Relationships are the primary driver for happiness, well-being, and resilience. Bringing focused, positive attention to this area of our lives uplevels our health, our satisfaction in life, and our capacity to ride the waves of change with greater ease.

In this 30-day practice based around four primary themes, you’ll take specific steps each day to strengthen your relational well-being—bringing a full-hearted appreciation to the connections you currently have, honoring those that have supported you in the past, and constructing a scaffolding for deeper connections in the future.

Creating a Positive Habit
Every day for 30 days, you’ll practice a habit that enhances your mindful awareness of the goodness within you and around you. Instructor Maria Sirois will introduce a new theme each week via a prerecorded video lecture. Each theme is supported by daily instructions via email, guiding you in a series of easily implemented steps for establishing habits of action and introspection that build a sense of relational positivity.

The practice is self-directed, which means that you can start at any time and engage with the content at the time of day when it’s convenient for you. And you can renew and build on the practice by revisiting it as often as you wish, as you’ll have access for an entire year. Make it a year of positive change!

Program Faculty

  

Dr. Maria Sirois is an inspirational speaker, consultant, and licensed psychologist who has worked in the fields of resilience and positive psychology for more than 30 years. As a longstanding faculty member of Wholebeing Institute, she has offered resilience trainings globally for a decade. Her work focuses on the capacity of the human spirit when under chronic stress, during significant transitions, and/or experiencing the shock of wholesale change or loss. Maria is the author of two books, A Short Course in Happiness After Loss and Every Day Counts. www.mariasirois.com.

 

Course Content
✻ Week 1: Mining the Past for the Good: Who Helped You?
Looking at the past, when mindfully considered, can elevate our sense of goodness in our lives and create hope for the present and the future … even if the present is difficult. Over the course of the week, we examine those who made a profound difference for us, as well as those who became a part of our ongoing support system. Help comes in so many forms, and we often forget the myriad ways in which assistance has been given—assistance that allowed us to move forward in both the best and worst of times.
✻ Week 2: The Choir Within: Appreciating Ourselves
We can understand all the research on how to build a thriving life, but if we are not centered in a place of positive regard for ourselves, knowing is not enough. During this week, we take the time to reflect on who we are, what we deeply appreciate about ourselves, and how we can be our own best friend.
✻ Week 3: Pronoia
In 1994, a British journalist popularized the term pronoia—the opposite of paranoia—and defined it as the sneaking feeling that others are conspiring behind your back to help you. This week is a chance to explore the possibility that even without asking or planning, others are here to lift us up along the way. We practice opening our eyes to the relational kindness and generosity around us, and look at how we can participate in that positive flow. We also spend some time considering how to bring that positive energy forward in relationships that are complex or difficult.
✻ Week 4: The Grateful Heart
This week, we consciously focus on activating connection, through acts of generosity, mindfulness, and appreciation. We build on the practices of the prior weeks and consider how they have already made a positive difference in our outlook on the world and ourselves—and how they can continue to do so.

Tuition for this course is $99.USD