Building a happier society with Action for Happiness
Action for Happiness is a new movement of individuals who have set their sights on building a happier society.
Those who wish to support the movement by signing up to the website are required to set up action groups to promote happiness in their local communities.
Only recently Prime Minister David Cameron announced that it was time ”we admitted there’s more to life than money”, and ”its time we focused not just on GDP but on GWB – general wellbeing.”
Furthermore, in November the government asked the Office for National Statistics to gauge ”general wellbeing” and the French president Nicolas Sarkozy announced that happiness was to be included in France’s measurement of economic progress.
Action for Happiness is working in partnership with Mind, Relate and netmums and has already drummed up support from poet and playwright Carol Ann Duffy, writer and entrepreneur Alain de Botton and Tenzin Gyatso, otherwise known as the Dali Lama.
Professor Richard Layard, head of the wellbeing programme at the London School of Economics and member of the Action for Happiness board said: “We are asking people for an individual commitment to aim to produce more happiness and less misery. Despite the fact that we are getting richer, after 60 years we still haven’t managed to produce a happier society.”
“The contagious nature of happiness means that we affect not only our friends, but our friends’ friends. It spreads to form an extremely powerful social network”. Added Action for Happiness director, Mark Williamson
The movement’s launch earlier on this month was hosted by TV presenter Sian Williams and was followed by a group meditation. The day after the launch, the Action for Happiness website crashed due to the weight of it’s users, perhaps an indication that Brits are ready to let the happiness take over!
For more information about Action for Happiness visit their website or view the short video below.