Little steps to a better world

(Inspirational Quotes - Help Yourself, Help Others - SelfHelp Collective)

I came across a great quotation today:

"Don't spend your precious time asking 'Why isn't the world a better place?' It will only be time wasted. The question to ask is 'How can I make it better?' To that there is an answer".
(Leo Buscaglia)

(And thanks to Steve, for sending me the link to his new YouTube videos of Inspirational Quotes, which is where I found it).

There are probably lots of answers, in fact. And it seems to me that we don't need to worry about finding the 'right' one: all sorts of positive actions, even tiny little steps, can make the world a better place. If you're a problem-solver - an instinctive Mr or Ms Fix-It like me - then it can be hard to remember that, if you can't see the grand solution, small improvements are still worth making. 'Better' is a relative term, after all.

Flow x

Happiness is contagious!

It's official - happiness is catching!

A new study, carried out by Harvard Medical School and published last week in the British Medical Journal, found that people who are surrounded by happy people are more likely to be happy themselves.

This means that YOU are more likely to be happy if you have a happy spouse, happy neighbours, and happy friends who live near by!

The researchers used a technique called 'social network analysis' to find out who was friends with whom, and how this related to how happy each person felt. Like all research, the study has its strengths and weaknesses, but overall the findings are significant and reliable, as well as cheering!

The more happy people you know, the happier you are likely to be; and the nearer those people are to you, the bigger the happiness-effect will be.

It seems that communities have an important role in making individuals happy. As the researchers themselves say, there is now "further justification for seeing happiness, like health, as a collective phenomenon". This chimes with other research this year which suggested a new formula for happy communities: Neighbourliness + Empowerment = Wellbeing.

Now, although we may be encouraged to go out and find lots of happy people to surround ourselves with, this equation is also a reminder that happiness isn't everything. I'm sure we all know a grouchy-but-supportive neighbour or relative - the sort of person who's good in a crisis, who'll help when your pipes burst in the middle of the night, or when you need an emergency babysitter. Also, those random acts of kindness that spread so much happiness can even be carried out by someone in a bad mood. (Bus drivers specialise in this, I find!)

And of course, more often than not, you make yourself happy when you spread happiness. You'll all know the feeling: you start out miserable, but then you do something kind and spread a little happiness - and soon you feel much better!

Yes, happiness spreads like the 'flu ... and 'though we're most likely to catch it from our friends, sometimes even a misery-guts can pass it on!






Flow x

Wise words and cooking with reckless abandon

I'm not fond of spam email, but I received one this morning that I actually want to pass on!

Its creator tells us "This is what the Dalai Lama has to say for 2008". I checked out the Dalai Lama's website and couldn't find it there, but whether or not the words originally come from him, they are wise and worth sharing.

I tried uploading it - it's a Powerpoint presentation with great pictures, including the one here - but I couldn't manage it. So here is the text, minus the other pictures I'm afraid!

• Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.


• When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.


• Follow the three R’s: Respect for Self, Respect for Others and Responsibility for all your Actions.


• Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.


• Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.


• Don’t let a little dispute injure a great relationship.


• When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.


• Spend some time alone every day.


• Open your arms to change, but don’t give up your values.


• Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.


• Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.


• A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.


• In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.


• Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.


• Be gentle with the Earth.


• Once a year, go some place you’ve never been before.


• Remember the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.


• Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.


• Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.
  

I love the idea of 'cooking with reckless abandon'! I'm off to fling a few veg round the kitchen this very moment!

Oh, and if you like these words, pass them on! The spam-mail promises great good khama if you do!




Flow x

Spread some warmth!

Eee but it's cold out there - look at the frost! (This was on the bonnet of a car we passed on the way to school yesterday).

How-so-ever, out of the blue, I have received two little nuggets of cosmic warmth; real chestnuts of unexpected and un-asked-for positivity!

The first was from someone who enjoyed a comment I'd left on a bulletin board. Though we'd never met or even talked, he emailed me just to say "Thanks for the humour!"

The second was another email, this time from a guy called Chris who runs the Facebook group 'Optimists Unite! Freedom for Happiness!'. He sent round a message to group members, just to spread some love. Here's part of it:

"I wonder if you realise, just how beautiful you are? Without you, the world would be incomplete. If you've ever felt alone, then you'll know how important it is to show how much you care. If you've ever felt helpless, then you know how it is to feel alone.

"The whole is always greater than the sum of its parts. We're all here for each other, and together we are stronger. Don't let lies tear us apart and weaken our resolve. Let truth bring us together so that we can truly evolve.

"Honesty is Love for yourself. Truth is love for others. Be true to yourself and honest to the people around you, and great things shall befall you... for you are sublime.

"The truth is... you are beautiful. You are the most caring, understanding, and wise person I know. I know this because I only know one... I know myself, and I know that we are of the same spirit, devoid of ego.

"Love yourself unconditionally: Heal the spirit. Love others unconditionally: Heal the world".

How wonderful it felt to be given some appreciation, optimism and inspiration when I least expected it. What's more, I'd been having a down-patch, and was more-than-ever in need of some warmth.... And along came these guys, helping to re-ignite a little spark of spirit! They were certainly making the flow more sparkly!

It gave me a boost of energy, and I was able to pass on some of the positivity to other people, through my own little acts of appreciation. Maybe this post will do the same for you. Go on ... Tell someone you know that they are wonderful ... I dare you!

Flow x

The sun HAS got its hat on!

Don't you just love it when the doom-mongers are wrong?!

First up is the weather forecaster on Thursday, who told me I could expect heavy rain again today. But as I write, I'm looking out my window at the blue sky and fast-scudding white clouds of a perfect autumn day ... well, HAH!

And just a couple of months ago, plenty of heavy-weight commentators were saying Obama couldn't win the US presidential elections, whether because of his race or because some other dirt could be dished that would spoil his chances ... well, HAH again!

And then there are those famous - or infamous - gloomy brickbats. Like the IBM chairman who, in 1943, so modestly speculated "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers". Or the DECCA music company executive who rejected the Beatles demo in 1962, saying "We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out". Or - perhaps the most pessimistic prediction of all time - the World Health report in 1989 that claimed "There will be one million cases of AIDS in Britain by 1991". In fact there were around 8,000.

Why DO we seem to have got into such miserable habits? It's time for some more GOOD news stories! There are a few US sites, of which the best (by which I mean least schmaltzy and/or religious) seems to be http://www.happynews.com/, but I haven't found a British or European equivalent.

So here are my headlines... They're all TRUE, though it's just possible that not all of them made the national news.

• Mortgage rates now lowest since 1965!
  
• Youth rescues trapped dog by jumping in canal!


• Thief sends apology and £100, years after stealing cigs!


• "Tiggers Don't Like Honey" sketch fetches £31K at auction!
  

And if your taste for good news stories stetches as far as a willingness to listen to semi-amateur rock bands, then you might like to check out 'Canary Wolf' http://www.myspace.com/canarywolf . Their new song 'Credit Crunch' is at least as much about carrots as finance. As their lead singer says "It's not the end of the world, is it? There's benefits. We were all — myself included — spending money on things we didn't need".

They certainly know how to go-go with the flow!



Flow x