional readings and materials provided were helpful and interesting. The quizzes were easy if you watched the videos and read the materials. I learned a lot from this course and how to actually practice and utilize these skills in life moving forward. I was excited to see that my overall happiness scores improved a lot at the end of the course.

By Lim B Y

Jul 24, 2020

I enjoy the course very much as it propounds that one's well-being can be achieved by cultivating healthy mind-sets coupled with regular physical exercises substantiated with scientific findings; their respective research papers were shared in the course content. More importantly, it encourages the learner to participate in a rewirement challenge to put these findings into action and make it a personal transformation. A special shout-out to Professor Laurie Santos for her dedication, "pings" and prompts of encouragement to complete the rewirement challenge!

By 孟蕾

Apr 5, 2021

This course has had a great impact on me, not only has it made a qualitative leap in my happiness level, but it has also brought me closer to my family, friends and colleagues, and I love that feeling. will continue to practice deliberately, exercising, meditating, testing and maintaining a healthy sleep. I will also pass on such a good way to the people around me, let them feel my happiness, and improve their own level of happiness.At the same time, I am also very grateful to the coursera platform to give me the opportunity to learn, which is really good.

By C N

Jun 25, 2020

What an amazing course and a very different way to approach life, both on the professional & personal front. Its been an amazing 10 weeks of commitment to the course and the rest of my life. Deepest Gratitude to Dr Laurie Santos for moving into an area of life where we more often get lost and showing the way forward. My sincere thanks to the pioneering scientists like Martin Seligman, Ed Diener, Barbara Fredrickson, Sonja Lyubomirsky, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Daniel Gilbert, Robert Emmons, Liz Dunn, Mike Norton, Nick Epley, Gabriele Oettingen and others.

By Jaclyn Z

Feb 11, 2024

As a certified health coach, I am always looking for quality courses to continue my education. I do want to stress quality since I have paid for and spent time on courses with little or no worthy content. The Science of Well Being is a course I will return to again and again for both my coaching business and for personal benefit. Professor Santos has an easy going presentation style and even admits she is not perfect with everything she teaches. In addition, glad I came across Coursera to assist with my continuing education. A lot of quality courses!

By Oluwafolakemi A

Aug 19, 2022

This has been a life changing course for me. The science of well-being though intended to teach me about the things that really matter, have opened my eyes and mind to the critical fact that my perception makes a big difference to the state of my happiness/joy. If my thoughts and actions are not delibrate in savouring every second and being grateful for the things I have acomplished in relations to where I was some years back then am a long way from being fulfilled and happy. Really happy I signed up for this course. I will recommed it to a lot of persons

By Claire L

May 17, 2020

Personally, I am quite grateful, that I stepped out of my comfort zone to register and successfully complete this Well-Being course. The modern use of technology to provide this course has been an outstanding educational delivery format. The course flow, lectures, videos and content have been pivotal during this time, and I truly learned self-improvement skills and techniques. Moreover, this course has brought me a much better understanding of how I can implement changes in my life to improve my own ‘authentic’ happiness. Thank you, Claire Lang/student.

By Anthony C

Jun 6, 2020

Opens your eyes to the world and to what is going on inside your head, This course has nudged me to become a better version of myself and I will never ever forget what this course taught me. I have no regrets in enrolling and spending hours and hours into this course. I definitely recommend this course if you're starting with doing MOOC's because this is amazing. I am actually a bit sad now that the course is over to the point where I want to start it all over again. I could not recommend this course enough. Professor Laurie Santos is an awesome teacher!

By Rebecca L

Jun 10, 2018

This course gives a lot of practical and easily applicable advice and scientifically-proven techniques on how to improve well-being. It has the potential to give life-changing insight to just about anyone - from those who are just looking for ways to appreciate the little things to those who are trying to shift their entire paradigm of happiness. It is a course that requires self-dedication, self-searching, and a healthy dose of honesty in regards to changing the habits that we practice everyday that are detrimental to true happiness. I highly recommend!

By Rashad M

Feb 13, 2021

This is an excellent course and worth your time. The course goes through all the myths about happiness and then unleashes the mysteries of happiness! Interestingly, it did not feel like a traditional course (for a biomedical science student) and I was glad it was this way. I also encourage to go through the happiness lab podcast (suggested in the course) for which you don't have to sign-up for anything. I felt it was very helpful throughout my journey.

Special thanks to Dr Laurie Santos for making Rashad a little more knowledgable and, I guess, happier.

By Roger C

May 18, 2021

The course lays out a simple strategy for well being recommending simple actions taken daily to boost happiness/fulfillment/well-being. The insight is that our daily self-care efforts have a bigger influence than we believe and that reflecting on their impact requires us to override our negative/survival bias. Dr. Santos does a superb job in summarizing decades of research and interviews current thought leaders to support these ideas. The ReWi app is wonderful and makes daily reflection easy. Through daily reflection, our habits can become "Atomic".