Last week, Year 12 had the privilege of attending a 1-hour seminar titled How to Thrive not just Survive the HSC given by Miss Alvir. We all listened with open ears to her insightful knowledge on the topics of happiness and wellbeing, psychology, and the habits and characteristics of happy people.
We started out with a reflection of what we believed our deepest desires were and what we believed would bring us the most happiness. Most of us believed that being successful in certains areas of our lives would lead to our happiness. However we soon realised after listening to Psychologist Shawn Achor's Ted Talk, The Happiness Advantage, we had it all mixed up. Shawn talked about how often as humans we believe happiness is achieved through success. But according to psychological studies, the formula is quite the opposite. In order to achieve better overall success, we must first be happy.
Miss Alvir then ran us through how to put this formula into practice. She talked all about the 9 Habits of happy people and how we can bounce back from hard times or mental lows, especially in the upcoming year. She showed us that our key character strengths are associated with our wellbeing and goal success. This resulted in us feeling compelled and motivated to start living out good habits for study success and happiness.
Towards the end of the seminar Miss Alvir left us with the words of Victor Frankl, “Those who have a ‘why’ to live can bear almost any ‘how’.” It was with these words that she encouraged us to find the meaning behind our studies and the reason why we do it.
Elizabeth F and Isabella C
(School and Vice Captains)
