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| Happy People Win Newsletter |
Volume 7, Issue 2
February 2013 | |
| NOTE: if you are using Outlook to view this and it has strange spaces, please click on "click here to view it in Web browser" at the top and it will look as it was intended to look. ☺ Thanks!! |
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I travel a lot for work (as you read this I am gone for most of the next five weeks!) and love coming home. I think since I grew up the way I did (Third Culture Kid) I really appreciate my nest. In "The Happiness Project" Gretchen Rubin writes:
"My home should calm me, and energize me. It should be a comforting, quiet refuge and a place of excitement and possibility. It should call to my mind the past, the present, and the future. It should be a snuggery of privacy and reflection, but also a gathering place that strengthens my engagement with other people. "
Health magazine lists some ingredients for a healthy/happy home. They include:
- Natural light.
- The rooms fit your needs. (A formal dining room you never use might make a great office or gym.)
- It's full of plants (If you are not allergic!)
- No clutter (In fact, researchers at the University of Chicago found that living with clutter makes you tired, and that fatigue can up the appetite-stimulating hormone cortisol so much that you can eat an extra 200 to 1,000 calories a day.)
- It's calm. Harmony, peace, tranquility. Isn't that what we all want when we step through our front door? Decorating with soothing colors (blues, grays, and greens) can help lower blood pressure and set the scene for a more relaxed life.
My home is calm. Happy. Cozy. Welcoming. It is my own little oasis.
So this is what I did last month. I wanted to step though my front door and smile. Smile BIG. So I hired a local painter for our local theater group to come over and paint a tree. Abby is so gifted and did a beautiful job. Now I'll walk in my living room for no reason other to look at my beautiful wall (with my family pictures on the tree).
So my challenge this month: create something beautiful in your home. Something that works for you. Something that makes you smile, feel relaxed and of course, happy.
"It takes hands to build a house, but only hearts can build a home."
Have a wonderful month!
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"I'd Like to Run Wild" 2 is being printed so the original is on sale! Regular $17.95, now $10.00. This price is good just for stock on hand. Please note in the order notes if you would it signed. | | |
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Video Break
- Little Girl Talking
- Kick Ask
- Sexual Harassment and You (SNL)
- Smart Dog
- What Would You Do?
9%
How much more productive workers who take short Internet breaks (say to check Facebook or read the news) are than employees who barrel through the day with nary a status update or a YouTube diversion, according to a study published in New Technology, Work and Employment. The psychologist behind the research surmises that online interludes restore mental capacity and provide a feeling of autonomy, which in turn boosts effectiveness.
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83,587
The number of women tracked for 26 years in a study on the health effects of drinking alcohol.
Physicians from Harvard Medical School found that imbibing one cocktail, glass of wine, or beer each day makes a woman 17 to 21 percent less likely to suffer the most common type of stroke. According to their analysis, alcohol may reduce the risk of blood clots, as well as increase the production of HDL (the good cholesterol). We'll raise a glass-just one-to that.
- Real Simple, August 2012 |
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Friends + Fun = Happiness
We really do get by with a little help from our friends. According to new research, people who meet up with pals at least once a month are happier than those who don't have any close companions. "Because women tend to choose friends who support their decisions, get-togethers can boost their self-esteem," says study author Noriko Cable, Ph.D. And don't just phone it in-face-to-face time is key: We feel more accepted and understood when we actually see someone who empathizes with us. (FC 2-13)
Interestingly for men - Research shows the number of true friends an adult male has has been steadily decreasing for decades. It seems once you guys leave college, and especially once you get married and have kids, true friends become a thing of the past. And check out these studies: researchers found that people who had no close friends increased their risk of death over a six-month period (yikes). In another study, those who had the strongest friendship ties over a nine-year period cut their risk of death by more than 60%. (AskMen.com)
I have a lot of get-togethers. Casual, sometimes planned in advance, but last minute works too, it is ALWAYS a good time. My favorite is a burrito bar with each person bringing an ingredient. But even if we ordered pizza, it is not the food, but the company. We usually end by sitting in a big circle and going around and answering a question or showing off amazing skills. Like Hayley's fabulous ability.....
or Laura's...
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Surprising Things That Make You
Happy 
Tearjerker Movies
Put Titanic and Atonement on your feel-good flick list. Sure, a tragic romance makes you cry in the theater, but after the credits roll, you'll remember what's good about your own main squeeze-thereby boosting happiness, Ohio State University researchers report. The sadder the plot the happier you feel later, they say.
Reading a Newspaper
If you're among the 19 million
Americans who have canceled their daily paper, it's time to resubscribe or read the online edition of your local Daily Planet. Perusing a broadsheet instead of gawking at the TV emerged as a key difference between most- and least-happy folks in a University of Maryland study that analyzed how more than 30,000 people spend their free time.
Aging
Brain scans show that at any age, our little gray cells do a happy dance whenever we notice something good, whether it's a double-chocolate brownie, a cute baby, or a random act of kindness. Additionally, as we age, our neurons react less intensely to the negative things we see and hear. The result: Positivity prevails. Maybe that's why, in a recent national survey, 42% of those over age 50 said they felt optimistic about life's next chapters, and 60% thought they looked at least 5 years younger than their driver's licenses.
- Prevention January 2013 |
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From the "Awesomeness" file on my computer. Simply kept for the "ahhhh......." factor!
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Importance of
Many people, including Jay Leno, Martha Stewart and Bill Clinton, claim to need no more than four or five hours a night, but they're probably kidding themselves. True "short sleepers" are rare, according to sleep specialist Carol Ash, D.O. "Only a tiny percentage of people can function well with that little," she says. "Most of us require seven to nine hours every night."
 If the difference between six and eight hours strikes you as insignificant, consider this: After 17 hours of being awake, your cognitive ability drops 0 that of someone with a blood alcohol level of .05 (characterized by impaired judgment and coordination). Stay up for 24 hours and you're as good as legally drunk. Over time a chronic lack of shut-eye makes you more prone to accidents, depression and anxiety. "You may assume you've got the blues because you hate your job or because people around you are irritating, but the culprit is probably insufficient sleep," says Dr. Ash. "Sleep elevates your mood and improves critical thinking, so it gives you a real competitive edge."
-Lauren Piro |
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