Wall on Pitt campus shares happiness one card at a time
One guy, who works as a delivery man, pledged to deliver his product on time. Many pledged to hang out with their friends, give free hugs, call their grandparents and do other nice things that make people happy.
Students, staff members and visitors passing through the University of Pittsburgh's William Pitt Union on March 20 encountered a “happiness wall,” where project volunteers invited passers-by to fill out white cards that say: “I will share happiness by ...”
Many people, fearing a sales pitch, plugged in their ear buds, looked down at the floor and kept walking when they passed the display, but stopped when they learned the activity was free and simple, says volunteer Sandy DiGregory of Aspinwall.
“They want to avoid us,” says DiGregory, who would tell people: “It's free. We just want you to share your happiness with us.”
We all could use some more cheer in our stressful, everyday lives and the spreading of goodwill. That is why the United Nations started the International Day of Happiness. In 2012, the U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring March 20 as the International Day of Happiness, and the celebration started the following year, according to dayofhappiness.net. The resolution recognized happiness as a fundamental human goal and set the date to make pursuing happiness a higher priority.
Live Happy Magazine — one of the companies that partners with the U.N. — issued the #HappyActs Challenge and sponsored more than 35 happiness walls around the country, including the one at Pitt. The walls stayed up just for the day. The wall at Pitt even included some messages from children, like helping their parents more and caring for their pets. DiGregory got these cards from students at Christ the Divine Teacher Catholic Academy in Aspinwall, where her children, Samantha, 11, and David, 7, attend.
Deborah Heisz, co-founder and editorial director of Live Happy, says that happiness, research and experience show, is not necessarily tied to circumstances. In fact, according to the 2004 study “Pursuing Happiness: The Architecture of Sustainable Change” — published in 2005 by professors from three universities — 50 percent of a person's happiness is genetic, 40 percent comes from actions and attitudes and only 10 percent comes from circumstances.
“Happiness is not something that happens to you when you reach a certain point in life,” Heisz says. “You can be happier right now.”
The International Day of Happiness and the corresponding happiness walls, she says, motivate “communities and people at large to recognize that people can take responsibility for creating happiness for themselves and others.”
Interestingly, as people see on the happiness wall, acts of kindness can become synonymous with acts of happiness. That is because of the correlation between the two, Heisz says.
“Happy acts are so important to the happiness movement,” she says. “When you do them, they not only benefit the person who receives ... In doing the action, science has shown it benefits the person doing it.”
Hopefully, Heisz says, International Day of Happiness will become the Earth Day for happiness.
For Ilham Adam, 19, a Pitt sophomore in social work, the wall motivated her to pledge to give someone a sincere compliment — probably a stranger, says the Tanzania native.
Jamie Gambetta, 33, a software engineer at Pitt who lives in Irwin, vowed to play with his two kids. He is impressed with the happiness wall and thinks it sets a good example for people.
“People who are thinking positively — they're not alone,” he says.
Kellie B. Gormly is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at kgormly@tribweb.com or 412-320-7824.
