Better Together 2022 and Meaningful Movies Project offered by the Diocese of Olympia were so pleased to welcome 445 viewers to our encore online screening of Mission: Joy featuring Archbishop Desmond Tutu and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Over 900 people registered for this event, donating almost $750 to our Better Together 2022 ministry partners:
- Chaplains on the Harbor with Harbor Roots Farm
- Edible Hope
- La Iglesia Episcopal de la Resurrección
- Mission to Seafarers
- Refugee Resettlement Office
- Underhill House
Deeply moving and laugh-out-loud funny, Mission: Joy, directed by Louie Psihoyos and Peggy Callahan, is a documentary with unprecedented access to the unlikely friendship of two international icons who transcend religion: His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmund Tutu. In their final joint mission, these self-described mischievous brothers give a master class in how to create joy in a world that was never easy for them. They offer neuroscience-backed wisdom to help each of us live with more joy, despite circumstances.
In addition to the recording of our panel and community discussion, please see these calls to joy: the many ways you can bring joy into your life, your loved ones, your community, and to the world.
What Next?
- Take Part. Take 4 minutes to create some joy for yourself and be part of the largest-ever citizen science project on joy. Take me to the BIG JOY Project!
- The How-to of Joy. Don’t wait for joy. Create your joy, today. Science shows that starting with even just one act of joy will help you feel better, right now. Download the one pager (PDF).
- Do Kindness. Do a small thing to help someone else. Practicing kindness feels good and creates a ripple effect of greater good. It can be as small as smiling at someone in the grocery store. In short, it’s just doing something that will benefit another person or the world. Spoiler alert—it will benefit you, too. The Science of Joy.
- Express Gratitude. List 8 things you’re grateful for or write 3 gratitude notes. For people, for pets, for things, for moments and memories. For anything! Just pause for a moment and think about something that feels good in your world. Really feel that good feeling. Acknowledge it. The Science of Joy.
- Shift Perspective. List 3 potential ‘bright sides’ to a problem you’re facing or ask yourself, 5 years from now, will the thing that is bothering you still matter? Look at situations from a different point of view to see the bigger picture. So often we can’t make an immediate change in our circumstances. But we are always capable of changing how we look at things. You can think of a challenging task as hard work, or you can think of it as good exercise. Choose the thought that helps you feel more joy. The Science of Joy.
- Connect Together. Send a friend a quick text message that will make them smile or tell a family member or friend about something small or large that you’re struggling with. Reach out and discover what’s shared and special between us all. Opening your heart to another will bring joy to both of you. So even though you might want to avoid humanity altogether when you’re feeling down, you’ll be a lot happier if you connect with some of us. Bonus: Doing a kindness for someone or telling someone you’re grateful for them are two ways to build connection. The Science of Joy.
- Begin or Join a Contemplative Practices Group. The Episcopal Diocese of Olympia offers weekly and monthly online group contemplative practices. Find those and other offerings at Contemplative Practices.
Why bother to create more joy?
Research is clear. Happiness, resilience, connection, and kindness are skills that can be taught and developed over time—with practice. Visit UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, in collaboration with HopeLab. Synthesizing hundreds of scientific studies, Greater Good in Action collects the best research-based methods for a happier, more meaningful life—and puts them at your fingertips in a format that’s easy to navigate and digest.
225 scientific studies show that people with more eudaimonic happiness, that is, joy:
- Are more productive at work and more creative
- Make more money and have more sought-after jobs
- Are more effective leaders and negotiators
- Are more likely to marry and have fulfilling marriages, and less likely to divorce
- Have more friends and social support
- Have stronger immune systems, are physically healthier, and even live longer
- Are more helpful and philanthropic
- Show more resilience to stress and trauma
Watch the March 11, 2022, panel discussion and community conversation of Mission: Joy
The Mission: Joy panelists are the following:
