To help you cope with everyday struggles and see things in a different light, UC Berkeley grants free access to its popular online course.

“We all want to be happy, and there are countless ideas about what happiness is and how we can get some. But not many of those ideas are based on science. That’s where this course comes in,” says the introduction to the program conceived by Emiliana Simon-Thomas and Dacher Keltner, both Ph.D.s at UC Berkeley Greater Good Science Center.

The largely popular course called The Science of Happiness was launched in 2014 with a simple aim: To show people what actually contributes to the state of being happy and how, through practice and understanding, they can apply certain behavioral patterns into their lives to improve their wellbeing.

All backed up by clinical studies and thorough research.

The authors of the eight-week-long course will walk you through topics such as what happiness means and how you can increase your happiness and foster happiness in others. They will explain why social connections, kindness, and community matter, and discuss the phenomena of mindfulness, empathy or gratitude.

The course is free, and if you are a health professional, you can earn continuing education units for participation.

The Science of Happiness The self-paced course is available on edX. Enroll now

In other news, Yale University has also opened its online course on happiness and positivity to the public.