Author: Stephanie Hills

  • Thanks for your service

    An older gentleman works for a Bunnings store, helping direct customers at the entrance. He’s a great success with customers and staff. He has an easy way with people and everyone loves him. He has just one fault: he is late for work nearly every morning. When it’s time for the manager to call him […]

  • Keeping your head above water

    In tough times, it’s easy to lose equilibrium. Overwhelming feelings can take our rational mind offline, while our fight-or-flight responses take over. These responses come in many forms, such as panic, which destabilises us; anger, which can have us lashing out at whoever is closest; hopelessness, which renders us inactive; or numbness, which has us […]

  • Entangled Life

    Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures                                                                          by Merlin Sheldrake Written by a leading expert on fungi, this book stretches our usual understanding of life. There are slime moulds that can design efficient transport systems, fungi that render ants into zombies, others that enhance human understanding by […]

  • Car story 2

    Electric Car Owners Alert!  It was announced today that if you break down in an electric car, you can still use the AA. But if you break down in a small electric car, you have to use the AAA.

  • Car story 1

                  Fred was telling his friend how his uncle tried to make a new car for himself… “so he took wheels from a Cadillac, a radiator from a Ford, some tyres and fenders from a Plymouth…”               “Holy Cow,” interrupted his friend, “What did he end up with?”               Fred replied, “Two years.”              

  • Happiness at Your Workplace

    This half-day workshop gives an overview of happiness research and why happiness is important at work.  Practical exercises are used to infuse participants’ own work with meaning and fulfilment, and to generate ideas to lift workplace cheerfulness. Content can be tailored to your unique work situation. Contact steph@happynation.co.nz to find out more, or to order […]

  • That’s punny!

  • Kindness to animals

    The principle of kindness applies to animals, as well as humans. Recently Lynley* found a cat lying on her front deck. Somehow its front paw had got caught in its collar, so that it couldn’t walk. Although she was a stranger to the cat, Lynley approached it and unbuckled its collar to set its leg […]

  • Freedom and Rules

    Years ago, I worked in the adoption service, where it was my job to interview couples who wanted to adopt. As the government agency for child protection, it was our duty to ensure the child’s safety and to approve all suitable applicants without prejudice. (Very few were turned down.) The criteria were different for the […]

  • Enhance Your Team’s Harmony

    If you’re a leader in a non-profit organisation, you’re probably pleased with the dedication and professionalism shown by your workers. On the other hand, you sometimes find that staff seem disgruntled, or that not everyone is on your wavelength. Contact me for a unique service to improve harmony in your workplace. More than simply mediation […]