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Written, designed & edited: ŠVickie Burns 2012 www.vickieburns.com vburns@hotmail.co.uk All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission from the designer. Every reasonable attempt has been made to identify owners of copyright. Errors or omissions will be corrected in subsequent editions. 4
Happiest day of the year
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When Is happy Friday?
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O = Being out doors
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N = Nature
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S = Social Interaction
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Cpm = Memories of childhood
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T = Temperature
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He = Excitement about holidays
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Life Satisfaction
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That Friday Feeling
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Reference
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Happiest day of the year
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Happiest day of the year Psychologist Dr Cliff Arnall has devised a formula to pinpoint the day we are all most likely to feel the cheeriest. The former NHS psychologist and Cardiff University lecturer said people should forget credit crunch worries because the secret of happiness lies with things which are free. Dr Arnall who runs the Feelconsultancy.com happiness clinics, said feel-good sensations are enjoying time with friends and loved ones, appreciating nature in the sunshine and looking forward to the weekend and a holiday. British spirits, dampened by the credit crunch, have been boosted by the sunny start to summer, the longest days of the year with daylight until 10pm, the nearing of payday next Friday and optimism tennis star Andy Murray could win Wimbledon. Dr Arnall, from Brecon in Powys, Wales, said: “People’s minds are on the credit crunch – but that doesn’t take away from the equation’s primary factors, which are spending time with people you love and being outdoors in the warm weather.” 1
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The Happiness Formula: O N S Cpm T He
Being outdoors and outdoor activity Nature Social interaction Memories of childhood and other positive thoughts Temperature Excitement about holidays
O+[N x S]+Cpm T+He H t
O
C
N s 3
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When is happy friday?
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When is the happiest day of the year? Cliff Arnall, in a press release commissioned by Wall’s ice cream, has calculated the happiest day of the year around midsummer. Below you will find each date for ‘Happy Friday’ as of 2005 which is when the equation was released: • • • • • • • •
24th June 2005 23rd June 2006 22nd June 2007 20th June 200 19th June 2009 18th June 2010 24th June 2011 23rd June 2012
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JUNE
JUNE
2005
2006
JUNE
JUNE
2009
2010
24 23 19 18 8
JUNE
JUNE
2007
2008
JUNE
JUNE
2011
2012
22 20 24 23 9
H t
10
O
C
N s
Being outdoors
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Being outdoors Here are five good reasons to get outdoors from the Harvard Health Letter of July 2010: 1. Your vitamin D levels rise. Sunlight hitting the skin begins a process that leads to the creation and activation of vitamin D. Studies suggest that this vitamin helps fight certain conditions, from osteoporosis and cancer to depression and heart attacks. 2. You’ll get more exercise. If you make getting outside a goal, that should mean less time in front of the television and computer and more time walking and doing other things that put the body in motion. 3. You’ll be happier. Light tends to elevate people’s mood, and there’s usually more light available outside than in. Physical activity has been shown to help people relax and cheer up, so if being outside replaces inactive pursuits with active ones, it might also mean more smiles.
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4. Your concentration will improve. Children with Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, adhd, seem to focus better after being outdoors. It might be a stretch to say that applies to adults, but if you have trouble concentrating, outdoor activity may help. 5. You may heal faster. In one study, people recovering from spinal surgery experienced less pain and stress and took fewer pain medications when they were exposed to natural light. An older study showed that the view out the window helped recovery in the hospital. 2
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H t
14
O
C
N s
Nature
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Nature “Shinrin-yoku,” which can be defined as “wood air bathing” is the practice of taking in the forest atmosphere or forest bathing, and has been receiving increasing attention in Japan in recent years for its ability to provide relaxation and reduce stress. Trees, sunshine, oceans and even grass take a backseat in gray and gloomy concrete jungles. Spring offers us a relief, the chance to walk through newly green parks that have been hibernating during the winter months, covered in snow. Spring is a time of rebirth in nature, and it can also be a time for rebirth in our souls. It is not surprising to find that even spending small amounts of time in a natural setting can help ease mental fatigue, fight off obesity, and lower average blood sugar in patients with type 2 diabetes. There have been numerous studies that have linked spending time in nature to improved overall health: 1 In a 1997 study, Dr. Lee Berk, a psychoneuroimmunology researcher at the Loma Linda University, took 10 cancer patients with chronic pain and showed them a 30-40 minute nature video, of which 15 minutes focused on water sounds, such as waves, waterfalls and creeks. After the brief viewing, stress hormones such as epinephrine and cortisol dropped 20-30%.
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2 In a 1998 study, Japanese researchers at the Hokkaido University School of Medicine showed that nine walks through an old growth forest over a six-year period led to a lower average blood sugar in patients with type 2 diabetes. The average blood glucose level after forest walking dropped from 179 to 108. The researchers concluded that the forest environment brings about changes in hormonal secretion and nervous system function that provide glucose-lowering benefits beyond those gained by just walking alone. 3 Researchers from the Medical Research Council in Wales set out to discover whether living in less-pleasant areas was linked to higher levels of obesity. They tested the theory that living in pleasant areas with lots of green spaces and less rubbish encourages people to exercise more. They found that people living in greener areas were three times more likely to be physically active than those living in less green places; their likelihood of being overweight or obese was about 40% less. But in contrast, those people living in areas with high amounts of litter and graffiti and less greenery were 50% less likely to be physically active; their likelihood of being overweight or obese was also 50% higher. 3
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O
H
N
t C
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s
Social Interaction
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Social Interaction In excess of 300,000 men and women across the developed world were involved in these socially interactive studies. The results indicated that those with little social connections had on average 50% higher odds of death than people with more robust social ties. This equated on average to an extended life span of some 7.5 years for those who socialised on a greater scale. So it appears that socialising with family, friends, and colleagues influences our health for the better in many ways, both big and small. Another factor that arose from the study was that when an individual is connected to a group they tend to naturally feel responsibility towards that group of people and in turn tend to look after themselves better. This may take the form of a better diet, getting more exercise and even taking less risks in life that could turn out to be harmful and possibly stop them from being able to participate in this group social interaction. 4
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Those with little social connections had on average 50% Higher odds of death than people with more social ties
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H t
O
C
N s
H t
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O
C
N s
Memories as a child
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Childhood memories Apparently the human brain is naturally hard-wired to remember negative experiences. Even when positive experiences outnumber negative ones, the implicit negative memory bank grows faster. We retain negative memories and tend to forget the good ones. You can rig your child’s brain for happy memories to over ride the negative memories. The remedy is not to suppress negative experiences. Instead, the key is to foster as many positive experiences as possible and then really let them soak in. Christine Carter, a psychologist who writes a blog on the Greater Good Science Centre at Berkeley, suggests the following: 1. Teach kids to see all the good around them. Share with them an appreciation for a beautiful day, time spent together, good food, the kindness of others. The idea is to turn positive facts that are present all around us into an experience for the child.
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2. Draw out and savour the experience. The idea here is to not only encourage your child to hold the positive idea in mind, but also to remember the emotions. That practice will strengthen the positive associations made with the memory. 3. Let it all sink in. Let your child imagine this feeling sink into their mind, using metaphors such as the way water sinks into a sponge. Focusing on good memories in this way can actually overwrite negative ones. Dr. Carter’s uses her personal example of not remembering the pain of being bullied because all the positive attention she received from friends and family created so many positive memories for her that they outweighed the negative. 5
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H t
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O
C
N s
Temperature
Temperature June 2011 saw 83.5 hours of sunshine, compared to: June 2010 - 47.1 hours, June 2009 - 128.6 hours, June 2008 - 75.3 hours, June 2007 - 131.6 hours, June 2006 - 86.6 hours. When you compare the amount of sunlight we had in July with January in 2011 you see that July has more that 4 times the amount of sunlight. January 2011 only saw 20.9 hours of sunlight compared to the 83.5 hours in June 2011 throughout the month. Sunlight plays a significant part in our lives and emotions, and the amount of sunlight we take in dramatically changes our moods. The diagram on the opposite page represents the amount of sunlight throughout June 2011.
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H t
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O
C
N s
Excited about holiday
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Holidays Summer Holiday Checklist: Travel Insurance Passport Holiday Money / Travellers Cheques Bank card First Aid kit Sun tan cream After sun Sun glasses Flip flops Swimming costume Towel Tooth brush Holiday book Ipod with holiday playlist Phone Guide books Shorts T-shirts Underwear Toiletries Insect repellant
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50 SUN CREAM
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Life satisfaction Index & test
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Life Satisfaction index The Satisfaction with Life Index was created by Adrian White, an Analytic Social Psychologist at the University of Leicester, using data from a metastudy. It is an attempt to show life satisfaction in different nations. In this calculation, subjective well being correlates most strongly with health, wealth, and access to basic education. This is an example of directly measuring happiness—asking people how happy they are—as an alternative to traditional measures of policy success such as GDP or GNP. Some studies suggest that happiness can be measured effectively. 6
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International Rankings from 2006:
Top 80 satisfied countries, UK being in the middle at 41.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40
Denmark Switzerland Austria Iceland The Bahamas Finland Sweden Bhutan Brunei Canada Ireland Luxembourg Costa Rica Malta Netherlands Antigua and Barbuda Malaysia New Zealand Norway Seychelles Saint Kitts and Nevis United Arab Emirates United States Vanuatu Venezuela Austria Barbados Belgium Dominica Oman Saudi Arabia Suriname Bahrain Colombia Germany Guyana Honduras Kuwait Panama Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80
United Kingdom Dominican Republic Guatemela Jamaica Qatar Spain Saint Lucia Belize Cyprus Italy Mexico Samoa Singapore Solomon Islands Trinidad and Tobago Argentina Figi Israel Mongolia Sao Tome and Principe El Salvador France Hong Kong Indonesia Kyrgyzstan Maldives Slovenia Republic of China East Timor Tonga Chile Grenada Mauritius Namibia Paraguay Thailand Czech Republic Philippines Tunisia Uzbekistan
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Life Satisfaction Test Rip out the question sheet opposite and answer the 25 questions taken from The Happiness Center.7 For each question choose a number that suits how you feel at this moment in time between 0 and 4. Then add up your total score and see how satisfied you are from the list below. 0 - Never feel this way 1 - Rarely feel this way 2 - Sometimes feel this way 3 - Often feel this way 4 - Always feel this way 40 or below: My life lacks fulfilment and job. P.S. Don’t give up, this is a great opportunity for growth. 41 - 60: My life is not going in a direction I would like it to go. I need guidance in learning how to find happiness. 61 - 80: My life is OK but not always what I would like it to be. I could use some direction in making my life happier. 81 - 100: I am generally contented and happy in my life. Feedback in specific areas might be useful. 38
Take out
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Take out
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Why not document your Life Satisfaction Test here and compare how satisfied you are on different days. Just fill in the date and your total score out of 100, and refer back to the results table to see how satisfied your life is. You could then refer back to these results to see on what day you were most satisfied. /
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100 41
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That Friday feeling
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Friday feeling British businesses are losing more than £50m a year because of employees skipping off work on Friday afternoons, a company has claimed. Top excuses for starting the weekend early are a long lunch, doctor’s appointment or an out-ofoffice meeting near to home. But the Trades Union Congress, tuc, said workers’ unpaid overtime gave employers £23.4 billion a year. According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, cipd, the average level of employee absence in the uk has increased for the first time in two years. 2007 research shows 3.7% of working time is being lost compared with 3.5% in 2006. The cipd says this costs businesses £659 per employee each year. Our evidence suggests that more and more workers are seeing Friday afternoon as an unofficial holiday. The Confederation of British Industry estimates overall workplace absence, including genuine illness, cost the British economy about £13.4 billion in 2006.
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The organisation’s research in April 2007 also found 70% of 400 employers surveyed felt staff were inclined to create unauthorised long weekends by taking Mondays or Fridays off sick. Millions of people putting in extra hours of unpaid overtime every week, giving their employers £23.4 billion of free extra work each year. The company has developed a software system that detects patterns of absence and recommends appropriate disciplinary action. But tuc general secretary Brendan Barber said the amount of revenue the company claims is lost through the “Friday feeling” was small in comparison to what businesses gain from workers’ unpaid overtime. Barber says “Obviously staff shouldn’t be slacking off during work time, but amounts lost in revenue are relatively small.” “This is especially when you compare this to evidence from official statistics that shows millions of people putting in extra hours of unpaid overtime every week, giving their employers £23.4 billion of free extra work each year.” 8
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Tha god Frid 46
ank d it’s day 47
Reference 1. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/ howaboutthat/5575435/Happiest-day-of-the-year-is-June-19according-to-formula.html 2. http://www.azcentral.com/health/fitness/ articles/2010/07/01/20100701-benefits-of-getting-outdoors-in-thesummer.html 3. http://www.mnn.com/local-reports/pennsylvania/local-blog/ spending-time-in-nature-the-secret-to-good-health 4. http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2006938,00.html 5. http://parentingbits.wordpress.com/2011/01/09/want-your-child-tohave-positive-memories-of-childhood/ 6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satisfaction_with_Life_Index 7. http://www.TheHappinessCenter.com/survey/survey.php 8. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/6928901.stm
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