Action for Happiness- Update

http://www.actionforhappiness.org/news/action-for-happiness-becomes-an-independent-charity?mc_cid=046892aa86&mc_eid=a1299958c1

Join them in making the world a happier place!

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Watch Our Basic Purpose

Richard Layard | TEDxOxford

67,866 views

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAZwvTV3CyQ&t=143s

Causes of Happiness:

  • Quality of our human relationships
  • Genes
  • Philosophy of life
  • Health- both physical and mental
  • Helping other people* key!!

 

Teachers need to value their own happiness too~

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Kim Strobel was a presenter on the Ditch that Text Book digital Summit on the Science of Happiness- Wow a message we must hear and more important a message we must act on. Students’ describe their favorite teacher as someone who is happy and wants to be there or someone who cares about me.

Dr. Spencer Kagan book Silly Sports and Goofy Games, and Stuart Brown, MD.’s book Play: How it shapes the brain, Opens the imagination and Invigorates the Soul are two resources to find ways to incorporate happiness acts into your classroom.

Gratitude… can be taught and demonstrated it resets our internal voice-

http://ditchsummit.com/kim/

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Ebenezer’s lesson- it’s all about giving

See the source imageIt’s that time of year again.  We are inundated with the idea of giving, every classic show and movie of the season depicts this theme.  What made it a Wonderful Life for George Bailey anyway, it was his role at the Savings and Loan, it was the lives he touched.  The Grinch learned that it is all about relationships, and the power of giving forgiveness.  Rudolph’s individual gift saved Christmas and all that …my true love gave to me… during the 12 days of Christmas really adds up.

According to Psychology Today, in a post titled, Giving really is better than receiving,  Allen R McConnell Ph.D. claims, “people’s selfish assumptions were proven wrong when they actually had the opportunity to give to others than to oneself”.

Social psychologist Liz Dunn and her colleagues appearing in the journal Science shows that people’s sense of happiness is greater when they spend relatively more on others than on themselves.

Check out this infographic:  https://my.happify.com/hd/science-of-giving-infographic/

Ways to give…https://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2017/08/31/8-simple-ways-to-give-and-why-giving-is-good-for-you/

  • Spend $ on someone else
  • Spend time with others
  • Volunteer
  • Be emotionally available
  • Perform acts of kindness
  • Compliment someone
  • Make someone Laugh
  • Tell you story

These are the lessons of Ebenezer, it was life changing for him and it can be for you too!

 

World view of happiness

“The world has come a long way. Increasingly, happiness is considered to be the proper measure of social progress and the goal of public policy”, (“World Happiness Report 2017,” 2017).  It is the Scandinavian countries that rank at the top.  The measure is based on these key elements: caring, freedom, generosity, honesty, health, income and good governance. The US ranked 14th, dropping one place from its ranking in 2016, not because of health and income but rather because of social factors.  It seems to be a job for a Happiness Activist! Take the pledge-

Check out this video   https://www.youtube.com/watch?_continue=75&v=Se2gfFKp1Iw 

and this web site http://worldhappiness.report/

The World Happiness Report http://worldhappiness.report/ed/2017/

 

How happy am I?

From the Pursuit of Happiness: bringing the science of happiness to life

http://www.pursuit-of-happiness.org/science-of-happiness/measuring-happiness/

The following is a list of the most widely used and respected questionnaires. As you can see, we can discover some major differences in how they approach the issue, which reflect different definitions and perceptions of happiness.

Oxford Happiness Inventory (Argyle and Hill)

Subjective Happiness Scale (Lyubomirsky & Lepper)

Satisfaction with Life Scale (Deiner, Emmons, Larsen and Griffin)

Panas Scale (Watson, Clark, Tellegen)

And this is Todd Kashdan’s thoughtful critique of the above scales:

The assessment of subjective well-being (issues raised by the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire)