Category: Enhancing joy

  • Is Happiness a Choice?

    Decades ago, researchers discovered that individuals appear to have a ‘set point’ of happiness. For example, if someone scores 6 out of 10 for happiness, that score may slightly increase or decrease according to life’s ups and downs, but they’re likely to keep returning to a 6 over their lifetime. A year after a big […]

  • Crazy Happy: A film

    Crazy Happy is a documentary filmed in Whangarei, following a group of people with mental health issues as they participate in a 100-day project to promote happiness. At the beginning of the project most of the participants suffered from depression, some to a debilitating degree. The idea was quite simple: each day the participants had […]

  • When the good go bad…

    How is it that so much harm is caused in the name of religion? How can people who do dreadful things look themselves in the mirror and think they are right? I believe it has something to do with language. Not just the way we use words to justify what we do, but the very […]

  • The shortcomings of rational thinking

    I was brought up to believe that ‘rational’ thinking was the best, if not the only, way to get to the truth. Later I came to see that rational thought cannot, by itself, bring new knowledge; it can only confirm what you already thought you knew. This is because you cannot begin reasoning without taking […]

  • Dirt and beauty

    In 1974 Saudi Arabia was a fabulously rich country, yet its streets were piled high with rubbish. There was no garbage disposal system other than the goats that roamed the streets. The reason? “No self-respecting Saudi would ever collect trash.”[i] Being too proud to deal with their garbage meant that effectively the Saudis were left […]

  • Fear of change creates a comfort trap

    Studies have shown that people who become paraplegics after an accident are only slightly less happy a year later than they were before the accident. By the same token, big lotto winners are back to their previous happiness level within a year. When something big happens, good or bad, people soon become accustomed to it. […]

  • Why me?

    When something bad happens, many people’s first reaction is “Why me?” This is not a genuine question but a rhetorical one; it’s a statement that what happened was unfair and undeserved. As long as we stay in this place of complaining that things are not as they should be, we remain stuck and unhappy. However, […]

  • Other People Can Be So Annoying!

    You’ve probably noticed that other people can be a real pain at times. Interfering, making too much noise, demanding, whining, doing a sloppy job, messing things up, wanting their own way – other people can find a million ways to get under our skin. Yet before we react to them, we must look to ourselves […]

  • Who do you think you’re talking to?

    Something I’ve been thinking about lately is the fact that we are so connected with one another that even in our private moments we are not islands. Our thoughts are always directed at someone – we think to a virtual listener, just as we speak to an audience with our speech. In a way, thoughts […]

  • Start with the physical

    Recently I’ve found myself sinking into negativity, getting irritated with people and their perceived stupidity and thoughtlessness and especially their negativity. Of course, it’s not that people have suddenly got more stupid or unkind. The problem is that I am lacking energy, which means I also lack patience and find it harder to be understanding. […]