ONE LIFE BLOG
Effects of Global Learning: Global Warming, Global Kindness
Today I had a Skype call with a few of the participants in the study group of the Science of Happiness course through Edx.
This was my second Skype conference call.
And both times I have come away from these with a profound sense of appreciation.
Five Ways to Well-being
We now have the research to back up what we think and believe promotes well-being. The concepts are simple and nothing is mentioned at all about owning stuff or watching tele :-)
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Transforming Anger
Quite some time I posted this on my Facebook page.... I'm not sure if anyone got it.
This concept occurred to me at work one day. It had been a hard week, and to put it bluntly - I was feeling a bit 'peeved' about a few things. These things had been going around and around in my mind for a few days. One morning - I realised that the anger was beginning to consume me. I was feeling tense, I wasn't enjoying my food. And I sat, with this anger, it dawned on me. In order to stop being angry - I had to do something to change my circumstances. That in itself was obvious, but I also realised that if I never got angry about things - I would be much less likely to make significant changes in my life....
The Many Paths to Happiness
So for the last few weeks, I've been doing a few courses (all in the name of research of course). Two are on Happiness - (A Life of Happiness and Fulfilment and The Science of Happiness), and the other is on Resilience. (Through Coursera and Edx). All are excellent courses and highly recommended.
In all the courses they talk about how humans are naturally wired to seek the 'bad' or negative in circumstances - it's a life saving strategy (noise in the bush - better think it's a lion rather than a bird, rather being the other way around). However, clearly it doesn't always serve us well in the modern world
Going Solo
Have there been times in your life, when the lack of friend/companion to take part in an activity resulted in you not doing something you really wanted to do? Wanted to got to a concert, movie, walk, hike - but not having anyone to go along with stopped you from going?
Anxiety and how to beat it
Have you ever suffered from butterflies in your stomach? A feeling of dread? Sweaty palms? Feeling that you are struggling to get a breath? Feeling nauseous? Or a general feeling of being on edge, startling easily?
Most of us have experienced this feeling at some point in our life. Usually brought about by being asked to speak publically, awaiting a job interview or waiting for life changing good or bad news. It's normal, it serves a function and we wouldn't be human without it.
But what do we do when it's seems to stay? When the feeling appears to come on for no reason and then doesn't leave us?
The Gift of Giving
Want to be a little happier? Start Giving.
I've taken a couple of courses recently - one of them was on the concept of happiness. The course looked at extensive research about what helps us to become happier people. Among other behaviours (which I look forward to writing about in other blogs!) giving has shown through various studies to be an action that promotes happiness and well-being - and it is the giving which makes the individual happy - rather than the other way around. We as humans appear to be hardwired to loving and giving - it is seen to be a natural trait we have. And while we all know that giving actually feels good - i.e. makes us feel happy - did you know it leads to other positive consequences as well?