Self-Help Happiness Blog

Have you seen this Facebook app to support the positive psychology  exercise “Three Good Things”?  Participants in this exercise record  Three Good Things, and the reasons why they happen, every day. There  are some other versions of this exercise out there (including an  iPhone app and one on happier.com), but this is a way to make these exercises more effective using social interaction.

This app is at http://apps.facebook.com/threegoodthings/, but the page with  more info is at http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=119352832576&v=info
. It is free to use, but because it is research, they ask participants  to complete very brief surveys after 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, and 6  months of use.

This could be a great way to spread your own happiness. 

I’ll let the video speak for itself…

If you want to influence people, give them the right environment.  Of this there is no question.  Most recently, a study confirmed what we all knew about how they cleaned up New York City.  This line from The Globe and Mail a few days ago:

Urban decay is contagious because people generally behave badly when others in their neighbourhood do, say Dutch researchers whose article was published yesterday in the online journal Science.

This principle applies in the home and in the workplace, too.  If you leave things all over the house or allow employees to get sloppy in their work habits, expect more and more of the same.

On the other hand, if you want people to take pride in their work or keep the house tidy, apply yourself to the task.  Pick up stuff around the house when others are not around.  And when they are, solicit their help in tidying up.  The tidier you keep it, the tidier they will, too.  And, the more attention they will focus on cleanliness and following rules and generally responsible behavior.

By the way, this is the same psychology I have repeatedly mentioned with regard to smiling.  The best way to brighten up your environment is to smile.  Your smile will be contagious.  And before you know it, you will notice that all those grumpy people you kept bumping into have given way to smiling, happy people.
 

Happiness can be found wherever you look for it.  For instance, in the Dancer from Khiva.  This is a Russian book, translated into English, about Bibish, who was kidnapped and driven out to the desert to be gang-raped…and life rolls on from there with all the consequences, such as never being able to be married as a result (but she does).  And never being able to dance because dancing is frowned upon in her village (but you know the title of the book!)

There si a more complete review of the book here, but they message for you today is that we all are driven down the road of circumstance, but we all have the option of turning the steering wheel.  Yes, some things happen that really suck.  It is up to you to decide just how badly they will suck and how happy you will choose to be, despite circumstances.

PLANS

I can already tell you that I did not get done much of what I planned
to do this summer. I did not plant most of the flower gardens with my
daughters, nor a number of trees I had planned. The weeds made a
mockery of our vacation (“Ha. You think you can just go away and
we’ll wither on our own? No way, we wanna grow!) And all those
hiking and canoe trips? I never even got around to acquiring the
canoe.

But I did have a great summer and I did do a lot of amazing things.
It’s OK for plans to go astray. Do your best to make new plans as
you go, and make sure they are the best plans you can do with your
time. In the end, you will look back with no regrets.

 This was another reprint from A Daily Dose of Happiness.

Good news? Bad news? It all depends on how you look at things.

Consider the following factual news that could send a pessimist around the bend and over the edge:

POVERTY: Almost half of the world’s population earns a below-average income.

ILLITERACY: If current trends continue, by 2022 almost every child born will be illiterate.

DISEASE: Fully 98 percent of people are at risk of getting cancer.

DEATH: By 2060, at current mortality rates, two out of every three people in the world will be dead.

See? It pays to be optimisitc, no matter how bleak the news might seem.

I am starting a special blogroll just for blogs specifically about happiness and positivity.  The list below will grow automatically over time, and I invite anyone with a happiness blog or a positive thinking blog to join the blogroll.  There are five steps to do this.  First, make sure your blog qualifies:

1. The topic of the blog must be happiness or positive thinking.*
2. Please add the following code in your sidebar, in a page linked directly from your sidebar or in a post linked directly from your sidebar: <script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://rpc.blogrolling.com/display.php?r=b4ca2060dfa363fd582672a4ba3d3dda” language=”javascript”></script>
3. Email me with the location of the blogroll on your website.  I can be reached by going to http://www.thehappyguy.com/contact-The-Happy-Guy.html
4. Once approved, I will add your site.
5. I suggest you create a post announcing that you have joined this blogroll and post a link to this page for others interested in joining.  All our blogs will get more traffic as a result.

*Please note that this is NOT a blogroll for general psychology blogs, general self-improvement blogs or blogs about overcoming a specific disease or condition.

Here is the current list of happiness and positive thinking blogs