On Wednesday, 25th March the BIS Secondary students had a special opportunity to hear a lecture on one of the most popular topics of modern Psychology - "what is happiness and how to achieve it".

The presentation was delivered by Prof. Dr. Mila Goldner-Vukov, Professor of Psychiatry at Oakland University, New Zealand.

The essence of happiness, according to Dr. Goldner-Vukov is realising our full personal well-being. This means fulfilling and maximising our potential by developing our intellectual capacity, deepening the level of our spirituality and building our social skills. While we are working on our self-development on our journey towards achieving happiness, we must not forget to broaden our awareness of the world around us, connecting with and supporting other people. In order to illustrate this principle, Dr Goldner-Vukov quotes a Chinese proverb below:

In getting her message accross on what happiness is and how it can be achieved, Dr. Goldner-Vukov quoted various scientific, literary and religious sources. With the slides below we would like to illustrate some of the crucial points

All this invites a conclusion that happiness is about developing respect, awareness, and, consequently, peace within ourselves, in our relationships with others and finally in the way we treat our planet.