Category: Enhancing joy

  • Frozen Stress

    Recently I saw a talk by Thomas Hübl, a specialist in collective trauma. He asked an unusual question: How often do you think about your freezer? That section of your fridge can be forgotten about for weeks at a stretch, but all the time it’s working hard to keep your foods frozen. We don’t think […]

  • Maximise Your Chances in Life

    Some people constantly experience good fortune; others don’t. Research shows that much of it comes down to the things people do that attract opportunities. In this workshop, learn and practise the 12 habits that invite good fortune into your life. Contact steph@happynation.co.nz to hold this workshop in your workplace

  • Tips to help with low mood

    Tips to help with low mood: Sometimes it’s hard to shake off a low mood. Things we normally enjoy seem suddenly boring or pointless and we find ourselves filling our time with distracting, yet unfulfilling activities. When we finally face the fact that we are not okay, our first response is often, “What’s wrong with […]

  • 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 […]

  • How can I be happy when things are so bad?

    One reason we find it hard to be happy is that we persistently deny ourselves permission. Faulty reasoning makes us think that being happy would be somehow selfish and wrong. For example: If someone I love is suffering, to be cheerful would feel unkind. If I’m grieving for someone I love, it seems disloyal to […]

  • The benefits of sunlight

    Daylight Saving has begun – a good time to remember how important sunlight is for our health and happiness.  Exposure to sunshine raises our serotonin level, which improves mood, lifts depression and makes us more alert.  Sunlight, especially morning sun, improves melatonin regulation, leading to better sleep at night.  And the Vitamin D that we […]

  • Being alive

    Our greatest gift is the gift of consciousness, the ability to perceive what is around us and within us, yet most of the time we forget how miraculous that truly is. Responding to demands and expectations, we can find ourselves treating life like a list of chores. We categorise, compare, make plans, try to control […]

  • Smile – and feel better

    Try holding a pencil between your teeth, in such a way that the pencil doesn’t touch your lips. This forces your face into something that looks like a smile. Years ago, experimenters found that people holding a pencil in this way rated cartoons as funnier than they did without the pencil. The conclusion was that […]

  • Humour as a Re-visioning Strategy

    One of the ways that people make us laugh is through observations that highlight the absurdity of a situation. Example: I want to be unique and different, just like everybody else. Humour approaches a subject from an unexpected angle; it’s a form of lateral thinking. As such, I’ve found that it can be a powerful […]

  • The Benefits of Not Complaining

    The average day provides a myriad of blessings to be grateful for, along with multiple niggles and challenges – all of which are opportunities to complain, if that is our focus. People who constantly complain are hard to be around and don’t attract warmth from others. The sad thing is that their focus on the […]