Link: The Untapped Power Of Smiling

Recently I made an interesting discovery while running – a simple act that made a dramatic difference and helped carry me through the most challenging segments of long distance runs: smiling. This inspired me to embark on a journey that took me through neuroscience, anthropology, sociality and psychology to uncover the untapped powers of the smile.

I started my exploratory journey in California, with an intriguing UC Berkeley 30-year longitudinal study that examined the smiles of students in an old yearbook, and measured their well-being and success throughout their lives. By measuring the smiles in the photographs the researchers were able to predict: how fulfilling and long lasting their marriages would be, how highly they would score on standardized tests of well-being and general happiness, and how inspiring they would be to others. The widest smilers consistently ranked highest in all of the above.

Read the full article here...
http://blogs.forbes.com/ericsavitz/2011/03/22/the-untapped-power-of-smiling

Link: Give Happiness

Great souls take advantage of every moment and every opportunity to give happiness to others through kindness in their thoughts; such souls are willing to overlook weaknesses and mistakes and have the desire to help everyone reach their potential.

http://www.thoughtfortoday.org.uk

Link: Good News: Happiness grows as we age, poll finds

It is inevitable. The muscles weaken. Hearing and vision fade. We get wrinkled and stooped. We can't run or even walk as fast as we used to. We have aches and pains. We get old.

It sounds miserable, but apparently it is not. A Gallup Poll has found that by almost any measure, people get happier as they get older, and researchers are not sure why.

"It could be that there are environmental changes," said Arthur Stone, a professor of psychology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and the lead author of a study based on the survey, "or it could be psychological changes about the way we view the world, or it could even be biological -- for example brain chemistry or endocrine changes."

Read the full article here... http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2010/jun/03/good-news-happiness-grows-as-we-age-poll-finds/news

Laugh

"If you laugh - you change; and when you change - the world changes." Shilpa Shah

Do you ever wonder?

Link: Srikumar Rao: Plug into your hard-wired happiness

Link: Happiness wards off heart disease

Being happy and staying positive may help ward off heart disease, a study suggests.

US researchers monitored the health of 1,700 people over 10 years, finding the most anxious and depressed were at the highest risk of the disease.

Read the full article here... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8520549.stm

Link: Millionaire gives away fortune which made him miserable

Austrian millionaire Karl Rabeder is giving away every penny of his £3 million fortune after realising his riches were making him unhappy.

Read the full story here... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/austria/7190750/Millionaire-gives-away-fortune-which-made-him-miserable.html

Children Full of Life

Street Art: Joshua Allen Harris' Inflatable Bag Monsters

This is Your Brain on Bliss

After 2,000 years of practice, Buddhist monks know that one secret to happiness is simply to put your mind to it.

What is happiness, and how can we achieve it?

Happiness can’t be reduced to a few agreeable sensations. Rather, it is a way of being and of experiencing the world—a profound fulfillment that suffuses every moment and endures despite inevitable setbacks.

Read the full article here... http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/sustainable-happiness/this-is-your-brain-on-bliss

Dan Gilbert asks, Why are we happy?

Make a Gratitude Adjustment

As a child, Chris Peterson absolutely hated writing thank-you notes. His aversion continued right into his 40s, until one day he knew he had to face it.

A psychology professor at the University of Michigan, Peterson regularly gave his students an unusual homework assignment. He asked them to write a "gratitude letter," a kind of belated thank-you note to someone in their lives. Studies show such letters provide long-lasting mood boosts to the writers. Indeed, after the exercise, Peterson says his students feel happier "100 percent of the time."

Read the full post at http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200602/make-gratitude-adjustment

The Secret of Happiness

The secret of happiness is to be free of fear. Fear is like a toxin that runs through much of our thinking. It feeds on insecurity, feeling of loss, loneliness, inadequacy and attachment.
You are loveable and loving. Accept this as Truth. Appreciate and care for yourself - truly, deeply, intensely, in a way that reflects your real value. Then you will automatically have the same regards for all other living beings and things.

www.thoughtfortoday.org.uk

Music and Life

The How of Happiness

Incline Your Mind Toward Joy

“One evening a Cherokee elder told his grandson about the battle that goes on inside of people. He said, “My son, the battle is between the two ‘wolves’ that live inside us all. One is Unhappiness. It is fear, worry, anger, jealousy, sorrow, self-pity, resentment, and inferiority. The other is Happiness. It is joy, love, hope, serenity, kindness, generosity, truth, and compassion.”The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf wins?” The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.” ~ Marci Shimoff from Happy for No Reason

Read the full posting at...
http://personallifemedia.com/podcasts/503-philosophers-notes/episodes/47894-incline-mind-toward

Dogs have souls

For centuries, humans have imagined they are the only animals with morals. But humans are not alone in the moral arena, a new breed of behavior experts says.

Natural historian Jake Page said some scientists are acknowledging what pet owners have told their canines all along: "Good dog."

Read the full article at...
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2009226383_dogs16.html

How to Awaken Your Heart

First, train in the preliminaries.

The preliminaries are also known as the four reminders. In your daily life, try to 1) Maintain an awareness of the preciousness of human life. 2) Be aware of the reality that life ends; death comes for everyone. 3) Recall that whatever you do, whether virtuous or not, has a result; what goes around comes around. 4) Contemplate that as long as you are too focused on self-importance and too caught up in thinking about how you are good or bad, you will suffer. Obsessing about getting what you want and avoiding what you don't want does not result in happiness.

Read more slogans by Pema Chödrön...
http://www.shambhalasun.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=1562

Choosing to Live Fully

John is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, 'If I were any better, I would be twins!' He was a natural motivator.

If an employee was having a bad day, John was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation. Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up and asked him, "I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?"

Read the full posting here...
http://www.helpothers.org/story.php?sid=12901