No. 77. The power of life's little pleasures

Anita Houghton's Reflections and Tips

No. 77. The power of life's little pleasures

I'm still on leave, so here is another tip from my archive.

Would you humour me by doing a little experiment? Here's a scale of 1 - 10. It's for you to measure your mood, right this minute. The bottom end, 0, is the worst you could ever feel, totally fed up, the world is bleak and there's little hope of improvement. The top end, 10, is feeling fantastic, optimistic, full of life. Where would you put yourself on that scale at this precise moment?

0 __________________________________________10

Now think of one thing in your life that is, shall we say, sub-optimal at the moment. Notice how you feel about it. More on this experiment later.

The festivities over, the temperatures below freezing and the prospect of several more weeks of short days and dark nights can leave you feeling pretty blue at this time of the year. (Those of you who live in sunnier climes may smile serenely at this point). The worse thing for any problem in life is feeling blue, because feeling blue always makes problems look bigger and less soluble, and renders you less capable of dealing with them. This tip is about simple ways to feel better, ways that don't require a fantastic job suddenly to appear, the love of your life to decide they want to marry you, or whatever else it is that you think would make you happy.

Remember, if you'd like to view tips from last year you can do so by clicking here, and if you'd like to forward these tips to a friend just click below.

Life's little pleasures

Perhaps it's because people need cheering up in January that Bachelor's cup-a-soup company decided to do a survey of three thousand people on what they felt to be the greatest pleasures in life. Or maybe it was because they were confident that hot soup would feature somewhere....

Anyway, here are the top ten:

1. A good night's sleep

2. Finding a forgotten tenner in your pocket

3. Cuddling up with someone you love

4. Crying with laughter

5. Having a lie-in

6. Sleeping in newly laundered bedding

7. Getting a bargain

8. Making someone smile

9. Catching up with an old friend

10 Laughing at things that have happened in the past

Others in the top 50 included:

Someone saying you look nice

Curling up on the sofa with a good book and, yes, a hot drink or soup

Waking up thinking it's a work day and then realising it's the weekend

A random person smiling at you in the street

Looking through old photo albums

First snow fall of the year

Singing your heart out to your favourite song in the car

Having lunch with friends

A pampering session at home

Your queue moving fastest in the supermarket

When I read about this survey in one of the Sunday papers, I involuntarily found myself imagining that delicious feeling of having a bath and then getting into bed between clean sheets. Then I thought about cuddling up to someone I love, putting my arms around them and holding them tight. Then I remembered a chat I'd recently had with an old friend from university and how we'd laughed about the beer race we did in fresher's week. And I suddenly became aware of how very cheerful I was feeling! So I thought you might like to feel cheerful too.....

Try this:
1. Think of five things that you really enjoy.
2. Take one of these five and imagine having that

experience by remembering the last time you

         had it.
3.      Allow time to really enjoy it.
4.      Now take another one and do the same, and

another.

5. Go back to the mood scale at the beginning and

         again assess how you're feeling.
         Any changes?
6.      Think about the area of your life that's causing

you problems at the moment - how does it look

now?

For the next week, why not chase the winter blues by scheduling a few real experiences of life's little pleasures? And how about providing some pleasure for somebody else? Research shows that in a situation where one person is giving to another, the person who derives most pleasure is the giver. Why not smile at a random person in the street, give up your seat on the train, or pay someone a compliment, and see how good it feels?

Enjoy!

Please feel free to use any of the material in these emails. I just ask, if you do, that you provide my name and a reference to my tips and website www.workinglives.co.uk

If you enjoyed this tip, do forward it to your friends.

Until next time,
Anita

September 2010

Finding Square Holes:
Discover who you really are and find the perfect career

'While a good book can never be quite as interactive as a good friend, this one is the next best thing - a practical, thought-provoking, advice-filled guide to creating a career that fits you both as you are and as you'd like to be.'

Michael Neill, Trainer, author and coach.

To order a copy of this book and the accompanying workbook, click here

Psychological Type Self Assessment Programme

Emotional intelligence is said to be a better predictor of career success than IQ, and a fast way to increase your emotional intelligence is to learn about your personal style and understand how you differ from other people.

This self-assessment e-programme will help you to do just that. Based on Jung's theory of

psychological type, later developed by Myers and Briggs, it takes you through a simple but thorough process to discover your type.

For more information and to order a copy, click

here

Know Yourself: the individual's guide to career development in healthcare

A health-oriented version of Finding Square Holes, this user-friendly guide will help health professionals take control of their careers. By involving the reader in a personal journey of positive reflection the book focuses on abilities, enjoyment and personal satisfaction in the workplace, then based on this new-found knowledge, offers advice on practical ways forward.

'If you work through this book I can guarantee that by the end of it two things will have happened - you will be in a much better position to plan and execute your future career, and you will feel a lot better than you do now' AH

To order a copy, click here
To order a copy of the accompanying workbook, click here

London