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The Future We Choose
This week I covered Climate Change in the university tutorials. I read one of the recommended texts in preparation and got a quite crippling anxiety attack. Not that I’m not aware of Climate Change. Indeed, I’ve been trying to do quite a bit to reduce my Carbon footprint by composting, grocery shopping in bulk-buy shops…
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Dreams and Procrastination
So, I have a dream. Yes, I always wanted to write that Martin Luther King quote. That wasn’t my dream though. I’ve been developing a course called Introduction to Happiness Skills. My dream is to live from selling this course (and maybe others I’ll develop) and these are my reflections on procrastination. Dreams and procrastination…
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Time after Time
Last week, a friend and I were reflecting on time and I believe this is a great blog topic. Besides not having enough money, other people not really getting us and our health being challenging, lacking time seems to be one of the major reasons why we cannot be happy. Do you agree? Have you…
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Find Happiness in Unlikely Situations
I met a friend for coffee. In our conversation, I mentioned that I’m now able to live on the dole (welfare payments). I casually mentioned how much that is. My friend said ‘oh, yeah, that’s not much’ and offered me toiletries she gets for free from a friend. Maybe she just made conversation but let’s…
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Water Tank
I’m at the point where I suspect happiness has almost everything to do with relaxation. Some excitement is good but since the world causes usually lots of stress (or we do), it’s really about lots of breathing and calming the nervous system. With a calmer nervous system, it is easier to see opportunities (and act…
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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 28 – Rituals
Rituals are part of all cultures and traditions. We pass rituals down from generation to generation. In this episode, I reflect on the link between rituals and happiness. What are rituals? Rituals are activities (or gestures, words or sounds) performed in a certain order. These activities are symbolic, and the ritual doesn’t have to be…
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Episode 27 – Happy Hormones
Happiness hormones are powerful in ensuring consistent happiness. I have talked about these hormones in previous episodes. Because they are so powerful, I am dedicating this episode to happy hormones. Happy hormones help us feel good. They are dopamine, oxytocin, endorphins and serotonin. Understanding how they are triggered gives you the tools to get out…
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Episode 20 – Mindset
After introducing the Exploring Happiness Framework in the last episode, this episode is dedicated to the first pillar of the framework: Mindset. I’m diving into all the things we can influence but also those which influence us more than they should. While our thoughts can dominate us, we can also work out how to control…
