For more than 20 years, Dan Lerner has been chasing the answer to the question, What does happiness have to do with achieving excellence and success? He shares his findings daily with everyone from Fortune 500 executives to military personnel to college students—and now he’s bringing his expertise to EndoFound.
Lerner is an author, strengths-based coach, and clinical instructor who teaches New York University’s most popular elective course, “The Science of Happiness.” He will share his knowledge and wisdom at the 15th Annual Endometriosis Foundation of America Patient Symposium on March 2 and 3 in New York City.
While Lerner teaches nearly 1,000 students each year how to create positive changes in their lives, he also works outside the university with a company in the health and well-being space for professionals, using technology, workshops, and speaking engagements to help them improve levels of happiness.
“What distinguishes our company is that we have a staff of researchers, clinicians, and others in academia who have developed an app that measures areas of well-being,” Lerner said. “Coming into EndoFound, we can say to all involved, ‘Here are empirically sound ways to raise your levels of well-being.’”
The app, SuperBloom, guides users through the process step by step, providing them with assessments to measure their levels of well-being, suggestions on how to raise it, and a community of other SuperBloom users focusing on similar outcomes whom they can contact for discussions and support
Lerner said one way the SuperBloom app can benefit those in the endometriosis community is for users to try to improve a shared challenge. For example, due to a lack of public awareness of endometriosis and the stigma that often accompanies the disease, many women who have it feel isolated, as if they are the only ones suffering from the pain and other symptoms.
“Those in the endo community may feel they have meaning, and they may feel they are taking care of themselves in terms of sleep, exercise, and nutrition, but what’s lacking for many of them, based on our data, is relationships. And maybe they want to invest in relationships but don’t know how,” Lerner said. “By using this app, they can focus on the data we share and the exercises we provide that can raise levels of quality relationships. It will give them a sense of community, a shared purpose, a shared focus, and it will help them understand they aren’t alone.”
What’s unique about the SuperBloom app and Lerner’s work is that it’s not a one-size-fits-all approach. Many different paths can ultimately connect to one’s overall happiness, but what may be most important now for one person may not be a priority for someone else.
“I work with the military quite a bit, and when I go into that community, I’m not going to say, ‘Hey, everyone be happy and invest in your positive emotions,’ because there are certain aspects of their work where positive emotions are not appropriate or available,” Lerner said. “And while relationships will matter, what tends to matter most to them is a sense of meaning—finding a connection to something larger than themselves. So, for those with endometriosis, I may say, ‘All of these aspects of well-being are important, but you may want to focus on these specific factors given what you’re going through right now.’”
While the subject of endometriosis is relatively new to Lerner, he has spent significant time learning about it and is excited to provide his audience with information and tools that will help them along their journeys.
“I want to be clear that while we’ll be talking about the science and psychology, we’ll provide very specific tools people can use to raise levels in each of these areas,” Lerner said. “I’m not going to say, ‘Relationships and meaning are important. Here’s the data. Good luck, everybody.’ I want people to leave with real actionable tools they can use to act on the data I share. That’s always a key component of what we do.
The 15th Annual EndoFound Patient Symposium will be from 9:30 A.M. to 4:30 P.M. on Saturday, March 2, and from 10 A.M. to 4 P.M. on Sunday, March 3, at the 4W43 Building, 4 West 43rd St. in New York City. For tickets, visit www.endofound.org/patientday.
To learn more about Dan Lerner, visit https://daniellerner.com.
To learn more about SuperBloom, check out their website or download the free SuperBloom app on the Apple App Store.
