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House of Shine Helps Kids Find Their Life’s Passion

As a lifelong educator, Claudia Beeny, Ph.D., has seen how beneficial it is to take a break from the daily barrage of noise and distraction. “You need quiet,” Claudia says. “Slow down long enough for your head to hear what your heart is saying.” She speaks from personal experience. It was during one of her own breaks that she realized her dream was to start House of Shine, a North Texas-based nonprofit that offers mentoring programs that help women and children find their true passions. She believes once people take this time for self-reflection, they not only improve their lives but the world as a whole. “We all want to know at the end of the day that our life here on Earth mattered,” says Claudia, who spent 23 years working in higher education. Despite her professional success, she felt disconnected from her creative side. So, a decade ago, she started a blog where she shared one creative idea every day. The value she felt from this project ignited the spark that led to the creation of House of Shine. Many of her early insights from the blog are woven into House of Shine’s custom workshops, weekly classroom curriculum and projects such as a DO52 kit that has action words for every week of the year to encourage creativity and nurture self-reflection. People of all ages and backgrounds have been drawn to House of Shine’s workshops, including schoolchildren, grandmothers and stay-at-home moms. “What binds everyone together is the desire to live a full and rich life,” Claudia says. During a typical workshop, Claudia shares personal insights and raises questions about a main topic. For example, one recent theme was happiness. Attendees then had time to reflect, journal and discuss their answers in small groups. It’s this community mentoring that helps make the programs successful, Claudia says. She notes that participants learn as much from each other as they do from experts. “We’re the pause in people’s lives,” she says. “The real work is when they take the time to think about how these concepts matter to them.” Never Too Early Katie Kolkmeier, a college student of Claudia’s long before the nonprofit was formed, continues to benefit from House of Shine’s ideas. Katie says Claudia has always been a natural at mentoring and life coaching. “I feel like I am a product of House of Shine,” Katie says. “My time with Claudia brought out in me what I never knew was there.” After graduating, Katie decided to start working for House of Shine so she could help others have similar life-changing discoveries. Now, as the director of programming, Katie helps write and teach the curriculum used in all grade levels. Most of the students who take the weekly classes are journaling and exploring their talents for the first time. “It gives the students an opportunity to hold a mirror up to themselves,” she says. The curriculum helps students pinpoint their interests and find their innate abilities. Students can choose school assignments, service projects and internships they care about. When kids learn their core values at a young age, they will be set up for success for the rest of their lives, Katie says. One of the most important lessons is “helping people see that things that come to you naturally aren’t meaningless.” Read more: The Path to Purpose Group Effort Even if these concepts sound simple, Claudia has seen how easy it is to get lost in the daily struggle of work and excuses and insecurity. But things can get back on course, she says. “You already know what you need to do to shine,” she says. “Often the question is, ‘Am I listening and acting on what I need to do?’” House of Shine is always seeking volunteers to help with fundraisers, special events and craft projects. Claudia looks forward to continued growth and sees potential in offering curriculum and workshops nationally. “There is a need,” she says. “People want to have this conversation together.” Read more: 4 Ways to Stay Engaged With Lifelong Learning Mary Dunklin is a writer and editor who specializes in family, fitness and travel. Her last article for Live Happy was about yoga's impact on depression.

Lifestyle

7 Ways to Beat the End-of-Summer Blues

As summer winds down, so does some of the fun and freedom we enjoy during this time of year. For kids, it’s time to head back to school and activities; for parents, it means supervising homework, making lunches and keeping everyone on a schedule. This transition can cause the blues for children and adults alike. One of the best ways to handle the change is to develop a solid strategy to make things easier and less stressful. Here are seven suggestions to beat the end-of-summer blues: 1. Plan ahead Remember past challenges and think about how to improve in the future. If you have kids, teach them problem-solving by involving them in the planning. Find ways to modify your family’s daily routine, including transitioning to an earlier wake-up time once school starts. Instead of shocking them awake on the first day of school, start implementing earlier bedtimes and earlier wake-up times about a week before school starts, backing up five to ten minutes each night until you reached the correct time. 2. Focus on the positives As the weather grows colder, instead of staring out the window pining for the sun, get cozy in oversized sweaters and cuddle up with your family. Fall and winter provide opportunities to engage in indoor bonding activities such as puzzles, baking and the like. Light a fire, roast marshmallows and teach your kids to make hot chocolate from scratch. Before you know it, holiday festivities will be here, bringing all kinds of cheer. Have fun in the fall by planning your Halloween costumes, begin holiday crafting or even start working on your holiday wish lists. 3. Get the family involved Get together with your whole family to brainstorm fun activities you can do in the coming months. Create a giant calendar and mark off school and work holidays. Then choose dates for fun activities during the fall and winter. Make those activities stand out on your calendar by using bright colors and stickers. 4. Create an end-of-summer tradition Plan a big barbecue with friends and family; spend an end-of-summer weekend away or plan a staycation; plant new flowers in your garden; or clean out closets and donate what you no longer use to those in need. Whatever you decide to do, as long as you enjoy it, commit to doing this same thing every year. Read more: 4 Ways to Navigate Life's Transitions With Ease 5. Make a scrapbook or collage Do an art project with your family that includes photos, ticket stubs and other memories to help document the summer. Put it in a visible place in your home to remind yourself of the fun that you just experienced. (This exercise could also be your end-of-summer ritual!) 6. Work on goal-setting Think intentionally about what each member of your family would like to accomplish or improve on in the coming months. Many people believe that this type of planning is only for January, but setting goals only once a year can increase the pressure on you to complete those goals, and wind up resulting in disappointment. Making seasonal goals is more effective and a great positive activity. 7. Make a fall and winter music playlist Pick out songs to represent the fall and winter holidays or music that evokes feelings of joy for this time of year. You can find spooky songs for Halloween in October, festive tunes to play during Thanksgiving in November, and there is no shortage of holiday favorites to choose from in December. Instead of closing out the summer with the blues, end the season with some proactive and happiness-filled fall and winter to-dos! Read more: 3 Tips for a Low-Stress Start to the School Year Stacy Kaiser is a licensed psychotherapist, author, relationship expert and media personality. She is also the author of the best-selling book How to Be a Grown Up: The Ten Secret Skills Everyone Needs to Know and an editor at large for Live Happy. Stacy is a frequent guest on television programs such as Today and Good Morning America.

Lifestyle

Make a Happiness Plan for Retirement

Sally Balch Hurme, author of the new book Get the Most Out of Retirement: Checklist for Happiness, Health, Purpose, and Financial Security, published by the American Bar Association, says that people facing the “R” word are split on the idea; some look forward to a leisurely life on the golf course or becoming world travelers, others are terrified at the prospect of not having enough to do. Recently retired after spending 25 years practicing law, Sally wrote her book to help others with life planning. Not wholly comfortable with the word “retirement” and being the “least retired” person she knows, she wanted to create a handbook that covers all aspects of life after work. “A lot of people dread retirement because they don’t know what it is going to be like,” she says. “I am having a blast, so I hope I can give [readers] some things to think about so we can go into retirement without trepidation and have a positive outlook.” Find yourself again We spend decades defining ourselves by our careers. One of the first steps into retirement, Sally says, is finding out who you are again or want to be for the next few decades. This new life stage is an opportunity to spend your time on what’s important to you. “It’s going to be different with every person, but even though you are no longer an employee or have this job title or run this business, you are still a lot of other things: you are a spouse and a parent and a grandparent. I am still a lawyer even though I am not practicing law. I still have my volunteer commitments, I still love to garden, I still love to travel.” Read more: The Path to Purpose Plan for change When your new adventure starts, plan A doesn’t always work out. And when it doesn’t, you’ll need to fall back on plan B or even C and have a good dose of resilience. In Sally’s case, two months into her retirement, her husband’s declining health forced them to alter their plans of traveling abroad. So, have some flexibility in your gameplan. “Instead of going to Europe for a month, we plan around shorter weekends,” she says. “We did relocate so I can be around family and have some assistance with caregiving. Health issues are not necessarily the primary reason to move from plan A, but at our age, that is something that we do need to keep in the back of our minds.” Repurpose Finding purpose is great at any age, but it can be especially meaningful when you have more time to dedicate. Sally recommends volunteering more, finding part-time work in a field you enjoy or continuing your education. Researchers at Florida State University’s Pepper Institute on Aging and Social Policy find that there is no other greater force for successful aging than meaningful educational experiences. And, most state colleges offer discounted classes for retired people. Entrepreneurship is another popular way people can embark on a career they have always wanted. According to Sally’s book, people in their 50s and 60s make up a quarter of all startup businesses. Retirees often have their own money to work with and a lifetime of networking and experience to rely on. Stay connected The Japanese never retire from being active and boast some of the longest life spans. Their philosophy of ikigai, or a worthwhile life, is doing what you love around the people you love to make the world a better place. Sally says it may be a good idea to get involved in your local Rotary Club or chamber of commerce to contribute to the greater good. “Broadening our social networks can add value to the community around us in multiple, exceptional ways,” she says. “Getting over that trepidation about trying something new” can help kick-start a new chapter. While it may be daunting at first, having a plan, or multiple plans, can provide plenty of opportunities to keep you occupied, active and connected to the world, which can add meaningful years to your life. “There are so many options out there, you need to explore and not be timid to investigate,” Sally says. “You’ve got the time to plan and execute a very exciting second life.” Read more: 8 Ways to Thrive in Midlife and Beyond Chris Libby is the Section Editor for Live Happy magazine. Some of his recent articles for the magazine include Happiness is a Walk in the Park and Find Your Funny Bone.

science

Happy News of the Week

Growing Link Between Health and Happiness Top researchers of subjective well-being recently released a comprehensive review on the connection between health and happiness. Based on recent findings, the case is strong enough to encourage health practitioners to add “happiness assessments” when asking patients about their behaviors. Admittedly, the report does call for more research into this area, but the promising results are trending toward happiness playing an important role in our mental and physical health. The Happiest College in America Is… Vanderbilt University has the happiest students in North America, according to The Princeton Review, edging out Rice University, which claimed the title last year. The test-prep outfit’s annual guide The Best 382 Colleges 2018 ranks schools on categories ranging from Best-Run College (University of Richmond), the Most Beautiful Campus (University of San Diego) and Best Campus food (University of Massachusetts-Amherst) based on student surveys. Vanderbilt also boasts an academic rating of 95 percent and has a near perfect quality of life rating. Money Can Buy You Happiness In a recent study published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers found that money can buy you happiness in the form of time-saving activities, such as paying someone to mow your lawn or clean your house. People who traded cash for time were found to be less anxious at the end of the day and reported less stress as well. The study also found that when we suffer from a “time famine,” we are putting our health at risk by forming unhealthy eating, exercising and sleeping habits. Be True to You The secret to well-balanced happiness may include embracing emotions that aren’t very pleasant, such as anger, sadness and contempt. According to Maya Tamir, Ph.D., a psychology professor at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem who worked on the study The Secret to Happiness: Feeling Good or Feeling Right?, researchers found that we are better off if the emotions we are experiencing match the emotions we desire. “If we embrace the feelings that we have, for instance, when we feel sad, we could accept these feelings as natural and understand that there is nothing wrong with us,” Maya says. Emoji for Hire We often send each other emojis to convey certain moods that we are feeling without using words, such as a laughing smiley face or a frustrated face-palm. Since people naturally like to mimic behaviors, or what scientists call “affective contagion,” a management professor from the University of Delaware who studies workplace performance wanted to see if emojis had an impact on how people behave at work. What he found was when people receive friendly and positive messages, they are put into a good mood which can then lead to the release of dopamine in the brain. Dopamine controls the reward and pleasure centers of the brain and allows us to be more creative and find new ways to solve problems. Chris Libby is the Section Editor for Live Happy magazine.

science

10 Best Books to Inspire Courage

Many make the mistake of thinking that you need to feel courageous and confident before you take that first brave step. In fact it’s the other way around: You have to act while trembling. Doing the thing that scares you emboldens your courage. You must be willing to feel uncomfortable and awkward—and resist the urge to run in the other direction—when it’s time to be brave. Rather than waiting for a magical moment when you feel filled with strength, these ten tales of daring will inspire you to act courageously even when you are afraid. Reading biographies of courageous individuals such as Martin Luther King, Jr., and Nelson Mandela stirs and inspires our souls, and we recommend those books as well. But because the achievements of these icons can seem so far beyond our own capabilities, their stories help us dream but not necessarily to act or accomplish. For that we need to start a bit closer to earth—with books written by “ordinary” human beings or spiritual teachers, filled with well-chosen words of motivation and inspiration, laced with the humility and wisdom that comes from having lived and learned. By reading these books we might even find the hero inside ourselves. 1. Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent and Lead by Brene Brown, Ph.D. Theodore Roosevelt once famously said, “It is not the critic who counts…the credit belongs to the man…in the arena.” In Daring Greatly, professor at University of Houston and motivational speaker and writer Brene Brown challenges readers to take the risk and step into the arena—whatever that may be for each person. Discover that vulnerability is not weakness, it is actually the quickest path to courage. By daring greatly and sharing our feelings and experiences, Brene writes, we find a life of meaning and common humanity. Inspiring words: “Sometimes when we dare to walk into the arena the greatest critic we face is ourselves.” 2. Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man and Life’s Greatest Lesson by Mitch Albom Newspaper sports columnist and author Mitch Albom had a college professor named Morrie Schwartz, who was also a trusted mentor. Finding him 20 years later, Mitch chronicles the life wisdom and insights Morrie shares with him during his last few months of life. Morrie’s treasured advice comes as gifts of courage to every reader: “Do the kinds of things that come from the heart. When you do, you won’t be dissatisfied. You won’t be envious. You won’t be longing for somebody else’s things. On the contrary, you will be overwhelmed with what comes back.” Inspiring words: “The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. And you have to be strong enough to say, if the culture doesn’t work, don’t buy it.” 3. The Light of the World: A Memoir by Elizabeth Alexander When acclaimed poet and Pulitzer Prize finalist Elizabeth Alexander suddenly loses her husband, she strikes out on a quest for meaning, reflecting on her love story and devastating loss. This beautiful memoir reminds us of life’s most important blessings of love, art, family and community. Inspiring words: “Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final. Don’t let yourself lose me. Nearby is the country they call life. You will know it by its seriousness. Give me your hand.” 4. The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch Carnegie Mellon professor Randy Pausch was diagnosed with terminal cancer when he gave his last lecture, “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.” A wonderful book to read and reread, The Last Lecture is about realizing the value of time and acquiring the drive to overcome obstacles in order to pursue your dreams. Finish this book with a renewed desire to really live. Inspiring words: “The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.” 5. The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself by Michael A. Singer Spiritual teacher Michael Singer shows us how to let go of negative thinking patterns and expand our consciousness through meditation and mindfulness. Remove the limits of what you think is possible for you by understanding your inner energy. Inspiring words: “Only you can take inner freedom away from yourself, or give it to yourself. Nobody else can.” 6. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi Neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi was constantly striving and deferring gratification for his future until he became a patient faced with a stage IV lung cancer diagnosis. His powerful memoir seeks to answer what really matters in life and what mortality can teach us about living. As one reviewer said, this book will leave you “stunned and hopeful at the same time” with his quiet resilience. Inspiring words: “The fact of death is unsettling, yet there is no other way to live.” 7. The Places that Scare You:A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times by Pema Chodron American teacher of Tibetan Buddhism Pema Chodron writes that we can let our lives make us bitter or make us better. We can hide with fear or we can evolve to more compassionate and kind people. Awaken to the goodness in you and connect with others by accepting yourself and your imperfections. Inspiring words: “To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest. To live fully is to be always in no-man's-land, to experience each moment as completely new and fresh. To live is to be willing to die over and over again.” 8. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho Writer and philosopher Paulo Coelho set out to write a book about his own life—as someone who took too long to go in pursuit of his dreams because he thought his dreams impossible. Instead he wrote The Alchemist, a mystical fable of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who goes in search of worldly treasure, which became an international bestseller. Through his journey, we learn the value of listening to our inner voice and heart. After you read this awe-inspiring classic, get a renewed sense of determination to pursue your dreams. Inspiring words: “Don't give in to your fears. If you do, you won't be able to talk to your heart.” 9. Sit, Walk, Don’t Talk: How I Survived a Silent Meditation Retreat by Jennifer Howd In her debut memoir, Sit, Walk, Don’t Talk, Jennifer Howd takes us inside her journey to a silent meditation retreat. Get a unique perspective inside her mind as she goes to battle with her inner critic. With compassion, insight and humor, she takes the reader on a personal walk through her mind and shows us the liberation that comes from accepting our imperfect selves. Inspiring words: “You don't have to necessarily go away for days on end," she says, "but just sitting still and being quiet and being with yourself and just allowing yourself tobeand notdois so beneficial on so many levels. It's kind of a radical idea to do these days you know because we're so busy." 10. #GIRLBOSS by Sophia Amoruso Though a lighter read, #GIRLBOSS is serious about empowerment. If you’ve ever felt like your path to success is filled with blunders and naysayers, get fired up with author Sophia Amoruso. Broke and directionless in her 20s, Sophia turned a hobby of selling vintage clothes into a successful fashion retail business. Today she’s the founder, CEO and Creative Director of Nasty Gal, a $100+ million fashion retailer with more than 350 employees. Her success story will inspire yours. Inspiring words: “No matter where you are in life, you'll save a lot of time by not worrying too much about what other people think about you. The earlier in your life that you can learn that, the easier the rest of it will be.” Read more: 10 Life-Changing Books That Will Stay With You Read more: 10 Best Books to Help Achieve Your Goals Sandra Bilbray is a contributing editor to Live Happy, and Founder and CEO of themediaconcierge.net.

Woman doing yoga with wellness bracelet.

Self-Care

5 Wearable Tech Devices That Increase Emotional Awareness

In ancient Greece, philosophers believed so strongly that self-knowledge was the key to human potential that they inscribed the phrase “Know Thyself” onto the sacred Temple of Apollo. Since that time, philosophers, religious leaders and authors alike have mused about the nature of humanity and our sense of self. What are humans made of? How do we experience pain? What are emotions and why do we have them? Until recently, most of the conclusions that were drawn came from external observation or speculation. However, thanks to evolving technology, we now have the ability to connect our external and internal worlds in ways that Socrates or Plato couldn’t have imagined. Now, with wearable fitness and wellness trackers, something can tell us what’s going on inside our bodies on an intellectual, emotional and even molecular level at all times. We are witnessinga new era in which people can get a personal, real-time snapshot inside their bodies to understand how stimuli like stress can increase heart rate, speed up breathing and even produce headaches. Taking your emotional temperature While many wearable technology products focus on tracking physical health, a number of wearables are now emerging specifically to assess emotional health. One of my favorite wearables, called theSpire Stone, is a small lava-shaped rock with a clip that attaches to your waistband or bra strap. It uses your breathing patterns to determine if you are feeling calm, focused or tense. As a naturally anxious person, I found this feedback loop useful. However, about five days into my trial period with Spire, this device went from fascinating to fundamentally transformative. In-Spired reality check Through a terrible series of circumstances, my 8-year-old daughter Ana broke her neck last summer in our backyard pool. Fortunately, she is now doing fine and launching back-handsprings all over the house. But at the time, I remember driving Ana to the hospital to get X-rays while wearing my Spire stone, and surprisingly, it said that I was feeling quite calm. It wasn’t until we were walking out of the hospital, with Ana in a giant neck brace, that the Spire stone began to vibrate, indicating that I was feeling tense. And I thought, “Yeah I know!! My daughter just broke her neck.” But the vibration caused me to pause and think about why I was feeling tense. I realized that I was worried about what other people would think about me as the mom of a child with a broken neck, rather than being present with Ana and supporting her as she wrestled with her new reality—a summer of no gymnastics, no lacrosse, no swimming. This 30-second feedback loop from the Spire Stone was just enough to help me reframe my thoughts and mindfully pivot to be more like the mother I wanted to be. The next generation This is technology at its finest — helping to raise our consciousness and fuel well-being through science-based solutions. And right now, so many emerging technologies coming onto the market will help us to gain insight into living happier, healthier lives. Here are a few wearables that I find particularly fascinating: Muse—a brain-sensing headband that provides real-time insight into your state of mind and teaches you how to overcome distraction Feel—a gender-neutral bracelet that uses skin conductance, body temperature and heart rate to track emotion and coach you toward greater well-being Bellabeat Leaf Urban—a bracelet, necklace or clip that measures stress, breathing patterns, sleep quality and even tracks menstrual and ovulation cycles Pip—a small handheld device that monitors changes in skin pores to track stress levels and then recommends strategies to reduce stress through activities in its companion app. If you are interested in learning about other wearables for tracking physical and emotional health, check out my bookThe Future of Happiness or visit happiness.tech for direct links to over 100 apps, gadgets and wearables dedicated to increasing well-being. Amy Blankson, aka the ‘Happy Tech Girl,’ is on a quest to help individuals balance productivity and well-being in the digital era. Amy, with her brother Shawn Achor, co-founded GoodThink, which brings the principles of positive psychology to lifeand works with organizations such as Google, NASA and the U.S. Army. Her new book is The Future of Happiness: 5 Modern Strategies for Balancing Productivity and Well-being in the Digital Era.

science

Be Real About How You Feel

New research suggests that a key to happiness may include embracing more negative emotions. Traditionally, psychologists have held that in order to increase happiness, it is important to increase positive emotions and decrease the negative. However, in the new study “The Secret to Happiness: Feeling Good or Feeling Right?,” researchers suggest that people are happier when the emotions they experience align with the emotions they desire, even if those are unpleasant, such as anger or contempt. “People are happier if they feel what they want to feel or if they want what they feel,” says Maya Tamir, Ph.D., lead researcher on the study and psychology professor at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “If people want to feel unpleasant emotions, they are happier if they feel them, at least to some extent. If we feel angry, but consider these the right feelings to have—we’re probably better off than if our feelings don’t match what we want them to be.” Embrace your dark side Maya explains that some negative emotions can be helpful and even beneficial when those emotions are aligned with our desires. For instance, if you are feeling angry about a great injustice, your desires are probably related to your core values. The anger you feel may spur you into action, which can provide meaning in your life as you work to correct the injustice. Embracing your anger may motivate you to pursue a fitness goal if you are out of shape or strive for a promotion at work if you are not happy with your current financial situation. If your emotions are misaligned with your values, Maya says, that can have the opposite effect and lead to dissatisfaction. One example would be getting angry at your child for breaking a dish but then feeling guilty later for being too harsh about the mishap. By pursuing the emotions we care about most and embracing the feelings we have about those emotions, we can feel better about ourselves and have less inner conflict. “Happiness is not only about the emotions you have, but also about the emotions you want to have,” Maya explains. “You are happier when these two match than when they mismatch, regardless of whether that means feeling more or less pleasant overall.” Don't sweep negative emotions under the rug Stacy Kaiser, Live Happy editor at large and psychotherapist, strongly agrees with the findings and says that being true to who you are is an important part of emotional well-being. “Dismissing or ignoring our feelings typically leads to greater sadness and discomfort overall,” she says. “I regularly encourage people to allow themselves to feel their feelings, good or bad, to process them and to move forward,” she says. “Taking time out to do this typically provides relief in the moment and greater happiness overall.” Read more: Are You Trying Too Hard to Be Happy? Read more: Face Failure Head On With These Essential Tools Chris Libby is the Section Editor for Live Happy magazine. His last feature article was Happiness Is a Walk in the Park.

Live Happy Tips to Buy Yourself Free Time

science

Buy Yourself Free Time to Find Happiness

A recent study published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), found that even though we may have more money and our income levels are higher, the unintended consequence for this success is an unhealthy decrease in our free time. And that’s bad for happiness. When you are constantly pressed for time, the negative stress can increase anxiety and lead to unhealthy habits in eating, sleeping and exercising, the study found. But, if you take your earnings and trade them for time, such as paying someone to mow the lawn or clean your house, you can free up time to spend with the people you enjoy doing activities that bring you pleasure. Time: the scarce commodity “We spend our time in ways that doesn’t pay out in terms of our overall well-being,” says Christine Carter, Ph.D., sociologist and author of The Sweet Spot: How to Accomplish More by Doing Less. “Neurologically, the busier that we feel and the more overwhelmed that we feel, the worse we are at managing our time, planning out how we’ll spend our time and perceiving time.” She says that any time we feel like we don’t have enough of something, it creates a “scarcity mindset” in our brain which triggers our fight-or-flight response. “It worsens our relationship with time and productivity.” Too many things to do and not enough time to do them results in both mental and physical distress. When your brain is constantly zipping back and forth between tasks, you are burning glucose and oxygen and creating physical tension. Read more: Upping Your Downtime Take time to daydream According to the study, if we spend money on time-saving activities instead of material goods, we may feel more relief at the end of the day and have a more a positive mindset. If we string these positive events together, as explained by Barbara Fredrickson’s broaden and build theory, we have a greater chance at improving our life satisfaction. But, if we overdo it, we can stoke feelings of having less control over our lives or we can fill that time with more of what got us in trouble in the first place, such as checking email, scrolling through our phones or just doing more work. “If you are focused and your cognition is engaged at all times, the human brain really starts to have problems,” Christine says. “A lot of the things that we pay people to do for us take away our unspoken mind-wandering time. That’s when a lot happens in the brain.” She adds that trading money for time is good if we use our free time the right way, like spending your it to find fulfillment and connect with people we are close to, which is essential for our well-being. Also, having plain-old down time is not a bad thing, either. She says if we don’t use our extra time to let the mind wander, the brain will find inopportune times to day dream anyway and interrupt your creativity and productivity. Read more: 33 Ideas on Play Spend it wisely Pedram Shojai, the best-selling author of The Urban Monk: Eastern Wisdom and Modern Hacks to Stop Time and Find Success, Happiness, and Peace says that time, money and energy are interchangeable in a lot of ways. He explains that when we run out money, we can often borrow more. “If you run out of time, you’re done.” When we burden ourselves with too much to do and not enough time to do it, we fall into what Pedram calls the time-compression syndrome on his website The Urban Monk. All that stress and worry takes us out of the present moment and makes it hard to focus on the task at hand. Pedram says, while we can swap money for other people’s time, we also need to be more mindful of where that time is being allocated and to pinpoint the moments in our lives where we are really bound. “It requires a good understanding of what your goals are, what you want to be and where you want your life to go to,” Pedram says. “Really look at how you are allocating that time so you are not being frivolous or needlessly wasteful.” Good-quality time could be spent savoring the moments with your young children, catching up on much needed rest and getting more exercise. All of these factors can increase lasting happiness. Read more: How to Buy Happiness for Less Than $25 Chris Libby is the Section Editor for Live Happy magazine.

Self-Care

Ikigai: The Secret to a Long and Happy Life

Ikigai is a Japanese concept that roughly translates to “the happiness of always being busy.” More broadly, it means having a purpose or reason for living. A new book called Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Lifewas written by Spaniards Héctor García and Francesc Miralles, who came up with the idea while chatting in a bar in Tokyo. Could ikigai, they wondered, be the reason Japan has the highest life expectancy in the world (86.8 years for women and 80.5 years for men, according to the World Health Organization), and lays claim to the highest ratio of people who live to the age of 100 or beyond? To explore that question, Héctor and Francesc decided to interview Japan’s centenarians in person. After a year of research, they decamped for Ogimi, a rural town of 3,200 on the north end of the island of Okinawa. Ogimi has been nicknamed the Village of Longevity, as people live longer here than in any other place on the planet. This distinction, of course, wouldn’t mean much if these elders turned out to be frail, sickly and depressed. But, as Héctor and Francesc discovered, the longest-living people in the world exude happiness, friendliness and a remarkable vigor. (One woman who had recently turned 104 beat the authors in gateball, a fast-paced, croquet-like sport popular among Okinawa’s older residents.) As they conducted their interviews with the eldest residents of the town, the authors recognized that something even more powerful than the area’s rich natural resources and beauty was at work: “an uncommon joy that flows from its inhabitants and guides them through the long and pleasurable journey of their lives.” Here are some regular habits that help the elders of Ogimi cultivate ikigai. They stay busy without hurrying. The older residents of Ogimi are always doing something, and they approach each activity attentively and slowly, whether preparing tea or crafting objects out of wicker. Every single elder the authors spoke to has a vegetable garden they tend to daily. As one centenarian noted, “I plant my own vegetables and cook them myself. That’s my ikigai.” They nurture connections with friends every day. Ogimi is divided into 17 neighborhoods and each one has a president and other community members in charge of things like culture, festivals, social activities and longevity. There are few restaurants and no bars in Ogimi. Instead, social life revolves around the community center where everyone gathers frequently for celebrations and events such as birthday parties, weekly gateball competitions and karaoke. Read more about Okinawa: Secrets to a Happy Life They move throughout the day. Even the Ogimi townspeople who are over 80 and 90 years old are still highly active. They don’t go to the gym or exercise intensely, but they are on the move during the course of their daily routines. Most get up early and spend an hour or so before or after breakfast tending their gardens. They meet friends for walks. And almost everyone follows a morning warm-up called “radio taiso,” gentle exercises that were first introduced to Japan through radio broadcasts in 1928. The movements, such as lifting your arms above your head and circling them to your sides, are simple and take only a few minutes. But they’re an effective, low-intensity form of dynamic stretching that helps keep residents limber. Try the calisthenics yourself with this brief video. They eat healthy foods in moderation. Okinawans, research has shown, eat a diet rich in vegetables and herbs, and low in animal products. Daily staples, like seaweed, sweet potatoes, green tea and miso, are high in antioxidants. Okinawans consume one-third as much sugar and nearly half as much salt as the rest of Japan. Locals, the authors note, eat a wide variety of foods, especially vegetables and spices—an average of 18 different foods a day. They also consume fewer calories—1,758 per day compared to 2,068 in the rest of Japan and an estimated 2,200 to 3,300 calories in the U.S. The Okinawan diet is built around nutrient-dense, low-calorie vegetables and fruits. They also subscribe to the Japanese concept of hara hachi bu, which means “fill your belly to 80 percent.” In other words, stop eating before you feel completely full. They connect with nature every day. Okinawans spend time in nature—often while moving and engaging with friends. One Ogimi centenarian sums it up this way: “I wake up at 5 every morning, leave the house and walk to the sea. Then I go to a friend’s house, and we have tea together. That’s the secret to a long life: getting together with people, and going from place to place.” Read more about global secrets for happiness: What the Heck Is Hygge? Shelley Levitt is a freelance journalist based in Los Angeles and editor at large for Live Happy. Her work has appeared in Real Simple, People, SUCCESS and more.

Podcast Science

The Neuroscience of Motivation with Elliot Berkman

If you’re having trouble staying motivated the issue may be starting with your brain. Neuroscientist Elliot Berkman shares how to keep your brain motivated in this episode of Live Happy Now. Elliot Berkman is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Oregon and Director of the Social and Affective Neuroscience Lab. He studies the motivational and cognitive factors that contribute to success and failure at health goals such as cigarette smoking cessation and dieting. His work uses knowledge of brain function, structure, and connectivity to design and improve interventions on health behavior and wellbeing. What you’ll learn in this podcast: Achieving goals is not as important to well-being as striving for them Why habits are hard to break and how you can create better habits How to overcome temptations to create lasting change Links and resources mentioned in this episode: Learn more about Berkman Consultants Follow Elliot on Twitter

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