resilience

Significantly Boost Your Happiness With 3 Daily Habits Under 10 Minutes

05/05/2021 by Marie

Can you boost your happiness?

Ever wanted to boost your happiness? Well you can! Everyone has a set point for happiness – where our natural happiness levels sit. Some people are just a bit happier than others, while others are just a bit more negative than others. But with just a tiny bit of time and some consistent effort, research is showing that some very easy habits can help to increase our happiness set point.

In this article, we explore 3 daily habits you can bring into your life that only take 10 minutes or less to significantly boost your happiness levels. Read on!

Make Gratitude a Habit

We’re all wired to scan our environment for bad things. Afterall, the ancestor who failed to see the lion stalking them from the bushes wouldn’t survive long enough to care about fine art or mastering their chosen profession. But where does that leave the modern-day man or woman?

We may no longer have to worry about lions, but in today’s day and age there are even more things we have to worry about. There’s all the day-to-day stresses of our job, if we’re lucky to have one – and even if we do have a job, who knows how long we’ll keep it. Then there’s keeping up with friends, which costs money and is a killer for our self-esteem – trying to save enough to buy a house, worrying about having enough for retirement, but not worrying too much because you might forget to live for today. Engaging with friends on social media, and being interesting enough, pretty enough… heck, just having enough friends to engage with. Watching enough TV to keep up to date with what everyone else is talking about, but not too much because we all know sitting is the new smoking.

I could go on… and on. Today’s modern (capitalist) world is designed to keep us fretting – and coming back for more – so that it can seem like we’re constantly anxious, stressed, frustrated or worried about something.

That’s where gratitude comes in. Practicing gratitude is super simple, really quick and can completely rewire your brain. By spending just a few minutes everyday on writing down 3 things that you’re grateful for (or I prefer to write down three things that went well), you are teaching your brain to balance out all those negative thoughts with some positive ones. Over time, your brain literally rewires itself to see more of the good things in life. So, your brain will stop to smell the flowers, so to speak. This helps to build resilience against the all bad things that happen in life and all those negative emotions and day-to-day stressors.

If writing down things that you’re grateful for isn’t your jam, you can also get huge benefits from thanking others – and so do they! Simply make it a daily habit to give a heartfelt thanks to someone every day. Whether they’re your partner, or family member or colleague, spreading thanks will cheer up the people around you and come back to you in positive vibes!

Not sold yet? A recent study showed that saying thanks in the right way can also strengthen your social bonds. When it came to thanking our loved ones, the key was to focus on how responsive they were to your needs. According to the researchers, saying something like: “I wouldn’t have made it to the meeting on time if you didn’t drop me off at the office today,” tended to produce the most positive response from a partner.

Related reading: Top 5 Speakers on Gratitude

Get Your Heart Pumping

Most of us know we need to exercise more. We also know how important exercise is to our health and happiness, but so many of us hate it, or just simply can’t find the motivation to do it. Whether you’re too busy, or unmotivated, or kinda motivated but just not when it counts, one of the easiest ways to make something stick is to make it so quick and easy that it’s almost harder not to do it.

In his bestselling book, Atomic Habits, James Clear advocates for 10 steps to make habits stick. Among them are three that really resonate when it comes to finding a way to fit exercise into your day.

Build a system for getting 1 per cent better every day. That’s it! Only 1 per cent! You don’t need to climb Kilimanjaro on your first attempt, heck you don’t even have to go to the gym. In fact, recent research has shown that simply doing 10 minutes of high intensity interval training (HIIT) can have significant benefits. A HIIT workout is super intense and is about getting your heart rate up quickly and working really hard for a short amount of time. There are plenty of 10-minute HIIT workouts on YouTube you can easily do in your living room for free.

Design your environment to make success easier. One of the hardest things about starting a new exercise routine is actually starting it. Whether you’re going to do a HIIT workout, or a 10-minute fast walk around your neighbourhood, just getting to that first workout can be insurmountable. So, make it as easy as possible to get going. For the first few weeks, why not select the HIIT workout you want to try the night before and set it up on the TV and go to bed in your gym clothes with your gym shoes next to the bed. Or organise to meet a friend for that walk, so you have to cancel (which is a hassle) if you aren’t feeling like it. Anything you can do to make it easier to do the activity than not will help you to do it.

Make tiny, easy changes that deliver big results. Again, don’t go for it all at once. Go easy on yourself. Start with twice a week, or even once a week. And if you don’t hit your target, forgive yourself, BUT KEEP GOING the next week. This will happen at some point, so be prepared and know that you’ll still keep pushing forward. Only once your habit has become second nature should you even attempt to add more time to your workout or do it more often in your week. You don’t want to scare yourself off!

Bring Some Laughter Into Your Day

Laughter is natures wonder drug. It makes you feel happier, not only in the moment, but also in the long-term; it also helps to dull pain. It lowers blood pressure and reduce stress. The list goes on and on – see The Mayo Clinic for a range of research and writing on the positive effects of laughter for stress reduction.

But did you know that you can really easily and simply add it into your day in only 60-second!?

Grab your phone and start the timer. For the first 10 seconds, laugh out loud. You don’t have to feel it, you just need to vocalise ‘ha-ha-ha’ a few times. Think of it like an acting class with really bad acting. It doesn’t have to be authentic laughter to begin with, just do it.

Once you’ve done 10-seconds of ‘ha-ha-has,’ breathe deeply for the next 10-seconds. Repeat these two steps two more times and you’re done. That’s it! It really couldn’t be more simple! The key to this exercise is to commit to doing it every morning for a couple of weeks (at least). What have you got to lose?

Want to learn more about how to boost your happiness? Make sure to subscribe to my podcast Happiness for Cynics and my email newsletter for regular updates & happiness and resilience resources!

Yep, laughter really is the best medicine

28/04/2021 by Marie

Is Laughter the Best Medicine?

Is laughter the best medicine? I’m going to say yes! Last week, I attended a lunchtime webinar by the Centre for Optimism and listened to an amazing panel of experts talk about laughter, optimism, resilience and wellbeing… and I’m still buzzing!

In particular, I learned from La Trobe University’s adjunct profession Ros Ben-Moshe about the science behind laughter and we did a short but very effective laughter yoga exercise that had me grinning like a Cheshire cat for the rest of the afternoon. While still high on laughter, I signed up for Ros’ upcoming 5-week virtual course at La Trobe Laughter, Resilience and Wellbeing.

I’ve known for a while about the power of laughter to boost your mood and bring joy – it’s a bit of a no brainer really. But what I hadn’t stopped to think about for a very long time was actively integrating laughter into my week to increase my base happiness and wellbeing levels. This is going to change!

In this article, I’m exploring whether laughter really is the best medicine, and how we can use some super simple exercises to not only feel happier in the moment but to also achieve a happier life overall. Read on!

What’s the Link Between Laughter and Ongoing Wellbeing?

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The science has been pretty definite on this one for a while. Laughter truly is the best medicine. It’s not just a saying but a scientifically proven way to increase your wellbeing. For instance, laughter helps to reduce stress. The Mayo Clinic in the U.S. has a range of research and writing on the positive effects of laughter for stress reduction. For example, a good laugh can decrease your heart rate and blood pressure, it can also sooth pressure and relieve muscle tension.

Longer term, laughter has a range of other benefits, such as improving your immune system and helping you fight illness. In fact, Ros Ben-Moshe (who I mentioned above), wrote a book, called Laughing at Cancer: How to Heal with Love, Laughter and Mindfulness, in which she describes how mindful healing techniques and the power of laughter got her through her cancer diagnosis and treatment (along with good medicine of course).

Stanford University psychiatrist, William Fry, performed a series of studies over his 50-year career, finding that laughter stimulates the immune system, increases circulation and invigorates the brain. Not only that, laughter exercises muscles, so a good intense laugh can be a form of exercise!

Aside from the physical wellbeing benefits, laughter also makes us happier in the moment – I know, that’s a no-brainer. It does this by releasing endorphins in the brain that make us feel great. But did you know laughter can increase not only your short-term happiness but also your long-term happiness?

For instance, if you laugh with other people, it helps to strengthen bonds between people. When you laugh with others and all get that endorphin hit together, it creates a sense of togetherness. Not only that, but laughter spread around groups. It’s contagious. So having a good laugh around your friends and family will make them happier too. In fact, there was a study conducted to work out whether happiness can spread from person to person and whether niches of happiness form within social networks. Researchers found that:

“A friend who lives within a mile (about 1.6 km) and who becomes happy increases the probability that a person is happy by 25%. Similar effects are seen in co-resident spouses, siblings who live within a mile, and next-door neighbours.”

So, laughing with friends and family strengthens those bonds and makes the relationships more solid – and we know that relationships are a key foundation of a happy life.

Laughter and Your Happiness Set Point

How happy are you, really? Wouldn’t you like to be happier overall? Well, the current thinking about happiness is that we’re all born with a certain set point for happiness levels – meaning some people are naturally happier, while others are naturally grumpier.

Happy events – like a birthday party or graduating from college — can lead to a momentary spike in your happiness set point, just as sad events can lead to a momentary drop. But eventually, we all come back to our natural happiness level, or set point.

So, you might be thinking there’s no point in trying to be happier then, but here’s the great news: you can bring habits and routines into your life that help to increase your set point for happiness – essentially making you happier overall and increasing your wellbeing in the process.

What’s one way to increase your happiness set point? Bring more laughter into your life!

Want more? Listen to our podcast episode: Happiness is Contagious (E8)

Why Not Try Some Laughter Yoga?

Laughter yoga is a new craze that has gained steam over the past couple of decades. It involves people meeting to laugh together, often in a park or open space. That’s it. Simple. It doesn’t (necessarily) involve folding yourself into a variety of pretzel-like poses while laughing…. the ‘yoga’ part is more of a nod to the gentle breathing and movement that accompanies some laughter exercises.

There are many laughter exercises that you can practice at home by yourself, or with family, or friends. Before you start, remember that you’ll need a safe, open space where people feel comfortable and everyone is willing to be playful and childlike, letting down barriers.

Remember that some people will feel uncomfortable participating in laughter yoga exercises, so don’t pressure anyone or force them to participate – particularly if you decide to bring this into the workplace. It should be an ‘opt-in’ exercise, and who knows, once they’ve seen the benefits, maybe they’ll overcome their shyness and join in next time.

It’s also worth remembering that often people need to fake the laughter at the beginning, but very soon people end up laughing for real – it’s all about just giving it a go and getting started.

Here are three exercises you can try:

Start your day right with laughter

Add this quick 60-second exercise to your morning routine to start your day in a happy mood and set the tone for the rest of the day. Laughing with others can be a bit daunting, so this exercise is also a great starting place for people who are a bit reluctant to be vulnerable in front of other people. Here’s what you need to do…

Use laughter to bond with friends and family

As mentioned above, one of the great things about laughter is sharing it with others. Laughing with other people is more intense and it helps to bring people closer together (so it’s great for team building exercises). So, grab some colleagues, friends, your partner or the whole family and convince them to join in this short exercise with you.

To start, get everyone into a circle and together take a deep breath in, and out. Repeat this a few times. Then, start moving around the circle to join up with a person. Then there are three steps:

hold their hands or shake their hand,
look them in the eye, and
laugh for 10 seconds.

Once everyone has had 10 seconds of laughter with their partner, they should find another partner and repeat steps 1-3. Keep doing this until everyone has shared a laugh with everyone else in the group.

You’ll want someone to be the timekeeper and keep everyone on track with instructions on when to move on. You can get playful with it. Once everyone is on a roll, try doing a round where everyone has to laugh like Santa (ho-ho-ho), or be cheeky (tee-hee-hee) or put on a German, French or Russian accent, or simply throw in a good snort.

Make some noise and let loose

Ready to really let go? This is a good exercise for groups or individuals. Start by smiling and slowly move onto a giggle, then a chuckle and finish with a big belly laugh. Slowly increase the intensity and volume as you go. Once you’ve had a loud and big belly laugh for a good 10 seconds or so, bring it back down, stage by stage, to a smile.

To get a good benefit from this one, you can repeat this a few times. You can also add some movement into this one, starting small and crouched down and slowly opening up until your arms are in the air, your head is tilted back and you’re standing like a starfish.

Happy laughing!

Want to learn more about the laughter and bringing happiness into your life? Make sure to subscribe to my podcast Happiness for Cynics and my email newsletter for regular updates & resilience resources!

Four Lessons From the 2021 World Happiness Report

07/04/2021 by Marie

What can we Learn From the 2021 World Happiness Report?

For the 9th year, the Sustainable Development Solutions Network has published The World Happiness Report, giving us insight into what makes people happy around the world. This year’s report focuses on the effects of COVID-19 on happiness and how countries have differed in their success in reducing the deaths and maintaining connected and healthy societies.

Researchers say their aim this year was two-fold, first to focus on the effects of COVID-19 on the structure and quality of people’s lives, and second to describe and evaluate how governments all over the world have dealt with the pandemic. In particular, they try to explain why some countries have done so much better than others.

The report also states that for 2020 the same six factors continue to support well-being (income, health, someone to count on, freedom, generosity, and trust) and these six factors continue to do so in almost exactly the same way as in previous years.

Despite a tumultuous year, there has been little change in the top 10 happiest countries. Here are the top 10 countries who fared the best in 2020:

Finland
Iceland
Denmark
Switzerland
Netherlands
Sweden
Germany
Norway
New Zealand
Austria

The rankings use data that come from the Gallup World Poll surveys from 2018 to 2020, and are based on answers to the main life evaluation question asked in the poll, called the Cantril ladder. This asks respondents to think of a ladder, with the best possible life for them being a 10, and the worst possible life being a 0. They are then asked to rate their own current lives on that 0 to 10 scale.

In this article, we explore the key lessons from the 2021 World Happiness Report. Read on!

Lessons From the 2021 World Happiness Report

1. Humans are Really Quite Resilient

Despite a global pandemic, surprisingly our happiness levels have remained pretty consistent in 2020.

“Surprisingly there was not, on average, a decline in well-being when measured by people’s own evaluation of their lives,” said co-author John Helliwell. “One possible explanation is that people see COVID-19 as a common, outside threat affecting everybody and that this has generated a greater sense of solidarity and fellow-feeling.”

Instead, the report shows that aside from an initial dip in happiness levels early in 2020 when most countries went into lockdown, on average people were just as happy and optimistic as in previous years. As a whole across the world, humans have shown some pretty incredible resilience.

However, country to country, there were definite variances, with stability and regional responses to COVID leading to different national experiences. Some factors that accounted for a variation between countries included: the age of the population; whether the country was an island; and proximity to other highly infected countries. Also, cultural differences played a key role as well including confidence in public institutions; knowledge from previous epidemics; income inequality; and whether the head of government was a woman.

In short, a country’s perceived poor management of COVID and higher than average death rates negatively impacted their happiness levels. This may explain why the United States, the U.K. Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico all became less happy in 2020, and why China moved to 84th place from 94th last year.

“The East Asian experience shows that stringent government policies not only control Covid-19 effectively, but also buffer the negative impact of daily infections on people’s happiness,” said co-author Shun Wang.

When it comes down to it, high levels of trust has been a common factor in countries happiness levels during the pandemic.

2. Inequality continues to impact our happiness

We’ve seen in previous research that humans have a habit of comparing themselves to others – and when we come up short, our happiness levels drop. This might explain in part why countries with highest number of COVID death and highest death rates are less happy than those with lower death rates as people criticize their governments and lament their situation.

As noted in the report, “it is to be expected that further evidence from 2021 will support the conclusions reached here, that driving community transmission to zero and keeping it there has been better for all the pillars supporting happy lives: good health, good jobs, and a society where people can connect easily with each other in mutual trust and support.”

Aside from inequality between countries, the report also notes inequality within countries as a factor in happiness levels – also drawing a line between intra-country inequality and trust.

The report found: “We do not have a full global sample measure for social trust, so we use income inequality as a strong proxy variable because social trust is generally lower in countries where income inequality is higher. We have previously found that inequality of subjective well-being is an even stronger predictor of social trust.”

Additionally, the report found that there is some early evidence of empirical linkages between income inequality and COVID-19 death rates, supported by pre-COVID evidence of links between income inequality and health. This explains the higher death rates in the U.S. and Mexico compared to Denmark and Sweden, for instance.

Unfortunately, two demographics have fared disproportionately worse than others during the pandemic, with women and youth more likely to lose their jobs due higher representation is hard hit sectors like tourism and hospitality. Also, women were more likely to have to forgo work to look after kids during lockdowns.

3. Finland does it again

Yet again, the 2021 World Happiness Report found that Finland remains on top of the world for the fourth year in a row, which comes as no surprise. It continues have high levels of mutual trust which has helped to protect lives and livelihoods during the pandemic.

“We find year after year that life satisfaction is reported to be happiest in the social democracies of northern Europe. People feel secure in those countries, so trust is high. The government is seen to be credible and honest, and trust in each other is high,” said co-author and Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs.

4. We’re Social Beings

Lastly, as many positive psychologists have known for a while, being around people and having strong social connections is critical to our happiness. This was particularly obvious in 2020, as lockdowns impacted our ability to see people as often or at all.

But in a twist that was a little counterintuitive, the 2021 World Happiness Report found that people who were more social and had more friends pre-COVID, were more likely to suffer during lockdowns. This is probably due to the fact that the most social people suffered the greatest impact and change in lifestyle when they couldn’t see other people. This change in social activity disproportionately impacted women and youth, who tend to have more relationships and social activities.

In fact, a study of by University of Essex researchers Ben Etheridge and Lisa Spantig showed that women with at least four close friends slumped more than anyone during the spring 2020 lockdown.

The report notes that as you might expect with lockdowns and physical distancing, the pandemic had a significant effect on workforce well-being. Unemployment during the pandemic was associated with a 12 per cent drop in life satisfaction.

“Strikingly, we find that among people who stopped work due to furlough or redundancy, the impact on life satisfaction was 40 per cent more severe for individuals that felt lonely to begin with,” said Jan-Emmanuel De Neve. “Our report also points towards a ‘hybrid’ future of work, that strikes a balance between office life and working from home to maintain social connections while ensuring flexibility for workers, both of which turn out to be key drivers of workplace well-being.”

Want to learn more about the science of happiness? Make sure to subscribe to my podcast Happiness for Cynics and my email newsletter for regular updates & resilience resources!

The Key to Resilience, According to Bestselling Author Hugh Van Cuylenberg

31/03/2021 by Marie

What’s the Key to Resilience?

Want to know the key to resilience? Last year I interviewed best-selling author of The Resilience Project, Hugh Van Cuylenberg (listen to the podcast). We talked about his journey and experiences, and the amazing work he’s doing in Melbourne and around Australia to teach kids, athletes and corporate big-wigs how to be more resilient in today’s hectic world.

Hugh also shared the key to resilience, which is the premise behind what Hugh teaches and his book – a nifty little acronym called GEM, which stands for Gratitude, Empathy and Mindfulness.

Read on to find out how Hugh teaches people around Australia how we can use the GEM this info to achieve a happier, healthier life.

The GEM Principle

“I was living in India and I was volunteering in a school community. When I got there, I thought, ‘Oh my God, there’s no way I’m going to stay here (…) because I was thinking I can’t sleep on the floor here for two weeks. I can’t walk half an hour down to the river to get water every day. I’m not going to sit in the river for a bath, like that’s just not going to happen.”

“But I remember on my first day in the school, which I planned to be my second last day in the whole community, I met a kid who was nine years old and slept on the floor like everyone else. But I remember thinking to myself, ‘I have never in my life seen joy like this before. This kid’s the happiest person I’ve ever met. I’ve never seen anything like him. How incredible. How is it this kid’s so gleefully happy?’

I was living with the principal and I remember I went back to his little mud hut, and I (…) said, “No, I think I need to stay a bit longer.” And the reason I wanted to stay longer is I was thinking ‘What do these people do every day that makes them happy, what does this kid do that makes him happy?’

It wasn’t just this kid, it’s everyone right. Everyone was just so full of joy. I remember looking out the hole in this, well it wasn’t a window. It was like a hole in the mud brick wall at this school. I’m looking across thinking ‘there’s nothing here, there’s nothing in this village. Like I mean, there’s a beautiful view of the Himalayas, and that’s about it. I don’t know what these people are so full of joy.’ So I decide to stay there as long as it would take me to work out what it is those people do every day that makes them so happy.

And I ended up staying for three and a half months, and in three and a half months I saw three things. I mean, there were many things going on. I mean, they were surrounded by awe all the time. I watched what those people did. And every day they practiced Gratitude, Empathy, and Mindfulness.

Gratitude

“I would watch these kids in particular this boy stands out. And when he saw something he was grateful for, he would just stop and point it out to me, and he would try and say the word ‘this’ but couldn’t pronounce the ‘th’ so he’d say ‘dis’.”

“As people who’ve read the book will know, he’d say “Sir, dis! Dis, dis, dis,” you know, whether it was his shoes that were too small because he can’t afford to buy new shoes. But he was pointing at them saying “How lucky am I, I’ve got shoes on my feet. Some of the kids here don’t have shoes. How lucky am I?” Whether it was the rice he got for lunch every day, he only got rice every single day. Just rice. That’s it, from the school. But he couldn’t afford to bring lunch to school. So, the fact they got provided lunch. ‘Sir, dis, dis, dis. Look I get fed here every day. How lucky am I?’”

“Moments he loved. If he realised in a good moment, you know, he’d stop, and he would just point out the things he was really grateful to have like the things that were happening. He loved Bollywood dancing, so often I would walk past him, and he was doing a ridiculous, choreographed Bollywood dance, but he’d say “Sir, dis, dis, dis.” What he was saying was, ‘I’m so lucky I’m doing this right now.’ That’s actually a really, that was quite a life changing, I won’t say moment but a realisation for me. We need to get better at paying attention to the good stuff as it happens.”

Empathy

“What I saw with this community in India is these kids were so unbelievably kind. This kid particular, if he saw saw someone by themselves [he’d go] straight over to them “just checking you’re ok. Do you want to come play with us?”

“If someone wasn’t in school, he would swing past their mud hut after school and say ‘Hey, just checking in, are you ok?’”

Mindfulness

“And mindfulness, they practised it every single day. They had a half an hour meditation before school, every single day. It was optional, so no one had to be there. Yet every single child turned up for it, and I think essentially because they just got instinctively how good it was for them.”

Some Parting Advice from Hugh…

“The most simple thing to do, I think, in order to experience more joy and positive emotion, that’s what creates resilience. So that’s why I’m bring this up. But I think that the easiest thing to do a really practical one, is just to write down three things every day that went well for you. Not three things that have been life changing, not three things you’re grateful for because that’s impossible to keep that up every day and not get bored.”

“What are three things that went well for you today? Had a nice coffee. You saw the sunrise. Had a nice text message for a friend.”

“Whatever it is. If you do that every single day, you actually physically rewire your brain to start scanning the world for the positives. And that makes you a happier person. And it’s something you look forward to. Write it in a note pad next your bed, in a journal, on the shower screen door. However you want to do it, totally up to you. But what you’ll find is you’ll start to experience more moments of joy, and you’ll be more aware of them as they happen, which is a really nice starting point for all this stuff.”

About Hugh and the Key to Resilience

Hugh van Cuylenberg has been working in education for over 15 years. The highlight of his teaching career was the year he spent in the far north of India, volunteering and living at an underprivileged school in the Himalayas. It was here that he discovered resilience in its purest form.

Inspired by this experience, he returned to Melbourne and The Resilience Project was born. Having completed his post graduate studies looking at resilience and wellbeing, Hughes developed and facilitated programs for over 900 schools around Australia for the National Rugby League, The Australian Cricket Team, The Australian Netball Team, The Australian Women’s Soccer Team, The Jillaroos, 10 AFL teams, and he has presented to over 500 corporate groups. Hugh is also the best-selling author of The Resilience Project.

You can find Hugh and get more resilience tips at www.TheResilienceProject.com.

Want to learn more about the key to resilience and the science of happiness? Make sure to subscribe to my podcast Happiness for Cynics and my email newsletter for regular updates & resilience resources!

Has COVID-19 Taught us How to Be Happy? (E60)

29/03/2021 by Marie

Happiness for Cynics podcast

This week Marie and Pete discuss how COVID has impacted our happiness levels, and has taught us how to be happy in spite of adversity.

Transcript

[Happy intro music -background]

M: Welcome to happiness for cynics and thanks for joining us as we explore all the things I wish I’d known earlier in life but didn’t.

P: This podcast is about how to live the good life. Whether we’re talking about a new study or the latest news or eastern philosophy, our show is all about discovering what makes people happy.

M: So, if you’re like me and you want more out of life, listen in and more importantly, buy in because I guarantee if you do, the science of happiness can change your life.

P: Plus, sometimes I think we’re kind of funny.

[Intro music fadeout]

M: Okay, so today we are looking at what COVID has taught us about how to be happy.

P: Who would think that COVID would be linked to our happiness levels.

M: Well, you know, teaching us things about happiness. I think that this is the big wake up call that we’ve been needing around the world.

P: To make us focus on a mental health, just a global pandemic.

M: Well, this is the best… You couldn’t do this in a scientific study; Make some people get a disease and others not just to see what happens to their mental health.

P: Laugh! Yes. The ethical reasoning is mind boggling.

M: Laugh, exactly. It is the biggest and best way to look at resilience and mental health. Obviously, you would never wish this on anyone.

P: Of course not, no.

M: But what we can learn from it is extensive.

P: Well, this is very true. And this is what happened after the 1917 [1918-19] Spanish flu experiences. The society learned a lot.

M: Yep.

P: They learned a lot of lessons on how to cope with bacterial infections and control mechanisms and –

M: Washing your hands.

P: Yeah, all those basic reminders, I guess.

M: Yeah.

P: So yeah, yeah. I guess it’s time to learn the lessons.

M: Absolutely. And we’ve been going through it and feeling it, and I really hope that this is the kick up the butt that the world needs to really start to focus on well being.

P: Laugh. Well, if we’re looking at this report, it would seem that way.

M: Yes.

P: We are looking at the World Happiness Report – Laughter!

M: Laugh.

P: A cat just flew across my computer.

M & P: Laughter.

M: I was going to lock them out of the room.

P: Laugh.

M: I didn’t… I’m learning my lesson.

P & M: Laughter.

P: Okay, so today we’re actually looking at the second World Happiness Report.

M: Oh, no!

P: No, there’s more.

M: Many, many of them.

P: This is our second, laugh.

M: Yes. So, when we first kicked off last year, we did an episode on the Global Happiness Report findings and the 2021 Global Happiness Report Findings have just been released in time for World Happiness Day. So last week for us.

P: Mmm hmm.

M: And we’re able now to look at all of that data from the previous decade and compare it to this year’s data (from 2020) and really look at how COVID has impacted our happiness levels around the world. So it’s a great tool for us to look at what’s changed.

P: Yes.

M: And so there’s a lot that hasn’t changed. Let’s just start there.

P: Yes.

M: So Finland again forth year in a row.

P: Oh the Finnish, they’re all running around, clapping their little, what do they wear there? Wearing clogs?

M: Yeah, I don’t know.

P: They’ve got little bootie things.

M: Ok. I just see them as being very cold.

P: Laugh.

M: So, this report is compiled by the U.N. Sustainable Development solution, and it’s an annual report, and it ranks about 150,149 countries based on:

Gross domestic product per person. So how much money do you have and all the well-being indicators that go with having some money.
Healthy life expectancy. So how long you going to live
And the opinions of residents.

So it asks respondents to indicate on scale of 1 to 10 how much social support they feel they have if something goes wrong, their freedom to make their own life choices. That’s about autonomy, their sense of how corrupt their society is and how generous they are.

P: Oooh.

M: We’ve spoken a lot about generosity and gratitude and things like that as well.

P: Yes.

M: So the top 10 countries in 2021.

P: De de de de! We have on top,

1. Finland! Yay!

M: Wooh!

P: Do we have the Finnish National Anthem? Can we play it now?

[Finnish National Anthem – 10 second exert]

P: Laugh, followed very closely by,

2. Denmark; and

3. Switzerland.

M: Mmm hmm.

P: It’s the Scandinavians, they always seem to be on top. And then

4. Iceland.

P: Oddly enough, all the core countries.

5. The Netherlands.

6. Norway; and

7. Sweden.

P: Again, we’re staying up around Scandinavians.

8. Luxembourg.

9. New Zealand!

M: Whoop, whoop!

P: Go the Kiwis! And

10. Austria.

P: Random, Austria?

M: Well again, not very far from all the other countries up there.

P: I guess so, yeah.

M: And so, as we said before, it’s the fourth year that Finland has come out on top.

P: Mmm, yeah. They must be doing something right.

M: Some other noteworthy countries. The US, which was at number 13, five years ago, has slipped from 18^th to19^th place, so they’ve been slowly declining over the last half decade, and we really have seen a huge decline in the South American countries.

P: Yeah.

M: So, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico all became significantly less happy in 2020.

P: We’ll talk about the reasons why about that later.

M: Yep.

P: But interesting, the Latino countries are not doing so well.

M: No, not at all. And a lot of Asian countries are, just sort of in the mix in the middle. But definitely they’re not leading the pack. It is Finland, Denmark, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.

P: Hmm.

M: They’re all doing an amazing job and New Zealand.

P: Yeah, although I do find it interesting. I was flicking through the report. They did say that the Asia Pacific region is one of the top regions in terms of dealing with the COVID response.

M: Yes, and that is a factor that we’ll come to in a little bit. Is how countries have dealt with COVID.

P: Yes.

M: So it is worth saying, though, that you would think that happiness levels may have dropped in 2020.

P: I would… yes. Overall, I would say yes. I think some people have actually fared well, but you’d have to put it on an aggregate and I would say on average yes.

M: So not substantially in anyway. So, the numbers are still pretty consistent with the year before. So that is that I thought that was a bit surprising.

P: Mmm.

M: There was, however, periodic dips.

P: Yep.

M: So when everyone first went into lock down, women in particular didn’t fare particularly well, but overall, lots of people didn’t fare well for that moment.

P: Mmm.

M: But if you look at the full year and obviously these questions are looking much more broadly at life satisfaction rather than that moment in time, how are we faring today? Overall, people were faring about the same as in 2019 for happiness levels, which I thought was a bit surprising.

P: Yeah. Look, sometimes having issues and having a challenging time of it actually makes you relatively more understanding and grateful for what you do have.

M: Mmm hmm.

P: So that in and of itself, we talked about gratefulness a lot. Making you feel grateful is going to make you feel a bit more contented and happy because you get away from the materialistic products and the big, flashy cars and the overseas trips and it comes down to ‘ah, I have people around me that I’m enjoying and I have food in my belly and they can enjoy my home, home, lifestyle and things like that.

M: Mmm hmm. Definitely.

P: So your daily happiness might actually go up because you’re more appreciative.

M: Well, there’s this and we’ve spoken about this before. Definitely if you have experienced trauma.

P: Mmm.

M: A lot of people bounce back and are even happier than pre-trauma.

P: Yes, the relative effect.

M: Yep. So that’s not what we’re going to talk about today.

P & M: Laugh!

P: Tangent!

M: But there are six lessons that we can take from the results, and why don’t you kick us off?

P: Oooh. Older people are happier!

M: Nice.

P: Go the silver hair-set!

M & P: Laugh.

P: Those wearing glasses and bald. Well done, ladies and gentlemen. The age profile of happiness before the pandemic struck, they were saying, was roughly a U shaped curve.

M: Yep.

P: People began their adult lives in a cheerful way and they became less happy in middle age.

M: Mmm hmm.

P: And then they got happy again at 50, and then if they got into the senior years, into the seventies and nineties bracket, they fell back into the doldrums. But now they’re saying, particularly the UK, which is an interesting one, that the pattern is on upward slope and that older people are actually a little bit happier.

M: And the young are less satisfied right now as well, aren’t they?

P: Yeah.

M: So it’s more like a line rather than a U shape.

P: Which is… is that a generational thing?

M: Well, the U shape has been around and being discussed for a while now.

P: Mmm.

M: And what we’re saying is during the pandemic, rather than a U shape and starting happy our younger generations have dropped, but our older generations have gotten happier, which is a bit counterintuitive because the older generations the most risk of dying from COVID.

P: I guess so, but there’s a relative understanding there as-well, and maybe there’s a relative resilience in there with the older generation and let’s face it, if they’re if they’re around the nineties then they went through the Depression and the post war era and stuff like that. So maybe those lessons that they learned in those days have come back to serve them well in a global pandemic such as COVID.

M: Or maybe they’re happy that they’re not the ones that have passed.

P: Very true.

M: Maybe they’re grateful for their lives.

P: Yeah maybe.

M: So the next one or next lesson to be learned is that countries in which governments are seen to have not done as well with COVID have slipped.

P: This doesn’t surprise me, laugh.

M: Yes, and the UK and the US are the two biggest examples of this.

P: Oh, huge!

M: So, one of the co-authors of the report, Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs said, quote “We find year after year that life satisfaction is reported to be happiest in the social democracies of northern Europe. People feel secure in those countries, so trust is high. The government is seen to be credible and honest, and trust in each other is high.”

P: Mmm.

M: Also, people’s perception of how their country was handling the pandemic contributed to an overall rise in well-being.

P: Hmm.

M: So several Asian countries fared better than they had in last year’s rankings; China moved to 84th place to… from 94^th [to 84^th]. So they moved up 10 spots because of their handling of the pandemic.

P: Yeah, wow.

M: We assume. And countries like Finland, Iceland, New Zealand, who I have to say I kind of had an advantage if you’re an island, laugh.

P: If you’re a small island, you [just] close the borders. I mean, even Australia, we fared well because of that fact, we could close off the borders and say ‘sorry you’re not coming across.’

M: Absolutely.

P: We are our own little place down here and put the fences up.

M: Yes, absolutely. So, countries which have managed COVID and managed keep COVID levels low, have happier residents.

P: Yeah, I’d easily believe that when you’ve got faith in the higher power, especially when you’re relying on them in an international crisis. You’re relying on leadership. And even if you don’t necessarily agree with the leadership before that situation happens, if there is a response, if there is communication and clear communication and daily steps being made, then yes, you would have more faith in the powers that be and that’s got to make you feel more secure and you know the hierarchy of needs, we need security it’s number 3?

M: Yep… Oh don’t ask me.

P: Talk to Maslow, I know who he is now.

M & P: Laugh.

P: That little pyramid, laugh.

M: So, look I think that’s a bit of a no-brainer the countries that are having lower death rates and lower infection rates are happier.

P: Mmm. Maybe that’s a thing about the Latino countries. I mean you look at the Brazil example of the government there just how, how tense it is with the entire population and possibly also with Colombia and Mexico.

M: Yeah, so we mentioned before Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico have all dropped.

P: Mmm.

M: Definitely.

P: Staying with the country theme let’s move on to number three. Countries with a strong capitalist culture are not faring well. Down with capitalism.

M: Mmm.

P: Is this the anarchists making a play?

M & P: Laugh!

P: I’m expecting costumes to come out with the, you know, V for Vendetta.

M: Laugh.

P: That’s going to start, wearing red.

Your favourite author, Sonja Lyubomirsky, professor of psychology at the University of California at Riverside, has noted that, for example, in the American culture, one of the capitalist leaders of the world, prizes of and big signs of wealth, big houses, big cars, multiple cars, they rely on this more in America than in other countries and that leads her to assume, I’m going to say assume or to cite that ‘material things don’t make us happy.’

M: It’s a fair assumption, but it’s back by research. Absolutely.

P: Oh, well we believe it then, laugh.

M: We do.

P: Laugh!

M: We’ve spoken about this before, material things don’t make us happy.

P: Yep.

M: So, if you look at the top 10, they’re all strong social democracies. Whereas capitalist culture, like in the US, where having big cars and blingy jewellery and flashy jobs and all the rest of it is far more prized, they’re not as happy.

P: It’s a temporary happiness that they get from those items. That long term happiness is lacking.

M: Yep.

P: Nothing like a crisis to make light of the holes that are in your fabric as it were.

M: Absolutely.

P: Ooh, I’m feeling allegorical.

M & P: Laugh.

M: Definitely. One of the other lessons we can learn from the report is that inequality continues to impact happiness.

P: I must say, I’m a bit surprised by this one.

M: Well, we’re spoken about how humans compare themselves to others, right?

P: Yep.

M: And how this can impact your happiness and so if you look at your neighbour and they seem to have everything.

P: Mmm hmm.

M: It’s really hard to be happy when you feel like you have nothing.

P: This is the social dilemma, the Facebook, Twitter, Instagram thing, yeah.

M: Absolutely, that makes it worse.

P: The wall of comparisons.

M: And you’re seeing other people through their social media, and it’s a fake life that you’re seeing.

P: The best moments.

M: Yeah, exactly. Not the real moments. Well, young people and women have been disproportionately impacted by COVID. So many have lost their jobs. In America, for instance, the unemployment rate for people between 20 to 24 shot up from 6.3% in February to 25.6% –

P: Wow!

M: – 2 months later.

P: Wow! That’s huge.

M: Now, last month had dropped back to about 10% but that’s a huge drop and for 1/4 of a demographic to be out of work that’s a huge impact.

P: Yep, and that’s gonna have a long term reaching effects into the…

M: Superannuation.

P: Yeah, everything as they get older, definitely.

M: Definitely. And then in a lot of richer countries or more well off countries. Women have also had a particularly hard time, so they often wake in sectors like hospitality, which have been shut down.

P: Mmm.

M: Also, when schools closed, many were stuck with more than their fair share of childcare responsibilities.

P: Yep, mmm hmm.

M: And so the inequality that we’ve seen because of COVID, particularly for women and young people but also across the board, has been really tough for a lot of people to bear. And looking at other generations or sexes or other demographics and seeing that you’ve been impacted when others haven’t is really tough and really hits your happiness levels.

P: Mmm.

M: So it’ll be really interesting to look, I find this this aspect fascinating, looking into how inequality is impacting certain demographics and looking at the systemic ways that our governments can help to address some of this inequality because this is an only a COVID issue.

P: No, this is gonna be my point is that this happens a lot when we have financial issues across national scales. Same thing happened in the GFC, a lot of women left work, left the workplace and went back to Home Care/Childcare and things like that and their often much more transient in nature in regards to employment.

M: Mmm hmm.

P: And we know we know this, and it’s interesting that this trend has still stayed.

M: Yep, and the question is, how is that impacting their long-term happiness, their life, happiness? And I think COVID’s finally shining a light on that because, as we’ve said before, happiness, impacts your well-being, your mental-health, physical health, your longevity.

P: Mmm.

M: It has so many wide sweeping impacts, and we’re actually seeing through this report the impact of losing your job or being unequally impacted by a global pandemic or a global financial crisis, or whatever issue of the day we’re dealing with is going to impact people unfairly.

P: Mmm. There is a counterpoint to that argument, which I’m going to throw at you Marie, and I’m getting my shields up ready to deflect, laugh.

M: I’m ready, I’m ready to fight!

P: Laugh!

M: I’ve got my gloves on.

P: I may get hit here people, laugh. The counterpoint of that argument is that women are much more willing to surrender their career choices -hear me out- and go back to child care and home care and things like that, possibly because it is a social expectation that’s placed upon them. But I would like to see the data on how many women make that choice because they do want to be happier. They make the choice to return to not being in a career and prefer to support the other person. I’m wondering if that is part of the equation.

M: I think there are some women who choose, and that’s their right, there are far more who don’t choose it, but because they’ve got to push the baby out –

P: Yep.

M: – and recover from that.

P: This is what I mean.

M: They have no choice and therefore they have to take time off work, and that impacts their ability to save superannuation.

P: Mmm.

M: It also is the only way that the family can survive because a lot of men don’t have paternity leave, and so they’re the only ones that can get an income.

P: It’s a policy issue.

M: Yeah, it’s a systemic issue, and I’d say yes, there are some women who would like to stay home and look after their kids. However, there are many who don’t and they’re stuck with no choice. And that’s the problem.

P: Ok.

M: And not only that when they do finally have the opportunity to go back to work, they are starting from scratch, they’re struggling to find work.

P: They’re at a disadvantage.

M: They often can only find part time work or they have to look for part time work because they still have to look after the kids.

P: Yep.

M: And the man in the relationship has continued to build a career, and they’re so far behind that it doesn’t make sense for the family, for them to be the full time breadwinner and the man to be the part time carer.

P: Mmm.

M: So the system just keeps perpetuating that loss off income and career progression for a good 10 years, or however long it takes until you feel comfortable that kids can walk home from school by themselves.

P: Mmm, yeah. I still I still think that there is a demographic in there that make the call, they don’t want the career choice they actually prefer ‘No, I don’t want the stress of that’ because they still have to take care of Children.

M: And I’d say there’s just as many of them as there are men and the men have no choice to do that. For us women that is the only choice a lot of the time.

P: Mmm, ok.

M: Because the system’s stacked against us and there’s a lot of women who, as we’ve mentioned before, would like to have purpose and meaning in their life that isn’t tied to someone else’s happiness.

P: Of course.

M: Any way I could be on my high horse for a very long time, laugh.

P: I just wanted to get it out there, because I was genuinely shocked when I saw the inequality towards women was a COVID response.

M: Yep.

P: In response to COVID. But I was surprised by that, because I would say that generally speaking, I find women more resilient in terms of emotional responses to issues.

M: Well, I think this next one, we’re going to have to speed this up and wrap it up.

P: Oops, sorry.

M: This next one will actually give the counter argument to that.

P: Ok.

M: So why don’t you drop in this next one?

P: Alright, so the next one is that people who are more social had greater drops in happiness. So, people who were going out and [they’re] the life of the party, the social butterflies, the ones who are coordinating all the friends and have lots of friends, fared far worse in COVID than those who were perhaps a little bit more stringent with their socialising.

We have a study from Britain by Ben Etheridge and that Lisa Spantig, both from the University of Essex, that found that again, women without least four close friends slumped more than anyone during the spring in 2020 lock down and that people who are used to seeing a lot of friends, here we go again with the young people, they suffered really badly –

M: Young people and women.

P: – in this experience.

M: So back to your point about women, the drop in social contacts could have also been exacerbating things. Definitely.

P: Mmm, yes.

M: And that would have been impacted again, unequally compared to men who had less friends, in general. Now we’re definitely stereotyping and generalising here.

P: Yeah.

M: But definitely young people and women again would have been exacerbated by lockdowns.

P: And that comes back again to that other point about the youth having to really struggle through this and they really are at a disadvantage. As you said, those figures in the job market in the US that puts them back behind the eight ball for another 10 years.

M: Yep.

P: Add on to that the social impacts of having their friendship circle [cut], because that’s when you make friends in your twenties and you’re meeting people who are outside of your normal sphere. You know, you’ve moved out of home, you’ve gone to university, you’ve gone to new places. Yeah, not meeting people at that point that could have a real social impact 10, 20 years down the track.

M: Yes. Absolutely. All right, well, we’ll have to end there. But it was –

P: An interesting one.

M: – definitely an interesting one, yep. Laugh. And sorry for the rant on the women’s rights.

P: No, no. I want to get your response, I just wanted to throw that one at you.

M: Oh! Yep.

P: Laugh, I could see – Laugh!

M: I’m still biting my tongue, Pete. Laugh!

P: Yeah, I’m just ready for a back hander, laugh.

M: We’ll do that off air, laugh. All right. Thanks for joining us today and we’ll see you next week.

P: Bye

[Happy exit music – background]

M: Thanks for joining us today if you want to hear more please remember to subscribe and like this podcast and remember you can find us at www.marieskelton.com, where you can also send in questions or propose a topic.

P: And if you like our little show we would absolutely love for you to leave a comment or rating to help us out.

M: Until next time.

M & P: Choose happiness.

[Exit music fadeout]

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Is Swearing Good For You?

17/03/2021 by Marie

I don’t know why I haven’t covered this topic before, but as someone who more than occasionally let’s a swear word slip out, this topic is close to my heart. My academic interest in swearing only started recently when I watched the hilarious Netflix documentary ‘History of Swear Words,’ hosted by Nicholas Cage and a cast of gutter-mouthed comedians and actors.

Funny anecdotes aside, this was a real documentary, with history lessons and all, and it made me wonder whether there was a science of swearing. Lo and behold, there is. Not only that, but along the way, I discovered my parents’ insistence that I never swear – as it was unladylike and crass – was actually doing me a disservice.

In this article, we explore why mum and dad (and millions of other people) were wrong and how swearing can be good for you, because as it turns out swearing can help you achieve a happier, healthier life. Read on!

Swearing is Good for you

Authenticity is a popular topic among positive psychologists, with the thinking going like this: if you can’t be honest with those around you, you will never be truly happy. Throughout history, minority and oppressed groups have experienced the downside of having to hide their identity, often battling higher rates of mental health conditions and suicide. The research shows that if you don’t show your real self, then true happiness will be hard to find or sustain. So, what does authenticity have to do with swearing?

Simply, swearing is a way of telling the truth and being authentic. People who swear are more honest. This is backed up by findings from a study by researchers at Maastricht University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Stanford and the University of Cambridge. The researchers noted that, “We found a consistent positive relationship between profanity and honesty; profanity was associated with less lying and deception at the individual level and with higher integrity at the society level.”

The researchers found that using profanity to express your anger, frustration or sincerity is an open and honest way of communicating with others. So, as long as you’re not using profanity to demean or harass someone else (which is never OK), then letting a few curse words fly can make you seem more authentic and honest to others. It is worth noting that in this study, although researchers found the same positive correlation with openness and truth telling, they also found that people who swear more were also more likely to display neuroticism, and be less conscientious and agreeable… which kinda makes sense, if you’re swearing a lot you probably don’t care what others think so much.

Profanity Helps with Pain and Relaxes you

Another reason to add swear words to your vocabulary is that they help us to cope with pain. In a study by Richard Stephens at Keele University, people had to hold their hand in icy water while repeating either a swear word or a neutral word. After adjusting for a range of other factors, Stephens and his colleagues found that for most people, swearing not only increased pain tolerance, but also decreased perceived pain compared to those who didn’t swear. They found that the people who swore could keep their hand in the icy water up to 50 per cent longer than those who didn’t.

It seems that swearing activates our brains natural pain reducing chemicals, which are similar to morphine. But just like with opioids, overuse of swearing can dull the effects. Researchers found that when people swore regularly, their swearing was less effective at helping to cope with pain. So, it’s better to save your swear words for the times you really need them.

Stephens also suggests that swearing might kick us into a fight-or-flight response, nullifying the link between fear of pain and pain perception. So next time you stub your toe, go ahead and let out an expletive or two and remember, it’s a healthy way of coping with pain and stress.

Stephens wrote a whole book on this subject, “Black Sheep: The Hidden Benefits of Being Bad.” Stephens’ book covers a range of bad behavior that you may wish to rethink, not the least is swearing. You can also check out Emma Byrne’s book, “Swearing is good for you: The amazing science of bad language.”

And yes! Swearing is a Sign of Intelligence

Saving the best for last, this next fact flies in the face of the commonly held idea that people who swear are low-class idiots. In fact, quite the opposite is true.

Research shows that using swear words is a sign of a greater vocabulary – with people specifically choosing to use swear words from a vast array of options and alternatives. Researchers found that people who know a large number of swear words also tend to know a larger number of words in general. And greater vocabulary is correlated with greater IQ, so if you have a greater number of swear words at your disposal, you’re likely to be more intelligent too!

The moral of this story? Yes! Swearing is good for you! So, dust *ff those swear words, spew some pr*fanities and have a hell of a day!

Want to learn more about the science of happiness? Make sure to subscribe to my podcast Happiness for Cynics and my email newsletter for regular updates & resilience resources!

10 Reasons Why 2021 Will be The Year of Better Mental Health

10/02/2021 by Marie

If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, call 000 in Australia, or your local emergency services number.

We know mental health is an issue, but will we finally do anything about it in 2021?

We all know, and we’ve been saying it for long enough, 2020 was shit (s’cuse my language, but it was). Too many things that were simply out of control were impacting our lives – leaving us powerless to do much of anything except resolve to be kind to ourselves and others….

Actually, to be fair, that’s only if you’re self-aware enough to know how to respond to major change, or trauma or crises like what many of us went through last year. The sad truth is that so many people have never been taught how to assess their emotions, to step back and work out a logical (not emotional) way forward. They were never taught how to build resilience and what makes a good life, a happy life.

To be fair, neither was I. I grew up in an era when we still played bullrush and brandings in the playground. I still remember being the nominated person to change those clear plastic sheets on the projector in science class. We didn’t talk about emotions or bullying, and we didn’t have mobile phones or social media. I came from the suck-it-up era, which our grandmothers had instilled in us because they’d seen real depressions and war.

The world is just so different nowadays, and we’re not coping. Even pre-pandemic, and pre 2020 bushfires, and pre-Trump, and pre-Brexit, our mental health was on the decline. We’re not coping with this new world, but finally, after 2020, I think we’re starting to realise that this isn’t just fluff, it’s a problem.

So, check out the latest mental health stats from around the world and decide for yourself: will 2021 be the year of mental health?

1. Around the world, mental health issues are a problem

There are approximately one billion people around the world with a mental, neurodevelopment or substance use disorder – although mental health disorders remain largely underreported, so estimates vary and researchers disagree (Our world in data). But, even with some room for error, the numbers are quite simply staggering.

Four million, or 1 in 5, Australians are living with mental health conditions, including anxiety and depression.
In the U.S., the numbers are similar with recent stats showing also that 1 in 5 (20.6 per cent) of adults experienced mental illness in 2019 (51.5 million people). (NAMI)
Similarly, in any given year, 1 in 5 Canadians experiences a mental illness or addiction problem (CAMH)

2. Mental health and the elderly

The global population is ageing rapidly, with estimates that 1 in 5 people will be over 60 by 2050 – that’s 2 billion people. The most common mental and neurological disorders in this age group are dementia and depression, which affect approximately 5 per cent and 7 per cent of the world’s older population. With this demographic in particular, mental health problems are under-identified by health-care professionals and older people themselves, and the stigma surrounding these conditions makes people reluctant to seek help. (WHO)

In the U.K., depression affects around 22 per cent of men and 28 per cent of women aged 65 years and over, and it is estimated that 85 percent of older people with depression receive no help at all from the NHS. Research shows the five factors that affect the mental health and wellbeing of older people are: discrimination, participation in meaningful activities, relationships, physical health and poverty. (Mental Health Foundation)

Additionally, this group is particularly prone to social isolation and loneliness, which can cause poor mental health outcomes. Loneliness is a complicated issue that has gained increased visibility over recent years. In the U.S., about 28 percent of older adults, or 13.8 million people, live alone, but many of them are not lonely or socially isolated. At the same time, some people feel lonely despite being surrounded by family and friends. (NIH)

3. Mental health and teens

The World Economic Forum states that mental illness is the leading cause of disability and poor life outcomes for young people today, yet investment into mental health is insufficient worldwide. Most mental illness has its onset in adolescence and early adulthood with 75 per cent of mental illness presents by the age of 25 years. (World Economic Forum)

In Canada, 70 per cent of adults with mental health issues begin experiencing symptoms in adolescence, and teens aged 15 to 24 are more likely to experience mental illness and/or substance use disorders than any other age group. This is why the country is looking toward new models of care for their youth. (The Conversation)

In the U.S. 16.5% of U.S. youth aged 6-17 experienced a mental health disorder in 2016 (7.7 million people). Yet stats show that about 50 per cent of U.S. youth with a mental illness get any treatment. Additionally, In the U.S., suicide is the second leading cause of death among people aged 10-34 in the U.S. and overall, 46 per cent of people who die by suicide had a diagnosed mental health condition. (NAMI)

4. Mental health and gender

Most mental health disorders, such as depression, anxiety, bipolar and eating disorders, are more common in women than men. This pattern appears to hold true across most countries. Yet alcohol and substance abuse tend to be higher in men than women. While in Canada, as with many other countries, more than three quarters of suicides involve men, but women attempt suicide 3 to 4 times more often. (CAMH)

Unfortunately, during COVID, women are more at risk of financial insecurity. In a survey of more than 10,000 people in nearly 40 countries, 55 per cent of women reported a significant impact from COVID-19-related income loss, compared with 34 per cent of men, while 27 per cent of women experienced increased struggles with mental health issues, compared with 10 per cent of men. It’s becoming clear that the pandemic could have lasting impacts on the economic and mental well-being of those on low incomes. (World Economic Forum)

5. Mental health and finances

Unemployed people are less mentally and physically resilient than those in work according to a range of studies which have shown a strong correlation between unemployment, as well as job insecurity, and increased risk of depressive symptoms. (Our world in data)

Yet it’s a bit of a vicious cycle, with studies showing that people with a mental illness are much less likely to be employed, with unemployment rates are as high as 70-90 per cent for people with the most severe mental illnesses. Not only that, but people who have jobs but are in the lowest socio-economic groups are also at risk of increased mental health conditions. In Canada, people in the lowest income group are 3 to 4 times more likely than those in the highest income group to report poor to fair mental health. Additionally, studies in various Canadian cities indicate that between 23 per cent and 67 per cent of homeless people report having a mental illness. (CAMH)

6. Mental health and domestic violence

An Australian study analysed almost 500,000 police reports of domestic violence and found that mental health was an issue in both perpetrators and victims. A total of 16 per cent of the examined domestic violence events had at least one mention of a mental illness for either the perpetrator or the victim. In 76 per cent of cases, mental illness was mentioned for the perpetrator only, 17 per cent for the victim only, and 7 per cent for both victim and perpetrator. The researchers also found that mood affective disorders, which include depression or bipolar disorder, were the most common in both victims and perpetrators. (The Conversation)

7. Mental health and the LGBTIQ++ community

The prevalence of mental illness among U.S. adults who identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual is more than twice as high all other demographic groups bar one at 44.1 per cent (mixed/multi-racial follow at 31.7 per cent, with all other groups sitting at 22 per cent or below). On top of that, Lesbian, gay and bisexual youth are 4 times more likely to attempt suicide than straight youth, and transgender adults are nearly 12 times more likely to attempt suicide than the general population. (NAMI)

Sadly, the LGBTIQ++ community still faces abuse, bullying, homophobic or transphobic attitudes and a lack of inclusion in even the most liberal countries and this can and does have a serious impact on many in the community’s mental health.

8. Mental health impacts physical health

In Australia, a study in 2018 showed that people with mental health conditions are at greater risk of chronic physical disease and much greater risk of early death. In fact, having a mental health condition, such as anxiety or depression, increases the risk of every single major chronic disease. This includes heart disease, high blood pressure, arthritis, back pain, diabetes, asthma, bronchitis, emphysema and cancer. More than 2.4 million people have both a mental and at least one physical health condition. (The Conversation)

In Canada, they also found that mental and physical health are linked, showing that people with long-term medical conditions are more likely to experience mood disorders. On the other hand, people with mood disorders are at much higher risk of developing a long-term physical condition. (CAMH)

U.S. stats support these finding and show people with depression have a 40% higher risk of developing cardiovascular and metabolic diseases than the general population. (NAMI)

9. Mental health and Indigenous peoples

In Australia, stats show Aboriginal people are much more likely to suffer from depression or dementia than other Australians. More than 30 per cent of Aboriginal people suffer from some form of psychological distress (general population is 20 per cent). Additionally, about 12 per cent of Aboriginal people aged over 45 years have dementia, with Aboriginal people living in remote communities being 10 times more likely to develop dementia than people living in countries such as Africa, India or Indonesia. (Australia and New Zealand Mental Health Association)

In Canada, First Nations youth die by suicide about 5 to 6 times more often than non-Aboriginal youth. Suicide rates for Inuit youth are among the highest in the world, at 11 times the national average. (CAMH)

10. The economic impact of poor mental health

Research shows that out of all the non-communicable diseases, youth mental health problems present the most serious burden to GDP due to the lack of the return on investment in the individual and the duration of the problem. The report estimated that by 2030 mental illness would lead to losses to global output equivalent to US$16.1 trillion. (World Economic Forum and Harvard)

In Canada, the economic burden of mental illness is estimated at $51 billion per year. This includes health care costs, lost productivity, and reductions in health-related quality of life. And in any given week, at least 500,000 employed Canadians are unable to work due to mental health problems. (CAMH) Across the U.S. economy, serious mental illness causes $193.2 billion in lost earnings each year. (NAMI)

What’s next?

I share this information in the hope that we can have more open and honest conversations about mental health. I do not want to stigmatise people with mental health issues, instead I hope that we can potentially dispel myths about mental health and raise awareness about certain groups’ vulnerability. Mostly, I hope that we can start to take systemic and meaningful action that will make a real impact on these numbers.

Interventions and programs to help people develop mental wellbeing can benefit from WHO’s breakdown of potential adverse and protective factors for mental health, which are broken down into three categories:

individual attributes and behaviours, such as genetics or personality traits;
social and economic circumstances;
environmental factors.

These factors often interact, compound or negate one another and should therefore not be considered as individual traits or exposures.

Level	Adverse Factors	Protective Factors
Individual attributes	Low self-esteem	Self-esteem, confidence
	Cognitive/emotional immaturity	Ability to solve problems & manage stress or adversity
	Difficulties in communicating	Communication skills
	Medical illness, substance use	Physical health, fitness
Social circumstances	Loneliness, bereavement	Social support of family & friends
	Neglect, family conflict	Good parenting/family interaction
	Exposure to violence/abuse	Physical security & safety
	Low income & poverty	Economic security
	Difficulties or failure at school	Scholastic achievement
	Work stress, unemployment	Satisfaction & success at work
Environmental factors	Poor access to basic services	Equality of access to basic services
	Injustice & discrimination	Social justice, tolerance, integration
	Social & gender inequalities	Social & gender equality
	Exposure to war or disaster	Physical security & safety

Source: Our World in Data

Want to learn more about the science of happiness and how to look after your mental health? Make sure to subscribe to my podcast Happiness for Cynics and my email newsletter for regular updates & resilience resources!

What’s the Link Between Money and Happiness? Let’s Sort This out Once and for all.

03/02/2021 by Marie

Money Does buy Happiness

A new study suggests that the more money you have the happier you get. Period. This contradicts previous studies which have suggested that there is a plateau at $75,000. Instead, researcher Matthew Killingsworth, a senior fellow at Penn’s Wharton School who studies human happiness, says his study shows that money does influence happiness and there is no dollar value at which it stops influencing a person’s wellbeing.

Through the app ‘Track Your Happiness,’ Killingsworth collected data from 33,391 employed, 18- to 65-year-olds in the United States. This provided in-the-moment snapshots of feelings during daily life which people recorded at a few randomised times each day. “This process provided repeated snapshots of people’s lives, which collectively gives us a composite image, a stop-motion movie of their lives,” he says.

Previous studies have shown that after a certain income level, there is no measurable rise in happiness. However, contrary to earlier research, this study showed no tapering off of happiness levels at higher levels of income.

Instead, the study found that people who have higher incomes are happier. This is due in part to having more of a sense of control over life, and probably also having less financial stress in life overall. “When you have more money, you have more choices about how to live your life. You can likely see this in the pandemic. People living pay check to pay check who lose their job might need to take the first available job to stay afloat, even if it’s one they dislike. People with a financial cushion can wait for one that’s a better fit. Across decisions big and small, having more money gives a person more choices and a greater sense of autonomy.”

But even though the latest research shows that having more money makes you happier, it’s not the only factor in what make you happy. In fact, the research is still showing that if you focus only on the money, you still won’t be happy. It’s only a means to an end. There are still many unhappy people with plenty of money.

Killingsworth warns of getting stuck on the hedonic treadmill and only chasing success and money. His research shows that income is only moderately linked to happiness.

“Although money might be good for happiness, I found that people who equated money and success were less happy than those who didn’t. I also found that people who earned more money worked longer hours and felt more pressed for time,” he said. “If anything, people probably overemphasize money when they think about how well their life is going,” said Killingsworth. “

It seems, as always, that nothing is ever simple! Let’s look at the other factors and research into money and happiness.

It’s all in Your Head: Comparison and Perception

Theodore Roosevelt called comparison “the thief of joy.” Yet, in today’s day and age, it’s hard not to compare ourselves to others. With social media feeds constantly reminding us of celebrities’ “perfect” lives, it’s not only hard to keep up but also hard to feel like we’re measuring up.

Yet social comparison theory suggests that we are all biologically wired to try to understand ourselves and how we fit within the world around us. This means it’s perfectly normal to look at everyone around you and think that some people are prettier, smarter, richer, happier, have more friends, better health or better jobs. The problem is that focusing on those who have more can lead to negative feelings, such as envy, poor self-esteem or unhappiness.

Research published in 2020 in the Psychological Bulletin, by researchers at Yale School of Management and Singapore Management University, suggests that it’s not so much about how much you earn, but how you perceive your earnings and standing in society compared to those around you. Instead, researchers suggest that income does not adequately capture the influence of money on happiness, and they now want to test the idea that happiness is more dependent on what people think they have compared to others.

These findings were backed up by a different study published in 2020 by the American Psychological Association that showed that there is a growing class divide in happiness in the U.S. The researchers found a link between socioeconomic status (including income, education, and occupational prestige) and happiness. Over 40 years, the happiness levels of rich individuals have been consistent, whereas the happiness levels of poorer individuals have slowly declined. Researcher Jean Twenge said the decrease in happiness among lower-income people may be a result of rising inequality, increasing real estate values and decreased ability to pay for education.

Read: Turns Out Money Does Buy You Happiness, Study Finds

The simple lesson here is to stop comparing your life to others and instead focus on the activities that can bring you happiness. It’s easier said than done, I know, but half the battle is being aware of your behaviour.

Money Does Matter at Work

Although having a lot of money won’t make you happy in and of itself, a recent study of 2,000 people in Belgium shows that it’s the main factor in our happiness at work. Human resources company Acerta found that 53 per cent of Belgians said having a good salary was key to their happiness at work, while 39 per cent wanted good work-life balance and 35 per cent said job security were important.

In support of the uPenn study, Acerta also found that 84 per cent of people surveyed want their pay to be flexible, in the form of a budget that allows them to make their own choices about pay and possible benefits. This again points to the idea that it’s not so much the money that matters, but the choice and control that it enables.

When Money Can’t buy Happiness

If all the above research stands the test of time, then it’s fair to say that you should be spending your money on experiences you can get excited about planning or enjoy and share with others – not fancy cars, bigger houses and flashy clothes.

Yet, despite all that research, there is one group for which getting material things does lead to better happiness levels: children. In a recent study, children 3-12-years-old found more happiness from material things than from experiences. This is because kids at this age are still developing their memory, so having a Barbie doll or a toy truck to play with over the year brings them more joy over time than an outing with the family, for instance, which they can easily forget.

However, the researchers note, “As children age, the happiness they derive from experiences increases, to the point that older adolescents derive more happiness from experiences than from material goods, consistent with adult findings.” So don’t go putting down that deposit on a McMansion just yet!

Read: 5 Cheap Ways to Live a Happy Life

Relationships Still win

Having a decent income plays a small factor in our happiness, more because of what it enables rather than because chasing and earning money will make you happy. So, if money isn’t the answer, then what is?

Simple. Good relationships.

Time and time again, research shows that having good relationships, with lovers, family and friends – or any combination of the three – is absolutely critical to our happiness levels. Yet, chasing money can lead us away from time with loved ones.

“When people base their self-worth on financial success, they experience feelings of pressure and a lack of autonomy, which are associated with negative social outcomes,” says Lora Park, who co-authored a recent study into money and loneliness.

“Feeling that pressure to achieve financial goals means we’re putting ourselves to work at the cost of spending time with loved ones, and it’s that lack of time spent with people close to us that’s associated with feeling lonely and disconnected,” said Deborah Ward, who led the research team.

In the end, nothing is black and white, but a lot of it is common sense if you think about it. And that’s the key. You have to think about it. Reflect.

When was the last time you felt at peace, content or happy? What brings you joy?

It’s guaranteed to fit into three foundations:

spending time with people;
doing activities you enjoy and that bring you purpose and meaning; and
looking after yourself – from getting enough sleep, and eating well, to getting outside and doing some exercise, or getting a massage.

Want to learn more about the money and happiness? Make sure to subscribe to my podcast Happiness for Cynics and my email newsletter for regular updates & resilience resources!

5 Cheap Ways to Live a Happy Life

27/01/2021 by Marie

How to Live a Happy Life

Need some more pep in your step or want to find more happiness in 2021? There’s a lot of advice out there about how to live a happier life, but a lot of it can be cost prohibitive. From year-long courses and counselling, to changing where you live or work, and planning holidays or starting new projects… it can all add up. So, what if you want to make some changes this year, but you’re on a budget?

Well, the good news is that happiness isn’t about material things. In fact, according to research from the University of Illinois Chicago about what Christmas gifts makes people happiest, it turns out that giving (and receiving) gifts that we can experience (live through) instead of material things makes us happier.

The research does show the easiest way to make gains in your happiness and how to live a happy life: plan to create meaningful experiences or share time with people you care about this year – and you can do that for very little money!

Here are our 5 cheap ways for how to live a happy life. Read on!

1. Make a Garden

There’s a reason why many doctors and therapists recommend gardening to people. By helping you to create life yourself and watching it grow into something beautiful, gardening can bring immense peace and happiness into your daily life.

Lots of people will say that they love gardening because of the outcome of it, the fresh vegetables or pretty flowers. However, many people don’t realize the positive psychological effect it has on your mind and body while you’re cultivating those plants.

According to Project Happiness, scientists say that working with soil is beneficial to your health and happiness. Soil bacterium are microscopic bacteria that enter your system when you touch soil – and they generate the feel good hormones: serotonin and dopamine.

You also get vitamin D, and although we’re warned by society to stay out of the sun, it is actually detrimental to our health if we don’t get enough of it. Sunlight allows us to stay happy and healthy while soaking in Vitamin D, which is essential for our bodies. So slap on some sunscreen and get to planting!

Seeing something you’ve worked hard on finally come to fruition is a positive experience no matter what it is you’re working on. And there’s nothing better than seeing your garden sprout beautiful flowers or fresh fruits and vegetables.

2. Go on a Walk in Nature

If you live in a big city, as most of us do, chances are walking in nature is something you don’t do enough. But finding the time to walk in nature regularly can change your life in numerous ways.

The benefits are endless:

Improved sleep. The exercise you’ll be getting will improve sleeping quality and increase the time you spend asleep. This gentle exercise can affect your body’s natural melatonin production, creating a healthier sleep schedule all around.
Increases “feel good’ hormones. Along with the increased melatonin, walking in nature will release other healthy endorphins, giving you a natural high. These endorphins will decrease pain, therefore increasing positivity and a healthy well-being.
Increased creativity. Being on a walk engages your body in a low-level activity, but it doesn’t take much mental energy effort. This allows your mind to wander, daydream and make new connections and think of new ideas.
It allows you to unplug. Our world today is full of technology and social media that lowers serotonin and productivity. Going on a walk allows you to put away the smart phone and unplug for a while without the temptation.
Increased Intake of vitamin D. Much like gardening, going for nature walks will also increase your Vitamin D intake, giving your body a hormone boost to improve your mood.
Decreased stress. Cortisol is the stress hormone. When you’re feeling overwhelmed, anxious or stressed you will tend to have more cortisol in your body which can contribute to a wide range of unpleasant symptoms. Walking in nature can help to lower levels of cortisol in your body, in fact, a review of 24 Shinrin-yoku (forest bathing) studies confirmed that simply looking at forest landscapes reduces cortisol by about 13 per cent, while walking in the woods decreases it nearly 16 per cent.
Grounds you back to what is important. Just taking the time to be in nature can help you feel more connected to the earth and its positive effects on our bodies. Even the color green alone has been shown to lower heart rate and increase calmness.
It encourages you to breathe. Our bodies breathe involuntarily, but in our day-to-day lives we rarely stop to really allow ourselves to breathe. Walking in nature encourages deep, rhythmic breathing which encourages your body to relax and feel calmer.
Increases your energy levels. It’s important to breathe fresh air away from toxins in urban areas. Walking among nature will help you breathe in pure, fresh air, resulting in you feeling invigorated and energized. On top of this, if you can make it a daily exercise or walking routine it will increase your productivity and energy in general.

3. Learn Something New

According to global consulting firm McKinsey & Company, “studies show that workers who maintain their ability to learn outpace other professionals. The people who will thrive in the 21st century will be those who embrace lifelong learning and continually increase their knowledge, skills, and competencies.”

The best part about the research on adult learning is that it’s not only the acquisition of new skills and competencies that benefit these workers. The mindset that drives people to be curious and want to learn more is also a great buffer against criticism and failure. People who have a growth mindset see failure as a part of their development journey. Learning also fuels our creativity, making us feel more productive and happier.

And, it turns out that developing a growth mindset and lifelong learning habits are skills that will benefit you well into retirement too. A recent study showed that people who keep their mind sharp in retirement tend to live longer .

According to Psycologies.co.uk, there is evidence to suggest that adult learning has the most positive impact on self-esteem and self-efficacy when the learning provided meets the needs of the learner, and when the learner is at a stage in their life when they are ready and receptive to benefit from it. So you have to find something that sparks your interest, not something you think you ‘should’ do.

A cheap way to learn something new is to create a new podcast list or create a playlist on Ted Talks. If you want to learn more about how to live a happy life, you could also check out the 5 Best FREE Positive Psychology Online Courses or these Top 5 Speakers on Gratitude.

4. Start Journaling

Do you feel emotionally stuck? Or are you going through a tough time right now? Are you curious about seeing a counsellor or feel you need to speak to a professional, but just can’t afford one?

Why not try journaling?

“When we put our thoughts and feelings down on paper, we’re not just transferring them—we’re also transforming them. Writing forces us to arrange our ideas into a sequence, one after another; over time, themes and patterns start to emerge; new insights and perspectives start to bubble up,” said Kira M. Newman on Greater Good Magazine.

Are you someone who is generally not comfortable opening up to people? Studies show that journaling might be the most beneficial to you.

To get started all you need is a notepad, and you need to get into the habit of doing it, here’s how:

Generally, you want to set a timer and just keep writing for at least 20 minutes. However, research suggests that even writing for a few minutes can be beneficial. You also want to start making this a practice. Try to write for four days a week, but as with all new habits, remember to forgive yourself if you fall short and just pick up where you left off (i.e. keep going!).

**If you’re going through a tough time and need to speak to a professional, the above information might not be suitable for you – in Australia, you can call Lifeline on 13 11 14 for free if you need to speak to someone. **

5. Practice Gratitude

practicing gratitude leads to a happier life

One of the easiest and cheapest ways for how to live a happy life is practicing gratitude — and it’s fully science backed. In fact, all it takes is a few minutes a day or per week. A study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, showed that participants who kept a gratitude journal weekly for 10 weeks or daily for two weeks experienced benefits.

These benefits included more positive moods, optimism about the future, less stress and better sleep. Gratitude also leads to higher overall wellbeing and satisfaction with your life and social relationships. Why? We’re biologically wired to look out for the bad things in life (don’t want that lion to eat us, ya know?!) so we need to balance the scales and train out brains to see the good things too. And the more you train your brain to see what you do have, the more you’ll see and appreciate the good in others and in your own life.

The research suggests that writing about what you’re grateful for is key. Translating your thoughts into concrete language makes you more aware of them, deepening their emotional impact. It’s useful to reflect on smaller, more frequent things—such as a modest bit of help from a friend or colleague. You can simply pick up a notebook from the shops and get to writing.

Not all is lost if writing isn’t your thing, I have personally found that sharing what I’m grateful for with my husband every night has had huge impacts on both of us and has also brought us closer. Instead of asking what we’re grateful for which started becoming hard not to repeat things every night, we instead ask, “tell me 3 things that went well today.”

All of these ideas and tips are proven to cheap ways for how to live a happy life. Why not get started on your happiness journey today?!

Want to learn more about how to life a happy life? Make sure to subscribe to my podcast Happiness for Cynics and my email newsletter for regular updates & resilience resources!

To Make it Through Covid, Start Looking Forward

20/01/2021 by Marie

Want to be more positive? Start looking forward

If there’s one thing I love about this time of year, it’s the hope that comes with a fresh start. Even the often cynical and negative news cycle gets a positivity boost in December and January. There’s been a flurry of articles (see here and here) on how to have a more hopeful and positive year – given that 2020 was a sh*tshow – and now new research from the University of Surrey shows that there is power in having hope and looking forward.

In the study, which was published in the Journal of Positive Psychology, participants were surveyed and then randomly assigned to one of four groups. Group one completed interventions focused on nostalgia (looking at the past). Group two focused on gratitude (looking at the present). The third group focused on their best possible self (looking to the future). Following the intervention, each participant was measured on their wellbeing and positive feelings.

Results showed that the group who focused on the future (group three) had higher positive feelings. Groups two and three also had higher social connectedness than the nostalgia group (group one). The researchers concluded that focusing on the present or future during lockdown is more effective for wellbeing than focusing on the past, which alongside trait characteristics predict well-being under lockdown. As for those traits that amplified the effects of looking forward, the researchers noted that those people who had better relationships, greater emotion regulation, and more social interactions were faring better in lockdown.

So why not gift yourself some hope this new year? Here’s how to easily look forward.

Book a holiday

To start with, it’s important to be realistic about what’s doable in the middle of a volatile COVID-19 environment. My advice: don’t go booking overseas holidays or even interstate holidays. Instead, look for some natural wonders or unvisited cities or towns a bit closer to home and plan to visit and explore the area.

Make sure when you’re planning you next holiday that you enjoy the planning period too. Research shows that biggest boost in your happiness can come not from the vacation itself, but from the act of planning the vacation!

Plan a get together

Whether you plan to have a special family dinner or invite friends over for a board game (within any local lockdown rules of course), you will benefit from planning an evening and you’ll benefit from the social contact.

Researchers have found that having a family meal benefits your kids’ mental and physical health. And if you have a games night, don’t forget to let lose and have a laugh at yourself. Studies show people who make fun of themselves are in fact happier and better socially adjusted – which were some of the characteristics that predicted wellbeing during lockdown!

Get out into nature

Researchers have found that simply going for a leisurely walk can improve mood and boost subjective well-being, particularly for adults who are normally sedentary. Plus, you’ll get the added benefit of being outside in nature, which has also been shown to help people feel better.

So why not plan to go for a trip somewhere new and hike in the mountains or a walk along the beach this weekend?

Don’t’ forget once you’ve planned your activities and completed them to make sure you have other activities lines up that you can continue to look forward to! In fact, that’s a new year’s resolution I can get behind, always having something in my diary to look forward to, and if not, get to planning something!

Want to learn more about the science of happiness and how to be more positive? Make sure to subscribe to my podcast Happiness for Cynics and my email newsletter for regular updates & resilience resources!

resilience

Can you boost your happiness?

Make Gratitude a Habit

Get Your Heart Pumping

Bring Some Laughter Into Your Day

Want to learn more about how to boost your happiness? Make sure to subscribe to my podcast Happiness for Cynics and my email newsletter for regular updates & happiness and resilience resources!

Is Laughter the Best Medicine?

What’s the Link Between Laughter and Ongoing Wellbeing?

Laughter and Your Happiness Set Point

Why Not Try Some Laughter Yoga?

Start your day right with laughter

Use laughter to bond with friends and family

Make some noise and let loose

Want to learn more about the laughter and bringing happiness into your life? Make sure to subscribe to my podcast Happiness for Cynics and my email newsletter for regular updates & resilience resources!

What can we Learn From the 2021 World Happiness Report?

Lessons From the 2021 World Happiness Report

1. Humans are Really Quite Resilient

2. Inequality continues to impact our happiness

3. Finland does it again

4. We’re Social Beings

Want to learn more about the science of happiness? Make sure to subscribe to my podcast Happiness for Cynics and my email newsletter for regular updates & resilience resources!

What’s the Key to Resilience?

The GEM Principle

Gratitude

Empathy

Mindfulness

Some Parting Advice from Hugh…

About Hugh and the Key to Resilience

Want to learn more about the key to resilience and the science of happiness? Make sure to subscribe to my podcast Happiness for Cynics and my email newsletter for regular updates & resilience resources!

Happiness for Cynics podcast

Transcript

Swearing is Good for you

Profanity Helps with Pain and Relaxes you

And yes! Swearing is a Sign of Intelligence

Want to learn more about the science of happiness? Make sure to subscribe to my podcast Happiness for Cynics and my email newsletter for regular updates & resilience resources!

We know mental health is an issue, but will we finally do anything about it in 2021?

1. Around the world, mental health issues are a problem

2. Mental health and the elderly

3. Mental health and teens

4. Mental health and gender

5. Mental health and finances

6. Mental health and domestic violence

7. Mental health and the LGBTIQ++ community

8. Mental health impacts physical health

9. Mental health and Indigenous peoples

10. The economic impact of poor mental health

What’s next?

Want to learn more about the science of happiness and how to look after your mental health? Make sure to subscribe to my podcast Happiness for Cynics and my email newsletter for regular updates & resilience resources!

Money Does buy Happiness

It’s all in Your Head: Comparison and Perception

Money Does Matter at Work

When Money Can’t buy Happiness

Relationships Still win

Want to learn more about the money and happiness? Make sure to subscribe to my podcast Happiness for Cynics and my email newsletter for regular updates & resilience resources!

How to Live a Happy Life

1. Make a Garden

2. Go on a Walk in Nature

3. Learn Something New

4. Start Journaling

5. Practice Gratitude

Want to learn more about how to life a happy life? Make sure to subscribe to my podcast Happiness for Cynics and my email newsletter for regular updates & resilience resources!

Want to be more positive? Start looking forward

Book a holiday

Plan a get together

Get out into nature

Want to learn more about the science of happiness and how to be more positive? Make sure to subscribe to my podcast Happiness for Cynics and my email newsletter for regular updates & resilience resources!

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About Marie

Podcast: Happiness for Cynics

Book: Self-care is church for non-believers