Time is Right for Happiness Literacy for All
by Kira Judge

Everyone wants to be happy and successful. However not many of us know that success has to be defined by ourselves, and true lasting happiness comes from internal peace. I was over 40 years old by the time I figured that out. I have a masters in Economics, an engineering degree, and received professional training as a Business analyst in IT. Nowhere did I learn about happiness or emotional literacy. I strongly believe our education system is lacking happiness literacy. I believe it has to be taught starting in kindergarten and be required training for leadership in organizations small and large.

My own happiness literacy started in 2012 when I finished my masters in Economics. Despite the fact that an MA in Economics was my wildest dream, I found myself depressed and miserable when I achieved it. I was so depressed until I found the works of Louise Hay, Dr. Wayne Dyer, Eckhart Tolle, Abraham Hicks, and Dr. Joe Dispenza and many more transformational authors. When the pandemic hit, I found myself with a reduced workload. I could finally focus on professional certification. From my 10 years of experience in the corporate sector, I knew that certifications are important for promotion. However, I have seen highly paid colleagues and managers with professional certifications and important titles unhappy, overworked, unfulfilled, and often divorced once or twice or more. I kept asking myself if professional certification would make me happy? Of course, I could not answer. It turns out Happiness is a science! Obtaining a state of happiness and internal peace needs to be studied and understood, even though not many schools teach about that, yet. Luckily for me, the Universe answered my questions. I received a call to become a Happy For No Reason trainer with Marci Shimoff, whom I met via my miracles network. It was the best education ever for me! I learnt to keep myself accountable for my own happiness and increase my awareness of how I feel in various circumstances. I also learnt what I want: I want peace, love, and joy in all areas of my life. My mission is to spread the Home of Happiness framework though online and in person workshops.

I am beyond happy to be able to offer group workshops based on the Home of Happiness framework. In order to bring lasting true happiness to my customers lives, I present happiness habits everyone can use. In order to be truly happy one has to have satisfaction in all seven areas of life. Out of the seven parts of the house, let’s focus here on the biggest one—the relationship, which is the garden of the house. Those of us who are trained in typical schools tend to think of relationship only between humans. However, the true relationship includes the relationship with everything and everyone. We have a relationship with our pets, ancestry, neighbours, and nature. A nature relationship could be a tree in the park, river flowing through your city, a lake, ocean or just a plant in your office. We have relationship with our assets as well: home, car, bike, and the list goes on and on.

Our relationships truly resemble a garden. As in the garden we may have multiple plants, fruits, vegetables, flowers, and anything you like to grow, miraculously representing the complexity of all our friendships and connections to our siblings, parents, colleagues, and in-laws, etc. As in the garden, the quality of any relationship depends on how much time and effort you invest into them.

As many of us live in urban settings, I want to pick one of the relationships which is the most fascinating if you pay attention to it: that is the relationship with money. Many of us are so uncomfortable to talk about it. We hide how much we earn; we pretend to be less fortunate if we have plenty of it and hardly appreciate its light, flexible and powerful energy, which allows us to connect and exchange services and products with pretty much everyone in the world. No wonder many of us have resentment toward money, wealth, and prosperity.

Let’s take another important relationship: our children. We want them to listen to us and follow us to continue our ways even though he/she/they may not want to. From my observation, many parents are unconscious and try hard to control their kids. Learning to be aware of our hidden fears, we can build a healthy relationship with our children free of guilt, shame, and manipulation.

Another important one is our relationship with our precious body: We are not trained to listen to it. We use it every day and hardly say thank you. Only when we feel pain or get sick, do we remember to slow down and pay attention or seek help.

These important concepts have to be available to us at an earlier age, so we grow up with peace in our homes, hearts, and communities. We must have a relationship with the place we live in. Not attached to it but love it as many indigenous teachings call us to do. It is a very different and spiritual. Our education must be land based. We have to learn to love and respect the land we live in.

We were so blessed that our son went to a land-based school for grade 8 in Saskatoon. He learnt many practical skills in that year: taking the bus to and from school, emotional intelligence, and human conditions. One of many practical benefits is our peaceful relationship. As an immigrant to Canada, I have internalized some micro-aggressions one faces in society due to my intersectionality (Woman, Asian, I speak with an accent). As a result I find myself resenting my loved ones after a stressful work day. One day I lost my awareness and was yelling at my son. My son said, “Mum you are getting angry again. Do you need a hug?” Do you know what thoughts made you feel upset? Imagine if we all learn the important relationship between thoughts and how we feel? In my workshop I provide scientific facts and practical actions one can take to feel good. Practicing feeling good is the most important driver for our actions or inactions.

I look forward to seeing you at my workshops.

Kira (Rahatjan) Judge is a founder and CEO of Spread Happiness and facilitates online and in-person happiness sessions. She is a certified Happy for No Reason trainer mentored by the world-renowned transformational teacher, and expert on happiness, success and unconditional love, Marci Shimoff. For inquiries visit www.kirajudge.com; E-mail kirajudge71@gmail.com; Call or Text 306-202-0350.