My last blog was on happiness and the book THE HAPPINESS ADVANTAGE by Shawn Achor. In the book the author gives techniques to be happy. One is to write down three good things that happened each day or that you are grateful for to stay focused on the positive in your life.
Fawn in our yard
Yesterday I was working at my desk when I had a nudge to check the mailbox. We have a long driveway on a wooded lot. The mailman hadn’t come yet, but as I started back up the driveway I saw a doe with three spotted fawns. The fawns were frolicking around and eating apples that had fallen from our apple tree. The doe kept her eyes on me and stamped her feet. I stood still so as to not bother her or her fawns.
Fawn walking
As I watched them I was grateful for the gift of seeing these beautiful creatures. I was open to seeing the blessing. When they wandered away I continued up the driveway and a saw a garter snake. The light shone on its yellow stripe as it moved gracefully through the green grass. Seeing it reminded me of my childhood. I like garter snakes and played with them when I was young.
Butterfly on a Birch tree
Later, when I got the mail I saw a lovely Mourning Cloak butterfly on the orange daylilies growing beside the mailbox. At the end of the day I went for a walk and again saw the doe and her three fawns in a neighbor’s yard. Everything I saw seemed to shine with light and the love of life on this special summer day.
Butterfly
I realized that the technique of writing down three things a day was working for me. It was helping me see the blessing in my life even when things are challenging. I also realized I had gotten lax in writing down three things each day. I was reminded that we are responsible for our own happiness and that I need to keep looking for the blessings in my life that come in the form of flowers, trees, animals, family, friends and having a nice home.
In this blog post I want to exam the topic of happiness. Happiness is one of the most googled topics on the Internet and depression is high around the world. What causes some people to be happy and others unhappy or even depressed? What contributes to happiness? Can people increase their level of happiness and if so how?
I was discussing this topic with one of my sons and he recommended a book called the The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work by Shawn Achor.
In the book I found the answers to my questions, including some great techniques to be happy. What stuck out for me about the book is the idea that we can be happier no matter who we are. Just as there are things you can do to have better health and/or improve your brain, there are simple techniques you can do to be happier.
In the introduction Achor says that most people have a formula that they have been taught by schools, parents and society. “That is: If you work hard, you will become successful, then you’ll be happy.” As a result of this thinking we believe that we have to have something good happen before we can be happy. I’ll be happy when I get a raise, reach a goal, lose weight or get a new house.
Achor tells us that this formula is broken because with every goal we accomplish we set a new goalpost for success. Moreover, the formula is backward. Happiness is a precursor to success not the other way around. “Happiness and optimism actually fuel performance and achievement—giving us the competitive edge that I call the happiness advantage.”
This discovery is based on thousands of scientific studies and Achor’s own work with Harvard students and Fortune 500 companies worldwide. Achor observed that Harvard students who felt that being there was a privilege excelled, whereas those that were focused on the stress and pressure missed out on opportunities.
Achor came up with 7 principles for happiness.
▪ Principle #1: The Happiness Advantage
▪ Principle #2: The Fulcrum and The Lever
▪ Principle #3: The Tetris Effect
▪ Principle #4: Falling Up
▪ Principle #5: The Zorro Circle
▪ Principle #6: The 20-second Rule
▪ Principle #7: Social Investment
In each section Achor explains the principle and then gives techniques for improving happiness. When talking about the first principle “The Happiness Advantage” Achor said that positive brains have a biological advantage over neutral or negative brains. If we capitalize on the positive we on are smarter, more motivated and more successful. Achor gave different techniques in the book to increase the happiness in your life.
One technique I’ve been using is to write down at the beginning of each day three positive things that happened during the last twenty-four hours. I found that this keeps me focused on the positive things in my life.
Another technique I’ve tried is to commit conscious acts of kindness. This can be as small as smiling at someone or opening a door for someone, to weeding my Mother’s garden or having a friend over for dinner. It makes me feel good to do something for someone else.
A third technique is to exercise. I try to do this every day. It’s warm in Minnesota this time of year and I enjoy swimming, biking, hiking, and yoga.
Achor also suggests meditation to calm the mind and step away from multi tasking. Instead I take time everyday to contemplate. I often sing the word HU to uplift my consciousness.
Here are a few additional ones
Write about a recent positive experience three times a week. By doing this you relive the experience.
Spend money on “doing” things that you enjoy. For me it might be on going to a play or going on a trip.
Make plans to do things that you can look forward to.
I highly recommend reading The Happiness Advantage if you’d like to be a happier, more creative, positive, successful person. We can all have the happiness advantage.
Here is a humorous Ted Talk YouTube with Shawn Achor. It’s worth listening to.
To brighten your day here is a YouTube of a baby laughing.
I’d like to end with a quote on happiness.
“I am determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may find myself. For I have learned that the greater part of our misery or unhappiness is determined not by our circumstance but by our disposition.”
“I learn this at least by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live that life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”
Last year Anna Skarie did a guest blog on Kickstarter. She and her mother, Joy Dey, wrote Just Another Monday (SWAK Publishing), a children’s book, and used Kickstarter to get enough money to publish it. I wanted to do a follow up on their ongoing adventure. Anna and Joy made their goal on Kickstarter and published their book! They are now selling and promoting the book thought fairs, museums, libraries, bookstores and schools. They made a large copy of the book so all the children could see it when they read it outloud. In the older grades they talk about publishing. Here is a picture of Anna with the large sized book.
The adventure begins.
Anna and Joy call their book a DoU (do-you) Adventure and have an entire series in production. On each page the child decides what to do and turns to that tab. There are 70 different adventures the children can have.
The story starts with:
A dragon lands right beside you! Yikes! Do you. . .
Run like crazy
Or
Hop on?
The child then decides what to do and turns to that tab.
Children reading the story with their father.
Here are all the paths the adventure can take.
Anna and Joy at Pease Elemary School , Joy is on the far right
The book is mainly for children who are old enough to choose their own adventures, but my grandson Asher who is only 5 months enjoyed the bright colors and turning the pages. The book is made with heavy cardboard so it is sturdy enough for babies.
Good book!
What is on the boat page?
If there is a child in your life who would like to have lots of adventures with a dragon you can order the book off Amazon.
Their website is sitwithakid.com
Future Events
Saturday, July 6th – Twin Ports Bridge Festival event and booth
Saturday, July 20th – Two Harbors Chalk-A-Lot
Saturday/Sunday, August 24th/25th – Austin Artworks Festival reading and booth
Today was a challenging day so a friend sent me a funny YouTube. We can all use a little humor in our lives so I’m passing it along. The comedian is Jeanne Robertson who has a great sense of humor and good, clean jokes. Jeanne loves humorous stories and so when her friends hear a funny story they call her. She said I’d much rather they do that than call me when they heard some good gossip.
We all benefit from laughing everyday so hear are some good stories. Enjoy!
Bungee Jumping in Canada. Left Brain is her husband.
In Minnesota spring is a big event. After looking at bare trees for over six months I am always delighted to see bright colors. Some of the first flowers out are tulips. At the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum they always plant thousands of tulips. This year they had a wonderful display using the theme of orange and purple flowers. Enjoy the beauty of their rich display.
Today I want to share a poem by E. Johannes Soltermann who is a talented writer, poet and musician. One of the things he likes to do is play the piano at the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport to share his music and love of life. He is the author of The Gate: A Tale for the 21st Century, and Healing From Terrorism, Fear, and Global War.
Today I was at a meeting for a non-profit organization that distributes money to Minnesota charities. A woman named Jennifer sat at our table and she said, “In the US, one out of every four people has a criminal record.” In Minnesota, my home state, the statistic is slightly better: one in five.
Many crimes are committed by teenagers and are related to drug use or theft (such as stealing a bike out of a garage or shoplifting). One thing I did not realize is that once there were laws that protected young people so that these indiscretions didn’t go on their record, but this is no longer the case in Minnesota if a youth commits a crime after he’s sixteen. This change has hurt many people’s chances for a successful future. Having a criminal record makes it difficult to get a job, a higher education (some colleges won’t accept people with a record), and rent an apartment.
I don’t normally write about social issues, but another statistic that caught my attention was that children of color make up 93% of all children in poverty in Minneapolis today. More than half of all American Indian, Asian, and Black children living in Minneapolis live in poverty. Jennifer said the reason many children live in poverty is because their father has a record and can’t get a job.
Learning about people with records reminded me of the movie STONE (2010). I don’t necessarily recommend the movie because it is a thriller with graphic violence and explicit sex. Yet it has excellent acting with Robert De Niro who plays the part of Jack, a seasoned Christian patrol officer near retirement and Edward Norton who plays Stone, a man eligible for early release for his crime of arson.
In a scene from the movie, Stone challenges Jack’s right to judge him and asks the question: When is the punishment enough? Stone asks Jack if he hasn’t ever done something bad. Jack replies he’s never committed a crime, but the viewer knows from the dramatic first scene in the movie that Jack did something shockingly wrong years earlier.
While Stone is in prison he comes across a brochure about Zukangor (a New Age religion, which is a take off on Eckankar). He is intrigued and goes to the library to find a book about it. He finds the religion teaches about the Light and Sound of God, karma and how to sing HU to uplift your state of consciousness. Stone tries singing HU in the noisy, challenging prison environment.
Gradually Stone begins to change. He sees a bigger purpose to life and feels it doesn’t matter if he stays in prison or gets out on parole. In either place he is getting the lessons he needs to grow. He starts to understand the crime he committed in a new light and realizes he never accepted responsibility for committing it.
Jack thinks Stone is just playing him with his new spiritual beliefs, but the viewer sees that Stone is beginning to change and grow. The viewer also sees that sometimes there’s a thin line between a person with a criminal record and those who judge him. There is so much more to this movie; I’m only covering one aspect of it (mainly to examine the question of who should be locked up and for how long).
When is the punishment enough? Once a person is released from prison how can they be helped to move forward with their life, get a job, a place to live and an education? It hurts not only the person who has the arrest record, but also their families when this record follows them throughout their life.
Do you think a young person’s mistakes should go on their record? I’d like to hear your viewpoint about this.
In the spring when the snow is still on the ground, my husband and I like to make maple syrup. This year spring was late, and we made maple syrup until the end of April.
There was a spring snow storm when we were tapping.
Frost on the trees.
First we drill holes in our maple trees, put a spigot in and hang bags. Then we dump the sap out of the bags into a stainless steel pan and boil it on an outside grill. Next we take the sap inside and cook it down more on a wood stove. It takes 30 to 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. Our sap is higher in sugar content than most, so it takes less sap to make maple syrup.
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