Another great Symposium this past Friday. I’d been wanting to schedule something really different from previous Symposiums to give folks an idea of the breadth of topics people could present. So I was really happy when Greg and Neal each came to me with their ideas. It worked out so that they both presented on the same night.

Greg started us off with Qigong exercises, which reminded me a lot of Tai Chi. While he was teaching us the various movements, Greg interwove his own experiences with this practice. I was impressed with the fluidity in which he could demonstrate movements while telling a story. It reminded me of a musician who is very comfortable with their instrument. Whenever it comes to any sort of martial art or something that asks you to perform precise motions, I tend to get in my head, wanting to do it “right.” With the Qigong exercises, I found myself just going with the motions even if I wasn’t doing them perfectly.

After the intermission, Neal gave a presentation (complete with Powerpoint!) on the Science of Happiness. He covered a lot of ground in a short amount of time. I won’t go into everything he talked about here, but I will summarize by saying that he took us through a tour of the concept of happiness and how it can be interfaced with via your mind, body and spirit. We also took a happiness test which assessed our current level of happiness. I fell into the “average” demographic in each of the three categories. Afterwards we played an improv game where everyone was given a small glass stone. The only rules were that the experience lasted ten minutes and you weren’t allowed to speak. It was designed to evoke the playfulness we experienced as children when we could just invent and have fun with no boundaries.

I was pleased with the whole evening and happy to see some new faces. Now I need to book someone for January!