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Feeling Blue? Try This Free Ivy League Course All About Unlocking Happiness

Take Yale's most popular class without any hefty tuition fees.

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Are you feeling more emotional than usual lately? It’s understandable, of course. Whether you’ve been in quarantine for weeks or are simply exhausted by the constant news cycle surrounding coronavirus (COVID-19), it can all take a serious toll on our moods. Before letting yourself spiral out of control, you might want to try a free Yale class that’s helping people turn their stressed-out frowns upside down.

That’s right, you can get a slice of an Ivy League education no matter what your GPA looked like in high school (we won’t judge) and without applying for admission or paying tuition fees. The course is called “the Science of Well-Being” and was created by Laurie Santos, a Yale psychology professor. According to CNN, she was inspired to make it after noticing several students on campus struggling with mental health issues — and it quickly became the most popular class in the university’s more than 300-year history. That definitely says a lot about the power of hope and happiness.

There’s no need to step onto the Yale campus to benefit from Santos’ teachings. You can audit the class for free online with Coursera, meaning you’ll have access to all of the lectures and learning materials without actually being graded. You can also fully enroll for $49, which will allow you to hand in assignments and earn a certificate once you’ve completed it. The course details explain that it will take about 20 hours to complete with flexible deadlines.

Over 1,400 glowing reviews thank Santos for her guidance. One wrote, “I absolutely enjoyed and learned a lot about happiness from this course. I will definitely recommend it to my peers, as it gets me to the core from my misconceptions to developing the right practices.”

The class has been available online for the past two years, but Santos hopes it can be especially helpful with all of the stress and uncertainty in the world right now. “We’re in a particularly challenging time not just for this health crisis… but also a potential mental health crisis as well,” she told CNN, adding that the key to happiness is “cultivating healthy practices and routines.”

Take a look at the video below for more information about the class:

What a great way to utilize our newfound free time. Anything that helps us maintain a positive outlook is worth a shot — especially when it’s free!

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