Now in its fourth year, The Bristol Happiness Lectures have established a reputation for being enjoyable, interesting events with leading speakers from positive psychology and the science of wellbeing. Past contributors have included Oliver James (2008), Ilona Boniwell (2007) and Raj Persaud (2006). Initially developed by Chris Johnstone as part of his positive psychology education programme at Bristol University, this year’s event brings several changes. Responding to a global context of economic difficulty, we’re downsizing this year, no longer basing it at the University and reducing our costs so that we can make the event free.

THE BRISTOL HAPPINESS LECTURES 2009

Resilience in a time of recession:
Can learnable self-help skills improve our quality of life in difficult times?
Can we strengthen the non-money economy
through cultivating non-material wealth?

With Dr Chris Johnstone
Author of Find Your Power
Co-presenter of The Happiness Training Plan CD

Thursday 28th May 2009
6-7pm Community Wellbeing networking time
7pm – 9pm The Happiness Lectures
at The Folk House, 40a Park Street, Bristol BS1 5JG
The best things in life are free
So is this event!
There is no advance booking for this free evening talk and workshop. However, it is likely to be popular and our numbers are limited. So you are advised to arrive early (by 6.30pm) to avoid disappointment. 

More information

We live in a time of economic uncertainty and environmental concerns. The Bristol Happiness Lectures this year focuses on what might help us find strengths, protect mood and thrive through adversity. Resilience is the ability to withstand or recover from difficult situations. A finding of positive psychology, the new science of happiness, is that resilience can be taught – it is linked to learnable skills.

We’re beginning the evening with, from 6pm to 7pm, a resilience networking and mingle-chat time where we’re inviting people to meet and mingle, with an opportunity to explore common areas of interest and enthusiasm related to resilience, positive psychology and community wellbeing. If you’d like to tell others about any project that contributes to personal or community resilience, please bring leaflets, flyers or information to share. We’ll supply stickers that people can use to identify any themes they’d like to talk about – so you can wander round, and identify people sharing similar enthusiasms or interests to you.

We've also set up a Bristol Happiness Lectures group on facebook to provide a forum for discussion, networking and sharing resources. Feel welcome to sign up to this even if you can't come to the event. You need to be signed up to http://www.facebook.com to join. Once in facebook, do a search for Bristol Happiness Lectures. There's a page about the event, and another page for the group.

To make this event free, we're spending very little on advertising, relying instead on word of mouth and a few key listings. Please help spread the word by telling others and displaying the flyer you can download here.

This event is organised in association with BUD Ltd,
as part of their contribution to community wellbeing.