Conversations That Matter in Seattle

Would love to see any of my Seattle cafe colleagues here...

This month's topic is: How do we bring joy into our lives?

We would all welcome feeling happier and more joyful - can you imagine anyone saying, "no thanks, I have all the joy I need for this year"? There has been an increasing amount of research into 'happiness' in the past decade, including that funded by Paul G. Allen for the PBS program "This Emotional Life" (episodes online until approx 1/18/09). This type of research explores whether being happy is the result of nature or nurture, the psychological and physical effects of happiness and the lack of it (e.g. chronic loneliness can lead to heart disease and diabetes), and whether we can learn to be happy and joyful.

As well as uncovering the nature of joy - what it is and how to achieve it - we'll discuss whether joy can be used as a tool to achieve other goals. Here are some questions for consideration:

~ Is there anything you can identify in the joyful people that you know (yourself included!) - an attitude, activities, family or social life - that you think is a key contributor to their joy? What is the key to joy and happiness - money, love, a social life, a roof over our head and food on the table?

~ How do we attract joy? Do we wait for it to happen to us, or do we seek it out?

~ Once we have joy, do we have a moral obligation to pass it on to others; if so, how? Is it possible to move through conflict and get to joy?

The usual rules apply:
- In exchange for free space, please be prepared to purchase a beverage or food item
- Arrive early enough to get your drink and be ready to start promptly at 7pm
- This event is advertised widely, so a) please RSVP 'yes' asap if you want to come, and b) please let me know asap if you need to cancel (I won't be offended) so I can offer the space to someone else.
- Not a rule!: Donations to the facilitator for time and effort in organizing and leading will be appreciated!

The event takes place in Ballard this month. Exact location will be sent upon sign-up. Please register through the Meetup group: (if link not working, please copy and paste: www.meetup.com/Conversations-That-Matter-Seattle)

A bit of exciting news... NPR has expressed interest in Conversations That Matter and may record parts of this, or a future, salon. This will definitely help with achieving my goal of having 3 or more salons a month, in different sections of the city! I am in the process of training another facilitator which will help achieve this goal; if you, too, are interested in facilitating a monthly salon on a regular basis, then I would love to hear from you.