Stop chasing happiness. Start building it.
Six evidence-packed modules will dismantle the myths quietly running your life — then replace them with daily practices drawn straight from positive psychology research. No affirmations. No vague inspiration. Just the science, and exactly what to do with it.
"I'll always give you the study — and then I'll tell you exactly what to do with it on Monday morning."— Dr. J Raymond ABK
What you'll learn
What you'll be able to do
- Identify and dismantle the most common misconceptions about what actually drives lasting happiness
- Apply the gratitude practices with the strongest empirical support — and know why timing and specificity matter
- Use savouring techniques to amplify positive experiences in everyday life
- Build and deepen social connections using evidence-based strategies from relationship science
- Design a personalised wellbeing routine grounded in the PERMA framework and related positive psychology models
- Explain the core findings of happiness research clearly enough to teach them to someone else
How it works
A school that adapts to you
This isn't a set of static videos. Every lesson is generated live and tuned to where you actually are.
We learn your level
A quick placement check tailors your starting point so you're never bored or lost.
Lessons adapt as you go
Each lesson is written for your pace and your goal, adjusting as your skills grow.
Your AI coach keeps you moving
Checkpoints, feedback, and gentle nudges turn progress into a real result.
The curriculum
What's inside your school
6 modules · 19 lessons
The Happiness Myths: Rewiring What You Think You Know
This foundational module establishes the scientific lens through which the entire course is viewed. Before introducing what does drive happiness, students must first dismantle the culturally reinforced myths that actively misdirect them. It opens with an essential prerequisite: a brief orientation to what positive psychology is and why its methods are trustworthy — providing the epistemic grounding needed before any research findings are presented. Students then confront the counterintuitive reality of affective forecasting failures, the hedonic treadmill, and the three biggest happiness myths (money, achievement, circumstance), leaving them genuinely curious and cognitively open to the evidence-based practices that follow.
- 1.1What Is Positive Psychology? The Science Behind the CourseIncluded
- 1.2Why Your Intuitions About Happiness Are WrongIncluded
- 1.3The Hedonic Treadmill and the Adaptation ProblemIncluded
- 1.4Busting the Big Three: Money, Achievement, and CircumstanceIncluded
The Science of Gratitude: Practising It Right
This module moves from debunking into the first major evidence-based practice. It is sequenced immediately after the myths module because gratitude directly counters the adaptation and circumstance-chasing problems introduced there — students have an existing 'problem' to which gratitude is now a credible answer. The module goes beyond 'gratitude is good for you' to teach the specific mechanisms, optimal conditions, and social dimensions of gratitude practice, so students can implement it with precision rather than vague goodwill.
- 2.1Why Gratitude Works: The Mechanisms Behind the ResearchIncluded
- 2.2Gratitude Done Right: Timing, Specificity, and NoveltyIncluded
- 2.3Gratitude in Action: Letters, Visits, and Social ExpressionIncluded
Savouring: The Art of Amplifying the Good
Where gratitude focuses on appreciating what has happened or is present, savouring is about consciously prolonging and deepening positive experiences as they occur. This module is sequenced after gratitude because both practices target hedonic adaptation, but savouring introduces a distinct attentional and behavioural skill set. Drawing on Bryant and Veroff's foundational savouring framework, students learn what savouring is, what kills it, and how to build personal rituals around it — culminating in a practical joy journalling practice.
- 3.1What Savouring Is (and Isn't): The Psychology of Positive AttentionIncluded
- 3.2Behaviours That Build and Kill SavouringIncluded
- 3.3Savouring in Daily Life: Rituals, Reminiscing, and the Joy JournalIncluded
Social Connection: The Most Underrated Happiness Driver
Relationships are the single most robust predictor of long-term happiness across the literature — yet most people systematically underinvest in them. This module is sequenced after savouring because shared savouring (Module 3) naturally bridges into the relational dimension of wellbeing. The module moves from data (why connection matters so much) to diagnosis (what blocks it) to skill-building (how to build and deepen it), ensuring students finish with practical, evidence-based strategies rather than a vague aspiration to 'be more social'.
- 4.1The Connection Data: Why Relationships Matter More Than You ThinkIncluded
- 4.2The Barriers to Connection: Fear, Busyness, and the Liking GapIncluded
- 4.3Building and Deepening Connections: Evidence-Based StrategiesIncluded
The PERMA Framework: Building Your Wellbeing Architecture
Having established the three core practices (gratitude, savouring, social connection) and the misconceptions they displace, students are now ready for the integrative framework that contextualises all of them. PERMA (Positive Emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, Accomplishment) provides the structural architecture for a complete, personalised wellbeing routine. This module expands each element with its evidence base, identifies which prior practices map to which PERMA pillars, and guides students through designing and sustaining a coherent personal wellbeing system. A lesson on self-compassion and avoiding burnout has been added as an essential prerequisite for sustainable practice — without it, wellbeing routines frequently collapse.
- 5.1PERMA Unpacked: What the Evidence Says About Each ElementIncluded
- 5.2Self-Compassion as Foundation: Practising Without Burning OutIncluded
- 5.3Designing Your Personalised Wellbeing RoutineIncluded
- 5.4Sustaining Wellbeing: Tracking Progress and Avoiding BurnoutIncluded
Teaching Happiness: Consolidation, Application, and Legacy
The final module serves two purposes: deep consolidation of all prior learning, and the development of a genuinely transferable ability to explain happiness science clearly, accurately, and accessibly to others. Teaching is the highest-order learning activity — it forces retrieval, exposes gaps, and requires students to translate technical findings into language that non-experts can engage with. The module also adds a lesson on translating research for general audiences (explicitly missing from the original draft), which is necessary for the outcome 'explain the core findings clearly enough to teach them to someone else' to be fully achieved.
- 6.1Explaining the Science: Communicating Research Without Losing the NuanceIncluded
- 6.2Your Happiness Showcase: Teaching the Science to OthersIncluded
Who it's for
Is this you?
The burnt-out high achiever
You've hit the goals and still feel flat — this course explains exactly why, and builds you a more sustainable path forward.
The sceptical self-improver
You want to grow but can't stomach vague affirmations — here, every practice comes with the peer-reviewed receipts.
The curious psychology enthusiast
You devour science podcasts and popular non-fiction, and you're ready to go deeper into what the happiness research actually says.
The life-transition navigator
Whether it's a new chapter, a loss, or a reinvention, this course helps you rebuild your wellbeing architecture from the ground up.
The coach or helper professional
You work with people's inner lives and want a rigorous, evidence-based framework — not pop psychology — to bring to your practice.
The relationship-and-connection seeker
You suspect your social life holds more untapped wellbeing than any habit app, and Module 4's connection science will prove you right.
Questions
Frequently asked
Your teacher
A note from your teacher
Dr. J Raymond ABK
If you're reading this, I'd guess you're someone who thinks carefully about your life. You probably know that chasing the next milestone — the promotion, the relationship, the number in the bank account — doesn't quite deliver the lasting satisfaction you expected. And yet, knowing that intellectually doesn't necessarily stop you doing it. That gap between what we know and how we live is, honestly, what this whole course is about.
I created The Happiness Lab because I kept encountering the same frustration — in conversations, in reading, in watching smart, self-aware people spin their wheels on happiness strategies that the research had quietly debunked years ago. Not because they were naive, but because the good science rarely travels as fast or as loudly as the catchy advice. Gratitude journals framed as magic. Visualisation sold without the important caveats. The relentless message that you're just one mindset shift away. I wanted to build something that respected your intelligence and gave you the actual evidence — including the parts that complicate the tidy narrative.
What you'll find in this course is not a collection of feel-good prompts. It's a structured tour through some of the most robust and genuinely surprising findings in positive psychology — from the hedonic treadmill (the elegant, slightly depressing reason why arriving rarely feels as good as anticipating) to the specific mechanics of gratitude that make it work or not work, to the social connection research that I personally find the most quietly powerful thing in the entire field. We'll cover the PERMA framework not as a buzzword, but as a practical architecture for designing a life that actually supports your wellbeing.
I also want to be honest about something: this course will ask you to be a little uncomfortable. Some of what you believe about what will make you happy is probably wrong — and I mean that in the kindest, most energising possible way. The moment you see why your intuitions misfire, you get your attention back. You get to redirect real energy toward things that actually move the needle.
Here's my promise to you: every claim in this course is traceable to research, every practice is explained with enough depth that you understand the 'why', and everything is designed to be usable in real life — not just thinkable in theory. Come curious. Come willing to be surprised. I genuinely cannot wait to explore this material with you.
— Dr. J Raymond ABK
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- 6 modules, 19 lessons
- AI-adaptive lessons tuned to your level
- Quizzes & checkpoints to lock in progress
- Your own AI learning coach
- Learn on any device, at your pace
- Full access for as long as you're subscribed