A wonderful feeling of relaxed plenty

By Amanda Bradley, Northern Development Manager, Mental Health Promotion, Mental Health Foundation

Attending an overseas conference is a privilege that doesn’t come around too often. The Mental Health Foundation endorses the annual Happiness and Its Causes Conference each year and, in return, we receive free attendance for one person. So off I went to Brisbane for two days of discovery.

Three things struck me about the conference.

Great organisation, flow and atmosphere

The first was the organisation, flow and atmosphere of the event. Almost 3000 delegates moved seamlessly into a massive auditorium and were seated while music played and a lighting show of coloured flowers moved across the space.

When the speakers came onto the stage, they were projected onto two huge screens and were easily seen and heard no matter where you were seated.

Break times gave opportunities for rummaging through the book shop, a meet and greet with the book authors for a signature, laughing yoga, Feldenkrais, a “happy” movie viewing and a browse through the stalls. There was a wonderful feeling of "relaxed plenty".*

The conference was also supported by a large number of volunteers who were easily identifiable, friendly, helpful and smiling!

Incredible calibre of speakers

The second was the incredible calibre of speakers. The conference was delivered in a single stream, there wasn’t the usual deliberation and decision making between steams. Each session had a theme and two or three speakers would present their work, which was mostly from leading international universities. This was followed by a panel discussion.

I have to admit I’m not a fan of panels; I’d never seen them work before (except on TV sports shows). But these panels were dynamic and interesting. They were made up of the speakers plus one or two other experts and a moderator (usually a radio or TV journalist). The debate was incredibly intelligent and the discussions covered a wide range of topics including the evolution of happiness, bringing up happy confident children, being wired for empathy and music – the heart and soul of happiness.

Surprise at being so emotionally moved

The third was my own surprise at being so emotionally moved so often through the two days: Jane Goodall describing her first emotional exchange with the chimpanzee she named Greybeard; Matthieu Ricard describing true altruism re-told the story of a man leaping in front of a train in New York to save the life of a complete stranger; Robert Biswas-Diener describing his visits to families in Calcutta in his search for happiness beyond the hedonic quick hits that we in the west usually associate with feeling good; Russ Harris insisting on a close up of his sweating palms and rating his anxiety levels at 9 out of 10 while speaking on building confidence and challenging us to all head out on a daring adventure.

And, finally, the Dalai Lama, whose chuckles and sense of play amazed me.

Paul Ekman (famous for mapping our emotions into facial expressions) asked the Dalai Lama, via live video link, if “a smile is the facial expression for compassion” and his response was “yes, I think so”.

* There was lots of choice but this didn't lead to that overwhelmed feeling you often get with too much choice