Archive for the ‘happiness’ Category
happiness, Happiness Project London, Sasha, south London
In Dulwich OnView, happiness, new content on July 16, 2010 at 8:50 am
I interviewed a local south London blogger recently about happiness. Sasha runs the Happiness Project London, writing about things in the capital which can help to keep us sane (and hopefully happy) in a world of madness and chaos. There’s an interview with her on this website as part of my ongoing reserach project about the modern state of happiness.
But while I had her, I also asked a few extra questions about life in our area of London so I could write a piece about her for Dulwich OnView. She’s a really interesting character, so I figured she’d make a great addition to the South London People thread we have running on there. Do check out what she says can keep us happy in south London.
happiness, blogging, Happiness Project London, Sasha, technological advances
In happiness, new content on July 8, 2010 at 10:11 am
I wrote last week about how I met a blogger who writes in a similar vein to me. The Happiness Project London is a celebration of life in London, encouraging us to enjoy whats great about the city rather than dwelling on expensive, conjested transport and everyone being so busy all the time. Her blog is full of great ideas of things to do to relieve unhappiness and she also points out a number of ‘rules’ which can help us to be “a little more spiritual and a little less selfless”.
Sasha kindly agreed to be interviewed for my ongoing research project about the nature of happiness and what it means to us in a modern context. The interview with Sasha is online now on the happiness pages of this website. She told me about her life and what prompts her to blog about happiness for Londoners.
I was really interested to hear about the beneficial properties of blogging itself – I find myself asking if blogging can make us happy? Given my research is aiming to unpick the nature of happiness today, I’ve been inspired to look at how the technological advances of our time may have affected our happiness. In this case technology has clearly had a positive impact on someone’s life. But I wonder if that’s always the case?
I’ve got more interviews that are still waiting to be written up, so there’ll be more coming online in the next few months. And I’m also lining up other people to be interviewed. If you’ve got an interesting story behind you and you’d like to be involved in the project, do let me know.
blogging, food, south London, The Happiness Project
In happiness, what i'm reading on June 29, 2010 at 2:45 pm
I just came across a lovely blog which is quite close to my heart. It’s someone writing about happiness and food (two of my favourite things) and she lives just a few miles away from me. The Happiness Project is an online project with the aim of getting Londoners to ignore the horrid, expensive, dirty parts of our city and to share in all the amazing things there are to see, do – and eat – right on our doorstep. We don’t realise how lucky we are!
The writer also offers a series of ‘rules’ by which we can be more happy. Take a look at her blog and see what you think.
I’m hoping to be able to interview her for my ongoing research project into the nature of happiness. The aim of the research is to unpick what happiness means to us in a modern context and, given she’s using modern technology of blogging and she’s writing about London now, I think she’d make a great addition. Watch this space to see if I can persuade her to get involved ….
Buddhism, happiness, Radio 4, Thought for the Day, Vishvapani
In happiness, new content on April 21, 2010 at 10:20 am
About a month ago I heard the Buddhist writer and teacher Vishvapani speaking on Thought for the Day (Radio 4) about happiness. I blogged about it at the time here.
I was struck by what he’d said so I sent him an email and told him about my research project looking at the subject of happiness and what it means to us today. And fortunately for me he kindly accepted my invitation to be interviewed for the book project.
I’ve posted his interview in the happiness pages of this website. In it he talks about the Buddhist attitude toward happiness, whether the Buddha was a happy person or not, and his own happiness. Read the full transcript of the interview here.
Buddha, Francois Lelord, Hector and the search for happiness, psychiatrist, The Times
In happiness, what i'm reading on April 20, 2010 at 11:34 am
French psychaitrist François Lelord’s book Hector and the Search for Happiness has sold over 2.5 million copies. I remember reading about it when it first came out and was struck by what he’d achieved. His novel is different to my happiness research project in that it’s a story, but the aim is quite similar – to try and unpick what happiness means to us today.
Lelord’s starting point of a modern context is similar to mine. Hector — a psychiatrist like Lelord — sets off around the world to discover the ingredients for happiness because he can’t bear to see his patients so sad. The first person he meets is a banker: wealth, it seems, is one of the great stumbling blocks to happiness. It’s almost like the story of the Buddha, who wanders from person to person, taking advice and contributing to his own thought processes as he goes.
But perhaps the conclusions of this book are rather different to mine. In an interview in The Times today he says:
“I felt rather embarrassed at first as a Frenchman writing about happiness because I always think we are so grumpy at work. Waiters and taxi drivers can be rude. But we often top happiness polls. Happiness is a good glass of wine, the perfect cheese and conversation.
“The British don’t benefit from these things in the same way. In France we think of drink as making us happy because we don’t get drunk, it is a social activity; food is to be savoured rather than an obesity problem, and friendships and family are valued.”
Sex is another problem for the British. “In France we are open about the fact that sex can make you happy — it’s part of French folklore. In Britain you are more obsessed with shopping but that is a passive happiness. Your children love computer games that give them a high but they don’t provide the same contentment as climbing a tree. On the other hand, weather in Britain can make you very happy — you appreciate a sunny day.”
Read the full article on The Times website.
bbc, happiness formula
In happiness, what i'm reading on March 21, 2010 at 12:04 pm
A few years ago the BBC ran a series of programmes and web articles about happiness, and the potential ‘formulas’ to which one might subscribe in order to try and achieve it.
I remember at the time that this was a rather interesting prospect and have, since then, began working on a book about happiness. The idea is to unpack how we think about happiness in a modern context, by looking back at what’s been written in the past and by talking to people today about how they relate to the subject.
I use this website almost as a repository for my ideas and research into the subject of happiness and what it means to us today, so while I am here directing any readers of this blog toward the BBC’s archive of the programmes, I’m also jotting it down for myself as an aide memoire.
BBC Radio 4, Buddhism, Four Noble Truths, Thought for the Day, Vishvapani
In happiness on March 13, 2010 at 1:22 pm
Vishvapani is a Buddhist writer, based in Manchester. I first came across his writings when he spoke on BBC Radio 4′s Thought for the Day slot, and I’ve continued to enjoy his contributions there.
His work explores how the teachings of Buddhism interact with the modern world and he can often be relied upon to present an alternative or insightful view on a current issue or trend.
In his slot on the radio this morning, Vishvapani was talking about the challenge fundraising in the modern world, especially by people who try and stop you on the street, asking you to give money. It’s very easy for us to dismiss them and to walk on by. In his speech this morning he explained how Buddhists approach giving:
“According to Buddhism’s Four Noble Truths, the origin of suffering is craving. Turning that around, happiness comes from contentment and generosity. That’s why giving is the most fundamental Buddhist practice. It expresses a healthy attitude to life because it connects you to others. It recognizes that we depend on other people. And if you want to create a better society, Buddhism says, you should give, because a good society is a generous one in which people care for each other.”
You can read the full transcript on the Thought for the Day website.
The above quote is copyright BBC, 2010.
Digital Spy, happiness, Susan Sarandon
In happiness, what i'm reading on March 10, 2010 at 4:59 pm
I’ve been following what some celebrities have been saying about happiness of late, just to get an idea of what it means to them – or at least what they say it means through their media people.
The latest to come out with her thoughts on happiness is Hollywood actress Susan Sarandon, who claims that happiness keeps her young.
The 63-year-old she also takes care of her appearance by avoiding cigarettes.
“Don’t smoke,” she said. “It’s just so bad for your complexion. And I guess be as happy as possible. That really helps.”
Sarandon also revealed that she has a good relationship with her children, adding: “It’s nice to have something in common with your kids… All my kids really are curious and energetic and interested in things.” She concluded: “I hate to sound like the old hippy I am, but I think that even the bad stuff can turn into good stuff. Every day is a miracle, right?”
So nothing really new there, but an interesting perspective. And her attitude towards happiness fits into some of my major family of ideas about what happiness means to us today: Don’t smoke (investing in health), good skin (investing in appearance), energetic (physical stimulation), interesting things (mental stimulation), every day is a miracle (positivity).
Thanks to Digital Spy for the lead.
A Streetcar Named Desire, Donmar Warehouse, happiness, health, Rachel Weisz, What's On Stage
In happiness, what i'm reading on February 20, 2010 at 4:18 pm
You might think that health is important part of happiness, but actress Rachel Weisz has declared quite the reverse, stating that “happiness is the secret to health”. She also said that a happy home life is the key to looking good.
In an interview recently she told a reporter: “I’m pretty healthy but I don’t have any fad diets or anything. I eat meat and drink alcohol, but everything in moderation,” she said. “I think happiness is the secret to health.”
Last week Weisz won Best Actress at the What’s On Stage theatre awards for her role in A Streetcar Named Desire at the Donmar Warehouse. That’s probably going to make her pretty happy as well!
So do you need to be happy to be healthy? I suppose general well-being does reduce stress in one’s life and being less up tight or axious is going to be good for our bodies. But is it essential, I wonder?
Do you need to be healthy to be happy then? Well yes, I think so, because an unhealthy body does lead to an unhealthy mind.
Perhaps we’ll just say for now that the two are definitely linked. I’ll ponder how linked they are though as I continue my research into the subject as part of my research project into the nature of happiness in modern society.
I found the story about Rachel Weisz and the quotes on Digital Spy.
44 Scotland Street, advert, Alexander McCall Smith, BMW, British Museum, Expressions of Joy, Hadrian, happiness, Hot Chip, London underground, No 1 Ladies Detective Agency, One Life Stand, Tea Time for the Traditionally Built
In Museums, happiness on February 15, 2010 at 3:15 pm
Have you ever seen an advert and wonder if it was written specifically with you in mind? Two adverts on the London underground have caught my eye this week.
The first is an advert for Alexander McCall Smith’s new book Tea Time for the Traditionally Built, the latest in his No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. (I quite liked the first of these books, but I must say that I prefer the 44 Scotland Street series.) Anyway, it struck me as another example of people using happiness as a marketing tool. Advertisers do it again and again – it’s a clever idea to associate your brand with making people happy. Another recent example of this is the current BMW campaign Expressions of Joy.
The other advert to catch my eye is for Hot Chip’s new album One Life Stand. The album art features a giant head of the Roman emperor Hadrian, found at Sargalassos in south-west Turkey. It was discovered in 2007 while we were working on the content development for an exhibition about Hadrian at the British Museum. We managed to secure a loan of the head to the BM for the display, less than a year from when it came out of the ground. It was pretty big news and I remember seeing this image over and over at the time, so it was a real bolt for me to see it again on a tube poster.
It’s funny what triggers the mind, eh?
happiness, Thought for the Day, BBC Radio 4, Anne Atkins, sorrow, depression, Young Foundation, Oscar Wilde
In happiness, what i'm reading on December 9, 2009 at 10:55 am
Anne Atkins’ Thought for the Day yesterday morning reflected on the Young Foundation’s report into the psychological needs of people in Britain today – Sinking and Swimming: understanding Britain’s unmet needs, which dwells on the nature of depression.
We know a great deal more about depression than we used to. It’s an illness – some people get it and some people don’t. In many cases it’s treatable and there are tremendous success stories in how, as a society, we are dealing with it. Still, it’s now reckoned that 1 in 4 of us will experience depression of some sort during our lives. I find that a rather shocking statistic, and a very sobering one when I’m presently dwelling on what makes us happy, not what makes us unhappy.
Through my research into the nature of happiness and from talking to lots of people about what makes them tick it has become clear to me that, for many, the only way to truly understand what makes us happy is to to understand what makes us unhappy.
Anne Atkins thinks she knows where the root of this unhappiness lies in the very nature of society itself. She says:
“Depression is linked to two objective factors: relationships, and material well-being. As society becomes more fractured so we become more wretched. And the greater the disparity grows between rich and poor, the more dejected we become. The way to happiness would seem clear, if not easy. Better relationships and a fairer world.”While acknowledging that the theraputic treatments available for those who are depressed are valid, she seems to suggest that people just need to man up and get over their depression. That tears are good for us sometimes and, as I suggest here, the happier moments in life have to go hand in hand with the unhappier ones. But I think she’s confusing unhappiness (a state of mind for many) with depression (an illness). She’s surely getting confused when she suggests that to get over depression, all you need do is find happiness. I’m no expert on the subject, but I’m pretty sure it’s more complicated that than.
She quotes Oscar Wilde: “Where there is sorrow, there is holy ground.” Depression is much more than sorrow, more than feeling down or simply being unhappy. It’s a chemical inbalance that affects an entire person. Unhappiness and depression are different beasts.
Of course, Thought for the Day is a moment of religious contemplation and yesterday’s speaker seems to suggest that looking forward to a time when there will no longer be any sorrow (I assume she means the end of time for Judeo-Christians) we will have something positive to focus on.
I really don’t agree with her conclusions. You can read the full transcript of what she said on the BBC website.
92-95FM, BBC Radio 4, Broadcasting House, happiness
In happiness on November 12, 2009 at 5:49 pm
I always delight in listening to Broadcasting House on Radio 4 – on the Sundays when I’m up at 9am. Or on the podcast.
This week, they are apparently going to be talking about happiness.
They say: “Massive wins on the lottery, or divine views of land with loamy soil for the self-sufficient, or a soul mate by the sea? We’ve a rare insight into a sixty year study in the USA which has been devoted to discover what makes us happy. The answer might shock.”
What can they mean? I’ll be tuning in at 9am on Sunday 15 November. BBC Radio 4: 92-95 FM.
Angola State Penitentiary, happiness, Russell Brand, stand up
In happiness on October 28, 2009 at 10:11 am
One of the things I’m really enjoying about my research project into the nature of happiness and what it means to us today is that everyone has got something to say about it. Some of what people say about it might be seen academic and high-brow – and the idea is that my book will contain some of that kind of content. But it’s such an emotive topic that there are also some really personal and straightforward responses to the question ‘what makes us happy?’.
It’s a huge topic, and everyone has got something to say about it. That’s why I’m trying to interview people from as diverse a background as possible.
It appears even Russell Brand wants in on the subject. His latest stand up set is called Russell on Happiness and recalls some of his recent experiences of staying in Angola State Penitentiary. Apparently in these shows he’ll be interacting with the audience as he shares his thoughts on the subject, which will be filmed for an ongoing documentary project.
I wonder what the documentary is all about. Will have to investigate …
In Museum [Insider], Museums, happiness, new content on September 30, 2009 at 1:01 pm
So, it’s six months today since I left full-time employment and went it alone as a freelance writer. What have I achieved and what will the next six months have in store?
I’ve realised that I know a lot of things now I didn’t know in April. And they aren’t things I necessarily expected to learn as I went along. That’s what’s been so much fun about this lifestyle I’ve chosen for myself – things change, work (paid and unpaid) comes along and networking is still as important as ever. And the nature of writing for the web is continually evolving as well – new technologies and tools come along. I didn’t even know what twitter was six months ago!
The great thing about publishing quite a lot of online material is that I’ve been able to see the results of my work pretty much instantly, and I’ve also been able to solicit feedback from others about what I’ve been writing. Other projects are yet to be published, but will come into the public domain in the next few months.
A quick summary of my first six months as a real writer:
I co-authored the content for the British Museum’s new multimedia guide (like an audio guide but with pictures, video and interactive games). I also wrote an audio-described tour of the Parthenon galleries at the BM for visually impaired visitors. Both of these will go live in December 2009.
For the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, I’m writing a new audio tour for the entire museum. That’s a work-in-progress at the moment, but I need to move fast on it as it opens to the public in late November 2009.
A lot of web articles have appeared all over the place. I wrote 23 features articles for Museum [Insider], the online magazine for suppliers to the heritage sector in the UK. There were also 14 new articles for Dulwich OnView, an online magazine about life in and around south London. And using this website as a promotions tool, I’ve created exactly 100 posts – the latest one just this morning.
There were a few random pieces of work as well. I’ve written content for a local film-maker’s website; edited text for the Friends of Dulwich Picture Gallery website; scribed some pieces for an international travel blog; chaired a strategic direction workshop for Kingswood House and even edited an academic conference paper on the nature of discipleship amongst the evangelical Christian movement in the UK!
I continued work on my ongoing research project into the nature of happiness and what it means to us today. It’s had to take a bit of a back seat for the moment while I focus on paid work, but the idea is to start firing a book proposal off to publishers in the near future. My research notes find their way on to this website every so often.
Up next, I’m going to be doing some consultancy for a large heritage venue in London – secret as yet, but news coming soon. I’ll be soliciting responses from their visitors about ideas for potential future exhibitions. The regular pieces for M[I] and DOV will continue as well as some happiness research and there’s some more audio writing in the pipeline. And I’m going to teach a workshop on online wrting for a local school.
What will the next six months yield? Will I have a book deal? Will more people read me?
Who knows, but I’m certainly having a ball right now.
Dulwich Picture Gallery, Gail Gosschalk, Sue King, Nic Webb, swamp cypress, spoons, Ikea, Habitat, flat-pack furniture
In Dulwich OnView, happiness, new content on August 25, 2009 at 8:08 am
A few weeks ago I went to Peckham to meet a craft artist called Nic Webb.
He’s been working recently with a huge pile of wood from Dulwich Picture Gallery. The swamp cypress tree there was cut down last year because it was sick. He’s been turning the wood into, wait for it, spoons. So off I trundled to meet the spoon man. And here’s the result – an article on Dulwich OnView.
These aren’t any ordinary spoons. They’re beautifully crafted pieces, all very individual. Meeting Nic was a wake up call to the power of the craft maker movement in London at the moment. He spoke about how the design for each spoon is led by the natural shapes and patterns in the wood – there’s no one design he works toward. Each piece is an individual.
We’re bored nowadays of having mass-produced rubbish in our homes from Habitat. Let’s go back to having hand-crafted, beautiful objects with some integrity. And let’s get to know the people who make these things for us – craftsmen, designers and makers all have great stories behind them and I’ve really enjoyed getting to know some of them of late. I wrote pieces recently about glass designer Sue King and local artist Gail Gosschalk.
I think there’s a bit of an overlap with my happiness project. I suggest we’d all be happier if we fill our homes with objects that have some integrity to them, rather than flat pack furniture and cheap crap from Ikea. Of course, that’s easier said than done – hand-crafted items are usually comparatively expensive. But meeting Nic and talking with him about his work certainly made me appreciate the power of the craftsman once again and I believe it’s a movement worth supporting.
I’m going to look for craft artists to include in the happiness project. Let me know if you have any good suggestions.
Barack Obama, blogs, Journal of Happiness Studies, Mondays, the guardian
In happiness, what i'm reading on August 24, 2009 at 9:45 am
It turns out that Mondays aren’t that bad after all. In fact, they’re the second happiest day of the week.
This piece in The Guardian reports a really interesting piece of research – a long-term study of the content of blogs and their relation to collective happiness. They trawled through a load of content and analysed how ‘happy’ people were by what they were writing. Words like joy, happiness and fun got put in one bracket, while words like sad, boring and loss went in another. And then they looked at not only who was happiest, but when we are happiest.
There are countless ways of measuring happiness, all of which have their flaws, but this seems like a clever way of indicating happiness on a global scale.
According to this methodology, Obama’s first day in office was the happiest for the world in a while. Interesting stuff. It’s all reported in full in the Journal of Happiness Studies.
happiness, happy thoughts, memory, Richard Wiseman, yesterday
In happiness on August 12, 2009 at 10:09 am
Research shows that simply thinking about one event that went well in your life the previous day can improve your happiness levels instantly.
Try it. Just think back to yesterday and remember something that went well. It can be quite simple – seeing friends, a good cup of coffee, reading a good blog, or just the weather.
Pyschologist and quirky mind stuff man Richard Wiseman has been writing about this on his blog at the same time as running his ongoing happiness experiment. It makes for really interesting reading. There’s a short video on his site encouraging us to think about nice things that happened yesterday.
Do you feel any better now?
beansprouts, happiness, itsu, marketing
In happiness on August 3, 2009 at 2:32 pm
I find it quite hard to wander the streets of London and not leap for my camera every time I see the H-word.
I was walking past itsu the other day, the healthy food outlet in the centre of London, inspired by Japanese cuisine. Their motto is health and happiness. A catchy strapline, I thought.
On closer inspection of their website, I discovered that their marketing claims:
health – because itsu food is light, full of goodness & won’t make you fat
happiness – because it tastes amazing. You can eat lots without guilt, sorrow and pain.
Hang on a minute. So, itsu food in itself won’t actually make me happy? It’ll just make me not experience guilt, sorrow or pain.
Hmmmm. I don’t really buy this argument. Firstly, I’m not sure whether we’ve actually bottomed out that whole ‘absence of pain is pleasure’ issue. And secondly, there is a certain amount of pain in buying lunch in itsu, as it’s so incredibly overpriced.
Clever marketing, but I’m yet to be convinced that eating a bowl of beansprouts for £7 is going to make me happy. Well done for trying though.
But it does reinforce the fact that happiness is an excellent marketing tool.
Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, happiness, Mr Micawber
In happiness, what i'm reading on July 29, 2009 at 8:57 am
The character Mr Micawber in Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield is a good source of quotes on the subject of happiness. In the novel, Micawber, an eternal optomist in the employ of Uriah Heep, is repeatedly convinced that ‘something will turn up’. His name is, therefore, used to refer to someone who lives in constant expectation of a better life.
For example, in chapter 11, he says: ‘I have no doubt I shall, please Heaven, begin to be more beforehand with the world, and to live in a perfectly new manner, if -if, in short, anything turns up.’
A Dickens quote has even given rise to the ‘Micawber Principle’, based on the character’s following observation:
“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six. Result happiness.
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six. Result misery.”
2006 international happiness survey, Copenhagen, Denmark, egalitarian, equality, happiness, James Naughtie, Radio 4, social capital, social care, Today programme
In happiness on July 28, 2009 at 12:01 pm
We’ve known for quite some while that the Danes are the happiest people on the planet. The 2006 international happiness survey confirmed it. There were a couple of pieces about it last week on Radio 4.
This article on the Today programme on Friday 24 July 09 explains why James Naughtie thinks the Danish people are so happy after a visit to Copenhagen.
Here’s a quick summary of what he found out. The Danes are so happy becuase they have:
- a comparatively small difference between high and low incomes.
- greater gender equality with very few ‘home-makers’ or ‘housewives’.
- social care from cradle to grave – childcare from six months; healthcare provision that means people don’t need private treatment; free universities etc.
- a sense of modesty about their equality, but also about their happiness (which is an unthreatening value about which to brag).
- a sense of ‘social capital’. And that the government values the happiness, health and well-being of the people.
- an inclusive business atmosphere where everyone’s opinion is heard, from the MD to the tea-boy.
- a sense of community where there is a core of society in which everyone feels proud.
It’s this last one that appears to be somewhat of a challenge for Denmark today. Danes have begun to realise that their egalitarian principles are not necessarily a simple sense of equality for all, but are tied in with ideas about how similar they all are as a nation – a sense of pride in ‘Danish-ness’. Is that ever likely to be eroded in a world where the composition of populations becomes more and more like a patchwork quilt?
It’s not to say that immigration into Denmark is a potential threat to that pride in common Danish values, but that’s because there is perhaps an expectation that people moving into Denmark are supposed to integrate and become part of the common denominator.
So, they have a clean, handsome, polished and contented country. But perhaps that’s because they are a country that wants to protect their happy state. They have some of the highest taxation in the world (most people pay over 50% tax), and as long as they see their services being delivered and their happiness continuing, they are sure to pay their fair way.
But will it be preserved into the future?
We’ll keep an eye on the Danes and see if they’re as happy next time they measure international happiness.
David Cameron, Denmark, Iain Duncan-Smith, James Naughtie, Michael Sandell, Radio 4, Richard Leyard, Today programme, Will Wilkinson
In happiness on July 23, 2009 at 3:45 pm
James Naughtie started an interesting discussion on the Today programme this morning about the advantages of governments aiming to set policy that is in the interests of the well-being and happiness of the general public. I’ve written before about how David Cameron claimed, well before the recession began, that we shouldn’t be looking at GDP, but GWB – general well being. But Naughtie introduced some key thinkiers who are writing about this at the moment.
Richard Leyard (social scientist and economist) – claims that in 20 years we’ll be basing policy on the well-being and happiness of the people.
Michael Sandell (social scientist) – spoke at the Reith Lecture about the common good.
Iain Duncan-Smith (former Tory leader) – convinced that happiness is just as important for the left and the right in politics and that the current banking crisis gives us a chance to ask questions about the way we live our lives. Apparently we are deeply unhappy because our society is broken.
Will Wilkinson (Cato Institute, Washington) – suggests that the idea of contentment has to be reconciled by progress. On one hand we could all be Buddhists and remove all desire and wanting – and therefore remove ourselves from any potential disappointment. But on the other hand, he claims that while the ‘treadmill of striving’ causes a huge amount of anxiety it also drives progress and this should not, and cannot, be stopped. So his solution is to for us to find the balance between ambition and expectation. Simple.
Naughtie is off to Denmark tomorrow – where the people are said to be blissfully happy. I’ll be tuning in to find out their secret.
In the meantime, here’s the link to the Radio 4 website for this morning’s broadcast. And if you like, you can read James Naughtie’s accompanying article online.
With thanks to Nick Hopwood, who actually heard the piece!
BBC FOUR, happiness, iPlayer
In happiness on July 23, 2009 at 9:05 am
Are we having fun yet?
Happy Families is a new BBC series looking at changes taking place in British society, examining how childhood and families have transformed over the last decade. But from the scramble to get into the best schools to the pressures on working parents, are we too stressed to be happy?
It was screened on Wednesday morning and is available to view on on iPlayer until Wednesday 29th July.
Angela Tilby, Proverbs, Radio 4, Thought for the Day
In happiness on July 16, 2009 at 10:11 am
This morning’s Thought for the Day on Radio 4 was by the ever observant Rev. Angela Tilby, who was recounting a TV drama she saw recently, underlining the folly of chasing money in the pursuit of happiness.
Who end up happier? The city banker, the ruthless salesman or the security guard. Perhaps there’s a certain predictability about who ends up being happiest at the end of the story. But Angela Tilby astutely links the story to the book of Proverbs: ‘Riches do not profit in the day of wrath’ and ‘Better to be poor and walk in integrity than to be rich and crooked in one’s ways.’
And as she concludes: ‘The longing for the happiness that money promises is so embedded in our minds that we are in danger of falling into a new delusion. This week all kinds of lobby groups have argued for more money; all for good and necessary things. But the cash has run out, and deep down we know it. There is no one to blame, but ourselves, who believed that money was infinite, like God and all we had to do was want it. We are going to have to learn to be poor and to find our security from within.’
The full text of her broadcast is available here.
Quoted text, copyright BBC.
Cyanide & Happiness, facebook, online scrabble
In happiness on July 3, 2009 at 9:14 am
If this project is going to be indicative of where I spend time on the Internet, it had probably also include facebook. Having disabled facebook scrabble (a source of much happiness to me, but not at all conducive to the life of a writer) I now spend a lot less time on the site. Face book never ceases to amaze with what it can throw up. Let’s see what happens when I search for happiness:
Happiness – nearly 60,000 people have signed up to be fans of happiness. They say: ‘what is better than a true emotion that we can express through smiles and laughter. nothing. we have pages for our favourite artists and stores, but what about our favourite emotion?’
Cyanide & Happiness – a visual artist with an interest in comics and superheros with nearly 80,000 fans. You can read their peculiar comic blog here (not on facebook).
HAPPINESS – a positivity movement with 68,000 fans. They say: ‘Happiness is a Choice! Let’s make this world a better place by choosing to be happy and making the people around us happy. Let’s spread the Love and the Good Vibes!’
Happiness Nki Nwaokolo – a personal profile. She lives in London and supports Manchester United. (I haven’t posted a link as I don’t want to think we’re stalking her!)
Happiness – a group for sharing happiness. They say: ‘Just add pictures of happy things, or things that make you happy!’ They have 6,000 fans.
Time Out, Trailer Happiness, Waiting for Happiness, Whispering Happiness
In happiness on July 2, 2009 at 9:02 am
As part of this week’s mini-investigation into what the we can find on the web when we search for happiness, I turned my attention to the online version of the listings and review magazine Time Out. I have confined the interview research part of my happiness project to people living and working in the UK at the moment, so I’ve just searched Time Out London. What will our nation’s capital have in store in terms of happiness …
A review of a London bar called Trailer Happiness in Kensington. They give it four stars out of five. They describe it as ‘tongue in cheek decor matched with a serious attitude to booze’.
The 2002 movie Waiting for Happiness is currently being shown in London. (Although Time Out couldn’t tell me where or when. I’m sure I could find it if I looked hard enough.)
The Tristan Bates Theatre in WC2H is showing a play called Whispering Happiness until this Saturday. (Starts 7.30pm, tickets £13)
And that was it. Only three things to make us happy in London this week. Still, it’s quite a good mix of results.
Goldfrapp, iTunes, Kasabian, Orson, Sound De-Zign, The Fray
In happiness on July 1, 2009 at 8:20 am
Many of us carry a little bit of the Apple corporation around with us each day. But do we ever listen to music relating to happiness? I know I do, but that’s because I download lots of songs with the H-word in the title. Here’s a quick flick through the results when I searched for happiness.
Happiness (Kasabian) 2009
Happiness (Goldfrapp) 2008
Happiness (Orson) 2006
Happiness (The Fray) 2009
Happiness (Sound De-Zign) 2009
Also featured down the list are The Pointer Sisters, Ken Dodd, Will Young, Robert Palmer, Macy Gray, Teenage Fanclub and Divine Comedy.
There are at least 100 tracks simply called happiness, and many thousands with happiness in the title. Bob Dylan chose his favourite songs with happiness for the BBC a few months ago, which I wrote about on this website.
BBC Bristol, David Cameron, General Well Being, happy cows, Ministry of Happiness
In happiness on June 29, 2009 at 10:45 am
Let’s start this mini-investigation with one of the first sites I often visit each day. The good old BBC News website.
A happiness search in the news and sport section yields:
An article about how sisters make each other happy. 2 April 09
A study from the USA about how happiness is infectious (it rubs off on other people). 5 December 08
A local news piece from BBC Bristol about how some people there are very happy, while others are cripplingly lonely. 1 December 08
Newcastle University say that happy cows produce more milk than unhappy ones. 28 January 09
A very readable comment piece about happiness in the economic downturn and whether our politicians should be paying more attention to making us happy in the recession. The piece features David Cameron’s suggestion that if we valued General Well Being (GWB) as much as Gross Domestic Product (GDP), we might not have got into such a mess in the first place. There are some great responses from readers, including the suggestion that a Ministry of Happiness be established! 9 October 08
happiness, results, search engine
In happiness on June 28, 2009 at 8:19 am
As part of my ongoing research project into the nature of happiness and what it means to us today is having a bit of an experimental week.
Given that I’m seeking out a wide variety of responses to and definitions of the concept of happiness, I regularly tap the H-word into search engines and wait for the smorgasbord of results to spring forth before me. There’s always quite a surprising range of answers. So, for the rest of this week I’m going to present the results of what I’ve found on different websites – I could have chosen any sites, but I went for pretty mainstream sites that I use on a regular basis. I’ll update the results each day.
What use is this? Well, the findings might not necessarily be indicative of what happiness means to us – it’s just some content I’ve pulled off the web, after all – but they might be food for thought in my ongoing investigations. We’ll see …
I will list here the top results from searches using the search engine on a particular site. If prompted, I’ll ask for the engine to give me results by relevance, rather than by date. I’m after the subject matter, not necessarily the most recent material.
breast cancer, Professor Penny Hopwood, psychiatrist
In happiness, new content on June 3, 2009 at 2:43 pm
I’ve just completed another interview as part of my ongoing research project into the meaning of happiness.
Professor Penny Hopwood is a psychiatrist and has spent the last 25 years working solely with patients who are undergoing treatment for breast cancer. She must have met a wide variety of people over the years and heard some amazing stories. I was certain that helping people through those experiences must have given her a pretty unique perspective on what it means to be happy.
Of course, she can’t talk about her patients, and I’d never expect her to, but she did give me an enlightening interview, in terms of how the mental state of a cancer patient is cared for and also her own individual very personal response to happiness.
Read the interview in the happiness pages of this website, here.
Penny has been a family friend for many years and I’m really grateful to her for taking part in the project.
Happinesss, Jane Kenyon
In happiness on June 1, 2009 at 11:08 am
I was trundling through the Internet the other day and came across this charming piece by the American poet Jane Kenyon (1947-1995).
Happiness
There’s just no accounting for happiness,
or the way it turns up like a prodigal
who comes back to the dust at your feet
having squandered a fortune far away.
And how can you not forgive?
You make a feast in honor of what
was lost, and take from its place the finest
garment, which you saved for an occasion
you could not imagine, and you weep night and day
to know that you were not abandoned,
that happiness saved its most extreme form
for you alone.
No, happiness is the uncle you never
knew about, who flies a single-engine plane
onto the grassy landing strip, hitchhikes
into town, and inquires at every door
until he finds you asleep midafternoon
as you so often are during the unmerciful
hours of your despair.
It comes to the monk in his cell.
It comes to the woman sweeping the street
with a birch broom, to the child
whose mother has passed out from drink.
It comes to the lover, to the dog chewing
a sock, to the pusher, to the basket maker,
and to the clerk stacking cans of carrots
in the night.
It even comes to the boulder
in the perpetual shade of pine barrens,
to rain falling on the open sea,
to the wineglass, weary of holding wine.
Angela Tilby, Barack Obama, Jesus, Sermon on the Mount
In happiness on April 20, 2009 at 12:02 pm
Something on Radio 4′s Thought For the Day last week struck a chord with me. Rev. Angela Tilby sought to bring President Obama down a peg or two for trying to make biblical links in his oratory when talking about revialisting the world economy. He says that we must ‘build our house upon rock’.
But Angela quite rightly points out that just a few lines later in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is telling us not to even bother building up worldly goods – indeed he offers a warning against the belief that material possessions can bring us happiness.
So be careful, Barack the orator, when using biblical quotes.
coffee, digitalspy, stranger
In happiness, what i'm reading on April 20, 2009 at 9:31 am
Apparently, the simple act of picking up someone else’s tab in a coffee shop is enough to engender a feeling of well-being for you and your lucky new friend. It’s a craze sweeping coffee shops in America.
DigitalSpy tells us more …
ed haliwell, mental health, the guardian
In happiness, what i'm reading on April 14, 2009 at 4:22 pm
Happiness is abuzz in the news this week with the revalation that we are all really rather stressed, anxious and fearful. The Mental Health Foundation has called for a national campaign to raise awareness of how emotions affect our health and behaviour, and what we can do about it.
It all sounds like a bit of hot air to me, but Ed Haliwell puts it rather well in The Guardian today.
Apparently we need to develop social and economic cohesion and moving towards values and behaviours that lead to happiness.
Sounds simple, eh?
The MHF have an hilarious campaign, not aimed at making us any happier, just making us realise how awful life is. They say:
As part of Mental Health Action Week, you can order your free information pack, which gives you information on fear and anxiety, as well as a poster to help you raise awareness of the week.
Wow, I feel happier already.
Happiness makes up in height what it lacks in length, Pulitzer, Robert Frost
In happiness, what i'm reading on April 13, 2009 at 3:15 pm
I recently came across this poem by American poet Robert Frost (1874-1963).
As with plenty of creative souls, he had a particulary tragic personal life. His father died when Frost was 11, leaving the family penniless. His mother died when he was 26, resulting in the institutionalisation in a mental hospital of his sister some year later. A family rife with depression, he was also forced to commit his daughter to a mental hospital in 1947. Three of his six children died while he was still alive and one committed suicide.
How he then managed to win so four Pulitzer prizes for his work and publish so widely is a wonder. He penned this charming poem in 1942:
Happiness makes up in height what it lacks in length
O stormy, stormy world,
The days you were not swirled
Around with mist and cloud,
Or wrapped as in a shroud,
And the sun’s brilliant ball
Was not in part or all
Obscured from mortal view—
Were days so very few
I can but wonder whence
I get the lasting sense
Of so much warmth and light.
If my mistrust is right
It may be altogether
From one day’s perfect weather,
When starting clear at dawn
The day swept clearly on
To finish clear at eve.
I verily believe
My fair impression may
Be all from that one day
No shadow crossed but ours
As through its blazing flowers
We went from house to wood
geovisit();
For change of solitude.
Auschwitz, happiness, Roman Halter
In happiness, new content on April 10, 2009 at 12:24 pm
I received a touching hand-written note this week from Roman Halter, a friend of mine and survivor of Auschwitz who I’ve interviewed already as part of my happiness research project. His interview is available to read on this site, but he decided to write an addendum. He writes:
A life free from being terrorized, free from that fear, is happiness.
Freedom under the law in a true democracy where the citizen is protected from the criminal and the criminal is isolated from society is, for the citizen, happiness.
Happiness on many levels.
One man, before being taken to the gas chamber at Auschwitz [said] Psalm 31, verse 6 [and was] calmly led to a happy end with a spirit that was devoid of fear. [The verse reads: 'You hate those who pay regard to worthless idols, but I trust in the Lord'.]
We were told (the group of 500 metal workers from Lodz ghetto selected for slave labour) in Auschwitz-Birkenau that we looked so weak and were so starved that we, all of us, were only fit for the gas chambers and we should know that we came to Auschwitz-Birkenau through [the] gate which is only one way and that is ‘IN’. The out part is through the chimney. So, when eventually we were put into cattle trucks and PASSED OUT of Auschwitz-Birkenau the joy, the happiness of most was something I will not forget.
Roman has also added a simple line drawing of the recognisable gateway to the camp at Auschwitz with an arrow pointing to the entrance.
Bob Dylan, Dalai Lama, Gretchen Rubin, Richard Gere
In happiness on April 7, 2009 at 11:14 am
Further to Bob Dylan’s favourite songs on the theme of happiness, here are a few of my favourite things he said during his most recent show:
Can’t promise I’m gonna make you happy, but I’ll do my darndest
Everyone you know can make you happy. Some do it by arriving and some do it by leaving.
Richard Gere once told me something the Dalai Lama once said: ‘If you want others to be happy, practise compassion. If you want to be happy, practise compassion.’
Some people have to get high to make other people happy.
When talking about feng shui and its importance in a happy home: Los Angeles zoo spent $4500 to a feng shui expert to make three monkeys from China feel more at home. I don’t think it was the feng shui that made them feel happy. I think the monkeys just liked the fact that they can make zoo keepers spend $4500 on them.
Some people like to sweat in the hot sun. Some like to lie in the shade in a hammock. Who’s to judge which is better?
According to research, do you know what makes people happy? Money, religion, friends and marriage. How much did they spend on this research? I could’ve told them that. And people who earn over $80,000 are happier than people who earn less than that. Do you know who’s really happy? The guy who got paid to do this research.
Also, Gretchen Rubin – who blogs about happiness – found a really nice quote from Bob Dylan in his memoir Chronicle.
BBC 6 Music, Bob Dylan, Theme time radio hour
In happiness on April 6, 2009 at 10:07 am
The latest edition of Bob Dylan’s radio show (05 April 2009) was on the theme of happiness. He played an hour of tracks, each linked to happiness somehow, interspersed with his grizzly, philosophical musings about why he likes each song. He played:
Feelin’ high and happy Hot Lips Page
Love and Happiness Al Green
Then I’ll Be Happy Jimmy Heap and the Melody Makers
Happy Home Elmore James
Happy Days are Here Again originally from the movie Chasing Rainbows (recorded on Black Tuesday, 1929)
Happy Rolling Stones
Get Happy Al Green
Happy Plastics Family – advertising jingle for du Pont
I Wanna Be Happy Ella Fitzgerald
Happy Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins
You Made Me So Very Happy Blood, Sweat and Tears
The Happy Cowboy The Sons of the Pioneers
Everybody’s Happy Nowadays Buzzcocks
Smile Judy Garland (originally written by Charlie Chaplin)
Happy Trails Dale Evans
You can listen to it on the BBC 6 Music website until Sunday evening, when the next episode comes out.
BBC 6 Music, Bob Dylan
In happiness on April 3, 2009 at 7:20 am
Each week on BBC 6 Music Bob Dylan plays tracks for one hour based around a theme. This week’s show (05 April ’09) is on the theme of happiness. I wonder what he’ll play.
Bob Dylan’s Theme Time Hour is on BBC 6 Music on Sunday night (Monday morning) midnight-1am. Listen to the show on digital radio in the UK or online, or listen again after the event if you’re not usually up at midnight on a Sunday.
good life, happiness
In happiness, what i'm reading on March 25, 2009 at 6:46 pm
A piece in The Independent today pointed out that we live in a frenetic, throwaway society and that we don’t take enough time to do things slowly and really enjoy them. They suggest the good life – the elusive happiness we all crave, apparently – can be achieved through celebrating ten simple pleasures of life.
How many of these have you done recently? I wonder if this is the path to happiness:
Roasting a chicken - the smell, the slow cooking, the crispy skin. And the accopanying trimmings.
Going for a walk - recharge the batteries through exercise and appreciate your local area.
Caring for clothes - a sense of achievement through fixing something rather than buying new.
Cleaning the windows – let the Spring sunshine into your home.
Servicing the car - er, like the clothes, I suppose. Not sure it would make me that happy.
Baking a cake - the smell, the satisfaction, the icing. And a cup of tea with it.
Making sloe gin - expectation as it matures in the bottle infront of your eyes.
Reading a map - I don’t understand this one. Just use google.
Brewing a cup of coffee - another aroma one. They like smelly things don’t they?
Or just doing nothing - personally, I find this one terribly irritating.
I can see where they’re going with these ten steps, but I’m not sure they’re necessarily a recipe for happiness. And it’s not a great path to the good life if you’re a wheat intolerant, sober, vegetarian, caffeine-free cyclist who lives in a windowless space and hates baking – but there’s got to be something that makes you happy.
A. A. Milne
In happiness, what i'm reading on March 15, 2009 at 2:50 pm
I was just reliving some childhood memories, flicking through the A. A. Milne’s When we were very young, when I came across one of those nuresery poems that rings a bell, but I don’t know why. The title jumped out at me, obviously, but I wonder what the message of the poem is? As with all Milne poems, the line-spacing is important, so I’ve copied it here:
Happiness
John had
Great Big
Waterproof
Boots on;
John had a
Great Big
Waterproof
Hat;
John had a
Great Big
Waterproof
Mackintosh -
And that
(Said John)
Is
That.
arthur brookes, conservative, gross national happiness, liberal
In happiness, what i'm reading on March 7, 2009 at 7:52 am
Some interesting research about political motivation and happiness from Syracuse University. Prof Arthur Brookes claims in his book Gross National Happiness that conservatives report significantly higher levels of personal happiness than liberals.
Increased happiness in conservatives is not necessarily down to their individual politics, but is linked to contributing life factors. They are are statistically more likely to be married, go to church, and be optimistic about their future – things we know boost personal happiness. For liberals, the rates of happiness are somewhat lower. The author suggests that the liberal equity agenda, while completely honorable, takes a stronger personal toll and contributes to a life with more questions asked than answered. Liberals are more likely to have less smooth home lives, when compared to their conservative counterparts. There’s an interview with the author here.
It’s important to remember most studies like this reporting levels of happiness have collected data via personal response questionnaires. So, in fact it’s more a case of conservatives reporting that they are happier, rather than actually being happy in themselves. For me, this research perhaps means two things:
-1- Conservatives say they are happier than liberals. Is that because they truly are happier (they do appear to have very settled lives) or is it because they feel they ought to say they are happier and living the American dream?
-2- The research shows that liberals report lower happiness levels because they have a more challenging lives. They are less likely to have as much family stability and they have that oh-so cumbersome liberal agenda to which they feel they ought to contribute. It might just be me, but I think living a life with an open liberal agenda that doesn’t mean being tied down to a family, a dog and a church sounds rather fun.
Aristotle asks us whether we would rather be a pig satisfied or a man dissatisfied? To be honest, as much as I crave the perceived stability and wealth of the right, I think I’d rather be a dissatisfied liberal than a satisfied conservative. But that’s just me.
Deano Dunbar, rod and cone dystrophy
In happiness, new content on March 4, 2009 at 9:48 pm
Here’s a new interview I completed recently with Deano Dunbar, an extreme sports enthusiast. He’s been fired as a human catapult and had stomach-turning advenures all over the world. He’s also registered blind. He told me what happiness means to him.
happiness, website launch
In happiness, new content on February 28, 2009 at 11:09 am
I’ve been adding content to this site for a while now, but today I’ve told everyone about it. Here goes nothing.
There are plenty of links on here to pieces I’ve been writing recently.
And I’ll be updating the happiness project pages regularly as this research project develops.
Have a look around and let me know what you think.
BBC Radio 4, Canon Lucy Winklett, Thought for the Day
In happiness on February 24, 2009 at 3:47 pm
Canon Lucy Winklett said something which struck a chord with me on Thought for the Day a couple of days ago. I’ve been thinking about it since.
The problem she analyses is quite timely for me. It’s sometimes hard to put into words exactly what we are feeling, especially when it’s an emotion or attitude we’re not used to speaking about regularly. I’m finding a lot of people I speak with about happiness face this issue too. Her solution to the problem is spiritual:
“However articulate we think we are, there are times in the face of tragedy or fear or incalculable happiness, when expressing ourselves seems very hard – and we just don’t know what to say. It’s at these times, when we don’t have the words, wrote St Paul, that the Spirit of God is close. “Don’t heap up empty phrases” Jesus of Nazareth taught his followers. Our prayers are our attempts to speak in the language of the human spirit – a language that is yours and yours alone – the silent speech of your soul.”
The full text of her thoughts is available on the BBC website.
experiences, possessions, San Francisco State University
In happiness on February 22, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Psychological research at San Francisco State University suggests that, in the long run, experiences make people happier than possessions.
That’s in part because the initial joy of acquiring a new object, such as a new car, fades over time as people become accustomed to seeing it every day, the research claims. Experiences, on the other hand, continue to provide happiness through memories long after the event occur.
But surely the experience of owning a possession linger just as long?
The full story is on the CNN website.
Debbie Keeble, Woman Farmer of the Year
In happiness, new content on February 20, 2009 at 8:43 am
I’ve added another interview to the happiness pages of the site. I recently interviewed Debbie Keeble, Woman Farmer of the Year. She told me about what makes her happy, how her pigs are happy and why her husband loves Ken Dood.
Take a look under HAPPINESS PROJECT above, or just click here.
Aric Sigman, facebook, health, MySpace, social networking
In happiness on February 19, 2009 at 9:52 am
So, it appears that the piece of research examining how happiness and online experiences correlate (mentioned on this website last week) might be flawed from the start.
An ‘academic’, Aric Sigman (whoever he might be), is now suggesting that because we spend so much time infront of computers, we are interacting socially less and less. And that this has a negative impact on our health.
He claims: that a lack of face-to-face networking could alter the way genes work, upset immune responses, hormone levels, the function of arteries, and influence mental performance.
Source: article today on the BBC website.
So, taking these two theories together, if we continue to interact using online social networking tools such as facebook and MySpace, we’ll end up being happier, but unhealthy.
I’m getting confused by all this. I might have to try and marry the two together.
Does social interaction make us happy?
Does it matter whether that interaction is face-to-face or online?
facebook
In happiness on February 14, 2009 at 1:21 pm
You can become a fan of anything on facebook. Even happiness, it seems.
social interaction, virtual happiness, Virtual Happiness Project
In happiness, what i'm reading on February 9, 2009 at 6:05 pm
I just came across the Virtual Happiness Project. It’s a research project with an interesting hypothesis:
1) The origins of happiness lie in social interaction. From sitting round the camp fire to the modern dinner table, we thrive when we are interacting.
2) The Internet has become a more and more social place in recent years. It’s the modern day camp fire.
3) Is the Internet virtual happiness?
These people are trying to evaluate the links between happiness and online experiences. Like many other research projects, it’s trying to unpick what it is that makes us happy. But what excites me about their work is that they are examining happiness in a truly modern context using the Internet as their frame of reference. Interesting stuff.
Take a look at their website and the short video there which explains the project in more detail. More details as and when they publish their findings.
David Beckham, Victoria Beckham
In happiness on February 4, 2009 at 1:37 pm
Victoria Beckham has given an insight into what makes her happy. It turns out it’s not shoes or riches that make her feel warm inside. Rather, she finds happiness in seeing her husband filling his potential as a footballer.
David is presently on loan to AC Milan from LA Galaxy, but rumours have suggested that Victoria has been reluctant to move her family from the US to Italy.
In an interview with the Italian Vanity Fair this week, Victoria said “I am happy because I know he is happy at Milan. It’s great to see that he has already started to score goals in your tournament.”
Source: Digital Spy
commune, Tobias Jones, Utopian Dreams
In happiness, what i'm reading on February 3, 2009 at 5:51 pm
The subtitle of this book is In Search of a Good Life, so I thought it would be a good read as part of the ongoing happiness project. Turns out it hasn’t provided me with any concrete info for the research project, but it’s certainly got me thinking.
Jones’s book recalls how he spent a year with his wife and newborn child living in a variety of communes in Italy and the UK. But the communities he stays in aren’t what you’d think of when you first hear the word ‘commune’. Rather than political philosophy or social motivation as their main common factor, each community shares a common religious goal. He investigates what placing religion at the hear of a community does to people.
From Quaker pensioners, to old-fashioned farmyards and new age communes. Interesting reading.
Barack Obama, happiness
In happiness on January 21, 2009 at 1:07 pm
In his inaugural address yesterday newly sworn-in President Obama made a reference to Americans’ right to happiness. He’s clearly a man with deep religious conviction. It’s interesting to note he sees it as a God-given right.
He said:
“The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.”
Source, BBC News website
Scroobius Pip
In happiness on January 7, 2009 at 2:53 pm
Quite excited today. Have just confirmed that I’m going to interview Scroobius Pip this week for the Happiness project. Good to get a popular name on board so early in the project. I’ll post the results of my interview in the happiness section of the site when I’m done.
