Friday, September 24, 2010
Quote of the Day
"Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself: I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn't arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I'm going to be happy in it." Groucho Marx
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
What "The Happiest Man in the World" Thinks About Happiness
(Originally published in New York Magazine, September 19, 2010. Photo: Courtesy of Konchog)The Happiness Workout: Advice from the guru.
By Eric V. Copage
Matthieu Ricard, happiness guru, has a new book, Why Meditate, a follow-up to his earlier how-to manual, Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill. He came to town to promote both it and the practice of happiness in general. Ricard is a 64-year-old Frenchman who, shortly after receiving a doctorate in cellular genetics, decided to become a Buddhist monk. Today he is wearing the yellow-and-burgundy robes of his calling at an event in the West 17th Street loft offices of the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation. He is conducting a daylong meditation workshop for 57 quietly—and spiritually—affluent-looking men and women. He is also signing a few books.
Neuroscientists studying meditation have done numerous brain scans and brain-wave measurements on Ricard; they found that the parts of his brain associated with positive emotions were unusually active. In 2007, a British paper nicknamed him “The Happiest Man in the World,” which stuck.
In person, Ricard does seem to chuckle a lot. He says that while often people think of happiness as the absence of conflict, it’s actually “a cluster of qualities: altruism, compassion, inner peace, inner freedom, and inner strength.” And it can be cultivated. “It’s not, in principle, different from any skill. Instead of going to a gymnasium for fitness, you go to a compassion gymnasium, which is sitting in the morning and, for twenty minutes, bringing love and kindness to your mind.” Eventually, “It will raise your baseline.”
I confront him with the basic type-A New Yorker’s suspicion of bliss: Wouldn’t someone lose their mojo, their creative spark and ambition, if they were too happy? “You don’t become dull like a vegetable,” he promises. “You’ll still have your ups and downs, but where you come back after winning the lottery or losing, your response will be different.”
Wouldn’t a person too steeped in good feelings become vulnerable to being taken advantage of? “Altruism and compassion doesn’t mean stupidly letting everyone step on your toes,” he says. “When you meet someone, have an open attitude—an a priori trusting. If you smile, smile—but you don’t have to smile like you’re crazy. If you value others, you are concerned with their happiness and suffering. That doesn’t mean you’re weak.”
I ask him if he thinks unhappiness is romanticized. “When my book on happiness was published in Paris, many said, ‘We don’t care for happiness, so leave us alone!’ They say suffering is so interesting, it’s always changing. But I think for some reason you are lost and can’t see how you cultivate happiness. And you make a whole romantic theory about unhappiness, rather than remedy the cause of that suffering.”
So what irritates him? “I don’t feel irritation,” he responds haltingly, after a beat. “Irritation has to do with a self-centered attitude: ‘This bugs me! I can’t stand that!’ It’s not like indignation, which is a noble form of anger. It says, ‘This is not acceptable that there is a massacre, that there is an injustice.’ It comes from compassion that there is something here that has caused a lot of suffering and should be remedied. But irritation is basically when you’re not in control of your mind.”
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
How to Make a Country of Happy People: free education, free health care, and a clean mountain environment...
"It does not demand much imagination intelligence," the prime minster told the summit, "to understand that endless pursuit of material growth in a world with limited natural resources within a delicately balanced ecology is just not sustainable -- that it is dangerous and stupid."
Happy Bhutan proposes a new global goal
By Tim Witcher (AFP)
(Originally published by AFP, September 21, 2010)
UNITED NATIONS — The introvert Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan on Monday urged the world to adopt a new Millennium Development Goal -- happiness -- if it really wants to end the scourge of poverty, hunger and disease.
Bhutan's Prime Minister, Jigmi Thinley, condemned the "dangerous and stupid" pursuit of wealth, even by some of his big and brash neighbours India and China, in a speech to the UN summit on reaching the MDGs.
The land of the Gross National Happiness index again sought to export its optimistic ideology, which the prime minister said encompassed all of the eight major goals set by the United Nations in 2000.
Aims which Thinley said Bhutan is on target to reach, while the rest of the world struggles.
Thinley said that as the eight existing goals are likely to remain after the target date of 2015 "my delegation would like to propose to this highest forum in the world that we include happiness as the ninth MDG."
"It is a goal that stands as a separate value while representing as well, the sum total outcome of the other eight. Its relevance goes beyond the poor and developing member states to bind all of humanity, rich and poor, to a timeless common vision."
Gross National Happiness was conceived by the father of Buddhist Bhutan's young monarch -- Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck -- and is firmly established as official government policy.
Seeking a more holistic indicator of development that transcends the "materialism" of Gross Domestic Product, Gross National Happiness measures four criteria -- sustainable development, preservation and promotion of cultural values, conservation of the environment, and good governance.
It does not ignore economic growth, however. Bhutan, which has been slowly emerging from hundreds of years of isolation -- only allowing television in 1999 -- has clocked an annual average of about eight percent growth for the past few years.
Bhutan says it concentrates on the type of growth that is important. It has policies that provide free education and health care, a clean mountain environment and making sure the country's religious and cultural traditions remain intact.
"It does not demand much imagination intelligence," the prime minster told the summit, "to understand that endless pursuit of material growth in a world with limited natural resources within a delicately balanced ecology is just not sustainable -- that it is dangerous and stupid.
"One cannot imagine, even as China and India aspire to compete in consumption with the USA, what would become of Earth if every global citizen acquired the same voracious capacity."
According to the prime minister, "the evidence of the limited ability of nature to tolerate abuse is there for us to suffer in the rising frequency and fury of multiple calamities." He mentioned the Pakistan flood disaster as well as the huge oil slick which has hit the Gulf of Mexico this year.
Thinley said the global financial crisis was a reminder that much of the world's wealth is "illusory" and can quickly "disappear without a trace."
He said the current economic crisis could get worse and predicted "more, we can be certain, will strike to persuade us of the need to change our way of life."
The prime minister left the podium with a smile and to a strong if bemused ovation from world leaders.
Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Designing Your Own Workspace Improves Happiness
(excerpted from Designing Your Own Workspace Improves Health Happiness and Productivity, originally published on ohsonline.com on September 14, 2010)
Results consistently showed that the more control people had over their office spaces, the happier and more motivated they were in their jobs. They felt physically more comfortable at work, identified more with their employers, and felt more positive about their jobs in general.
Studies by the University of Exeter's School of Psychology have revealed the potential for remarkable improvements in workers’ attitudes to their jobs by allowing them to personalize their offices.
The findings challenge the conventional approach taken by most companies, where managers often create a “lean” working environment that reflects a standardized corporate identity.
Dr Craig Knight conducted the research as part of his PhD and is now Director of PRISM – a company that deals with space issues in the workplace. He said “Most contemporary offices are functional and offer very little user control, but our studies suggest this practice needs to be challenged.
“When people feel uncomfortable in their surroundings they are less engaged – not only with the space but also with what they do in it. If they can have some control, that all changes and people report being happier at work, identifying more with their employer, and are more efficient when doing their jobs.”
The research involved more than 2,000 office workers in a series of studies looking at attitudes to — and productivity within — working space. This included two surveys of workers’ attitudes carried out via online questionnaires, as well as two experiments which examined workers’ efficiency when carrying out tasks under different conditions.
The surveys assessed the level of control workers had over their space — ranging from none at all to being fully consulted over design changes. Workers were then asked a series of questions about how they felt about their workspace and their jobs.
Results consistently showed that the more control people had over their office spaces, the happier and more motivated they were in their jobs. They felt physically more comfortable at work, identified more with their employers, and felt more positive about their jobs in general.
(To read the entire article, as published on Occupational Health and Safety's website, ohsonline.com, click here)
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
"Gay" Means "Happy"
"Gay" Means "Happy"
Words (not image) seen on a t-shirt-for-sale, today in Union Square Park, NYC
Stop Waiting! and Start Getting Happy!
How to be Happy:
Tips for cultivating contentment
Are you tired of waiting around for happiness to find you? Stop waiting and start getting happy with these tips.(Originally published on by the MayoClinic.com, September 15, 2010)
Do you know how to be happy? Or are you waiting for happiness to find you? Despite what the fairy tales depict, happiness doesn't appear by magic. It's not even something that happens to you. It's something you can cultivate. So, what are you waiting for? Start discovering how to be happy.
Only 10 percent or so of the variation in people's reports of happiness can be explained by differences in their circumstances. The bulk of what determines happiness is your personality and — more modifiable — your thoughts and behaviors. So, yes, you can learn how to be happy — or at least happier.
Although you may have thought, as many people do, that happiness comes from being born rich or beautiful or living a stress-free life, the reality is that those things don't confer lasting happiness. Indeed, how to be happy can't be boiled down to one thing. Happiness is the sum of your life choices. People who are happy seem to intuitively know this, and their lives are built on the following pillars:
- Devoting time to family and friends
- Appreciating what they have
- Maintaining an optimistic outlook
- Feeling a sense of purpose
- Living in the moment
The good news is that your choices, thoughts and actions can influence your level of happiness. It's not as easy as flipping a switch, but you can turn up your happiness level. Here's how to get started on the path to creating a happier you.
Invest in relationships
Surround yourself with happy people. Being around people who are content buoys your own mood. And by being happy yourself, you give something back to those around you.
Friends and family help you celebrate life's successes and support you in difficult times. Although it's easy to take friends and family for granted, these relationships need nurturing. Build up your emotional account with kind words and actions. Be careful and gracious with critique. Let people know that you appreciate what they do for you or even just that you're glad they're part of your life.
Express gratitude
Gratitude is more than saying thank you. It's a sense of wonder, appreciation and, yes, thankfulness for life. It's easy to go through life without recognizing your good fortune. Often, it takes a serious illness or other tragic event to jolt people into appreciating the good things in their lives. Don't wait for something like that to happen to you.
Make a commitment to practice gratitude. Each day identify at least one thing that enriches your life. When you find yourself thinking an ungrateful thought, try substituting a grateful one. For example, replace "my sister forgot my birthday" with "my sister has always been there for me in tough times." Let gratitude be the last thought before you go off to sleep. Let gratitude also be your first thought when you wake up in the morning.
Cultivate optimism
Develop the habit of seeing the positive side of things. You needn't become a Pollyanna — after all, bad things do happen, and it would be silly to pretend otherwise. But you don't have to let the negatives color your whole outlook on life. Remember that what is right about you almost always trumps what is wrong about you.
If you're not an optimistic person by nature, it may take time for you to change your pessimistic thinking. Start by recognizing negative thoughts as you have them. Then take a step back and ask yourself these key questions:
- Is the situation really as bad as I think?
- Is there another way to look at the situation?
- What can I learn from this experience that I can use in the future?
People who strive to meet a goal or fulfill a mission — whether it's growing a garden, caring for children or finding one's spirituality — are happier than those who don't have such aspirations. Having a goal provides a sense of purpose, bolsters self-esteem and brings people together. What your goal is doesn't matter as much as whether the process of working toward it is meaningful to you. Try to align your daily activities with the long-term meaning and purpose of your life. Research studies suggest that relationships provide the strongest meaning and purpose to your life. So cultivate meaningful relationships.
Are you engaged in something you love? If not, ask yourself these questions to discover how you can find your purpose:
- What excites and energizes me?
- What are my proudest achievements?
- How do I want others to remember me?
Don't postpone joy waiting for a day when your life is less busy or less stressful. That day may never come. Instead, look for opportunities to savor the small pleasures of everyday life. Focus on the positives in the present moment. Don't spend your time rehashing the past or worrying about the future. Take time to stop and smell the flowers.
References
- Lyubomirsky S. The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want. New York, N.Y.: Penguin, 2007:14.
- Baker D, et al. What Happy People Know: How the New Science of Happiness Can Change Your Life for the Better. Emmaus, Pa.: Rodale, 2003:39.
- Hill AL, et al. Emotions as infectious diseases in a large social network: The SISa model. Proceedings Biological Sciences. In press. Accessed July 7, 2010.
- Sood A. Log On: Two Steps to Mindful Awareness. Rochester, Minn.: Morning Dew Publications, 2009:28.
- Snyder CR, et al. Positive Psychology: The Scientific and Practical Exploration of Human Strengths. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, 2007:145.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Don’t let one bad apple spoil the barrel
Quite often, as we go through life, we’ll experience moments when one person in a group, one issue in a relationship, one personal problem is so rotten that it threatens to infect the rest of your life, especially if we allow ourselves to give into the fallacy that it is representative of the whole.
In these situations you must remind yourself that you have a choice—you can either let the apple continue to rot and ruin everything or you can pick it out, isolate it, and recognize that it need not affect the rest of the situation.
Picking out this bad apple sometimes is simply a matter of compartmentalizing the situation, and being mentally and emotionally strong enough to know that it is not indicative of a widespread concern. One cloud does not mean the sky is falling.
You can expedite resolving the issue by focusing on the positive, continuing to conduct your life as usual, rather than allowing the bad apple to take over. Certainly, at some point, you must deal with the issue, problem or person, but it need not usurp everything else.
So, stay positive, remind yourself that it is but one issue, one person, one problem and don’t let that one bad apple spoil the barrel.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Happiness Fuels Success...not the other way around
"Conventional wisdom holds that if we work hard we will be more successful, and if we are more successful, then we’ll be happy. If we can just find that great job, win that next promotion, lose those five pounds, happiness will follow. But recent discoveries in the field of positive psychology have shown that this formula is actually backward:Happiness fuels success, not the other way around.
When we are positive, our brains become more engaged, creative, motivated, energetic, resilient, and productive at work."
(Excerpted from David M. Kinchen's Book Review of The Happiness Advantage By Shawn Achor.)
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Happiness can be a taco with all the fixings
"After all, if your loved ones are OK, the bills are paid and a couple of monster tacos aren't going to break the bank, how much more do you really need?
I know. The guacamole."
New York City:
I came across this editorial on the recent Princeton study and I thought I'd share it with my readers. It reflects a certain philosophy that a lot of us American-Latinos and Latin Americans understand and live by on a daily basis.
There is a wonderful saying in Spanish that I love to use whenever toasting, usually for no better reason than to acknowledge the happiness one experiences when simply being at a "happy hour" with friends:
To our health, love and money, and time to enjoy them all.
I think it is worth noting that "to money" here does not mean "a lot of money" or winning the lottery, it simply means, as Ms. Anglin points out, is "just enough money" to live responsibly by and to enjoy life often, which in essence is not much money at all, if you do it right.
Happiness can be a taco with all the fixings
by Maria Anglin
(Originally posted to mysanantonio.com on September 9, 2010)
To all of those people who love to repeat the dicho about how money can't buy happiness, a new study has come along saying "Fijate que si."
Well, sort of.
On Tuesday, the Houston Chronicle reported on a study that found people's emotional well being, or happiness, increases with their income up until they hit $75,000 a year. After that, the researchers reported, the level of happiness stays about the same.
People making less than that, a Princeton economist told the Chronicle, face too much “stuff” that interferes with their day-to-day happiness. Presumably, the economist was talking about facing cost of living expenses and decisions that could lead to more bills, although he might also have been talking about all the “stuff” que compra el vecino with really bad credit. It's hard not to be a little envidioso of El You-Only-Live-Once and his new iPad, his week-long trip to Curacao and the new and loaded hemi, unless you're with him on Saturday morning when he's frantically figuring out which bill to pay and which one to leave in the shoebox hasta que caiga el proximo paycheck.
But for those who count their coins responsibly, it makes perfect sense that a little more scratch makes life easier. Anybody who has ever had to make the difficult choice between the beef fajita monster taco con guacamole y un taco flaco de picadillo con papas knows that this is true. For those who don't understand the happiness a good taco can bring, here's another example — a full tank of gas vs. as much gas as you can afford with the few bucks left over after the trip to the Dollar Only, plus the quarters that were hiding under the napkins in the car's console. It's safe to bet the study's findings also have something to do with the happy people surveyed also having a good memory; nickeleando is a tough lesson and one not easily forgotten.
Those who quote the song “Pobrecito mi patron, cree que el pobre soy yo,” are likely hovering around that $75,000 mark, which is probably lower in places like San Antonio that are blessed with a lower cost of living than other big cities. While money can buy us a lot of freedom and peace of mind, it can also attract big problems along with all manner of sinverguenzas, ratas and pediches — which is why those who know this actively avoid buying lottery tickets with huge jackpots.
After all, if your loved ones are OK, the bills are paid and a couple of monster tacos aren't going to break the bank, how much more do you really need?
I know. The guacamole.
—mariaanglin@yahoo.com
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
After $75,000, Money Can't Buy Day-to-Day Happiness
"What other studies have also shown is that money matters up to a point. But after a certain point, having additional money doesn't make people like their lives better or feel better about themselves on a day to day basis."
This holds true in other countries around the world as well... Once per capita GDP rises to a point in which people are no longer struggling to meet basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter and healthcare, additional increases in overall national wealth don't seem to make much of a difference in happiness..."
After $75,000, Money Can't Buy Day-to-Day Happiness
But the more people make, the better they feel about their lives overall, study found
By Jenifer Goodwin, Bloomberg Businessweek
MONDAY, Sept. 6 (HealthDay News) -- Money can help buy happiness -- at least if you're bringing in about $75,000 a year, new research shows.
While happiness increases along with annual household incomes up to about $75,000, beyond that, earning more money has no effect on day-to-day contentment, according to the study.
But that doesn't mean you should give up trying to get that promotion. While making more won't help your emotional state on any given day, people who had household incomes above $75,000 were more apt to say they were satisfied overall with their life.
Those who made, say, $120,000 reported more satisfaction with their lives and had a higher assessment of their life overall than those who made less, while those who made $160,000 evaluated their lives even better still.
"It's really important to recognize that the word 'happiness' covers a lot of ground," said study author Angus Deaton, a professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University. "There is your overall evaluation of how your life is going, while the other has to do more with emotional well-being at the moment. Higher incomes don't seem to have any effect on well-being after around $75,000, whereas your evaluation of your life keeps going up along with income."
The study is in the Sept. 6 early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Researchers used data from the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, which surveyed 450,000 Americans in 2008 and 2009 about their household income, emotional state during the prior day and overall feelings about their life and well-being.
Both measures of happiness are getting at something different, Deaton noted. You might be feeling blue or unhappy one day because your boss hassled you or you got a speeding ticket, but overall, you think life is going pretty well.
Conversely, you might have felt happy, even joyful, on an outing with your friends and family, but are overall not satisfied with your life or the direction it's going.
So which measure of happiness matters more?
That's a philosophical question and perhaps one only the individual can answer, Deaton said. "That's a really deep, hard question. [Both measures] are important. But if you're unhappy now, the fact your life may be going well doesn't make up for that."
Social scientists and psychologists have long grappled with how to measure happiness, said James Maddux, a psychology professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., who was not involved with the study.
The new study does a good job teasing apart the different aspects of emotional well-being, including more immediate emotions vs. bigger-picture life evaluations, Maddux said.
"This study is consistent with a lot of other studies on the relationship between income and happiness or overall life satisfaction," Maddux said. "What other studies have also shown is that money matters up to a point. But after a certain point, having additional money doesn't make people like their lives better or feel better about themselves on a day to day basis."
This holds true in other countries around the world as well, he noted. Once per capita GDP rises to a point in which people are no longer struggling to meet basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter and healthcare, additional increases in overall national wealth don't seem to make much of a difference in happiness, Maddux said.
Maddux urged America's beleaguered workers not to get too hung up on the $75,000 figure. That income level can mean very different things depending on how many people are in the family, what sorts of financial responsibilities you have and where you live, he said.
"$75,000 is not a magical figure people need to achieve to be at their happiest," Maddux said. "The point is there is a threshold at which people probably are not going to be substantially happier if they keep making more money."
In 2008, average U.S household income was about $71,500, while the median -- or the point at which half of incomes are higher and half are lower -- was $52,000. The average skews higher than the median because of a few very high incomes, Deaton explained.
While people with household incomes of more than $75,000 probably won't feel an enduring happiness boost if they are able to earn more, losing substantial income would likely not be good for their emotional well being, the study suggested. As income dropped, respondents reported declining happiness and increased sadness and stress.
And,according to the study, poverty exacerbated the emotional impact of negative life events such as illness and divorce. Nor did the poor get as much of a happiness boost from weekends as those who were better-off, according to the researchers.
"Life is unfair for the poor in all sort of dimensions," Deaton said.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
