‘The Happiness Gym’ asks audiences to practice the habits of happiness
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You head to the gym for your physical health, but what about exercising your mind? That’s the idea behind “The Happiness Gym,” now running at Mixed Blood in Minneapolis.
“Researchers call it flourishing,” said Alejandro Tey, who co-directed Mixed Blood’s version of the show. Built on research into “flourishing,” the show gives audiences concrete ideas for how to improve their own happiness.
“A big part of the piece is literally just explaining the science of happiness,” Tey said. The show then asks audiences to try several of the exercises, like sharing good news with others.
“What the research shows is that it's not actually the learning of a happy story that makes one happy, it's the trying to make someone else happy,” Tey said.
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“So what we do is we ask folks to read the stories and then share them with each other.”
For Mixed Blood, a theater known for its social justice, the “Happiness Gym” isn’t about ignoring the issues of our world. Rather, it's a way of connecting people and fighting off burnout.
“For many, we find ourselves in difficult times,” said Mixed Blood artistic director and the show’s co-director Mark Valdez in a press release.
“We wanted to make opportunities for us all to come together, in coalition, to imagine beautiful futures as a first step to making them a reality.”
“The Happiness Gym” runs through Dec. 7 in Minneapolis.
