Thank you for joining us on March 11!

Better Together 2022 and Meaningful Movies Project offered by the Diocese of Olympia were so pleased to welcome 445 viewers to our encore online screening of Mission: JOY featuring Archbishop Desmond Tutu and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Over 900 people registered for this event, donating almost $750 to our Better Together 2022 ministry partners: Chaplains on the Harbor/Harbor Roots Farm, Edible Hope, La Iglesia Episcopal de la Resurrección, Mission to Seafarers, Refugee Resettlement Office, and Underhill House.

Deeply moving and laugh-out-loud funny, Mission: JOY, directed by Louie Psihoyos and Peggy Callahan, is a documentary with unprecedented access to the unlikely friendship of two international icons who transcend religion: His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Tutu. In their final joint mission, these self-described mischievous brothers give a master class in how to create joy in a world that was never easy for them. They offer neuroscience-backed wisdom to help each of us live with more joy, despite circumstances.

In addition to the recording of our panel and community discussion, please see below calls to Joy – many ways you can bring joy into your life, your loved ones, your community, and to the world.

What Next?

  1. Take 4 minutes to create some joy for yourself AND be part of the largest-ever citizen science project on JOY: Take me to the BIG JOY Project!
  2. The How-to of JOY: Don’t wait for joy. Create your joy, today. Science shows that starting with even just one ACT OF JOY will help you feel better, right now. DOWNLOAD THE ONE PAGER (PDF)
  3. DO KINDNESS – TRY THIS:  Do a small thing to help someone else. Practicing kindness feels good and creates a ripple effect of greater good. It can be as small as smiling at someone in the grocery store. In short, it’s just doing something that will benefit another person or the world. Spoiler alert – it will benefit you, too. Here’s why.
  4. EXPRESS GRATITUDE – TRY THIS: – List 8 things you’re grateful for, or – Write 3 gratitude notes. For people, for pets, for things, for moments and memories. For anything! Just pause for a moment and think about something that feels good in your world. Really FEEL that good feeling. Acknowledge it. Here’s why.
  5. SHIFT PERSPECTIVE -TRY THIS: – List 3 potential ‘bright sides’ to a problem you’re facing, or – Ask yourself, 5 years from now, will the thing that is bothering you still matter? Look at situations from a different point of view to see the bigger picture. So often we can’t make an immediate change in our circumstances. But we are always capable of changing how we look at things. You can think of a challenging task as hard work, or you can think of it as good exercise. Choose the thought that helps you feel more joy. Here’s why.
  6. CONNECT TOGETHER – TRY THIS: – Send a friend a quick text message that will make them smile, or Tell a family member or friend about something small or large that you’re struggling with. Reach out and discover what’s shared and special between us all. Opening your heart to another will bring joy to both of you. So even though you might want to avoid humanity altogether when you’re feeling down, you’ll be a lot happier if you connect with some of us. Bonus: Doing a kindness for someone or telling someone you’re grateful for them are two ways to build connection. Here’s why.
  7. BEGIN OR JOIN A CONTEMPLATIVE PRACTICES GROUP – The Episcopal Diocese of Olympia offers weekly and monthly online group contemplative practices. Find those and other offerings here.

“WHEN YOU ARE KIND TO SOMEONE ELSE, YOU END UP BEING JOYFUL, BUT WHY? BECAUSE WE REALIZE THAT WE ARE MADE FOR GOODNESS.”

ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU

Research is clear: Happiness, resilience, connection, and kindness are skills that can be taught and developed over time—with practice. Visit UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, in collaboration with HopeLab. Synthesizing hundreds of scientific studies, Greater Good in Action collects the best research-based methods for a happier, more meaningful life—and puts them at your fingertips in a format that’s easy to navigate and digest.

WHY BOTHER TO CREATE MORE JOY?

225 scientific studies show that people with more eudaimonic happiness, i.e., joy:

  • Are more productive at work and more creative
  • Make more money and have more sought-after jobs
  • Are more effective leaders and negotiators
  • Are more likely to marry and have fulfilling marriages, and less likely to divorce
  • Have more friends and social support
  • Have stronger immune systems, are physically healthier, and even live longer
  • Are more helpful and philanthropic
  • Show more resilience to stress and trauma

YOU SEE, USUALLY EVERYBODY SEEKS HAPPINESS – JOYFULNESS – BUT FROM OUTSIDE. FROM MONEY, FROM POWER, FROM BIG CAR, FROM BIG HOUSE. ULTIMATE SOURCE OF HAPPY LIFE – EVEN PHYSICAL HEALTH – INSIDE NOT OUTSIDE.

HIS HOLINESS THE DALAI LAMA

Watch our March 11 Panel Discussion and Community Conversation

Our Panel:

Dr. Charles Johnson, University of Washington (Seattle) professor emeritus and the author of 26 books, is a novelist, philosopher, essayist, literary scholar, short-story writer, cartoonist and illustrator, an author of children’s literature, and a screen-and-teleplay writer. A MacArthur fellow, Johnson has received a 2002 American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Literature, a 1990 National Book Award for his novel Middle Passage, a 1985 Writers Guild award for his PBS teleplay “Booker,” the 2016 W.E.B. Du Bois Award at the National Black Writers Conference, and many other awards. The Charles Johnson Society at the American Literature Association was founded in 2003. In February, 2020, Lifeline Theater in Chicago debuted its play adaptation of Middle Passage. Dr. Johnson’s most recent publications are The Way of the Writer: Reflections on the Art and Craft of Storytelling, his fourth short story collection, Night Hawks, which was nominated for a 2019 Washington State Book Award, GRAND: A Grandparent’s Wisdom for a Happy Life, and the graphic novel The Eightfold Path.
Dr. Judith Mayotte is an American humanitarian, author, theologian, producer, former Catholic religious sister, ethicist, and university professor. Through her work among and advocacy on behalf of refugees and internally displaced civilians, Judy wrote Disposable People?: The Plight of Refugees. Today her focus is on issues concerned with climate change and climate displacement. She brought her experiences in the field on these issues and on human rights to university classrooms in the U.S. and South Africa, including Seattle University. Judy served in the first Clinton Administration as a Special Adviser on Refugee Issues and Policy as well as on several humanitarian boards and on the Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation. Earlier, she was an Emmy Award-winning television producer.
David Mesenbring lives in Seattle as a retired priest of the Diocese of Olympia. His ecumenical career included diverse roles as a social entrepreneur working to broaden the world view of North Americans. Desmond Tutu invited David to teach black seminarians in South Africa where he gathered Steve Biko’s banned writings in the tense weeks following Biko’s 1977 murder. After eight years of grass roots advocacy back home, CNN featured David in a live debate on the day Congress passed the Anti-Apartheid Economic Sanctions Act. The Christian Century recently published his reflection on Desmond Tutu. Read David’s reflection, Desmond Tutu’s Transformative Vision.

Watch the 2011 Conversation Moderated by Judith Mayotte

Questions? Please email Sylvia Sepulveda.

Learn more at the Diocese of Olympia Meaningful Movies Page.

Stay connected by following our Facebook page.
Mission: JOY – March