Author: Stephanie Hills

  • Don’t give up

    A reader wanted to share this story: Some time after Frank got home from busking at the farmer’s market, he noticed that his glasses had fallen out of his pocket. He searched everywhere at home, without success. With prompting from his wife he decided to go back and look where he’d been busking. Sure enough, […]

  • Sharing good fortune

    This week I heard about a man who was lucky enough to win a trolley full of groceries. Rather than keep them for himself, he kindly shared out his winnings with friends and colleagues. One woman, thrilled to receive two boxes of goodies from this thoughtful man, immediately decided to pass on some of them […]

  • Compassion makes me happy

    “I am happy when in spite of the ills of the planet and of those close to me I still have the capacity to feel compassion for others. To live without compassion is a one way journey to a lonely place.” ~ Beryl Fletcher Congratulations to Beryl Fletcher, whose response to the question: “What makes […]

  • Stepping in

    Recently I heard a man tell of the difference it made when he and his wife performed an act of kindness in their neighbourhood. For some months they had been hearing the woman across the road yelling at her kids. The yelling had got worse since her husband had gone to prison. One evening the […]

  • Social benefits of laughter

    In the last newsletter I wrote about the health benefits of laughter; today I’ll talk about the social benefits. After studying 1,200 people laughing spontaneously, Robert Provine concluded that the main purpose of laughter is to bind people together. It’s an instinctive language that we all speak. We laugh when others are laughing, we laugh […]

  • Craft Fair

    A young woman I know was reading an advertisement for the recent Craft Fair held in Hamilton. It occurred to her that her friend’s mother was an avid craft fan and would undoubtedly love to go along, but probably couldn’t afford it. This was sad, since this friend’s mother was always doing things for other […]

  • Laughter is the Best Medicine

    Remember the old saying: Laughter is the best medicine? Well, it’s true. Gelotology – the physiological study of laughter – has shown that laughter reduces the levels of harmful stress hormones and increases the levels of Gamma-interferon, T-cells, B-cells, and other natural killer cells that fight tumours and viruses. Immunoglobulin A, which is found in […]

  • Happiness and altruism go hand in hand

    It was good to see people getting together in the spirit of giving, during the Telethon this weekend. There’s no doubt that doing something nice for somebody else makes you feel good. In fact, the pleasure seems to last even longer than doing something nice for yourself. Research has shown time and again that happiness […]

  • A peaceful home – a recipe for happiness

    This week I’ve been reminded of the importance of a happy home, especially in times of stress. We can transcend virtually any difficulty if we can temporarily get away from the stress to reflect on our situation. Home can be the best place for this. However, sometimes instead we take out our frustrations on those […]

  • Can we afford the luxury of happiness in a recession?

    Times are hard. Can we really afford to focus on happiness during a recession? Shouldn’t we be knuckling down and tightening our belts, putting on a brave face until things get better? To think this way is to equate happiness with comfort and prosperity, a common mistake in our capitalist culture. For decades advertisements have […]