SEGOVIA – On November 20th, Dr. Mario Alonso Puig, the Chairman of IE’s Center for Health, Well-Being & Happiness and an internationally famous surgeon and lecturer who studies the impact of mental processes on the development of talent and ability, held a workshop at IE University’s Madrid Campus, focused on how students can improve their happiness in relation to mind, body, and soul. The two-hour-long workshop, filled with staff and faculty from different departments as well as students, discussed the central role of minds, bodies, and souls and how the three are related and structured with each other.
Why is it difficult to convey concepts of happiness?
It is not easy to convey concepts of happiness,” began Mario Alonso, “firstly, as humans, we all have different views and opinions on topics in society. This happens within the concept of happiness as well. Therefore, “happiness”, like many other topics is a subjective term. Hence, we must ask the question in a different way. What are the concepts of happiness that we can convey to others which may influence them too.”
During the session, the attendees were split into six different groups, where they had to come up with questions in relation to a topic, which would make a positive change in our lives. Then, the following questions were provided to each group:
“How to incorporate daily habits into our lives that improve the health of our body?”
“How can I boost the power of the mind with less effort and zero pain?”
“How can we demonstrate that the soul is immortal?”
“How can I find the best connection between the mind and the body?”
“What can we do to have a happy body at the same level as our soul?”
Following this, all six groups worked together in order to find solutions to each question. “In order to answer these questions, we must use our collective intelligence to find out their solutions,” stated Mario Alonso, pushing attendees to approach the questions from a different perspective.
Attendees shared past personal experiences related to some of the questions, which led to helpful discussions about the answers. Despite the difficulties of the six varied questions, both attendees and members from the Center were able to come to creative conclusions that were suitable to solve the questions at hand.
“We aren’t people who just move cause we are in fear. We are people who move because we feel passion and commitment, to flourish to our full potential as human beings,” ended Mario Alonso.
The IE Wellbeing Centre will be hosting four different advanced seminars as of next semester, where students are able to obtain one credit for joining one, as stated by Amélie de Marsily, the Academic Director of the Centre. One of the seminars will be about nutrition, where students will find a balance by giving your brain the food you need. Another will be about vitality, which discusses the connection between the mind and the body, along with the reason as to why we have energy. Thirdly, mind, which will explore the attention, its difficulty, and how to manage it better. Finally, the fourth seminar will be about sympathy and compassion, which will examine how to build healthy relationships during your university career and for the rest of our lives – as relationships are a massive indicator of happiness.
As The Stork, we encourage you to post your thoughts to Dr.Puig’s questions in the comments.
Moreover, you can sign up for the seminars here.
