The movie. The movement. The day. (hers)

After over 10 hours of film crews, movies, panels, and discussions, the Hapacus Team emerged from Sept. 24th's Hapacus-sponsored "HAPPY" movie premiere more energized than ever. In one day, our fountain of hope for the growing role of positive psychology in our community was fully replenished by the enthusiasm of hundreds.

Saturday, September 24th 2011: "The day."

9:00am: A film crew arrives to document Hapacus throughout the day.

10:15am: Hapacus meeting convened to discuss any last minute preparations for the film and panel. Vote taken as to whether we should hand out candy to panel audience members. Candy wins.

11:30am: The crew drives to Office Depot to pick up a Hapacus poster. Order was processed

incorrectly, 20 minute wait. Props goes to the unnamed Hapacus member who suggested we leave 30 minutes early.

12:15pm: Arrive at Cafe Hollander for lunch. Many eyes follow our cameraman as diners wonder if they should recognize us. Sorry to disappoint!

12:18pm: We realize our "HAPPY" premiere falls at the same time as the Wisconsin Badgers football game. Thank goodness it's against South Dakota.

1:30pm: After great lunch discussions on the importance of purpose in our professional lives and how representative playoff wins are to the strength of a baseball team, we slip out to start setting up the movie and panel.

2:30pm: 16 VIP seats reserved, over 200 audience members jammed into seats, all of our panelists have arrived, and the film begins!

2:45pm: "HAPPY" movie premiere statistics:

Most laughs: The monkey and banana race in San Francisco or the Okinawa 106 year old recommending lots of sleep and sake.

Most teary eyes: Students talking about their experiences with bullying in front of entire school.

Most gasps: Story of the woman run over by a truck that went through years of surgeries to emerge a happier person.

Most head nods: The distinction between external motivations (money, fame and social status) and internal motiv

ations (relationships, community, helping others)

3:30pm: Virginia ducks out to finalize panel preparations at Boswell Books. A tremendous thanks to Boswell for their support and space!

4:00pm: Panel begins with a full house and four great speakers: Dr. Judy Krings, clinical psychologist; Jan Stanley, MAPP graduate; Anna Benton, Director of Health Services of Milwaukee; and Prof. Ed de St. Aubin, Marquette Psychology Professor.

4:01pm: The candy bag is a big hit.

4:02pm: Robert begins sending more tweets than he will again in any 90-minute period. Check out our Twitter account for the full recap!

5:30pm: As the panel discussion finishes, we're amazed at the large and enthusiastic group still discussing how we can embed positive psychology into the institutional bedrock of American society.

6:15pm: After lots of crossed fingers kept rain away during the movie and panel, it starts pouring buckets as we rush in for a quick dinner.

6:46pm: As we take our seats for The Interrupters at the Milwaukee Film Festival, we all catch our breath, look at each other, and start laughing. We're soaked, smiling, and elated. What a day.

What we crossed this past Saturday wasn't a finish line but a checkpoint in the first stage of a long journey filled with little victories and long hours. But savoring little victories is a critical component of enjoying that journey. As in Professor Richard Davidson's research on mindfulness meditation, awareness of the present moment allows us to both appreciate the pleasures of immediate experience and stay focused on long-term goals.

As the house lights dimmed in the beautifully restored Oriental Theater that evening, we soaked in the joys of one day as a sign of the joys yet to come.

(You can find more pictures of the panel on our Facebook page, and live tweets from the event on our Twitter feed)

What Does The Success of "Contagion" Tell Us About Our Natural Aversion to Happiness? (his)

Last week Contagion was the #1 movie in America.  This is a movie about how the human population could get wiped out by a virus, starring a multitude of big name celebrities.

Some argue it’s just a continuation of the theme of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which ended (spoiler alert – skip to next paragraph) with the idea that the earth’s population is obliterated by a man-made virus.  It’s a work of fiction, right?  My concern is that movies such as these undermine our happiness by playing on our brain’s desire to latch onto negative information and cause us to artificially fear each other.

As humans we’re prone to fear.  That’s a fact.  Our ability to react to fear is what has helped us survive for thousands of years.  It’s called our “negativity bias”.  Historically, the potential outcomes of negative information were more harmful than positive information so our brains became trained to focus and hold on to negative information.  We lived longer by avoiding problems than enjoying good information.

However, our brains don’t distinguish between real fear and synthesized fear.  Fear stimulates chemical releases in our brains and our brains react.  In fact, we often enjoy this chemical release and cause it to occur for fun.  That’s what roller coasters and horror films are all about.

Unfortunately, we also allow synthesized fear to attract us to information or events that don’t help us but we still think the stimulation is important.  The news industry is built on this subconscious assumption.  The job of newspapers is to sell newspapers.  The job of TV news programs is to get you to watch them.  The job of internet news is to get you to open them.  The two most proven techniques for doing this are sex and fear.

This is no secret.  It’s been done for thousands of years.  Orwell’s book 1984 is all about how a government controls its population through fear.  Many organizations and people use fear as their primary source of control.  It’s very effective.

My mother and mother-in-law truly believe their neighborhoods are less safe than when I was growing up (60s and 70s).  Apparently many see it the same way.  That’s why we have hover parents who don’t let their kids ride their bikes very far and prefer they stay in the house.  But, is this fear accurate?

Here are the facts about crime in the U.S. as reported by the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports between 1960 and today:

• In 2009 America's crime rate was roughly the same as in 1968, with the homicide rate being at its lowest level since 1964.
• Overall, the national crime rate was 3,466 crimes per 100,000 residents in 2009, down from 3,680 crimes per 100,000 residents forty years earlier in 1969 (-9.4%).
• Crime in the United States has fluctuated considerably over the course of the last half-century, rising in the late 60s, 70s and 80s, peaking in the early 90s and then decreasing steadily from then on.
• The homicide rate in particular has decreased 49% between its record high point in 1991 and 2009.
• Overall, the crime rate in the U.S. was the same in 2009 as in 1968, with the homicide rate being roughly the same as in 1964.

So, my mother and mother-in-law have a point.  They saw the dramatic rise in crime through the 70s, 80s and early 90s.  However, they are not tracking the decline.  The U.S. crime rates today are just as good as the 60s.  And, if you live in a rural or suburban, middle or upper-class neighborhood your chances of being the victim of a violent crime are significantly less since those types of crimes occur far more often in lower income urban communities.

Fear is the antithesis of happiness.  Whenever we are experiencing fear we’re not truly happy.  We translate artificial adrenaline rushes of fear into feelings of happiness after stepping off the roller coaster or exiting a horror movie, but neither of those situations creates true happiness.

The real damage, however, is not roller coasters or horror films.  The real damage of synthetic fear is when it gets carried over into our lives and we live in a state of heightened, artificial fear about the world around us, strangers, our neighbors and those who need help the most. 

Fear is contagious and our brains grab onto it more forcefully than any virus attacks our immune system.  Perhaps we should be more concerned about that virus wiping us out, or at least wiping out our ability to be truly happy.  

Lessons and Stories from a Barbershop (hers)

Not a strand of hair was cut in the Milwaukee barbershop I sat in this past Saturday night. Instead of scissors and shampoo, the shop was filled with storytellers standing in front of a lone mic perched in front of two chairs, two mirrors, and millions of hair product.

I was at an Ex Fabula storytelling event, bringing together local citizens to share their stories of barbershops, the local neighborhood, or both. Interspersed throughout were tales from historian John Gurda on the racial razor this shop teetered upon since before the Civil War.

In 2011, Milwaukee was ranked the #1 most segregated urban area in the U.S."Milwaukee…has among the highest rates of racial inequality across a whole range of indicators: black-white joblessness, black-white poverty and black-white ownership of businesses," says Marc Levine, professor of history and economic development at the UW - Milwaukee.

Given this backdrop, I was stunned at the remarkable amount of diversity around me. African-Americans, Caucasians, and Hispanics nervously took to the stage and shared stories that both warmed and broke your heart.

Demographic diversity -- differences in race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and age -- are a boon to personal happiness and social justice. Businesses discovered long ago that geographic diversity leads to creative exchange and production. America discovered long ago that millions of immigrants mixing together leads to stronger communities and greater freedom.

It was 10 years ago that America learned that lesson once again. In the wake of one of the most devastating attacks on American soil, citizens of all backgrounds banded together to help each other -- and the country -- piece itself back together. Remembering this sense of national unity and empathy may help us steer away from the dangerous "us vs. them" mentality of fear-based social exclusivity that plagues the development of strong communities in modern America.

Surrounded by the diversity America still stands for, thoughts of two towers that once stood, and the men and women standing at the mic in front of me, I was filled with gratitude for the chance I've been given with Hapacus to fill the world with unity, community, and happiness.

The Happy Movie (his)

I am passionate about movies -- all kinds of movies.  I love a good movie and I love reading about film making and the film making industry, especially the business side of things.  But I enjoy it as a hobby and am not interested in a film industry career.  However, this month I get to combine two of my passions as Hapacus sponsors the movie "Happy" at the 2011 Milwaukee Film Festival that runs September 22-October 2.
 


"Happy" is a documentary about the emerging positive psychology movement and how researchers are learning more about what makes us happy.  The movie features one of Hapacus' Advisory Board members, Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky, and describes very well the research on which Hapacus is built.

Virginia and I came across "Happy" at the International Positive Psychology Association's Second Congress last July in Philadelphia.  Roko Belic, the Academy Award nominated director, screened the movie for the Congress participants (about 1,500 from 62 countries).  He received a standing ovation when it ended.

Following the screening I talked with Roko about possibly screening "Happy" at the Milwaukee Film Festival.  As a member of the Board of Directors for Milwaukee Film, the organization that puts on the Milwaukee Film Festival, I felt the film was important and interesting enough for a Milwaukee audience.  I immediately called Jonathan Jackson, the Executive Director of Milwaukee Film, who informed me they were closing submissions within 36 hours.  I needed to act quickly.  So, working with Roko's people and Milwaukee Film I was able to get a copy of the film to the Milwaukee Film Festival screening committee in time and it was approved. 

"Happy" will have four screenings at the festival:

• September 24 @ 2:30 pm at the Downer Theater
• September 26 @ 9:45 pm at the Northshore Theater
• September 29 @ 7:30 pm at the Oriental Theater
• October 2 @ 5:15 pm at the Ridge Cinema

In addition, following the September 24 screening at the Downer, Hapacus will host a panel discussion with experts in Positive Psychology at Boswell Books, just a half block from the theater from 4-6 pm.  It should be an interesting conversation, especially after having watched "Happy".

All of this makes me extremely excited about the Milwaukee Film Festival this year.  Virginia and I usually see 12-16 films during the 10 day festival.  This year will likely be no different.  But we will be especially interested in "Happy" as it is the result of our work and passion.  That doesn't happen very often.