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Happiness Dinner Guidelines

These guidelines are meant to stimulate honest conversation, preferably not with like-thinkers; we encourage a diversity of opinions and perspectives at your ‘table’. For this year, we have a new set of questions if you care to go deeper than the original set. Review both and determine what works best for your group. If on a virtual platform, you may choose to randomly place people in ‘rooms’ for each question and regroup after each one. Do what feels right for your group. 

ABOVE ALL, practice good listening, compassion, and curiosity and release judgement.

There are no wrong answers. Be flexible. Enjoy!

Traditional (and powerful) Questions:

Declare a start to the happiness conversation. Take a few moments of silence to reflect on a time when you were content, happy, at peace.

  1. Identify a facilitator, note-taker and a volunteer to email a photo with your ‘serious about happiness’ sign (make ahead of time) to info@www.gnhusa.org
  2. Share a few words each in a round about contributing factors to one’s happiness or contentment. Reminder: just listen; avoid comments or discussion, and be brief.
  3. Pose one question at a time and invite reflections in a round or “popcorn” style. Once everyone who wants to speak has spoken, move on to the next question. Questions 3 and 4 are more for an open group discussion.
    1. What matters most in life? (It’s okay if there are different interpretations to the question.)
    2. What could you do in your personal life or in your community to increase that which matters?
    3. What common values have been expressed during your conversation?
    4. GNHUSA has conducted interviews across the country and found we generally value the same things. What is a compassionate response with people who express views different from yours?
    5. Have you taken the Happiness Survey and signed the Charter for Happiness.

2021 Questions: Conversations for Happiness WARRIORS

Declare a start to the happiness conversation. Take a few moments of silence to reflect on a time when you were content, happy, at peace. This works well even on Zoom.

  1. Identify a facilitator and a volunteer to email a photo with your ‘serious about happiness’ sign (make ahead of time) to info@www.gnhusa.org. If on a virtual platform, record your session if everyone is agreeable and send highlights to GNHUSA.
  2. Review all questions and pose one question at a time – these are in a specific order but use your discretion. Invite reflections in a round or “popcorn” style. Once everyone who wants to speak has spoken, move on to the next question. Questions are meant to generate curiosity and discussion.
    1. What is a peaceful world and how do we each contribute to it?
    2. What does unity mean to you? How do we actualize unity; how do we shift into a state of seeing the world as one interconnected human family?
    3. How can we encourage individuals to sit down together to have a productive, honest conversation about what they want to see happening in our country? How do we bring respect, integrity, dignity and compassionate communication to these conversations? What could we hope to gain if we listen deeply to each others’ point of view; to be present while we seek to understand one another? 
    4. What responsibility do we have to Earth? To future generations?
    5. How do we go about building a more compassionate and inclusive system of governance which values all people and treats all as equals? 
    6. In what ways can you deepen this conversation or share it with others?
    7. How is it that two people can be in the same place and see things so differently? How do you discern information and determine what is real for you?  How do you discern what’s factual; what can we agree on as fundamental truths? Are there any?
    8. Have you taken the Happiness Survey and signed the Charter for Happiness.

Have fun!

Feel free to contact us with your questions.

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