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What Makes a Happy Home?

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Study Shows a Happy Home Makes for a Happy Life

You might not think too much about whether you have a happy home, and that’s possibly impacting your happiness. Our homes shape how we feel about our day, ourselves and our lives more broadly. They are also closely tied to how happy we are overall in our lives.

Since we’re spending so much more time in our homes nowadays, I thought I’d look into some of the research and find out how we can change our homes to make our lives happier. Yet again, there is wealth of research across the fields of psychology, neuroscience and public health into how to design your home to make you happier.

And, in yet another surprise to me (because every positive psych article I research ends up surprising me) the Happiness Research Institute found that happiness with our home is almost three times as important to our overall happiness as our income. Who knew!?

“We have learned how we connect with our homes emotionally and what is truly important to achieve happiness in them,” said Meik Wiking, CEO of the Happiness Research Institute. “To paraphrase Winston Churchill: first we shape our homes and then our homes shape us. Homes are where we may not only live, but thrive.”

Wiking and the team at the Happiness Research Institute studied thousands of respondents across ten countries in Europe. They conducted hours and hours of quantitative and qualitative interviews, and found 73 per cent of people who are happy with their home are also happy in general.

“The most important factors are not where you live, how big your house is, or whether you rent or own,” said Véronique Laury, CEO of Kingfisher, which sponsored the study. “What matters most is having a home that gives you a feeling of safety, comfort, identity and pride. What matters is putting your stamp on your home.”

Do you feel happy about your home?

According to the research, there are five core emotions we tend to feel about our homes: pride, comfort, identity, safety and control.

Most important was pride, which accounts for 44 per cent of our feelings of happiness with our home. This is almost half of the emotional attachment to our homes! When the researchers delved deeper into this specific emotion, they found that 88 per cent of people who were proud of their homes were also happy with their homes; and the prouder they are, the happier they are.

But even though pride is the most important emotion when it comes to our homes, relatively few people actually feel it, according to the study.

Three ways to build pride in your home and have a happier home

The great news is that you can do something about this. This article would suck if you couldn’t. So, here are three things you can do to give yourself more pride in your home, and to help you have a happy home.

1. Pride through achievement

Set aside some time to do a full de-clutter and deep clean. Millions of people have bought Marie Kondo’s book and watched her Netflix series on how to declutter their homes.

According to Konmari consultant and founder of Neatly Awesome, Pilar Llorente that’s because we’ve come to realise “physical clutter becomes mental clutter as well.” In fact, the best part of the Konmari method, according to Pilar is the spiritual and emotional outcomes.

Check out this article for steps to declutter your home, and your mind.

2. Pride through redecorating

Nowadays, redecorating a room in your house doesn’t have to be hard or expensive. And it doesn’t have to be overwhelming anymore.

Start by visiting Google for ideas or visit Pinterest to collect images of looks you like. Remember the look you like has to match with the house you have, so go with accentuating what you have, rather than trying to make your house into something it isn’t.

Once you have some ideas, get to purchasing your items and decorating! Remember to keep receipts in case it doesn’t look how you pictured it in your mind.

If you’re tight on budget, don’t forget to check out your local opp shops. Or why not try Kmart and Target, which have both upped their home-deco games in recent years.

A cheap redecoration can still pack a punch. Think of picking a new fresh colour for throw pillows and a throw rug. Or you can change out your curtains, or paint an accent wall.

3. Pride through home improvement

This is the big one and it’s not for everyone. Many people just aren’t up for the disruption to their lives. Others underestimate their tiling, floor laying, plumbing or worse, electrical skills and end up making their place worse, not better. Thanks HGTV and all those home reno shows! By the way, just so we’re clear, you should never do your own electrical work. Ever.

However, if you can pay professionals to do the hard stuff (or all of it) and work out the easy stuff with YouTube videos, then this is worth doing. The Happiness Research Institute study found that 74 per cent of people who have an interest in and spend time doing home improvements are proud of their home.

That’s it. These are a few little things you can do if you’re wanting to make your home a happy home.

Also, there are a whole lot more elements to the research, if you’re interested in reading the full report, go here.

Related reading: Stress Reduction Lessons from Marie Kondo

Don’t forget to subscribe for our monthly newsletter for more tips, freebies and subscriber-only content!

Is it Even Possible to be Happy During COVID? (E34)

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Happiness for Cynics

This week, Marie and Pete discuss a recent study that looks at whether positive psychology interventions work during a global pandemic. Is it even possible to be happy during a pandemic? The answer might surprise you.

Transcript

M: You’re listening to the podcast happiness for cynics. I’m Marie Skelton, a writer and speaker focused on change and resilience.

P: And I’m Peter Furness a champagne swilling, fried chicken cooking over-indulger of gastronomy. Each week we will bring to you the latest news and research in the world of positive psychology otherwise known as happiness.

M: So if retail therapy isn’t working.

P: Or bingo day isn’t the same without a drag queen.

M: Or you might be a bit interested in all this positive psych. stuff, even though you’d never tell your friends.

P: Then this is the place to be.

M: And today we’re talking about whether you can even be happy during a global pandemic.

[Happy Intro Music]

M: Thanks for joining us today. I have moved to Tamworth, so I’m going to apologise right now if our Internet bandwidth isn’t what it used to be. And if there are some technical and or its sound issues. But I hope that you forgive us and stick with us and enjoy the show. All right, Pete. So today we’re talking about a recent study that’s come out about positive psychology interventions during Covid and during the pandemic.

P: Mmhh.

M: And before we get into what that research showed, I think maybe we need to back up a little bit, just summarise some of all of the research and stats that talk about positive psychology and what’s going on and what we’re seeing in Covid. So we know that pre-Covid things weren’t looking so great.

P: No..

M: To be quite frank. The Pew Research Centre estimated that 52% of working dads and 60% of working moms found it somewhat or very difficult to balance work and family life. So there was stress on working parents.

P: Yep.

M: The Edelman Trust barometer revealed that 83% of employees feared losing their jobs. This is a global study that actually was the 2020 study that came out just before Covid here. So 83% of employees feared losing their jobs, and the World Health Organisation noted that depression and anxiety have an estimated cost of the global economy of $1 trillion per year in lost productivity.

P: Hhmm only half what apple make.

M: Really? Trillion? two trillion really?

P: That’s their share values.

M: Yeah.

P: So if you work for apple, pat yourself on the back and have a glass of champagne.

[Laughter]

M: So that’s just three stats, there are so many more that talk about loneliness, depression, anxiety, mental health more broadly and how just as a society things are about to hit that breaking point.

P: Mmhh.

M: I think the straw that broke the camel’s back kind of moment and that was all pre Covid.

P: Yep.

M: And now since the pandemic hit, we have seen a dramatic increase in stress, anxiety and overall poor mental health across Australia.

P: Ok.

M: So in June, the Sydney Morning Herald reported on two studies, one suggested that the number of people displaying symptoms of anxiety, stress and depression in the community have risen between 13 to 21%.

P: Uh huh.

M: While the other found that roughly one in every five people is experiencing clinically relevant depression symptoms.

P: Right.

M: Now that one to me isn’t as scary because I think people have been saying for a while now in Australia at least that one in five people will experience depression in their lives, so that’s pretty much on par. But for one in five to be, currently all experiencing depression symptoms, that’s a bit of a difference as well.

P: Ok yep. The Danish study, published in April, found that 2458 people reported an increased level of stress and anxiety. This is alongside an American study that found people were eight times more likely at the moment to fit the criteria of serious mental illness.

The interesting thing about the American study is that those between the ages of 18 to 44 were more likely to be adversely affected than the older generations. And I think that’s an interesting point because that’s right in that bracket of people who are not as secure maybe and not as relaxed in their approach, they’re, you know, up and comers. They’re trying to make their way and get their careers secure or getting, launching them even if you’re 18 to 23 you know there’s a lot of pressure on that generation. You know, “Go generation.. what are we at Y or something”

M: Millenial. They’re Millenials.

P: Millenials, they’ve got a rough deal. We’ve said it before and they really have.

M: I think also, they’ve never been tested. Whereas the older generations had Vietnam, they had their recession in the eighty’s as well and their uncertainty and financial insecurity through that period, the recession that Australia had to have.

P: Yep, all that sort of stuff. Good old Paul Keating.

M: Ha ha.

P: I feel that, I feel that with what you’re saying is that it’s the snap at the co-worker, it’s the yelling at the kids when you don’t realise it. And I think they’re little things to be aware of in terms of the … experience of the Covid lock down, which we’re, we’re an international podcast. But obviously our audience I think is very Australian based.

M: Yep.

P: I think it’s really important to recognise the influences. So if you are feeling a bit crappy and you do have a little bit of a snap at someone, you take it on board and go, Yeah, the stress and anxiety that is being experienced is making an impact on our daily lives. Our interactions with our wives, spouses, children, housemates, friends all that sort of stuff is making a difference.

M: Yeah, absolutely, even in the most resilient of us.

P: Exactly. Definitely.

M: So in normal times we would not, we would say, to people who are experiencing normal, manageable levels of stress, anxiety and depression. To.. I’m sorry, I hate to use the word normal there, I’m taking that back.

P: [Laugh]

M: But manageable day to day levels of sadness, anxiety, stress, we would say institute some positive psychology interventions, and you will see results.

P: Yes, yes that.

M: Overall, there are thousands of studies that confirmed that many positive psychology interventions help people to feel happier overall, and they lower levels of depression and anxiety.

P: Yes.

M: Some interventions work better than others. You’ve also got to match the person to the intervention as well, but they do show effects. Now where I want to talk about today is whether or not positive psychology interventions work in Covid times?

P: Ok.

M: So There’s a study that just came out two weeks ago by Webster University. It’s a small study, and it was completed during the pandemic, with a small group of 45 women and men between 23 to 40 years old. And they had a control group and another group that were asked to do Positive Psychology Interventions and what they found, unlike pre Covid time studies is that not very much happened with the overall levels of happiness in the participants.

P: So there’s no increase in levels of contentment and happiness necessarily.

M: Or subjective well-being. No, this is new, this is different. But here’s the but.

P: [Laugh]

M: There’s a but, there’s always a but.

When it came to levels of depression, anxiety and stress, the participants who did the positive psychology interventions had lower levels.

P: And that’s the gold.

M: Yep. So it’s not that it made people happier, but it stopped them from being sadder.

P: Stopped them from going down that hole, yeah. And let’s face it we know that doing some things on a daily basis, which we’ve talked about a lot during this podcast that makes a big difference to your general well-being. And it’s those small things that stop you from going deeper down a hole of stress in times of great anxiety and heightened awareness that is most important.

M: Absolutely.

P: Maintain, maintain a balance, ride the wave and stay it, stay at that plateau if you can, if you’re doing that, you’re doing well.

M: Yep, so being in a neutral mental health space is better than being in a negative mental health space.

P: And that’s what you want to hold on to in times of crisis, you want to just maintain that, that level of calm if you can. And I think, I think that’s my mother’s generation and my mom is a war baby and they were on rations in the middle of the outback in Australia and the relative experience is if you’ve got food on the table at the end of the day you’re doing well. It doesn’t have to be fillet mignon.

M: No.

P: Food on table and you’ve got a shirt on your back. It’s all good, and I think that maybe this is our defining moment when, when we look at the studies and a reference before about that American study, saying that the 18 to 44 year old’s are more likely be adversely affected. Our parents are more [mentally prepared], especially my parents who are slightly older than a lot of people. It’s a relative experience and it comes down to those basics and again, mindfulness, which we talked about a lot and appreciating the small things and the basic needs being met at a time when everything is… let’s face it, going to shit.

M: Yep. Well, it is good that you mentioned being thankful there because this study, again just a small group. But I think it makes sense to me right. It makes sense that this is something that could apply a bit more broadly but this group did gratitude exercises as part of their positive psychology interventions, and they showed a decrease in their levels of low moods, anxiety and stress. And all it took was 14 days.

P: Yeah wow.

M: So doing activities in the positive psychology sphere of things you could do like gratitude, it only takes a little is 14 days to recalibrate your, you know, we call it the Corona Coaster of emotions.

P: [Laugh] Do we?

M: It’s up and down. Well yeah. The corona coaster, we’re all on it right now. Some of us have just doing those little up, down, up, down, up, downs and a pretty like [ok] but some of us are going 90 degrees up and then 90 degrees down, right.

P: [Laugh]

M: What you want is those little fluctuations?

P: I always was a moderate rollercoaster boy. I didn’t want the big ones. [Laugh]

M: Yeah, well, you don’t in mental health terms either.

P: [Laugh]

M: It [Positive Psychology interventions] just helps to stabilise you is I guess what I’m saying. So you’re not having those lows.

P: Yes, staying on that even keel. And in times of anxiety, that’s the point. You don’t want those big moments of happiness. You don’t want to be running down the street screaming ‘my life is fabulous!’ You just want to be on that nice, ‘Yeah, I’m doing well. I’m going alright, everything is normal, I’m okay.

M: Everything’s normal. Some thing’s are bad, some things are good. I react accordingly and appropriately but in general I’m staying strong.

P: So I’m going to bring in some stuff here from BBC Future, which I was having a bit of research of.

The top things to do during the Covid crisis.

Actual tips that you can do that are actually going to make a difference today. And this goes on the back of all positive psychology work. So we know that those things of gratitude, graciousness, meditation, self-care, all that sort of stuff helps.

Distraction was the first one. Distract yourself. Go and do something that distracts your mind.

M: Mmhh, I would say this equates to having a hobby or something to do.

P: Something that takes your mind completely out of the stress of looking at the news.

For me and you Muz, it’s volleyball.

M: Yep, you’re writing Pete.

P: I will read a quote of yours Muz, ‘Volleyball is its own little bubble.’

M: Oh, it always is. That was a coach, quote, wasn’t it?

P: Yes. It was in fact and I love it, I’ve used it many times. But that’s the idea is you use something that actually takes you away and gives you complete mindfulness at that point, which is great. So from my mum, it’s orchid gardening.

M: Yep.

P: Good old Mum.

M: Gardening is something we can even do in isolation and in shut down. So as long as you’ve gotten the equipment beforehand, even people who are living in apartments can do little gardens on their balconies.

P: It can be as easy as shifting the plot plants around like I did that today. I shifted some plants in the back to the front, and it was 15 minutes in the sunshine because it was a beautiful sunny day in Sydney today and that’s enough.

M: Yep.

P: Moving on.

Meditate, ah Marie your favourite past time.

M: Sorry I missed that.

[Laughter]

P: Meditate, Marie’s favourite pastime.

M: [Noise of derision] Yeah, no I was joking. I prefer to sleep than meditate. It’s the same thing in my mind.

P: Look, meditation is hard and it’s the whole thing of… And I think what I would actually insert here as opposed to Meditate is being mindful. Today I sat on the front veranda with my cup of tea and my little lunch, and the first time in, I’d say 11 years, I’ve been in this house for 11 years, I heard the wind whistling through the Cyprus pine across the road. It’s the first time in 11 years that I’ve heard that sound.

M: Was it a windy day.

P: Yeah. Meditation. It’s Mindfulness. Spend two minutes being silent, that’s all it is. You don’t have to meditate, you don’t have to clear your mind. All that stuff, reference our previous episode on meditation.

M: Yeah, and so if meditation isn’t your thing, I would offer have a bath, have a device free, distraction free, bath.

P: Yep.

M: And as you’re sitting in the bath. Go top to bottom and get all your muscles to relax.

So I feel the stress leaving. And then this is actually meditation. I sit in the bath and actually feel the stress. Leave your, your face, your neck, your shoulders and go down your arms.

P: Yes, love it.

M: Leave your book out of the bathtub. Leave your devices, your music. Turn it all off and have a bath.

P: Yep, have quiet time. Love it.

M: Yeah.

P: Next one,

Don’t obsess over being happy or positive.

M: Oh yeah, this is so true. Yeah.

P: You’re not feeling great, don’t worry about it.

M: Yep, but also don’t chase it. This is also-

P: – I love that you said that Marie. Don’t chase it.

M: It’s the journey.

P: Yeah, definitely. And it comes right back to our original episode.

Happiness is not a destination. Happiness is the journey.

M: Mhm.

P: Don’t expect, don’t set these high expectations for yourself and maintain this plastic smile on your face, like Barbie. [Laugh] We love Barbie but you know, even her cheeks got sore in Toy Story.

M: [Laugh]

P: Watch the credits, you’ll see the reference I’m talking about. All right, moving along.

Focus on the small things.

So a small cup of tea during the day can actually be enough. If you can have a cup of tea and sit down for five minutes, that’s enough. If you can maintain that sort of level of normalcy, you’re doing well.

M: I think the other thing to add in here. A lot of what we talk about need to be done as habits. So you need to set up the routine of gratitude, journaling, exercising, practicing kindness. The second it’s not scheduled in somewhere, it gets forgotten or overlooked, or it gets bumped out of a busy day.

P: Exactly, yes.

M: So, focus on the small things. I’ve just finished reading the Atomic Habits by James Clear and something that is so valuable that he says, is when you’re starting new habits, make them small. Make them so easy that you have to trip over yourself not to do them, right?

P: Ha ha, I like that.

M: So if you want to be a runner, run for three minutes to start with and do that until it drives you crazy and you have to do four, and then push it to five. So easy, to just write once a week, something you’re grateful for and set an alarm on Sunday nights, or whatever it is that you pick. But make it small. And so when you say focus on the small things, I know that’s not exactly what you were talking about, Pete.

P: I still agree.

M: But when it comes to a lot of the positive psychology interventions we talk about make them small so that there’s really no excuse not to do them.

P: Brilliant. Love that. That’s really, really good. Well done. Ok, three more.

Clean.

Do some cleaning, go and clean out the closet.

M: Why am I being punished? What’s going on here?

P: [Laugh] No, it’s really good because it ticks so many boxes.

M: Hold on, declutter? Or clean?

P: Declutter, that’s a very [Marie] Kondo-esque way of looking at it.

M: I’m down with the declutter.

P: The cleanings, brilliant, like I actually love it like going and cleaning the bathroom. You’re in this moment. I’ve just gotta get it clean. And you can be really obsessive about cleaning. So, it ticks a lot of boxes. It takes your mind out of the situation. It gives you a task. It distracts you. It gives you a sense of achievement at the end of it. There’s a lot of positive things about doing some domestic cleaning.

M: OK, alright.

P: Getting fluff off the carpet in the hallway when you’re vacuuming. You’ll be thankful when you walk on it the next day [laugh].

M: I hear what you’re saying, actually, and I think the bit that sold it for me was that feeling of satisfaction and also the focus of doing a task and completing it. Yeah, all right.

P: If you’re feeling absolutely shit go and clean something.

M: Alright, I’ll give you that.

P: Okay, alright.

Balance your social media.

M: Mhm.

P: Beware the social demon and know that I’m aware of this, Marie, be careful of going on social media and getting caught in the scroll moment.

M: Yeah or mindlessly doing stuff. I think one of the best things that I’ve done since moving up to Tamworth is I’ve got myself a morning routine. As I said, I’ve been reading atomic habit, so making some changes and I have forbidden myself from looking at my phone until mid-morning when I have a cup of coffee.

P: Oh, brilliant. That’s awesome.

M: So I get up, I do some exercise, I write, and then I start work. And so all of those, and have some breakfast. All of those things happen without any social media or other things pulling me away.

P: Your friends, a friend of mine, started this years ago. He started charging his phone in another other room so that he didn’t wake up and reach for his phone. So important people get off the bloody devices.

[Laughter]

P: Alright, last one, last one.

Get out of town.

Now this is difficult for some people. It’s very difficult, especially if you’re in lock down, such as our lovely friends down in Melbourne, who I feel very, very painful for every time I reference them. But if you can get out if you can change your surroundings.

I’m going to quote here “[As little as] a 20 to 30% increase in blue space visibility– What’s blue space Marie?

M: The ocean or a lake or river? Any water? A large body of water.

– could shift someone from moderate distress into a lower category”.

That’s from the BBC Future’s website. So get out of town people. Go and change your perspective. Get out of the concrete jungle go and get into nature, do some forest bathing.

M: [Laugh] Nice. Alright, we might wrap it up there. So what was our conclusion Pete, can you be happy during Covid?

P: I say, yes, you’ve got to put the work in, but you could do it.

M: Look, I think that there are certain people, so they say that there’s three parts to being happy.

One is low negative affect like so if you’ve lost your job or really struggling, then bad luck, sorry. I think the most you can hope for is to be neutral and to put in the work to just grit and bear what is not a great situation for you.

And then there’s positive affect, and there’s probably not a lot of positive affect going on right now.

P: No.

M: But there’s still things that we can look forward to and see, even if you can’t be going to weddings or overseas trips, etcetera, all that stuff stopped.

So that then leaves the people who aren’t going through particularly tough times. I think those people can be relatively happy.

P: You’ve got to take control… the thing is it comes down to doing the work you have control over your reactions and your perspective and if you exert that control and take ownership of it, yes, I believe you can be happy during a global pandemic.

M: Well, on that note, I’m going to say Thank you for joining us today. If you want to hear more please remember to subscribe and like this podcast and remember can find us at www.marieskelton.com. Which is a site about how to find balance, happiness and resilience in your life. You can also send in questions or propose a topic.

P: Ooh, please propose a topic. We love this, give me something to do.

M: Or reach out if you have people you’d like us to talk to or interview.

P: Oh, yes. Definitely and if you like our little show, we would love for you to leave a comment or rating to help us out.

M: Yeah, that would make us happy.

P: [Laugh] until next time people, choose happiness.

[Happy Exit Music]

Related content: Read Moving On article 5 Ways to Overcome the COVID Blues, listen to our Podcast: What is Happiness? (E1)

5 Ways to Recharge When You’re too Stressed

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How to Build Resilience and Recharge When Stressed in Less Than 1-Hour

Why is recharging when stressed so important and why is it even a thing? Because we’re living through a period of extraordinary change. We’re experiencing more change, more often than ever before in human history.

It’s a Change Storm, and this storm is constantly beating us down. From the little drops of rain to big hailstones, we’re constantly being pelted with adverse events and experiences, changing circumstances and environmental stress.

Even before COVID-19 came knocking on our doors, globalisation and technological changes were completely transforming companies, industries, countries and societies.

More than that, they were leading to uncertain, volatile ways of living and working. We’ve all heard it before, the only constant is change, and there’s no escaping change in our lives.

But this unrelenting change can bring stress, and even though stress can be good for us, it can also be bad. If you’ve been experiencing too much negative stress for too long now, or you can feel that you’re close to burnout, but you don’t have the luxury of taking a holiday, here are some quick ways to recharge.

But remember, eventually everything catches up to you. It is really important to recharge from periods of high stress. Being stressed for too long without any breaks or recharging can lead to illness, burnout and heart disease.

OK, enough of the heavy stuff. Because we know that you have no time, here are some ways to recharge when stressed, all in less than an hour.

5 Ways to Recharge When You’re too Stressed

1. Take a Quiet Bath

Run the bath, put some nice salts or bubbles in, but leave all distractions outside. This means leaving music, screens and books behind. Instead, spend some time reconnecting with yourself. Once you’re in the bath, close your eyes, and take some deep breaths. Then focus on releasing the tension in your body. Start at your head and work your way down to your feet. Focus on one muscle or group of muscles at a time, feel them relax and let the tension go.

2. Have a Laugh

Laughter is contagious, so one of the best ways to bring some laughter into your life is to be around people who are laughing. Laughter is also more often experienced and enjoyed with someone else, so find a friend and do something together to bring about laughter.

If you can’t get to a comedy show or your friends are all too serious, you can get onto Google or YouTube and look up the “Skype laughter chain.” It currently has 32 million views on YouTube. The ideas is that a person being filmed starts laughing, and someone else watches that person laughing and starts laughing at the first person. Then you film a third person watching the second person and they start laughing and on and on. So, you end up with series of people laughing, one after the other, and I dare you not to laugh too.

3. Take Your Lunchbreak

If you regularly skip your lunchbreak, you’re not alone. Almost one in three Australians (28 per cent) habitually eat at their desk and 33 per cent skip lunch entirely more than once a week. The problem is that sitting for such a long time is really bad for your physical health, in fact many people say that sitting is the new smoking. It’s also really bad for your mental health to not take that break. Taking as little as 20 minutes for a break has been shown to increase your productivity for the entire day. So, if you can’t do anything else, take a 20-minute lunch break. Trust me, it might feel tough to find the time to do it, but it’s worth it in the end.

Listen to our podcast on Taking a Lunch Break for more research into why it’s important and tips for what to do during your break.

4. Spoil Yourself

OK, so if you need to recharge because you’re too stressed, ask yourself, “what is the one thing that makes you go “ahhhhhhh” and relax?” Whatever it is, go do that. Get a massage, or facial, or get your nails done, or whatever floats your boat. When things are crazy and stressful, there’s nothing like being a bit indulgent and having some ‘me time.’ That might mean going to the movies by yourself, or with a friend; or meeting a friend at the pub away from the children; or going for a swim at the beach. The point is to schedule some ‘me time’ and do something that brings you joy.

5. Find Some Green Space (and sun)

Studies show that spending time outdoors makes you happier — preferably in a non-urban environment, but hey, we’ll take what we can get! Go for a walk and find some green space near you. Then calm your mind and focus on your surrounding environment. Research also shows that observing nature — wherever you may be — will make you feel happier. Notice the grass, the wind, the sky. Get some sun on your face too.

Tell us in the comments below, when it all gets too much, how do you recharge when stressed?

Don’t forget to subscribe for our monthly newsletter for more tips, freebies and subscriber-only content!

How to Build Your Resilience With Mindfulness and Meditation

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How to Take Control of Your Emotions During COVID – the Link Between Resilience and Meditation

The pandemic has had a negative impact on the mental health and resilience of many people around the world. It has brought uncertainty and fear that has understandably led to higher levels of anxiety, depression, stress and more low moods.

A recent Webster University study unsurprisingly showed that “Even the people who reported high subjective happiness and little stress and low moods were struggling during the lockdown.”

However, this study showed (yet again) that some people were weathering the pandemic better than others; and these people are practicing positive psychology interventions. Although participants who completed the positive psychology interventions did not report an increase in happiness levels, they were more likely to avoid the depression, anxiety and low moods that others felt due to the pandemic.

If you’re experiencing mild depression or low moods, and want to boost your resilience, then introducing positive psychology interventions — such as mindfulness and meditation — into your routine might be what you need.

NOTE: Studies show that positive psychology interventions can help you stay in a better mood and feel happier overall. However, positive psychology interventions will not replace professional support for people who have clinical issues.

What are Mindfulness and Meditation?

Let’s start at the beginning. There is a link between resilience and meditation and mindfulness, but what do they all mean?

Mindfulness is about slowing down, being present and having greater awareness and intention in the moment. Mindfulness is often confused with the practice of meditation – which is a deeper version of mindfulness. Meditation is more than a moment or state of mind, it’s an action that takes time and is more formal, often requiring sitting down for a length of time.

Both mindfulness and meditation are proven to reduce stress, and both focus on calming your mind down. They both teach us not to eliminate thoughts, but to recognise them. Give weight to them. Acknowledge them and finally to let them go. In fact, letting go is one of the hardest things for a mind to do, but it is also fundamental to the practice of mindfulness.

Both these practices have become far more mainstream in the last couple of decades. According to Bill Gates, “For years, I was a sceptic about meditation. Now I do it as often as I can—three times a week if time allows. At a time when we all could use a few minutes to de-stress and re-focus each day, this [Headspace app] is a great place to start.”

Yet, even today there remain a lot of sceptics (myself included!). So, here is the science…

Build Resilience With Meditation and Mindfulness

The research all supports the premise that you can build your resilience with mediations and mindfulness.

There is a large body of research from Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programs at the University of Massachusetts. It shows that people who practice mindfulness increase the size and function of their pre-frontal cortex, the area of the brain where we do decision making and long-term planning. Quite simply, this means mindfulness is great for your brain. Increases in the density of grey matter lead to better mind agility and help with memory, attention skills and decision making.

Research has found that it only takes eight weeks of mindfulness meditation to boost your immune system. Additional physical health benefits include improved sleep quality, and mindful eating has been shown to help fight obesity. It is great at improving positive emotions, while reducing negative emotions and helping to fight stress, depression, anxiety and burnout.

If you’re still not convinced, then consider that the research is so overwhelmingly definitive that over the past decade, mindfulness has permeated the domain of the sceptic: the corporate office. Many ‘suits’ now use mindfulness to help deal with the day to day demands of today’s hectic office environment and prevent burnout.

Mindfulness is also now being taught in schools around the world to help kids improve their mental strength, resilience, emotional control and concentration. In 2019, England announced one of the largest trials in the world. They have up to 370 schools teaching techniques to promote good mental health, such as mindfulness exercises, relaxation techniques and breathing exercises. Recently studies have shown that learning to teach mindfulness to kids helps teachers reduce their own stress, which also benefits the kids.

Practicing Mindfulness and Meditation

There are countless ways to bring mindfulness or meditation into your life and build resilience. As with all things, it’s about finding the right fit for you. Here are some ways to practice mindfulness or meditation.

Being mindful is about stopping and being in the moment. You can do it in many ways, such as:

  • Mindful Eating: This has gained popularity with weight loss experts in recent years. It amounts to ensuring that you focus on and savour every mouthful of food. Put away all distractions during meals — no phone or TV — and take small bites of food, one at a time. Focus on the taste and texture of the food, and savour it.
  • Enjoy Nature: Go for a walk through your neighbourhood. Truly take the time to appreciate even the smallest blade of grass. Look all around you and explore your surroundings with fresh eyes. Sit on a bench and focus on the sights, sounds and smells around you.
  • Being Grateful: Every evening before bed, grab a notebook and write down three things you’re grateful for from the day. Spend time thinking about why you’re grateful and how it makes you feel.

As mentioned earlier, mediation is a bit more structured, but there are many types of meditation you can try, such as:

  • Breathing: This is the most well-known and focuses on taking deep breaths in and out.
  • Body Scanning: This is where you focus on each body part starting at the top and working your way down.
  • Loving-Kindness: This is where you focus on cultivating feelings of goodwill, kindness and compassion.

The Greater Good Science Center has a range of tips and resources to help you understand all the various practices and research and can help you find the right fit with the right benefits you’re after. Or you can take a look at the below apps or books to get you started on your mediation journey.

Top Meditation Apps for Beginners

If you’ve still got questions and aren’t sure where to start, then an app might be the best start for you.

Headspace: Headspace is a guided meditation and mindfulness app for stress, anxiety, sleep, focus, fitness, and more. The app provides hundreds of guided meditations, on several different topics, with new topics every day. The app also features sleep sounds; tutorial animations; a meditation progress tracker; and exercises that are designed for children.

Calm: This leading app for meditation and sleep promises better sleep, lower stress, and less anxiety. The app provides guided sessions on topics ranging from calming anxiety to gratitude to mindfulness at work—as well as sleep sounds, nature sounds, and breathing exercises.

10% Happier: The Ten Percent Happier app helps you discover guided meditations and practical teachings you can carry anywhere. Designed specifically for sceptics, this app has expert teachers walk you through the basics, one breath at a time

Great Books on Meditation

The Headspace Guide to Meditation and Mindfulness, by Andy Puddicombe. Andy’s book and the app he created, Headspace, are what made Bill Gates a convert. Andy is a former Buddhist monk and his book offers lots of helpful metaphors to explain potentially tricky concepts in meditation.

10% Happier, by Dan Harris. After a panic attack on live TV, ABC news anchor Dan Harris had to make some changes. Harris recounts his journey from sceptic to meditator in his #1 New York Times bestselling book.

Remember that a positive psychology intervention is only going to work if it’s the right fit for you, so why not find something that works for you and give it a go!

Related reading: The Secret to Surviving Isolation

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The Secret to Surviving Isolation

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Who are the Ones Surviving the Corona-coaster of Emotions?

They’re out there… the resilient. The ones who are not only surviving but thriving during isolation. So, who are they and what can we learn from the people who are thriving during isolation?

For many of us, emotions are running high as people around Australia face a second lock-down and more forced isolation. This time around, it’s really dealt a blow to a lot of people’s psyches. We thought we were about to step off the Corona-coaster, it looked like it was rolling back to the start. We dared to hope. Despite all the ups and downs, the good times and the scary times, we made it through. But 2020 had other ideas. And instead, we’re all strapped in for a second ride that no one wanted to take. Here we go again.

Not only that, but the rhetoric has shifted recently too adding more stress and worry to our daily lives. It didn’t take long to move from an unprecedented unified front between State and Federal governments to the usual blame game. Media commentators and talk-back radio soon followed with far more negative talk and frustrations being vented this time around. People are mad and they’re not holding back this time.

It’s like everyone forgot to take their afternoon nap, and all that “community-first” good behaviour has gone out the window. Whereas before, everyone held their tongue, now they feel justified in having a tanty. And who can blame anyone? We’re all just tired and fed-up.

The Resilient

Yet despite it all, there are some, a special few, who are doing just fine. For them, this is just another day in 2020, filled with hope and promise. They haven’t had bad days or bad weeks. They haven’t felt periods of mild depression or moments of anger and tears. In fact, rather than feeling an increase in anxiety or loneliness, they’re feeling more grateful, more positive and more satisfied with their lives. They’re happy.

These are the resilient ones.

It’s not that the resilient don’t feel any frustration, worry, anxiety or any of the other negative emotions that are completely normal in the midst of a global pandemic (what’s normal in this situation anyway!?). No. It’s just that these resilient people have found a way to power through with barely a bump on their emotional rollercoaster, and certainly not the 90-degree climbs and falls everyone else is experiencing.

So, what are these people doing differently to the rest of us? What’s the secret?

Who are the Ones Surviving and Thriving in Isolation?

Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Positive Emotions and Psychophysiology Lab have been looking into who is fairing best during these unprecedented times.

In their research, they found a group of people who are coping better than most, and even better, they’ve worked out what activities these people do to help them be positive and resilient. It’s worth mentioning again that these people aren’t perfect, they feel negative emotions too, they’re just not paralysed by their emotions and they bounce back faster.

The Secret to Surviving Isolation

So, what are the commonalities among this group of resilient people? What are the things they’re doing that lead to these positive emotions and keep the negative ones at bay?

The research shows that exercise, hobbies and self-care activities like meditation, kindness, gratitude and prayer are among the most common ways to maintain resilience during COVID.

“So the more stressed, anxious, lonely or depressed you are, the more it matters that you take time to exercise and care for yourself. We have found it useful to put repeating events in our calendars. That way, we’ve always got blocks of time dedicated to these things, and also reminders,” say researchers Barbara Fredrickson and Michael M. Prinzing.

On the flip side, the one thing that hurts your resiliency: scrolling through social media. The researchers showed that passively browsing and scrolling through social media is one of the worst things you can do – I’m sure in part due to all that negativity that we mentioned earlier.

Lastly, the research showed that people who spend more time actively interacting with others experience more positive and fewer negative emotions. So, doing the activities with someone is a double whammy. Or, if you can’t (isolation means isolation after all) then make sure you’re proactively making time to speak to people on the phone or on video chat. Text messages just won’t cut it.

Related reading:

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Wellbeing and Your Environment with Lee Chambers (E21)

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Happiness for Cynics Podcast

This week, we interview Environmental Psychologist and Wellbeing Consultant, Lee Chambers. He helps companies increase productivity, motivation and innovation by applying the latest research from psychology, neuroscience and physiology to the workplace. His philosophy comes from his own challenges and business journey, having had mental health struggles, being made redundant, losing the ability to walk, and yet despite all the challenges he has gained more clarity and managed to harness elements of the resilience bounce. 

About Lee Chambers

Lee Chambers – Environmental Psychologist, Wellbeing Consultant and Founder of Essentialise Workplace Wellbeing

Lee Chambers is a Wellbeing Consultant, Workshop Facilitator and Sleep Specialist. Having spent the last 10 years focusing on wellbeing and performance in the local government, corporate organisations, and in elite sports, he has now brought his experience and qualifications with the aim to impact the wellbeing of thousands of individuals and businesses.

Lee has qualifications in Performance Nutrition, Strength and Conditioning Coaching, and Advanced Sleep Consultancy, and he delivers multi-discplinary workshops focused on improving performance and productivity through increasing employee wellbeing. This is an issue very close to his heart, as after losing the ability to walk in 2014 due to autoimmune arthritis, he has battled back to achieve a positive health outcome, and is now on the pathway to become medication free. He holds an MSc in Environmental Psychology, with a focus on human interaction with workplaces and natural environments.

He also presents the Health and Wellbeing show on Ribble FM Radio, and speaks in Educational establishments about his varied career path, health challenges and having a resilient mindset.

Based in Preston in the North of the UK, Lee is currently working with business owners and employee teams to create culture change, wellbeing strategies and champions. He is a father of 2, coaches a disability football team, and enjoys eating good food with good friends. He is currently writing his first book, “How To Conquer Anything”, which will be released in 2020.

Transcript

M: You’re listening to the podcast happiness for cynics. I’m Marie Skelton, a writer and change and transformation specialist, and my co-host is Peter Furness. Peter?

P: Hi there. I’m Peter Furness, and I’m a remedial therapist, ex professional dancer and happiness aficionado. Each week we will bring to you the latest news of research in the world of positive psychology, otherwise known as happiness.

M: This week we have a special guest who’s here to talk to us about well-being and your environment.

[Happy Music]

M: Lee Chambers is an environmental psychologist and wellbeing consultant. He helps corporations increase productivity, motivation and innovation by applying the latest research from psychology, neuroscience and physiology. His philosophy comes from his own challenges and business journey, having had mental health struggles, being made redundant, losing the ability to walk. And yet, despite all the challenges, he’s gained more clarity and managed to harness elements of the resilience bounce.

M: Hi Lee, thanks for joining us today on happiness for cynics. I’m so excited to have you on the show.

Lee: It’s a pleasure to be on today, Marie.

M: What a story! We touched a little bit on it in the intro, but can you start by delving a little deeper into your background and journey and explain to us what you do.

Lee: Oh, yeah, I’ll try and condense it into a nice, digestible form. So, yeah, I grew up as one of three brothers. We were always fed, watered and had a roof over our heads. We didn’t have a typically fancy life. But what we had, what you could say was all our basic needs. I was the first one in my family to go to university and that again was seen is quite achievement by my parents, and they really pushed me in that direction. I then went into corporate finance and I, very quickly after six months, found myself in the middle of the credit crunch, so people above me started to be made redundant. But only a week later I was pulled in and made redundant myself.

So that really did change my direction and that led me on a path which took me through numerous jobs and brought in a video game business. So I went to the local government and then worked helping unemployed people to find direction, sharpen their interview skills, get more inner confidence and then go on and get themselves a new job on. Then I worked in elite sports which again showed me the cutting edge of performance. How much money and experimental elements I used at that level, both physiologically and psychologically also made me think, if this money and effort and time was spent on the ordinary person, how many millions of people it could help. And at that point in my life, I lost the ability to walk [due to] illness over the course of a week. Completely changed my world view.

M: So within a week you went from being completely healthy and normal to not being able to walk.

Lee: Yeah, So it was my 29th birthday. I was fully independent, fully mobile, playing team spots and doing pretty much whatever I wanted. My son was 18 months old, wife for six months pregnant, and all of a sudden I went from fully independent to not able to drive myself not able to feed myself properly and it was a, it was a major challenge. And I look back now and realise if it wasn’t for the people around me and the position I was in and I was lucky enough to, while I lost my job. I still was able to run the business, because a lot of it was digital.

What kind of happened is at first I was like, Why me? This seems really unfortunate. Chronic disease? I’m not even 30. I’ve looked after myself, that very quickly catalysed into well, you’ve been incredibly ungrateful for your mobility all these years. In fact, you’ve been incredibly ungrateful for all the people that are now caring for you. You’ve been incredibly, you’ve been so ungrateful for the simple fact that you grew up in the first world had a pleasant childhood on all these opportunities. This free education, all these different, all these different jobs that you’ve had all these different careers, you’ve had that, you’ve had the ability and the freedom to start up a business, which is now financing you through these difficult times and just really change my world view everything.

I need to be more grateful. But I also need to be resilient have a mind set and be proactive. Attack this disease as much as it’s attacking my body and that has lead me through to where I am today; helping people, so increase the health outcomes, increase the happiness in the workplace and really just to build a world where we’re all a bit happier and spread that happiness between each other and we go into work happy on we leave work happy.

M: That’s a huge ask, though, isn’t it? [Laugh]

Lee: No, well I see it’s a massive goal that I’ve smashed into so many little pieces. And I can do lots of those little pieces over the course of my lifetime and see if I can get.

M: It is such an inspirational story. I don’t think many people can even imagine what you must have gone through and the struggles that you faced since then. And to see you so proactively and positively attacking the next stage in your life. And what’s next is truly an inspirational storey. So thank you for sharing that with us. What I’m also came to understand now is you’ve taken a whole different direction career wise and started a business called Essentialise. And it says here that you’re an environmental psychologist and you work in regenerative environments. Can you help to explain what it is that that means and what you do with your day?

Lee: Yes, to really kind of explain Environmental Psychology. It’s a relatively new field and you can split it into three, so I have a lot of contemporaries across a lot of different disciplines. But if you split it into three and make it simple and digestible.

There are Environmental Psychologists who deal with urban environments, so buildings, transport, city planning, schools, hospitals.

Then a lot of my contemporary work in our interaction with nature. So how humans interact in natural environments;

And the third subsection of Environmental Psychologists look at environmental behaviours. So, why we see the world the way that we do, why we take sustainability measures, how some people believe climate change is gonna devastate us or some people believe it doesn’t even exist.

I’m looking at how their behaviours and people’s values and really how that then translates into the world and how environmental behaviour could be influenced. So my section is around regenerative environments in sleep and in the workplace. So the principle of regenerative environments is that when you’re in an environment, you have a lot of stresses, a lot of them are sensory, so if you can imagine you’re in an office, it’s noisy, it’s not well lit, there’s pollution coming in from the road. You’re in an environment also where you’ve got mental stresses, so you might not get on with the person sitting next to you, you might struggle with your boss. He’s not very good at communicating, so that kind of builds an atmosphere in the work place. Both physically and psychologically. It’s about looking how we can make the atmosphere more positive. So you leave work as energised as when you went in, as happy as you went in.

M: Mm hmm, and it’s really circular, isn’t it? The more you look after employees, the better they perform for you.

Lee: Definitely. And in some ways, it’s really a hidden performance advantage that isn’t often utilised, but the way the culture’s gradually moving, people are starting to see how important is.

M: Yeah, I heard someone talking a little while ago and they said for too long corporates have broken the employer/employee contract. They’re meant to borrow an employee for 40 hours and then give them back in the same state that they borrowed them in. And for too long they’ve been borrowing them for 50 or 60 hours and giving them back to their families broken. And I thought that’s a really different way of looking at it. And it really shows how we’re evolving our understanding of the role that a corporate can play in looking after employees.

Lee: Yeah, it’s quite interesting though. Because again I’ve got quite a similar analogy within business. So, if you lease a car, you’re expected to return the car in the same condition, minus wear and tear, and wear and tear, we all get physiologically as we live. Obviously, that wear and tear ends up in one day with us passing to the next realm. But if you take your car back and it’s dented it’s scratched, it’s not been looked after inside, you get charged and also the way that companies, especially production companies, building machinery, to be depreciated all the time.

Well, sometimes companies treat employees like a piece of machinery that’s going to depreciate and gradually become obsolete and then they chuck it out. For that same piece of machinery they spend thousands of pounds for thousands of dollars to lubricate that machine over its life. And yet they’re shy to invest in the development of the staff, to even ensure that the wellbeing is kept to a level where they’re able to perform and do the role because they’re the face of the company, they’re the people that quite often would drive in the company themselves and yet you wouldn’t want the person driving your company to not be psychologically or physically well. It doesn’t add up yet it’s so underutilised and finally it’s starting to make that move from humans being a resource to humans being the people.

M: I couldn’t agree more. As someone who’s been through burnout myself in a corporate. I’m a hundred percent aligned with you. What I am still really curious about is the concept of environmental psychology. So for those of us who are new to the field and you mentioned, it is a relatively new field, can you share any surprising or unexpected maybe research your information about your field in general? What does some things that people don’t normally know?

Lee: Yes, I mean, there’s lots of interesting things, and at the moment with Covid[19], strangely, suddenly but interestingly from a scientific perspective, this is like a big experiment that you can’t carry out. You can’t get millions of people across the world to have to isolate in a certain environment and then be able to get that qualitative and quantitative data about how that affects them. So Covid literally is an environment of psychologists dream, because it gives a massive case study and a massive amount of data.

But in many ways, the things that people are not so aware of is just how vital nature is in our regeneration. And as things like Ecotherapy and Attention Restoration Therapy [ART] start to gain traction. They are both cases where we’re given a significant amount of nature exposure, and it actually helps with mild to moderate depression, and it helps with attention deficit disorders. And it’s incredibly powerful to get that at a young age, which is why sometimes you imagine, you know, the outdoor activity centres that take disadvantaged children and go and give them a really powerful dose of nature. Because so many children now live in urban settings, not aware of where the farm animals that they might eat come from, they don’t really link to the understanding of a forest of trees or a field or even sometimes the sea and those [are the] environments where we’re fully ignited from a sensory perspective.

So if you imagine you’re in the forest, you can hear the birds you can smell the flowers, your feet are touching the ground, and you feel that mossy ground and you stood next to a massive oak. And that’s the feel, like a small part of something much, much bigger and the sunlight shines through your eyes and boosting your serotonin production, and it’s just so vital to get outside. And yet, in so many ways, our coming generations spend more time inside than they ever have before. And that is out in the western world people are more concerned about safety, about the increasing vehicles and children not being helped to be dependent and search, go and explore, go on an adventure in the same way that even my generation was 30 years ago and that, in its own way, is a challenge.

But it’s helping people link back and I kind of feel that what Covid has done, especially in the countries where you’ve got you know, your one period of exercise. These people have been walking and finding green spaces only a few minutes away from the house, but they had never taken the time from their busy life to go and explore and finding those foot paths and then going, really enjoying themselves and get themselves out, and we’re only really grateful for the environments we have access to when they’re taken away. In the same way that I was so ungrateful for my ability to walk until I lost it. We are not very good at preventing but we are very, very agile in a crisis.

M: It’s human nature I think. I have a similar story, I had an accident 2017 and couldn’t walk for a long time. And it truly, and there is a whole body of psychological research into the, what happens after you’ve been through a major trauma as well.

So, there is definitely what you mentioned there about going out into nature, is there any research about bringing nature indoors? Is there any benefit to having more plants in your indoor space as well? Or water features? Does that help at all? Or do you really have to get out and make an activity of it.

Lee: Yeah, so by incorporating natural elements into the design of offices and houses, it does increase your well-being, and it does bolster your ability to, you know, recover from anxiety and stress. It doesn’t confer the whole benefit that being outside in nature does because it’s not a full sensory experience. However, if you have a good number of house plants they don’t offer you that natural landscape.

We can see more shades of green than any other colour and that’s due not only to our evolutionary biology but where green lies on the spectrum and how our pupils and eyes work. But we have that affinity for natural environment. So if you have a room where you have house plants, you have items made out of natural materials that have a feel on a texture, a grounding. If you say have a landscape picture on the wall, even those really small elements all the time because you’re continually exposed to them you become slightly regenerative to your health.

And then you look at house plants and how much they clean certain pollutants out of the air it’s the natural purifiers and also the fact that you have to mindfully look after them, water them, make sure and in many ways what we do is we represent and we anchor into the fact that they grow as we grow. It’s something that’s only kind of starting to be in research now. But it’s our understanding that actually, as the world revolves around you and moves, if you could make a bit of progress and the things around you are making a bit of progress it actually compounds in your mind to feel like you’re actually generating that forward momentum. It makes you have more energy to wake up in the morning, and it really does propel people when everything around them is just growing. And that’s something that you won’t see if you have an urban environment, which doesn’t really have any natural features.

M: Yeah, so I was gonna ask you if you had any tips for our listeners about how to make practical changes in their homes or office environments to improve their well being. We just talked about plants, definitely. Is there anything else that you can share the secrets of that will help with well being?

Lee: Yes, I mean probably the most important thing is just to step back and have an awareness about how much your environment plays a role in your well-being and starting to just understand the basics that the stress of our environment, it does affect us.

So when you’re kind of working out actual tips and starting to think ‘Ok, so I’ve got my office, or I’ve got my home office and home offices are great, because you have more design flexibility. You just have to incorporate the elements that you work in, in an environment that was originally designed for something else. But you can start to work on that if you treat it mindfully.

So yeah, it’s kind of looking at, you’re working for roughly eight hours a day and sleeping for eight hours a day. So your workplace environment, your sleep environment, 100 hours over a week, two thirds of your life spent in those environments. So it’s important to look to optimise them. So you’re kind of looking at ways to, because of how we work and we have ultradian rhythms so 98% of ourselves have this smaller clock inside. Obviously we have the circadian rhythm that runs 24 hours a day ultradian rhythms run about 60 to 90 minutes and that allows us to really work deeply for that period. But then we need to have ten to fifteen minutes off, disconnected. So we can reconnect to work effectively again. When we continue to push that, that’s when we get burnt out.

So, what I do in terms of suggesting for offices were actually looking at what the environmental stress is.

First of all Noise.

Are you in the seat that’s next to the main road? Are people buzzing, are cars coming past all day? What we do is while we tune out, it gradually stresses you on a low level, and that builds up over time. Other things to consider are:

Density.

So we need personal space in an office we’re too crammed and that can be an environmental stressor. Yeah, we also need to be close enough to build, to socially connect with people so being sat in an office and being completely bereft of anyone else to speak to, is just as dangerous as being crammed in. So it’s about finding that, find that sweet spot. Some people’s personal space needs are larger than others, and that’s about where you become understanding of what your environmental needs are. Other things to consider are:

Temperature.

You can actually find out where people are comfortable and set them in the in the zone that’s best for them and that in itself is regenerative when they understand; Actually, I want to sit here in 16 degrees. He wants to sit there and 19. He feels comfortable. I feel comfortable. We switch places. We wouldn’t be comfortable. And it’s just about kind of understanding that we can use our thermostats in our houses to also create our workspace that is comfortable for us. And then finally, it’s really looking at things like

Lighting.

So thing is that everyone has their individual lighting need as we get older, our lighting need needs change, but you don’t want to be in that grey room yet you don’t want so much light to come through that it’s blinding you, blinding your screen and natural light is always gonna be better than artificial light. But artificial light can be and is increasingly becoming a little bit less invasive than it used to be in the old fluorescent strips, so you can get creative with that. They get that Connection and suddenly they’re more likely to stay, their less likely to go off sick, become more productive, more creative and just happier at work and it spreads.

M: I think that’s, that’s a great place to end with happiness spreading. I’m so upset that we’ve only gone through half the questions that I really wanted to ask you. So we might even invite you back on this show in a little bit to cover some more things if you, If you’re up for it. Before we go, how can people find out a bit more about you?

Lee: So you can visit my website at: leechambers.org, I’m on Instagram @essentialisecoach and Twitter @essentialise

M: Thank you. I appreciate your time and have a good evening. Have a good day, actually all the way from England.

Lee: Thanks, it’s been a pleasure Marie.

[Happy Exit Music]

Related content: Listen to our Podcast: Designing Happy Cities (E19) and Podcast: Enabling Happy Cities (E20)

Designing Happy Cities (E19)

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Happiness for Cynics podcast

In the first of this two-part series on happy cities, this week we explore how to design happy cities. We look at the research from the Global Happiness Council’s annual Global Happiness and Wellbeing Policy Report, and discuss some great examples from around the world of cities which are getting it right.

Episode notes

In this week’s episode, Pete talked about how bicycle lanes are great for city living. This is the book he mentioned.

Transcript

M: You’re listening to the podcast happiness for cynics. I’m Marie Skelton, a writer and speaker focused on change and resilience.  

P: And I am Peter Furness, a banana bread maker, wall art hanger and occasional wedgie applicator. Each week we will bring you the latest news and research in the world of positive psychology, otherwise known as happiness.  

M: You can find us at marieskelton.com, which is a site about how to find balance, happiness and resilience in your life. We talk about a lot of the same research we cover here on the podcast, including some really practical tips for bringing joy and happiness into your life. 

P: So on to today’s episode, which is all about Happy Cities.  

[Happy intro Music] 

P: So Marie, Happy Cities. What are we talking about?  

M: This is such a hot topic right now. I’m so happy that we’re doing this. So there’s two things that are converging to macro level.  

P: Convergence, we like convergence were converging. 

M: And macro, that’s important. So firstly, we’re seeing huge advancements in technologies in particular the Internet of things, and that’s allowing us to know so much more data and know so much more about what our people are doing and how they’re moving in, how they’re living than we’ve ever had before. 

P: So “big brother” is a good thing.  

M: It can be. I’m not 100% sold, but I think- 

P: There’s a practical application of the “big brother” [concept]. It’s actually working for us.  

M: Yes, exactly. And then the second thing that’s happening is there’s an increasing understanding that human well-being matters, and we’ve mentioned it before. But people are saying to come to the realisation that economic prosperity without well-being is a bit hollow.  

So this really started picking up steam in 2015 when the UN announced its 2030 agenda for sustainable development and that was adopted by all UN member states. And in it, there’s 17 sustainable development goals which aim to bring peace and prosperity to all the world and its people. Now amongst those 17 goals, there’s two that in particular apply to happy cities.  

The first is goal number three, which is good health and well-being. And then there’s also number 11 which is sustainable cities and communities. And when it comes to cities and communities, a lot of the UN plan focuses on getting the basics right, like proper waste management, eradicating slums and providing clean air. But it does also touch on some of the topics we’re going to cover today, like access to green spaces and good public transport, which are key to happy cities. 

So for today’s episode, rather than focusing on the UN sustainable development goals, we have taken a different document, which is a bit more relevant for us in Australia because we have done some really good work to get those basics right. And now we’re talking about what’s next. So the report we’re looking at is the Global Happiness Council’s annual global happiness and well-being policy report.  

So Pete, maybe you can start with why we should be focusing on Happy Cities, not just happy people?  

P: I love that we’re focusing on Happy Cities. I think this is a really interesting segway in global awareness, really, that we’re no longer just talking about economic development and GDP and stuff this whole movement around ‘let’s create good things for people and for all people’, which I think is really important. That’s a point we will come back to later.  

If we’re looking at Happy Cities, what makes a happy city just a bit of background; we’re using cities more. So the human population on a global scale is now becoming more urbanised. Since 2007 we actually have more urbanised population globally than we do rural. So we’ve hit 55% of global population in 2007, live in cities.  

M: I think that’s a really, really good stat to show how, as a society or society’s globally, we’re evolving from an agrarian, hunter/gatherer/farmer to industrial, which did bring a lot more people into the cities and made the need for cities greater. To a service economy now, where definitely everyone is in the city for right now because we haven’t quite gotten there yet, But it’ll be really interesting to see if gig economy and, you know, especially post Covid[19], where we know now that we can work from home and a lot of industries whether we will still need cities as much in the future. 

P: It’s interesting because the predictions are that in 2050 we’re going to have 2/3 of the world’s population in cities, seven billion people as opposed to right now, which is just 4.1 billion people. These are the predictions we’re using cities more and that, the attraction of living in the city is greater. So, interestingly enough, and I found this this odd that as we grow older and as we grow wealthier, we tend to gravitate towards cities. I would have thought the opposite, but it’s not the case. We like being in cities. Cities provide opportunity. They provide better health systems support and all that sort of stuff. So we’re more drawn towards them. 

M: And also more leisure activities. You can always go to the beach or go somewhere quiet for a weekend. I think that on a day to day basis, having access to more people and cultural activities when you’re retired becomes more important. 

P: It comes into the, into the factoring of what makes a happy city actually. When we- 

M: Tell us! Do tell us. 

P: Well actually, there are lots of different things. There’s, there’s the infrastructure. There’s things like parks, cycle paths, piazzas, green and blue spaces, culture. So the art culture, HUGE, massive, so big!  

M: For you the art culture is huge. But for others it can make a break a city, the culture, and it’s not necessarily art, but it is the culture of a city.  

P: Definitely but art plays a big part in that. I’ll come back to that later. So these are all in addition to services such as waste management, sewerage and public transport, which is another big one. 

M: Public transport’s important. 

P: Yeah, it’s a huge one. In terms of the global happiness report, there’s two aspects of this report that come out really, really strongly.  One is that there is a design element of city, so things that we put in place to create happy cities. And then there’s the enablers of city happiness. So I think for this podcaster we are actually going to separate into two different podcasts. 

M: Yes, you’re listening to part one today.  

P: Today we’re gonna talk about the design. So what goes into the designing of a good city and how to create that. And in the report they come up with six different areas of [what a] city needs to create a happy city.  

M: All right, well, how about you start us off with the 1st 3 Pete?  

P: All right. So we’ll talk about: 

1. Urban design and place making 

This is city planning, connected spaces and places that create a good city. Creating and using functional space as well. Now I’m going to launch right into this one with an example. Bike lanes, bike lanes, they’re the new black. It’s the thing that everybody is being measured by in terms of their city ability is, do you have a bike lane concept and our bikes able to operate within your city? And it’s a big one because bicycle riding connects communities, so it makes people able to get around. Now, in terms of a city that doesn’t have good public transport, doesn’t have good access. If you can ride somewhere, to get to the grocery shop, to go and see friends, to hang out in the park, it makes a big difference to how you use a city.  

M: Let me add, if you can safely ride somewhere, no one would let their kid’s ride around Sydney, even though we have a bike lane or two every now and then, the bike lanes through the city are like, if you want death, go ride through Sydney CBD. 

P: [Laugh] that’s such a good point Marie, because there’s some gurus out there and there’s this couple Melissa and Chris Bruntlett, who come from Vancouver and they actually wrote a book on ‘Building the Cycling City: The Dutch Blueprint for Urban Vitality’ and they actually talk about the safety of bike riding and how safe it is for a city to be bike riding in and of course, we all know Amsterdam has the best record. 

M: And Nordic, it’s the Nordic countries again.  

P: That do it well, yep. And it really makes a community come together. It provides accessibility, and, as you say, it brings people together because it’s safe and you could take families. 

M: So that was an example of, what was it? 

P: Design and place making. Designing a city. Examples of how to design a city to create good community interaction.  

The next one we look at.

2. Nature 

Huge, connecting with nature, contact with nature, easily accessible green and blue spaces. And when we talk about green and blue spaces, we’re talking about green spaces, which are obviously the parks, your centennial parks, your Hyde Park’s, you’re access to green spaces at the end of your street. 

M: And your natural bush land and forest areas depending on what country you’re in. 

P: Yep, all that sort of stuff. When we talk about blue spaces, I had to look this one up.  

M: Water.  

P: I know I didn’t think. I was just like what’s a blue space?  

M: [Laugh] It’s not a blue zone! 

P: That’s what I thought.  

M: It’s a bunch of old people… 

P: all hanging out in their bikinis.  

[Laughter] 

M: That would be Florida. 

P: Or Hampstead Heath in London.  

But blue space is access to water, which is hugely important and I actually did a lot of research into this in terms of water being included in a city scape. So water is really beneficial for inspiring awe, inspiration. It has a calming effect, has a white noise effect, and it actually brings down traffic noise.  

M: Yes  

P: I thought that was a really interesting point. So in a city scape water is hugely important for creating not only a visual area of interaction, but also auditory, so you can actually dull down the sounds of the city. And the other thing is it cools, and this is something that comes back to medieval times, in the 13th century in Spain, they used water to cool the streets of the city and having water features and there’s beautiful Andalusian fountains in the middle of the piazza or something. They weren’t just pretty, they were there for a function. But I thought that was an interesting aspect, that it has a function that’s not just pretty.  

M: Yeah, yeah.  

P: Really benefits us.  

Okay, moving on to number three. Let’s look at this one:  

3. Mobility 

And that is the ability to get around. So again, bike lanes as being bike lanes are the new black but we’re also looking in here, we’re looking at public transport, diversity of transport and this is a huge one in terms of the development of electronic vehicles and also automated vehicles, which- 

M: I can’t wait for flying cars!  

P: [Laugh] It’s all back to the future, and the future is here people [laugh]. 

M: It is! They exist! They’re being tested right now. 

P: They’re getting better and this is the funny thing, we had this conversation about a year ago. I Remember Marie, you were all pro automated vehicles. No way it’s going to cause accidents. People, I was wrong. 

M: Yes! 

P: The science says that the ability for automated vehicles to prevent accidents is much greater than human error. 

M: Uh huh, computers win again.  

P: Unfortunately… So in 2011 to 2015 electronic vehicle rates soared by 800 percent. Huge increases, and this is only going to get bigger. Technology is improving in the expansion of public transit networks, along with autonomous vehicles and electronic vehicles, is going. It’s going to be a thing of the future. Infrastructure is going to support that so shared public transport, variable transport, in terms of lane ways and arterial roads, which we’re seeing in Sydney at the moment with this whole West connects drama that we’ve all been going through. It’s the way of the future, unfortunately, and the future of mobility is going to be a massive indicator of smart cities and how a city can increase its happiness.  

M: And I think that newer cities are definitely much better placed because they’ve got wider roads and wider lane ways. So it is really tough in cities like Paris. We were there last year. They can’t put lifts in for people with disabilities into their subway systems because they’re underground is like Swiss cheese, right? And the whole thing is going to come falling down if they keep drilling too many holes in there. 

P: Sydney’s suffers from that a little bit as well. 

M: A little bit but we’ve definitely got accessibility down pat compared to a lot of other countries, but you’re really stuck with the age of the infrastructure that you’ve inherited. It’s like older companies right now that have a tech debt with stuff that they’ve been building on top of and on top of and on top of since the seventies compared to new entrants to the market, who come with fresh, clean technology that is only six months old, right? So for, for cities that are really old, this mobility piece becomes so much more costly and difficult to implement. 

P: But it’s going to make a difference to how people can use the city. That’s the whole point.  

M: Yeah, absolutely.  

P: Getting around a city and arterial roads are a really simple introduction to that. You can bypass the busy area of the city so that you can get across town.  

M: Absolutely. All right, we’re going to keep moving on and we’ll power through these last three in our last three minutes.  

So number four on the list of design elements that lead to Happy Cities is: 

4. Sustainability and partnerships.  

So this is one of the things I really liked about the UN sustainability goals is that Number 17 the last one on their list, talks about the need for partnership, and it’s a concept that’s definitely picked up steam over the last five years or so. The government can’t do it all, and there’s been some great examples of where government, academia, corporations and citizens are all coming together now to change our cities and to plan for the future and its, I think the only way that you get true innovation is in coming out of your bubble and your sector and what you know and partnering with other organisations that bring their worldview and they’re different perspectives to drive towards one common goal. So partnership is so key and there’s a great example in Halifax in Canada of some city councillors there and they get $94,000 a year to spend on city infrastructure projects and instead of just deciding that they’re gonna spend it on fountain’s because they’ve got water. 

P: [Laugh] they’re pretty. 

M: I mean, they’d freeze up in Halifax, or whatever it is, instead of sitting in a room with a bunch of councillors and deciding where to spend their money; each year, they have community organisations come in and set up a booth and the residents come in and they walk around and get a little pitch from each of the organisations and then they vote on their top five and so the community is then invested in whatever is developed. The community organisations get to meet the residents and government get to put money into things that the residents want. And it’s just a great little simple example of how you can bring three different communities together to achieve a common goal. 

P: And it’s also giving an empowerment to the people who occupy the city. They’re in charge of their future. And they’re making conscious decisions on it.  

M: Yes, and they’re more likely to use the end outcome.  

All right, so moving on: 

5. Culture. 

We mentioned culture. 

P: The artists have it.  

M: So this is about a city having a sense of uniqueness and having a soul. It is the soul of the city-  

P: and identity that is unique to that city.  

M: Yeah, definitely. So what we’re talking about here is everything from visuals, lights, arts, sounds, climate and people’s behaviour and attitude as well as their physical structures. So all of those things can contribute to a city’s culture. And you’ve been over, you’ve been to Vancouver, haven’t you?  

P: Not yet! I was supposed to go this year.  

M: OH! You were meant to go. 

P: Bloody Covid[19] My Canadian holiday has been cancelled. 

M: All right, I’m going to tell you about a great place called Granville Island from Vancouver. So in the seventies, it was, a dilapidated, industrial area, and the Vancouver government has taken it back and since then, invested a lot of money and I love their mission statement. So it’s “The most inspiring public place in the world.” Is their mission statement, and today it’s a fabulous, artistic and cultural hub. And it’s got public markets about 50 independent restaurants and also got about 300 businesses employing about 3000 people. And arguably many of Canada’s best artists and designers have their works displayed there or they’re selling there, and we went there a couple of years ago. It’s such a great place, such a great place. Now that is a great example of people coming together to create a space that Vancouver’s now so well known for. All tourists go there now and locals love it. Yes, so culture definitely matters. 

P: And I’m going to throw some stats in there. This is where I find a lot of information from the UK coming through. They’re very good at actually evaluating statistics for arts inclusion and there is an arts on prescription project, which comes from Cambridge in the UK. [Arts on Prescription program is based on a model developed in the UK whereby health professionals, including GPs, write prescriptions for their patients to participate in the arts.]  

They found that for an arts community that was actively involved out there in a cityscape:  

  • 71% decrease in feelings of anxiety,  
  • 73% falling depression and  
  • 76% of participants said their wellbeing was increased and they felt more socially included in a city. 

M: Alright, I’m sold. 

P: That’s 3/4 of the city population going ‘yeah, we like artistic spaces.’ You’ve only got to look at the Instagram accounts of people going around taking photos of the graffiti wings that are on all these buildings around. People interact with art on a street level. It isn’t something to be helping museums. I’m getting on my soapbox here [laugh].  

M: All right, we are going to move on. Oh, we are over time already. So we’ll get to the last one and then we’re going to have to wrap up. So last one is: 

6. Quality of service. 

Okay, So it’s making genuinely citizen centred services easier and accessible. And this one is so important. If you’ve ever been to the DMV in the States or if you’ve ever tried to complete a simple tax return in America, you will know the pain that comes with poorly designed, customer centric or non-customer centric services. And we like to complain here in Australia. But our government has digitised most services, and it does lead to a far easier way of doing those day to day things like renewing your licence or paying your fines.  

P: Okay. I’ll concede to you, they’re on their way Marie.  

M: And not that I’m paying fines on a day to day basis. But what I will also say that is in here is accessibility. And when I had my accident after I got out of hospitals in a wheelchair for 6 to 9 months while I was getting on to my feet consistently and it’s lonely, it really is lonely. And it’s not lonely because I had less friends. It’s lonely because I couldn’t do many of the activities that they were doing. I couldn’t get to a bar and feel safe doing that. I couldn’t get to public transport. It just isolates you. And there are so many people in our community who have disabilities or who are elderly and aren’t stable on their feet and they’re ah… 

P: They don’t do things because they’re too scared.  

M: Exactly, exactly. And that’s what I mean by accessibility. So having accessible public transport in accessible spaces is so critical to a large portion of our population.  

P: It’s interesting the Australian environmental Grant Makers Network chimes in here, saying that Australian cities are failing with social inequalities.  

M: Yep. 

P: Do you agree? 

M: Look, I think we’re better than a lot of other countries. I wouldn’t say, I don’t think we’re there yet. Still a long way to go. But we’re doing a lot better than a lot of other countries.  

P: So if we’re going to wrap this up because we’ve gone over time as we always tend to do, this was such a big topic to try and condense into 20 minutes. I mean, we could go on and on.  

M: Maybe, all right. Well, on that note. Thank you for joining us today If you want to hear more please remember to subscribe and like this podcast. 

P: Stay happy people. 

[Happy exit Music] 

Related content: Listen to our Podcast: Enabling Happy Cities (E20)

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11 Ideas For Your Next Mental Health Day

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Mental Health day ideas

How To Ask For A Mental Health Day And What To Do When You Get One

Are you feeling stressed or burnout? Do you need to reset and unwind, but are you just too exhausted to think about mental health day ideas? Do you need some inspiration?

The month of May is Mental Health Awareness Month – an annual reminder that 1 in 5 people will face a mental health issue at some point in their lives. It shines a light on mental health and mental illness and raises awareness of the fact that many people struggle day to day with mental health issues. More than that, talking about it helps to normalise it, lessening the stigma and letting people know there is no shame and there is support.

This year, talking about mental health is even more poignant with many people currently experiencing heightened stress, anxiety and fears due to Coronavirus. Not only that but the impacts of the Coronavirus, such as losing your job or being isolated, can compound the issue by adding financial stress and/or deepening feelings of loneliness and guilt, among many others.

Then there are the essential workers and remote workers, the people we are depending on and who are working longer more stressful hours. Not having a job comes with its own stresses, but in today’s environment having a job can be just as stressful. And essential workers have been working at a heightened stress level for weeks now, just to get the job done. And many are starting to feel the effects of burnout. Even before the pandemic hit, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that one in four adults will experience burnout in their lives.

Signs You May Need a Mental Health Day

Burnout is a slow progressing state that you get to over time. It’s about working at an unsustainable pace for too long. It can leave you feeling physically and emotionally exhausted, as well as cynical and detached.

Symptoms of burnout include:

  • excessive stress,
  • insomnia,
  • fatigue,
  • sadness, anger or irritability,
  • defensiveness, cynicism or a negative outlook
  • alcohol or substance misuse,
  • high blood pressure, and
  • decreased immune function leading to an increase in illnesses, among others.

If you’ve noticed any of the above symptoms, you could be experiencing burnout. It may be time to ask your boss for a mental health day. If so, read on for some mental health day ideas.

How To Ask For Time Off

Even though conversations about mental health are slowly becoming normalised, it can still be hard to ask for time off to recharge. As much as we know that mental health is just as important as physical health, it is that much harder to ask for a day off when we’re stressed or overwhelmed compared to when we have the flu.

Before you have a conversation with your boss, therapist Julieann Ipsan says: “It is vital to assess if your company and work culture is open to the idea of mental health days. If asking and explaining details will ultimately create more stress, it’s better to take a sick day with no explanation of the mental health needs.”

If your company is OK with mental health days, but you’re still not ready to share your reasons with your boss, you can always say something like, “I’m not feeling well so I have to take a day off, but I’ll be back tomorrow.” This is completely acceptable, after all, you don’t want to create more stress by asking for a mental health day. When pressed for more information, you can simply say “Don’t worry, I am OK, but I really don’t feel up to sharing the details at the moment.”

Once you know that your boss and workplace are open to mental health days, and you are OK with opening up that dialogue, then a little bit of planning can help to smooth the way. If possible, try to take a day off when you will have a limited impact on others or where you can reschedule your meetings.

When you talk to your boss, explain the symptoms you’ve been experiencing, and the benefits of taking some time off to recharge. It could go something like this: “As you know, I’ve been under the pump and the stress is getting to be too much. I’ve not been sleeping well for a while now and I know I have been short-tempered lately. I’m also not doing my best work. I need to be better at looking after myself and I would like to take a mental health day on Thursday to recharge. I hope this helps me to improve my mood and productivity.”

The more people talk about this, and chart a course for others, the more we’ll all benefit from this open, supportive environment in the future. Remember, if you need additional help, reach out to a professional.

11 Mental Health Day Ideas

Once you get your day off, it can be easy to sleep in and just curl up on the couch with the remote. That would be a mistake. It’s time to give yourself what you’ve been missing over the past few weeks or months. This means a mix of quiet, mindful activities, a little bit of pampering, and a lot of rest.

Here are 11 mental health day ideas:

  1. Don’t set an alarm. Let your body tell you when it has had enough sleep.
  2. Put your phone on silent. You don’t want to get sucked into mindless news and social media scrolling, or even worse: work issues! If you absolutely have to be contactable, set aside a small amount of time in the morning and again in the evening to check your messages. Stick to those timeframes!
  3. Put on some music. Set the tone for the day by choosing a playlist or artist who makes you happy or relaxed.
  4. Make your favourite breakfast and eat it outside. The benefits of being outside are well documented. Mindfully enjoy your meal, sit quietly and feel the sun on your face.
  5. Do some light exercise. Go for a 30-min walk around a new part of your neighbourhood. See what you can find that you never knew existed. Be mindful and take notice of nature. Don’t do extreme exercise as it can add further stress to your body – today is about recharging not further depleting your body.
  6. Eat a healthy lunch. It’s time to reset any bad eating habits you’ve developed while stressed. Try a big bowl of salad with chicken or fish. If this feels like a punishment, try to think of it instead as caring for yourself, and then add some nuts and cheese!
  7. Fit in a pampering activity. Go get your nails done or get a massage. Whatever makes you feel like a million dollars.
  8. Make some commitments to change. If you’re in an unsustainable position at work, think about to talking to your boss to let them know explicitly that your situation is not sustainable and ask them to work with you on solutions, or propose some solution. It might take some time for things to change, so in the meantime, you should also commit to changing your own self-care behaviour to help you get through. Pick one thing you can do starting tomorrow. This could be committing to getting 8 hours of sleep, drinking enough water, packing healthy lunches, drinking less alcohol, or walking more each day (try getting off the train/bus one stop earlier).
  9. Set yourself up for the next day. Particularly if you’re going back to your stressful work the next day, you want to do what you can to ease the anxiety that will be building as you get closer to going back. Put your clothes out in the evening and pack a healthy lunch so it’s easy to grab and go.
  10. Wind down. If you’re an evening TV watcher, try changing your routine to read a paper book for a couple of hours before bed. Either way, before you go to sleep, take 20 minutes to do some light stretching, then sit calmly and think about 3 things you’re grateful for. Write them down in a book.
  11. Go to bed early. You don’t want to mess up your sleeping patterns, so don’t go to bed too early, but make sure you’re in bed with enough time to get 8 hours of sleep.

Related content: Read Moving On article Resiliency Is About Recharging And Self-Care, But Are You Doing It Wrong?

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Comment below! Tell me, what activities do you do on your mental health or self-care days?

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!

30-Day Happiness Challenge

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How to Rewire Your Brain to Bring More Happiness Into Your Life

We’re all living through unique and challenging times right now. To make matters worse, a lot of our stresses are completely out of our control.

But there are certain things that are 100 per cent within your control and you can do to build your resiliency and happiness.

Follow the 30-day Happiness Challenge and Rewire Your Brain to Bring More Happiness Into Your Life!

The challenge is divided into activities under the three resiliency and happiness foundations: purpose, social connection and healthy mind and body. If any activity doesn’t speak to you, try to replace it with a similar activity that motivated you.

Before you get started:

  • You’ve got to be all in! It’s only 30 days, and what if it works? Go on, commit and see where it will take you.
  • Prepare to set aside time each day to complete your activity in a mindful, distraction-free way.
  • Plan ahead. Take a look at the activities for the upcoming week so you can plan anything that needs planning. Set things up in your diary early to lock it in.
  • Do it with a friend! Find a friend to complete the challenge with, and you can hold each other accountable.
  • Need inspiration? Click on the links if you want more help, ideas or explanations.

Start the 30-day Happiness Challenge now!

Day 1 – Plan a dinner date with a friend or loved one

Day 2 – No sugar day

Day 3 – Start a gratitude journal

Day 4 – Set aside time to find flow

Day 5 – Call your Mum or a sibling for a chat

Day 6 – Go for a 30-minute walk with a friend or family

Day 7 – Rest and relax

Day 8 – Learn something new – try a podcast, book or Ted Talk

Day 9 – Organise a dinner party

Day 10 – Drink 8 glasses of water

Day 11 – Write in your gratitude journal

Day 12 – Bring awe into your life

Day 13 – Hug a pet, partner or friend

Day 14 – Go to bed 1 hour earlier

Day 15 – Sit outside in nature for 30 minutes

Day 16 – Write in your gratitude journal

Day 17 – Practice kindness or help a friend or neighbour

Day 18 – Get 30+ minutes of exercise

Day 19 – Write in your gratitude journal

Day 20 – Set aside time to find flow

Day 21 – Grab a drink or meal with a work colleague

Day 22 – No processed foods, only fresh foods

Day 23 – Take a social media detox. Turn off all notifications.

Day 24 – Learn something new – try a podcast, book or Ted Talk

Day 25 – Plan your next holiday with family or a friend

Day 26 – Do 30-minutes of stretching

Day 27 – Write in your gratitude journal

Day 28 – Practice positive solitude

Day 29 – Practice kindness or help a friend or neighbour

Day 30 – Go for a 30-minute walk with a friend or family

Follow our 30-day happiness challenge to bring more happiness into your life today!

Tell us in the comments what activities do you do that help you to bring happiness into your life!

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The Secret to Living Longer

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Do you Want to Live a Long and Healthy Life?

Life expectancy has increased significantly over the past century, and as a result the world’s population is aging. In fact, in the US alone more than 70,000 baby boomers expected to retire every single week until 2030!

Since we haven’t worked out how to stop time yet, living longer is great news for all of us, but unfortunately it doesn’t follow that we’ll all be healthy and have good quality of life as we age.

In fact, along with the increase in the aging population, we’re also seeing a rapid increase in the prevalence of chronic diseases such as diabetes and cancer.

However, a 20-year study of more than 111,000 people has found that a healthy lifestyle could increase your chances of living a healthy and longer life by up to ten years for women and seven years for men. The study looked at how people could live free of diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer.

The Secret to Living Longer

Previous studies have shown that smoking, inactivity, poor diet and heavy alcohol consumption contribute to up to 60 per cent of premature deaths and up to 18 years’ loss in life expectancy.

This latest study however assigned a ‘healthy lifestyle score’ based on five lifestyle factors—diet, smoking, physical activity, alcohol consumption, and body mass index (BMI). The good news is that you can influence these five lifestyle factors to increase your chances of living a healthy and long life. The more you are better at maintaining, the better your score.

  1. Healthy Diet: Eating a healthy diet means including a variety of food groups (to make sure you’re still getting all the nutrients and vitamins you need!), good portion control, eating plenty of fresh healthy foods instead of processed and packaged foods, limiting (or eliminating) unhealthy fats and sugar.
  2. Don’t Smoke or Quit Smoking: Obviously, it’s better if you’ve never smoked. But if you’re a smoker, the research also shows that quitting at any point in your life gives you a better shot and repairing the damage it’s done to you. So, the sooner you quit, the better.
  3. Do Regular Physical Activity: You should aim to do moderate to vigorous physical activity for more than 30 minutes a day. If you are not used to doing exercise, this can take some time to build up to. Check out the ‘No Excuses’ Beginners Exercise Plan to get yourself started.
  4. Limit Excessive Alcohol Consumption: It’s OK to have a glass of wine with dinner every now and then, but we’re talking about cutting out regular and excessive consumption here. For women, try to keep your consumption below 5-15 g/day and for men below 5-30 g/day.
  5. Maintain a Good BMI : Your BMI, or body mass index, is a measurement that is used to assess whether you are in a healthy weight range. Unfortunately, obesity is a major limit to life expectancy. If you follow a healthy diet and do regular exercise, this should be relatively easy to maintain (all other health considerations aside). You should aim to have a body mass index of between 18.5-24.9. Check out the Heart Foundation’s BMI calculator to see where you measure up.

Living longer is only worth it if you can enjoy it! So set up some good habits and plan for health and balance in your life.

And remember, it’s OK to occasionally fall off the wagon, it happens to us all. Just remember to get up, dust yourself off, and get back on again (without any judgement)!


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