What is Happiness Program

As the name of the program suggests, it is all about "Happiness". The program gives you both the practical tools and the personal experience to live your life happily (and this includes tools to be healthy, happy, peaceful, caring and a responsible person, as all these are requirements to be truly happy).

If you are asking about the benefits of doing the program and practicing the techniques taught
there, then the answer to this question might be an endless list. However to sum up a few of the benefits: it is effective in dealing with stress, increasing peace of mind or improving your overall physical, mental and emotional health, and this I can share from my personal experience and research that I have gone through.

The programs of The Art of Living provide you with practical tools to deal with challenges in almost all spheres of life - whether it is decision making, working in a stressful environment, dealing with difficult people, managing your relationships, or keeping your body and mind healthy and fresh.

The Art of Living programs as designed by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar are fun-filled interactive workshops, that allow you to explore and experience the benefits of the techniques taught for yourself. It is not a class where you have to listen to a lecture and then go home to the same set of problems - it is a journey where you explore your own body, mind and the life you live and how you live it, and gives you a glimpse of the quality of life that is possible. Regular practice and application of the things taught in the program will then allow you to realize these in your day to day life.

The benefits of yoga, pranayama and meditation are nowadays not only well-known but also well-documented. One example of a recent research by Harvard on the topic: Harvard Yoga Scientists Find Proof of Meditation Benefit

Another thing that makes the programs of The Art of Living unique is the Sudarshan Kriya breathing technique that is taught. I personally know people who have experienced relief and sometimes even total cure of various health problems, including very severe ones, after starting their regular practice of Sudarshan Kriya - sometimes after suffering from these problems and trying various types of treatments for many years. In this way, there are people for whom treatments or medication had little effect in slowing down or fighting a decease, until they started practicing Sudarshan Kriya.

There are, to say the least, a wide range of well-documented health benefits that one derives of the

regular and proper practice of Sudarshan Kriya, if one looks at third-party medical and scientific research. Many of these research findings are available online, indicating that regular practice of Sudarshan Kriya greatly decreases cortisol (a stress hormone), increase a sense of well-being, reduces anxiety and depression, as well as substance dependency, harmonizes brainwave activity of the two halves of the brain, and much more, up to the extent that it can even repair problems in one's DNA (seeplos.orgRapid Gene Expression Changes in Peripheral Blood Lymphocytes upon Practice of a Comprehensive Yoga Program ). For some of the other research findings have a look at The Art of Living research website, where a lot of the published research has been compiled.

One of the main reasons why Sudarshan Kriya is very effective in improving one's health also has to do with our current lifestyle and the health problems we face. Nowadays most of our health problems have been found to be partially or entirely created by stress, as prolonged exposure to stress causes toxins to be released in the body, lowering our immunity. And as we all know, when the immune power reduces, the body is less (or not) able to deal with all kinds of health problems. A strong immune system allows the body to fight almost any disease or health problem, as it has the ability to cure most diseases, as long as it is strong enough to do so. Regular practice of Sudarshan Kriya improves one's immune system, allowing the body to fix many health problems itself - and this is also why sometimes medicines or treatment suddenly become more effective after starting the practice of Sudarshan Kriya, as the body is now able to fight the diseases and do the necessary 'cleaning' or 'repair'.

There are many more benefits, but instead of listing them all here, I would invite you try out the program for yourself, and see how you feel after some regular practice.. :-)