Good Food Good Mood by Live Happy

Good Food, Better Mood

Improve your diet to jump-start your path to optimum mental health. Feeling blue? You’re not alone. Many people struggle with depression. This fact is reflected in pharmaceutical drug sales—today, one in six adults is on or has taken some type of psychiatric drug. These drugs are usually prescribed with the intent of correcting what many doctors believe to be a root cause of depression: a chemical imbalance in the brain. But others are refuting this theory, offering a new approach that asks whether depression originates not in our brains, but on our plates. Happy Bites This burgeoning field of research, called nutritional psychiatry, is actively exploring the link between diet and depression. We’ve known for some time that what you eat is closely linked to your mental state. But a recently published randomized control trial has offered evidence that cleaning up your diet may actually lift your spirits. The small study, dubbed the SMILES trial,  involved patients who both suffered from clinical depression and consumed lots of junk food. Half of the 67 patients were enrolled to a diet that added fresh vegetables, fish, extra-virgin olive oil and higher-quality meats. The other half continued with standard care. At the end of three months, the group who cleaned up their diets saw major improvements on a common depression scale. By eating better, their depression symptoms improved on average by about 11 points, and roughly a third of them had scores so low that they no longer met the clinical criteria for depression. Meanwhile, control group members improved their scores by only about four points on average. Just two of them (or 8 percent) achieved remission. Gut Feeling One of the proposed mechanisms by which diet may improve mood is through its impact on your gut. Often referred to as the second brain, your gastrointestinal tract houses trillions of bacterial cells. These microbes have the potential to modulate health in powerful ways, though admittedly, we are at the tip of the iceberg in terms of understanding just how. Nonetheless, microbes produce powerful chemicals, including many vitamins, which then get absorbed into the bloodstream. Many of these chemicals are beneficial, such as butyrate, a short-chain fatty acid studied for its anti-inflammatory and brain-fortifying effects. But this ability also swings in the other direction: Certain inflammatory bacterial components are also able to enter circulation, if we fail to mind the needs of our intestinal immigrants. As illustrated in the trial above, good things seem to happen when we consume more vegetables and less processed foods, in part because vegetables provide fiber that our beneficial bacteria eat up, churning out goodies like butyrate. Processed foods on the other hand, due to the refined, pulverized grains from which they’re made, as well as the usual chemical additives, drive inflammation. This heightened immune response may be causally related to symptoms of depression. With so many people using prescription drugs to treat mental health, these kinds of insights are sorely needed now more than ever. And while depression is a multifaceted condition, likely unique for every individual, it isn’t hard to fathom that our moods, like so many other aspects of our health, have become victims to the modern world. Max’s 10 Genius Foods Extra-virgin olive oil Avocados Blueberries Dark chocolate Eggs Dark leafy greens Grass-fed beef Broccoli Wild salmon Almonds Brain-Boosting Raw Chocolate Dark chocolate has been in the research journals a lot of late for its cognition-boosting effects. To construct a sugar-free recipe, I enlisted my good friend Tero Isokauppila. Tero is the founder of the mushroom company Four Sigmatic, but he’s also one of the most knowledgeable people I know on cacao, the main ingredient in chocolate. What you’ll need: 1 cup finely chopped cacao butter 1 cup extra-virgin coconut oil 2 tablespoons sugar-free sweetener of choice (I recommend monk fruit, erythritol, or stevia) 1/2 teaspoon vanilla powder Pinch of sea salt 3 packets Four Sigmatic Lion’s Mane Elixir (or 1 heaping teaspoon of lion’s mane extract), optional 1 cup unsweetened raw cacao powder, plus more if needed What to do: Put the cacao butter in a double boiler or heatproof bowl set over a pan of just-simmering water (make sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water and keep it over low heat; this is important for preserving the enzymes and brain-nourishing properties of the cacao). Stir until completely melted. Add the coconut oil and use a whisk or milk frother to combine until the fats are emulsified. Add the sweetener, vanilla powder, salt and lion’s mane, if using. Whisk again to combine. Slowly add the cacao powder to the mixture until it reaches the consistency of thick cream, adding more if needed. Pour the mixture into ice cube trays and place in the freezer for 30 to 60 minutes to harden. Let them soften for 5 to 10 minutes after taking them out of the freezer before serving. (From the book GENIUS FOODS: Become Smarter, Happier, and More Productive While Protecting Your Brain for Life by Max Lugavere. Copyright © 2018 by Max Lugavere. Published on March 3, 2018 by Harper Wave, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Reprinted by permission.) Max Lugavere is a filmmaker, health and science journalist and brain food expert. His latest book, Genius Food: Become Smarter, Happier, and More Productive While Protecting Your Brain for Life, is a comprehensive guide to brain optimization.
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Thoughtful serious african professional business man sit with laptop thinking of difficult project challenge looking for problem solution searching creative ideas lost in thoughts at home office desk

Building Emotional Resilience When Dealing with Events Outside Your Control

There is a lot happening in our world today, and these last few years have spun us out of control. Anxiety is high anytime there is added uncertainty. Most of life is uncertain, that we can agree on. However, when our daily routines and the people, events, and circumstances we depend on for consistently are disrupted, how do we cope? The answer is through normalcy and celebration. Yes, as upsetting as this may seem to some, we must create and acknowledge life’s little joys, no matter how dire the circumstances. What works for you may not be what someone else needs. Can we stay open to allow others the experience and control they choose to create? We can, and our emotional intelligence will help. We can all increase or use our ability to understand, manage our emotions positively, empathize with others, overcome challenges and defuse conflict. Start with what we can control Recent events in Ukraine have forced families out of their homes, into shelters, and some into refugee camps. These events are the worst imaginable, and yet some still find life, love, happiness and joy through the smiles, songs being shared, and simple life events that are posted on social media. This is what so many fight for, work for, and believe in. The simple song of a young child being sung in her native tongue brought smiles, tears, connection, and a reprieve from the harshness of their current circumstance. A small kitten being rescued from a river with a willing participant and a cardboard box. Meals are cooked and shared. Many found care and concern for life still exists in our world. We are not a world only filled with disaster, hardship, and oppressiveness. There is a great need to find the simplest reason to smile, remember why so many are fighting for life and the life they are fighting for. This all is about what you can control. Often when in despair, we feel we have no control and therefore no hope. What is needed most in our times of struggle is just that, hope. Hope a future exists for us and loved, hope for the simplicities of life. Embrace all of your emotions This is not to say we as individuals, a society, and a world should not be reverent or respectful of suffering. We all process pain, disappointment, and disaster differently. The pandemic has created an atmosphere of survival and fear around the world. Many celebrations had to be put on hold, and some never happened. Birthdays, weddings, family reunions, even the celebration of the life of a loved one departed was taken. There has been a lot to feel sad about. Seeing people gathered in a small room with smiles on, a young girl proudly standing on a chair belting out “Frozen” during a crisis in her country warmed my heart as it did her onlookers and those with her. It was uplifting for sure. We all need moments to get out of the sadness, loss, and suffering. Being happy is a choice. Not one we want to make all the time or feel like we can. But we must keep happiness close at hand. We must provide opportunities for relief, moments of feeling hope, love, acceptance, and joy. We deal with events outside our control by controlling what we can We can’t control the weather, but I can plan for an umbrella. We can’t control another’s reaction, but we can control our behavior and make a choice for sharing love and joy. We can’t control a lot of life. This is not new. However, we reduce our frustration, stress, and anxiety by taking action on what we can control. For some, it will be a reminder that life is still good. For others, it will be a donation or a way to volunteer. For others, a vote. What can you control? What can you do that makes you feel just a little better? Maybe it will be watching a cat being rescued, a stranger donating a stroller or youthful reminder of a familiar song. We can choose to find moments of control, especially through connection and caring of others. We can choose to acknowledge a smile on another’s face and be reminded that there is hope, and happiness still exists. Stephanie Bolster McCannon is an Organizational Psychologist, published author of BolsterUp!: The Ultimate Guide to Becoming a Happy Healthy Human, and CEO of BolsterUp, a well-being coaching company that supports emotional, mental, and physical mastery.
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Live Happy Eat What You Are

Eating What You Are for a New You

Be honest with the messages you tell yourself for a healthier approach to better well-being. We all recall the adage you are what you eat. But what if we reverse it to say you eat what you are, and then take it one step further to say, eat what you are. EAT WHAT YOU ARE. What does that mean exactly? Every New Year’s countless humans who perhaps didn’t sleep well the night before or perhaps drank or ate too much swear to sweat and burn off those holiday pounds, and along with it all the other pounds they may have gained over the course of the year or from previous years. But is it healthy to think in these terms we have normalized, which really amount to a sort of self-immolation and self-destruction? Rewrite the Messages You Receive We talk about torching or burning calories in a workout or shrinking your silhouette; these terms point to a diminution of the self and promote the idea that somehow there is too much of us on earth and that we need to take up less space, exercise until we burn calories, eat less, be less. We are constantly being fed a message that women should eat less, and men should eat more, and that women should be thin and small, and men should be big and muscular. But what if we keep the resolution to lose weight but recouch the terms we use? What if we rephrase our intentions to eat better? What if we take it one step further to identify our specific personal needs based on our own physical issues, our own mental issues, to create a new diet, a permanent eating lifestyle which considers our individual needs and reflects where we want to be instead of where and how society tells us we should be. For example, I am a perimenopausal woman with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and celiac, two autoimmune conditions. I should have no business eating gluten dairy or soy, otherwise my conditions will progress. I should keep my caffeine down because for me, it promotes nervousness, anxiety, and sleeplessness, and blocks many precious nutrients from being absorbed by my gut. Over the years I have slowly and steadily changed my diet, not because I have wanted to lose weight, but because I have wanted to have better physical and mental health. Discover Your Real Motivation My motivation is not a slimmer silhouette but a more serene state of mind, a better memory, a well-slept self. My motivation is to retain and maximize my health and to be the healthiest me I can possibly be at whatever age I am. Physically, mentally, spiritually.  But my diet should not be for everyone. For me, grains are poisonous, but for others, grains can provide precious nutrients to the body. I have to take care to eat other foods and take supplements to account for this food staple that is missing from my own diet. I happily abstain from grains because I know that they will, in the end, hurt me, and make me less myself. Being gluten free makes it easy for me to say no to the tempting treats that abound during the holidays because I know it will make me feel bad, really bad, and that is motivation enough for me. What Does Your Diet Lack? What tendencies do you have to physical or mental ailments, and how can you remedy them through eating better? Do you suspect any allergies or sensitivities, and if so, can you try removing them from your diet for a month or two to see if you feel better without them? Then, add them back in one at a time, to see if you get any negative effects from eating them. This is classic Elimination Diet 101 stuff. Do You Suffer from Insomnia? Take out the glass of red wine at night which helps you relax, replace it with a bath or chamomile tea and a magnesium supplement. Or try some restorative yoga or meditation before you sleep. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different modalities until you find the right one for you. Be Brutally Honest With Yourself This journey starts with a big requirement: that you resolve to learn more about yourself, about what makes you tick and what doesn’t, and that you come out of it knowing yourself better than ever before. It is a journey that will require you to be brutally honest with yourself, to analyze every aspect of yourself, and most importantly, to forgive yourself and acknowledge that you are on a life journey which will require you to completely overhaul yourself. This does not mean that you cannot “cheat” once in a while … but you will no longer call it a cheat because you would have decided beforehand that it is ok to have that glass of wine or  gingerbread cookie and then resume your regular diet which has been custom designed for you and your needs by you. Eat to Be More, Not Less If you are what you eat, the eating comes first and the you follows, but if you eat what you are, you are making a conscious choice to accept or reject specific foods that result in your being the best you yet—and that is healthy inside and out. You are eating a sweet potato because it is rich in beta carotene, fiber, potassium, and magnesium and it fills you up and powers you through your workout: it makes you more whole, more centered, more you. You are not eating a sugar free low-fat muffin because it tastes good and is low in calories and will purportedly make you weigh less if eaten over time but has no nutritional value. You are eating to be whole and to be more, not to be less. And that is when you are truly eating what you are.
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Lifestyle shot of a woman cooking breakfast food on the stove.

5 Sustainable New Year Intentions That Stick

Reach your health goals in 2023 by practicing these lifestyle changes Nothing is more synonymous with the new year than coming up with resolutions. Every new year we get motivated and set about making goals to better ourselves. Many resolutions revolve around our health and taking care of our bodies, but will we be doing these “healthy” practices six months from now? Most likely we won’t since only four percent of people actually stick to their New Year’s resolutions. Why is this? The goals and practices that we set for ourselves in January simply aren’t sustainable. If you want to be able to keep your resolutions, the key is to set goals that you’ll be able to maintain. Here are five ways to help you transform your health in 2023 with sustainable lifestyle practices. 1. Eat a higher-protein breakfast Many resolutions tend to revolve around more healthful eating. However, it can be incredibly challenging to change one’s diet overnight. Cutting out processed fat, sugar and otherwise unhealthy food can be beneficial, but going cold turkey and maintaining a new, strict diet could be setting yourself up for failure. Instead, start by altering your diet with a higher protein breakfast. A study published in the International Journal of Obesity showed that eating a high-protein breakfast, can help control glucose levels, thereby providing a more healthful lifestyle. High protein breakfasts include foods such as eggs, turkey bacon, string cheese, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, chicken sausage or protein shakes (be careful of hidden sugars here) coupled with one serving of whole grain carbohydrates. 2. Physical activity Working out is a common New Year’s resolution, the trouble is that people try to go from zero to 60 the first week of January. It simply doesn’t work that way and can lead to fatigue and even injury. It’s best to ease into physical activity. The American Heart Association recommends that healthy adults get 150 minutes (30 minutes, five days a week) of aerobic activity. Try to go for a 30-minute walk after dinner a few days a week and work up to five days. Or, if you can’t walk for 30 minutes straight, start by breaking it out into three 10-minute walks or two 15-minute walks. The idea is to simply get started, but in a more sustainable way. Additionally, a recent study found that physical inactivity is associated with higher risk for severe COVID-19 outcomes, so getting in some moderate exercise could be crucial during this time. 3. Optimize sleep Sleep is when your body rests and repairs itself. By including sleep on your resolutions list, you can feel good about squeezing in some extra hours or even a nap. The CDC recommends that adults ages 18-60 get seven or more hours of sleep per night. Not only that, but if one of your resolutions is weight loss, a study showed that people sleeping 8.5 hours a night compared to 5.5 hours lost 55 percent more body fat while consuming the exact same diet. Plus, lack of sleep or burnout may increase risk of COVID-19 infection, so getting those extra ZZZs can be imperative to your health. 4. Optimize vitamin D Vitamin D is a vital nutrient that helps your body maintain healthy bones, is an anti-inflammatory, an antioxidant and protects muscle and brain activity. Taking a vitamin D supplement is a completely sustainable resolution that can have a tremendous impact on your health. Not only that, but a study showed that vitamin D deficiency was associated with a six-fold increase in severe disease from COVID-19 and 15-fold risk of death, so this is a healthful, timely and easy resolution. 5. Reduce exposure to synthetic chemicals Obesogens are synthetic chemicals that disrupt the endocrine system and may lead to weight gain and obesity as well as hinder your body’s natural immune response. They are being let loose at astonishing rates into our environment, with 10 million new chemicals released each year, which is more than 1,000 per hour. The five obesogens most commonly found in the home are Bisphenol-A (BPA), Phthalates, Atrazine, Organotins and Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA). Reducing exposure to these chemicals is as simple as paying attention to the types of products you use or bring into your home, making it an easy resolution to keep. If you’re not sure of your current exposure level, you can ask your healthcare provider for an Array 11 test. The Array 11 test measures a large range of environmental chemical toxins that are found in your system. This will let you know what type of exposure you’ve already had, and then as you make adjustments, follow-up tests make it easy to monitor progress of exposure reduction. These lifestyle changes can make your resolutions stick As you start making your New Year’s resolutions, remember that sustainable resolutions are best. It’s tempting to set ambitious goals, but that’s a sure way to get resolution burnout and set yourself up for failure. There are some easy things you can do to transform your health and lifestyle in 2023 without setting the bar astronomically high. Making simple adjustments like eating a high-protein breakfast and getting enough sleep are easy to do and easy to maintain. Try incorporating the five resolutions above for a new year that will effectively and simply transform your health. Dr. Chad Larson, NMD, DC, CCN, CSCS, Advisor and Consultant on Clinical Consulting Team for Cyrex Laboratories. Dr. Larson holds a Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine degree from Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine and a Doctor of Chiropractic degree from Southern California University of Health Sciences. He is a Certified Clinical Nutritionist and a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist.
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A woman meditating on a couch.

Putting the Om in Home

How rethinking your home design can make you happier. Rebecca West knew that if she was going to move forward with her life, she had to stop looking at her past.“I had gone through a divorce and I was going on with my life, but every day I was waking up in the house I shared with my husband,” says Rebecca, who lives in Seattle. “Every day, I was waking up and looking at my history. I realized that I couldn’t keep doing that.”So Rebecca began her journey of turning what had been “their” dream home into a launching pad for her newly solo dreams.“I painted a lot of things pink and bought a twin bed,” she recalls with a laugh. “I made a lot of horrible design choices, but at least I was looking at my future instead of my past.”Rebecca focused on making her home completely reflective of her hopes, interests and imagination. She created not just a customized nest, but also the perfect place to regain her happiness. Happy at Home As Rebecca healed and her space once again became her happy place, she “moved into colors that weren’t so man-repellent,” fell in love again, ditched the twin bed and eventually remarried. She also discovered more than she expected to during her foray into refurnishing; she found a calling to help others transform their homes to create a happier environment. “I realized that being happy in your space really depends on what you need in life. It changes for each person and it changes throughout our lives. The key is to think about what is happening in your life and what you want for your life,” she explains. “What energy are others [in the family] bringing into the house?” Today, Rebecca is a certified design psychology coach, interior designer and author of the book Happy Starts at Home: Getting the Life You Want by Changing the Space You've Got. Through her company Seriously. Happy. Homes. she takes a unique approach to help clients find happiness in their living spaces, focusing less on trendy design styles and more on each person’s spiritual and emotional path. Her approach begins with a guided meditation to help clients get clear on what they really need from their homes. “It doesn't throw out that instant appeal that interior designers are going for, but sometimes it changes the focus,” she says. “Wanting to be proud of your space is good,” but trying to make it look like it fell out of the pages of Architectural Digest may not help your cause. “The focus should be you,” Rebecca says. “You should be the one who smiles when you come in. Happiness in your home does not require perfection.” Happier by Design While interior designers and architects are long-time advocates of how the appearance of a space can influence emotion, psychology and neuroscience are still catching up with the science to explain it. The relatively new field of neuroaesthetics studies how viewing art and colors and design affects our brain activity, while the equally fledgling field of embodied cognition looks at how the environment around us shapes our cognitive capacity. In other words, we now realize that the space around us has a strong influence on our emotions, but we’re not fully aware of what it all means. In his 2006 book, The Architecture of Happiness, British philosopher Alain de Botton looked at the way our surroundings—the colors, the chairs, the walls and the way they are arranged around us—can have a profound effect on the way we feel. “An ugly room can coagulate any loose suspicions as to the incompleteness of life, while a sun-lit one…can lend support to whatever is most hopeful within us,” he writes. The Psychology of Space Using what we do know about how design affects happiness can help us make our homes more satisfying, Rebecca says. She has seen clients make dramatic personal changes just by altering the space they live in. “If you love where you live, it makes you feel happy just to come home,” she says. “If you’re frustrated by it, that’s going to increase your anxiety and stress and embarrassment on a daily basis. There are so many things that we don’t have control over; taking control over our homes is something we can do.” Psychologist Stacy Kaiser says the effects of changing your surroundings can be profound and lasting. Your daily environment may be contributing to your stress in ways you don’t realize, while living in an environment that you find appealing has an ongoing therapeutic effect. “As human beings, we are emotionally impacted by our surroundings,” she explains. “If they are peaceful and calm, it invites peace within us. If our surroundings are stressful or disorganized, it can create discontent.” That discontent spills over into your emotional state and can color your view of seemingly unrelated things; it can even begin to affect relationships. So you might be surprised how one small change—such as finally covering up a dent in the wall or freshening up a room with a coat of paint—can have a greater effect on your happiness. “Our mood will affect our behavior, so do what you can to fill your home with colors and objects that evoke positive moods and feelings,” Stacy recommends. She suggests creating a wall or space within your home that showcases special moments and joyful memories with items like photos, ticket stubs, trophies and other memorabilia that will give you an instant boost. “Then, when you need an emotional lift, spend more time in that space.” Tips for a Happier Home Rebecca West’s go-to solutions for redesigning your home for happiness: Ditch the design magazines. This isn’t about living up to someone else’s standards; it’s about creating what works for you. Add light. Most rooms benefit from more light, and brighter spaces make you feel happier. If you don’t have enough overhead lights, get a lamp. Or two. Keep what you love. Ditch what you don’t. Do what you can. So you can’t afford new bedroom furniture? Get new sheets. Can’t foot the bill for new living room furniture? Spring for some throw pillows. Small changes can have big payoffs. Embrace the power of paint. Adding a fresh color you love or even just updating with a fresh coat of the same color can reinvigorate the room. Check out our latest interview with Rebecca West on the LiveHappyNow podcast. This article originally appeared in the October 2018 edition of Live Happy magazine.
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Crowd watching fireworks and celebrating

Red, White and You!

Explosions booming in the air. Festive music and good food. Merriment and fellowship while celebrating our liberty—and that was in 1777. Fast-forward 244 years and celebrating Independence Day in grand fashion is still a beloved tradition. Speaking of traditions, after many cancelations in 2020, fireworks shows are back and here are five of the biggest annual Fourth of July celebrations from across the nation: The 45th Annual Macy’s Fourth of July Fireworks®—New York City at 8 p.m. ET Each year, this fireworks spectacular is usually attended by millions of people, and each year, approximately 75,000 pounds of fireworks go off. What’s more, after years on the Hudson, the event is returning to the East River with the Brooklyn Bridge as the launchpad for the 2022 celebrations. This event can be seen from multiple unobstructed areas along the river and midtown. If you’re not in New York, you can watch the festivities live on NBC. This year will also feature a drone light show during the Jonas Brothers’ performance. Check you Macys.com for entertainment lineups and viewing information. Wawa Welcome America! Festival—Philadelphia at 7 p.m. ET This weeklong extravaganza literally happens on the steps of where it all began. From the historic parade in front of Independence Hall to the “largest free concert” in America to the Grand Finale Fireworks display on Benjamin Franklin Parkway, the City of Brotherly Love will be jam-packed with blocks of patriotic parties this Fourth of July. This year’s concert headliners include: Bebe Rexha, Flo Rida and a special performance from the Philly POPS. More information can be found at WelcomeAmerica.com. Kaboom Town!—Addison, Texas at 7:30 p.m. CT For nearly three decades, thousands of people have descended upon the Dallas suburb of Addison on July 3 to catch the nationally recognized fireworks display. The all-night, family-friendly event features live music, food from local restaurants and even historic warplane flyovers. More information can be found at Addison KaboomTown and a livestream broadcast of the event can be found on the Town of Addison’s YouTube Channel. 2022 Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular—Boston at 8 p.m. ET Often called “America’s Orchestra,” the Boston Pops will be performed at Tanglewood in Lenox, MA, lead by Keith Lockhart for a live televised and streamed performance. Special guests include The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’s Jon Batiste and legendary singer Mavis Staples. In partnership with the City of Boston, the fireworks finale will be held at the Boston Commons. While this event is sold out, much of the performances and fireworks show will be televised from 8 – 10:30 p.m. ET. A Capitol Fourth—Washington, D.C. at 8 p.m. ET This free annual concert and fireworks show is held on the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., with live broadcasts on PBS and NPR. This year, viewers will also be able to see the festivities from multiple viewpoints online, including Northern Virginia, Grant Memorial over the U.S. Capitol and the White House. To cap off the evening, the National Symphony Orchestra will synchronize with an elaborate fireworks arrangement, creating a dazzling display over the buildings and monuments that decorate our nation’s capital. For musical lineups and entrainment, schedules go to PBS.org.
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Visit of the bee (Melipona quadrifasciata) in the flower of cosmos (Cosmos sulphureus).

Coaxed With Kindness

In Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, people say you have to talk sweetly to the bees, or they will fly away. “The bees are very sensitive,” said Maria Torres Tzab, who shares backyard beekeeping duties with her daughter and husband, Nicolas Castillo Ucam, in the village of Mani. Nicolas’ father warned him never to insult the bees. “Be happy when you see them,” Nicolas said, surrounded by a handful of friends and family, all nodding in agreement. “Have a good aura. They will leave if people fight—they are sad because they understand.” Sensitivity is just one characteristic that sets this particular genus of bee, Melipona, apart from the more well-known European honeybee (genus Apis). Melipona bees are commonly known as stingless bees for an obvious reason—they have no stingers. Additionally, Melipona honey is better than a trip to the pharmacy: proponents swear it cures coughs, sore throats, childhood asthma and poor body odor. Stingless bee pollen is good for anemia and natural energy, and eye drops clean and disinfect the eyes. Melipona beekeeping has been a part of Mayan culture for thousands of years. But for the last 40 years, it has been rare to find the native bees in the Yucatan, due to the introduction of European bees, use of pesticides and deforestation. Today, most people in the Yucatan have never seen a bee without a stinger. “People have vague recollections of their grandparents tending to the bees or seeing them in the tree trunks,” said Atilano Ceballos Loeza, director of the U Yits Ka’an school of ecological agriculture. “The knowledge is there. The memory is in the heart of the people.” The reinvigoration of that cultural memory became the key component of a collaboration between U Yits Ka’an and Heifer International Mexico, a branch office of the international sustainable development nonprofit. The project is called Kuxan Suum (“The Thread of Life”) after a Mayan legend of a rope that connected Mani and other communities. In this tradition, the project connects 13 communities through distribution of Melipona bees, which restore native biodiversity, promote pollination of local flora and recover Mayan culture. As part of the cultural component, the project emphasizes the ceremonies that Mayans used to bless and protect the bees, and ask for rain to nourish bee-friendly plants. Maria, like her husband, grew up hearing about Meliponas. Her father entertained her with old Mayan legends about the bees. But she never saw the sacred bees until a few years ago, when her daughter, Fatima Castillo Torres, now 26 years old, brought tree trunks of Meliponas home from U Yits Ka’an. “My dad told me how nice they were,” Maria said, her face lighting up. “It made me happy when my daughter got interested in them.” Now Maria, as well as her husband, friends and neighbors, carry on the tradition of their Mayan ancestors while bringing back an important part of the local ecosystem. And, of course, they all make sure to speak sweetly while doing so. This article orginal appeared in the April 2015 edition of Live Happy magazine.
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concept housing a young family. Mother father and child in new house with a roof

Making Your Home the Happiest Place on Earth

When Susan Froetschel, a mystery writer, moved from Washington, D.C., to East Lansing, Michigan, for her husband’s teaching job, she had only a week to find their new home. Her real-estate broker was certain she had the perfect house. It was in the location Susan wanted—just blocks from the town’s main street—and at $130,000 well within the couple’s budget. Still, Susan balked. “From the front it was completely plain and boxy without any outdoor space,” she says. “I didn’t even want to walk inside.” But the interior was lovely, and Susan had a vision of an enclosed front porch lined with windows on three sides. Today, some three years later, the 20-by-8-foot porch, with its view of a maple tree, is the blissful center of Susan’s home. “The porch is shelter and observatory,” Susan says. “It connects us to nature and to our neighborhood. It’s where my husband and I eat, entertain, work and talk late into the night. Neighbors walk by, and we wave them in for a cup of tea or a glass of wine.” Four months before her August 2013 wedding, while working nonstop to launch a new website, Silicon Valley entrepreneur Jessica Greenwalt broke her engagement. She moved from the San Francisco apartment she’d shared with her fiancé into a rental in Berkeley. With its layers of beige paint and bare lightbulbs standing in for fixtures, “it was depressing,” Jessica says, “and it was making me even more depressed.” Once she got her startup off the ground, Jessica devoted a week to create a place that reflected her frilly, ornate taste. She painted her living room walls antique yellow, replaced those naked bulbs with chandeliers, filled the apartment with vintage French Victorian furniture and placed antique knickknacks on the favorite landing places of her parakeet Lord Jello Worthington II. “I took a comically rundown apartment,” Jessica says, “and turned it into a home that reflects who I am and what I love.” In 1997, Esther Sternberg, a neuroimmunologist, lost her mother to breast cancer. Along with her grief, she was experiencing intense pain from inflammatory arthritis in her knees, wrists and shoulders. When friends invited Esther to stay in their cottage on the Greek Island of Crete, she was grateful for the change of scenery. Every day she swam in the Mediterranean and climbed the pebbly pathways, “at first hesitating,” she says, “then with increasing confidence,” to a stone chapel that sat on the ruins of an ancient temple to Asclepius, the Greek god of healing. By the time she left Crete 10 days later, Esther was on the path to healing. She was also on her way to becoming one of the most prominent scientists studying the interaction between our environment and our physical and psychological wellbeing. “What we see, what we smell, what we touch in our environment can improve our mood and our health and help us heal,” says Esther, the founding director of the University of Arizona’s Institute on Place and Wellbeing. We may not be conscious of it, she writes in Healing Spaces: The Science of Place and Well-Being, but a place can trigger memories and habits that can “cause us to spiral down into despair” or “rescue us in times of need.” All of us, Esther says, can create surroundings that tap our brain’s “internal pharmacies.” And it’s in our homes where we have the greatest capacity to take advantage of this environmental Prozac, says Travis Stork, an emergency-room physician and co-host of the syndicated talk show The Doctors. “People underestimate the impact our homes have on our health,” Travis says. “But, I’ve seen in the ER and in my own life that our home can go a long way in either undermining or enhancing our physiological and emotional health.” Sitting pretty If you want a blueprint for happiness, modern science can help provide it. As environmental psychologists study the effects of physical space on mood and emotions, neuroarchitects—a mashup of neuroscience and design—investigate how our physical surroundings influence brain processes such as stress, emotion and memory. Together, their findings suggest that the purchases we make at Home Depot or Pottery Barn can affect us in ways we never would have imagined. Consider the matter of buying a chair. Sally Augustin, Ph.D., editor of Research Design Connections, says that psychologists studying the implications of the way we sit found that our posture influences “the rich chemical stew in our brains.” People sitting up straighter have more positive views of themselves than people slouching. Sitting in a way that allows you to take up as much room as possible leads you to feel more powerful and have a higher tolerance for risk. Even padding matters. People perched on hard chairs are much more inflexible during negotiations than those on soft seats. So, when it comes to planning the family vacation, move the conversation from the stiff-backed Queen Anne chairs in your dining room into the living room with its upholstered sofa and easy chairs. Science also explains why we’re so willing to pay more for a room with a view: it’s good medicine. A 1984 study by psychologist Roger Ulrich found that surgical patients in a Pennsylvania hospital whose windows overlooked a small stand of trees left the hospital a full day sooner, had fewer complications and required less pain medication than patients with views of a brick wall. In 2006, neuroscientist Irving Biederman of the University of Southern California would discover that there’s a part of our brains, the parahippocampal cortex, that responds to sweeping views. Rich in opiate receptors, the site releases endorphins, our feel-good hormones, when we gaze at pleasing vistas. What Esther calls the brain’s “beautiful view spot” can be tickled not just by the hills of Crete but by a sliver of sky above a city skyline. Or, even by a painting or photography. In a recent study at a men’s detention center in Sonoma County, California, a mural of a savanna grassland was installed in the booking area, and versions of the same scene were placed over the cell blocks. The researchers wanted to see what, if any, impact the landscape would have on the correctional officers. They outfitted them with heart monitors, and the findings were striking. After the murals were mounted, the heart rates of the correctional officers were considerably slower when they began their shifts than they were pre-mural. And their heart rates didn’t spike by the end of their shifts the way they typically did. Researchers say we’re hard-wired to respond to nature because our survival as a species depended on careful observation of it. We needed to know how to respond to weather, spot predators, find refuge, farm and hunt when there was sunlight and sleep when there was none. Roger Ulrich, who did the study of hospital-room views, has said, “When we recognize those elements today, even if we’re highly stressed or sick, our blood pressure lowers, our immune system functions better, and we feel less stressed.” Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson coined the term “biophilic design” to describe architecture or design that connects us with a living environment. To get a biophilic buzz, we don’t need to let goats graze in our living room. We can stay in touch with the cycle of sunlight—and our own circadian rhythms—by placing sheer curtains on our windows. Or, says Sally, even incorporating visible wood grain into our environment, through hardwood floors or unpainted maple or walnut furniture, will have a calming effect. Happy places Creating what Sally calls a more “place happy” home isn’t rocket science. Or even neuroscience. But it does require us to approach buying, remodeling or decorating tweaks to our home with introspection. Architect Sarah Susanka is the author of a series of best-selling books such as The Not So Big House, Not So Big Remodeling and Not So Big Solutions for Your Home. Her philosophy is that instead of focusing on square footage and traditional room plans, we think instead about what it takes to create a home that’s an expression of our authentic self. “When our houses reflect who we really are,” she says, “we end up feeling much more at home in our lives.” Sarah says her clients are often uneasy ceding control to an interior designer. “It’s like walking onto the stage set of somebody else’s home,” she says. “It’s filled with beautiful things but it doesn’t feel like their home because these objects don’t have any meaning to them.” Jessica understands that feeling. She says her “extravagant design outburst,” was unleashed by the disquiet she felt when she moved into her former fiancé’s apartment, which was furnished to suit his tastes. “He preferred industrial-style design,” she says, “and while everything was nice, it didn’t reflect me at all. I always felt like a visitor in my own home.” Sarah suggests keeping a place journal for home-improvement projects—large or small. Make notes about the places in your life that make you comfortable and uncomfortable. Take photos and make diagrams; you might admire the beauty of a soaring greenhouse but feel diminished by the scale of the space. Supplement with pages from your favorite magazines or websites. “Our home is not just a visual thing, it’s a feel thing,” says Maxwell Ryan, creator of the design website Apartment Therapy. Sound and texture, Maxwell says, are important elements in creating an environment that feels nurturing. “Most people want their homes to be a retreat from the world,” he says, “a place where they can recharge. You won’t achieve that with rooms that feel noisy and harsh.” Maxwell is a strong advocate of the noise dampening effect of fabric. “Whether it’s curtains, rugs, wall hangings or upholstered furniture,” he says, “fabric can give a room a quieter and more peaceful feeling.” 8 Steps to a Happier Home Use space creatively. Make a dining room double as a library by adding bookshelves. Place area rugs beneath furniture arrangements to define areas for reading, conversation and work. Bring in the houseplants. Greenery helps sharpen focus, boost immunity, clear the air and boost our spirits. For a natural sleep aid, keep potted lavender in your bedroom. According to NASA, plants can remove up to 87 percent of gases like benzene and formaldehyde within 24 hours. Make a breeze. Movement in a room will remind us of a meadow on a spring day. Arrange seating for conversation. Not every chair should face the TV. Have a focal point in each room. A fireplace, bay window, sculpture or potted palm tree are all good forms of visual punctuation. Move away from the walls. Place furniture in a way that lets people meander around the space, but make sure everyone’s back is protected. Create “symbolic” points of protection with standing lamps and console tables. Create a space of your own. We all yearn for an area of retreat. This can be a window seat or a corner of a room framed with a folding screen for quiet contemplation. Cultivate smart messiness. For all the books on banishing clutter, décor that’s too minimalist can rob us of ways to highlight our values and interests. Decorate with travel mementos, family photos and objects that evoke happy memories. This article was originally published in the January 2015 edition of Live Happy magazine.
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Young woman overlooking a waterfall.

Why Most Vacations Don’t Make You Happy and How to Fix That

Vacations are supposed to be good for the soul. But often the typical formula for “getting away from it all” doesn’t work. Most people were actually not happier after a vacation, researchers note in an Applied Research in Quality of Life journal article. The average vacation was not worth the trouble. But we got interested in whether it was the vacation or actions before and after that predicted the value of time away. We conducted our own research on the vacation ingredients that scientifically increase well-being. From that study we published in Harvard Business Review, we found that with the following four actions, you have a 97 percent chance of ensuring your vacations leave you with greater energy and happiness.  BEFORE: Get excited about wild turkeys. You don’t have to have a lot of money or time to get the most out of a planned vacation or staycation. Our brains have trouble telling the difference between visualization and actual experience. Thus, if you want to get the benefits from a vacation even months early, starting dreaming about specifics now. The key is in the specificity. For example, we can’t wait to see wild turkeys each summer. We think about it for months leading up to our yearly vacation. It’s become a yearly tradition to relax on the back porch of our small rental home in Martha’s Vineyard on the night we arrive to wait for a roving band of wild turkeys to come through our yard. We usually spot the mom or dad turkey first, and then five to eight babies emerge from the underbrush. It’s a signal that summer— and our vacation—is in full swing. Whether you’re returning to an old stomping ground, going somewhere new or staying close to home, find a handful of things to get excited about ahead of time and visualize them: going with your mom for a walk around a lake near your childhood home, sipping grappa in Italy, binge-watching all of The Good Wife, or renting a convertible car for your drive down the coast. This “anticipatory savoring” can significantly increase happiness. If you’re taking your kids, spend time helping them to visualize the trip as well. Find happiness in the details. In our study, 74 percent of respondents consider the most stressful aspect of travel to be figuring out the details: travel uncertainty, transportation and being unfamiliar with the location. To overcome these obstacles, come up with a game plan, including hotels, flights and potential activities more than one month in advance. (If you need help, ask friends who have been to your destination, travel agents or local tour companies.). One month appears to be the key time to ensure higher levels of happiness from the trip; 90 percent of our happiest respondents had planned the details at least 30 days before leaving on their vacations. DURING: Extend your vacation. Happiness is a choice. So is a vacation. Our research-based advice is to take all the time off you’ve been given. According to an Expedia survey, each year Americans leave more than half a billion vacation days on the table. That’s four days of vacation per person! If you’re one of them, this is when we give you a serious talking-to (’cause we love you of course!). Take your vacation days. Every. Last. One. If you’re citing the all-to-common excuse, “I have too much to do and can’t leave,” let’s remember what happened the last time you cleared your to-do list. It filled back up again in no time! There is an infinite amount of work and chores, but we have a finite number of days to enjoy a vacation. Additionally, taking a vacation is good for your career! According to our work with Project: Time Off, people taking all their vacation time have a 6.5 percent higher chance of getting a raise or a promotion than their colleagues who leave 11 or more days of paid time off on the table. That study reminds us that staying at work does not mean getting ahead.  AFTER: Celebrate and savor. As you remember your vacation, you can extend and renew the positive emotions from the trip by savoring your good memories. One of our favorite parts of our vacation often happens days or weeks after it is over. We organize our photos and gather our extended family around our living room to show them the highlights. For our vacation to Paris with little Leo last year, the slideshow ran a bit long because the trip was that good, but thankfully our family indulged us. (We fed them chocolate éclairs and wine to ease their pain!) Savoring, especially in a group setting with social support, is a way to maximize the benefits of positive experiences. Your brain gets a chance to relive them. Additionally, get-togethers like these promote social connection, which is the greatest predictor of long-term happiness. So round up a few friends, get together your best pictures and mementos and enjoy a night of wine, wild turkeys, grappa and scenic shots you took from the convertible! If you don’t have any vacations planned, take some time to remember a great trip from the past. Practice and acknowledge gratitude for your plans each day, starting a month before your time off. If you don’t pack your gratitude and positive mindset, no destination will make you happy. But if you look for the positives, you’ll find them everywhere you travel. This article originally appeared in the April 2016 edition of Live Happy magazine.
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look for joy, Jason Mraz lookng for the good.

Jason Mraz Believes If You Look for Joy, You’ll Find It.

Since his first hit single “The Remedy (I Won’t Worry)” in 2002, Jason Mraz has built his musical career by crafting positive, upbeat music. This week sees the release of his new album, Look For The Good, a collection of songs that encourages us to find hope, optimism and gratitude despite the turmoil the world is experiencing right now. The two-time Grammy winner talked with Live Happy to explain how this collection of songs came about, what he learned in the process of writing and recording this album, and what he hopes every listener takes away from it. This is an exciting album to talk about because it's so timely. Can you tell us how this whole project came about? I knew it was going to be an election year, and election years usually bring out the debates and they’re very just heated, which is good. It’s a good thing because I think it helps us know ourselves and it helps us hear ourselves for what we are craving, what's working, what's not working. On a debate year, I wanted to make sure we release some music that wouldn’t necessarily influence debates, but just would remind us to be kind; remind us to be human and treat the others on the other side of the aisle with dignity and respect, regardless of our beliefs. At the end of the day, we’re all still these very fragile human bodies made up of microorganisms and bacterias and viruses and things. Regardless of our political beliefs and geographical borders, let’s remember that we’re human. That’s kind of what the songs are about. Let’s just remember that we’re human and we’re fragile and that there should be love for each other. I love the reggae influence on this album, and I always feel like reggae is such a great carrier for positivity anyway. Can you talk about why you wanted it on this particular set of songs? It really began as an experiment. It was something I wanted to make because as a live performer, whenever I would play a reggae song or I would say convert an older song of mine to a reggae style or fashion, I would get a different sensation from it. Then I would notice the audience would also connect to it in a different way. So, I thought there’s something magical about reggae that causes people to dance and connect. As a performer, you pair that with some positive layers, like you pair that dance with and it feels like church in a way. I'm able to sing a positive message but I'm also able to dance on the fringe of ideas that are not as easily sung in traditional pop. The reggae genre allows me to breathe life not only into love and positivity but into transformational messaging or the kind of message that breathes life into an ever-changing world. I've not been able to do that necessarily in the pop category as easily. Your music has always been so positive and uplifting. In that sense, you’ve always kind of swam upstream from the rest of the industry because positivity isn't necessarily what we get out of what’s playing on the radio. Why has that always been important to you? It starts with the love of performing and love of songwriting. I love singing, and so I became a songwriter because I love to sing. If I sit down with an instrument to sing, I just feel joy. So, it seems like what should be coming out of my mouth is something joyous, not something sad and depressing. Then if I have the luxury of someone's ear and if they're giving me their time and listening, I want to share with them my joy, not my sadness. I always found myself wanting to share joy. Usually, I sit down at a piano to celebrate joy because life has gotten dark and out of balance. I say, “Okay, I’ve got to get to my instruments because that's where joy lives. That's where a bigger spirit in me dwells.” For some reason, joy songs just work better for me. They keep me going. Does your positivity come to you naturally? Some people really have to work to think positive, and it seems like maybe you lean that way anyway. Well, I do but I have to work at it because I get it through my music practice. Trust me, I get long periods of just melancholy and sadness, so I will shift to music and I will work on music or crafting something creative until that melancholy blows over, rather than just sit with the melancholy and start adding extra weight to it. I work at it, I shift, I go to music, I go to crafting and I write. I go to journaling. I go to poetry until I feel that transformation and that transformation goes, “Aha, I am a powerful creator. I am worthy. I am new. I am renewed.” All of that comes through the creative process. "Look for the Good" is the lead single, and it’s also the name of the album. Where did that come from? That was actually a title that Michael Goldwasser submitted. Michael was the producer of this album, and he had heard his rabbi sermonize, “Look for the good and you will see the good.” So, if you go out in the world looking for it, you’ll find it. Same as bad news, look for the bad and you'll find the bad. It’s easy to find. Look for the good and you'll find the good. That was a title he submitted to this project. When he sent me an instrumental, a musical idea to work on, that was the title. All I had to do was sit down and expound upon that idea, which is what I love to do. It's just another version of gratitude. When you're asked to look for the good or when you're asked to say thank you like, “Hey, what are you thankful for?” the first thing we do is we start scanning either our memories or our environment for something good because we want to say thank you for that thing or that person or that experience in our life. That’s excellent and it’s a great leadoff. It’s a great way to introduce yourself to this whole collection. Another song that I wanted to talk to you about is “You Do You” which features Tiffany Haddish. I love how it celebrates individuality. When people listen to that, what do you hope that they hear? First, joy. Always joy. Freedom and joy. Those are my two favorite things, freedom and joy. They’re a favorite because I've been given those things in life through my parents, through the resources, through my public school. Just the system was designed for a kid like me to have freedom and joy, and so it's been my work in my adult life to make sure others and every other human being also gets to experience freedom and joy. “You Do You” is a song that says let us all be free to be ourselves and let us be joyous and let us celebrate each other for each other's freedoms. We’re all going to have a different version of what that feels like, and we’re all going to have different versions of joy. There’s a lot of different ice cream flavors in that frozen food section. Everybody wants something different. Freedom and joy, that’s what I hope people get out of “You Do You.” That’s certainly what I get out of it. Before we let you go, your wish to make the world a better place certainly doesn't end with your music, so can you tell us a little bit about your foundation? Yes, the Jason Mraz Foundation. It’s something I started back in 2011. Three years ago, we refocused it to focus specifically on inclusive arts education and the advancement of equality, and that is similar to programs that I came up through as a kid. Arts education is just such a great medium for collaboration. When you add inclusivity to that arts education, you’re not only getting a great arts training but you're getting compassion and empathy and acceptance. You’re learning how to…you’re basically learning how to sit on that subway or train car and see the good in everybody. Basically, it’s what inclusive arts education does for the purpose of the advancement of quality. Because as I said earlier, I came up through great public school that made it easy for me to experience freedom and joy, so the Jason Mraz Foundation is helping to breathe life into programs that exist, as well as create new programs that can hopefully also create experiences of freedom and joy for young people who are pursuing the arts. Everything from dancers to visual artists, to poets, to songwriters, singers, you name it, we’re out there trying to help them get a hand up in the world to experience their freedom and joy.
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