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Impressions from Mandurang
No reflection this week. I took the kids on a road trip to Victoria (a southern Australian state) where I got a booking for a free cancer retreat accommodation (thanks, Otis Foundation!). So, this week is on impressions from Mandurang. Happy Nostalgia After not driving for years and not owning a car (I rented one),…
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Religion
Oh, I will dare something today. I’ll reflect on religion. But I start somewhere else: free food. My ex, low-income earner like me, often goes to the free food distribution at the Anglican Church. He has regularly shared food with me and some of that was really good. I’m also getting better in cooking large…
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Being right or being connected?
This week, I’m reflecting on being right. Let me start with connections. I think I’ve established that connections are important for happiness. Long-term connections like relationships provide us with good loads of the love (and happy) hormone Oxytocin. As a refresher, Oxytocin helps us to form bonds by developing trust. Humans are not specifically strong…
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About Jumping and Danger
The kids are watching the movie Sahara while I’m writing this blog post about jumping and danger. (They have played extensively without screens and we were outside for a while, so let’s not discuss appropriate screen time today.) Sahara is an animated movie about snakes, not to be confused with the Matthew McConaughey and Penelope…
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Reflection on Parenthood
It’s school holidays – the time when kids are not occupied with school but hang out at home (unless it’s travel time or they are booked in vacation care). Time for a reflection on parenthood! My kids are now 6 and 8 and I still cannot believe how fast time went. Just yesterday, I squeezed…
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Outlander Lessons in Love
In between my last uni assignment marking and being sick, I rewatched (again) Outlander. Yes, the successful Starz series also running on Netflix. And yes, based on the very successful books. Claire and Jamie’s love and family story embedded in detailed-described historic events (a lot of battles and a lot of blood and killing) and…
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Competition
The European soccer championships offer a good starting point to explore competition. While the championships are entertaining, competition causes so much unhappiness. So, why do we keep comparing ourselves to others? Why competition? According to Loretta Graziano’s book Habits of a Happy Brain, herd animals (humans belong to that group) constantly measure all others around…
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Happiness is my Priority
For the last 10 days, I have been experimenting with a challenge – the Happiness is my Priority challenge. Every day, I post on Instagram “Happiness is my Priority“. I create a new post daily, not copying or recycling old posts or scheduling them days ahead. The importance lies in the intention to commit newly…
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How to deal with shocking incidents and fear
This email is about exploring happiness, and, as a reminder my definition of happiness is embracing life with all its challenges, making as many positive moments as possible without ignoring the negative ones. We cannot avoid shocking incidents and fear, so this is a reflection about how to deal with this. So, happiness is not…
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Episode 35 – Identity
Identity is that enigmatic essence that makes each of us uniquely ourselves. While it’s easy to think of identity as a fixed construct, the truth is far more fascinating. Identity is a fluid concept, a dynamic tapestry woven from various threads that constantly evolve and intertwine. Some aspects of our identity may be rooted in…
