Happiness Enhancing Activities

I just read an interesting article this morning about thekey to happiness. Part of the article had the following 12 happiness enhancing activitiesn - I have included an exert from the article. Very interesting!!

12 happiness-enhancing activities - things happy people do naturally. They may sound corny but they're scientifically proven. You don't have to do them all - decide which fit you best.

1. express gratitude.
   
2. cultivate optimism: visualise a future in which everything has turned out the way you want it, then write it down.
   
3. avoid obsessing over things or paying too much attention to what others are doing.
   
4. practise acts of kindness - more than you're used to.
   
5. make time for friends; be supportive and loyal.
   
6. develop coping strategies: write down your feelings when you're feeling upset and try to see that traumatic events often make us stronger.
   
7. learn to forgive.
   
8. immerse yourself in activities and be open to new ones.
   
9. savour life's joys - linger over a pastry rather than mindlessly consuming it.
   
10. work towards meaningful goals.
    
11. practise religion and spirituality.
    
12. exercise.
    

You won't see the results from these activities right away: like anything important, you have to work at it

If you want to read more then you can find the article here: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/wellbeing/key-to-happiness-be-kind-exercise-20090909-fhnc.html

I like the sound of this. One of the things I have been trying to work on this year is positivity - I think that I will be a much happier person if I stop being so negative all the time and try to be positive. And that's what another part of the article talks about - so I'm not so silly afterall aye ;-)

Be Positive: Positivity makes you more attractive and resilient, with lower blood pressure, less pain, fewer colds, better sleep. Increase the number of positive emotions in your day, however fleeting. One can lead to another and so on, until we're in an upward spiral of positivity. Take a moment to find the good in a situation. Don't over-generalise ('I can never hold down a relationship'), jump to conclusions ('I'll never finish this job') or ruminate endlessly. Any healthy distraction - a run, a swim - that lifts your mood is good

Acupuncture

Well after talking to Marea and thinking about it for a while I finally decided to try having acupuncture. I've actually had acupuncture before to help with OOS stuff when I was at uni and I really liked it :-) If anyone in Wellington is thinking about getting acupuncture then let me know and I'll pass on the guys details. It was at a place in the city end of Karori and he used traditional Chinese acupuncture which is much better than the sort you get at the local physio :-)

[edited because grumpy husband doesn't like me putting personal info on the internet]

Right... back to Brisbane and not random ranting! So I went along yesterday in my lunch break, had a big long chat to the chick there - ticked way too many boxes on her sheet of symptoms, and lay down on the table. Her theory is that a lot of my problems stem from liver and spleen issues, so that is what she is treating. I had needles put in the top of my right foot, side of the right ankle, my right albow area (the squissy bit when you fold your arms), my right wrist, in my frown lines (between the eyes ;-) ), and one in either side of my neck :-) I don't know if last night is anything to go by but Paul reckons that I barely moved all night - so I'm taking that as a good sign :-) Fingers crossed aye :-)

Righto - back to work now :-)

Killer Cows

Ha ha - Shanan just sent me the funniest stuff article. The title is "Warning after fatal cow attacks" :-) SEEEEEEEE - I told you all the cows are scary!!

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/europe/2802208/Warning-after-fatal-cow-attacks

Mum arrives tomorrow

Yay - mum arrives in Brisbane tomorrow. I'm finally really excited about it too :-) Mum has now left London for good and is stopping off in Brissy for 5 days on her way back to NZ. So she'll have a nice, restful and warm 5 days here before freezing back in NZ ;-) lol :-)

The scary thing (as with most international travel) is that mum is currently on a plane flying from London to Hong Kong and doesn't arrive in Brissy until 10:10am tomorrow morning. So while I go about my normal day - work, eat, lunchtime run (new 'normal' thing), go home, eat dinner, clean the house in preparation for mum (reluctant 'normal' thing), sleep, get up, eat breakfast, shower, work and drive to the airport - during that whole time my poor mum will be on planes or in airports - yuk!! Oh well hopefully she can relax in Hong Kong though as Paul and I bought her a 5 hour pass to one of the premium lounges there :-)

Consumer power works

I was very happy to read on the stuff website this morning that Cadbury have given in the consumer pressure and are stopping using palm oil in their chocolate (http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/2758975/Cadbury-stops-using-palm-oil-in-chocolate). While I realise that the palm oil will probably just get used in bio fuel or something similar, at least one industry is being forced the make a stand :-) Plus now I can stop my boycott of cadbury - phew ;-) Mmmmm - chocolate :-)

Poor kitty

A very sad thing happened on the way to work this morning. I was a bit late leaving home (due to having lain in bed for a good 10-15 mins listening to Paul get ready as I was too lazy to get up ... and it was cold :-) ). Anyway so I had to run half the way to the train to make sure I didn't miss it as the next one didn't go till 25 mins later. Half way down our street I glanced onto the side of the road and there was a poor dead kitty cat :-( Someone had killed it with their car :-( So sad!! Poor kitty kitty. At least they put it on the side of the road though as some people just leave them. So Paul rang up the council this morning and they are going to go out and pick it up and return it to its owner (cats are microchipped here).

I don't think I want a kitty cat anymore - they get run over to much! I'm definitely keen to get a doggy though. If anyone wants to build me a fence then feel free as we can't get a dog until we get a higher fence at the front and on one side and that is way down the list of priorities at the moment. The top of the list at the moment is:
Paint the house (getting quotes at the moment - ouch!!)
Re stain the deck
Finish off the vege garden
Buy another citris tree for the gap
Buy a workshop/shed
Redo the manky bathroom
Fence the front of the section

And way more importantly we have to sort out our stuff that is stored at the Browns as my 2 years is up now!

Trying the email thing

Right so I haven't been very good at updating my blog recently. I heard from Marea ages ago that you could update your blog by emailing it. I thought that sounded pretty cool and would a good way to update my blog on the fly without having to log onto blogger - something that isn't a good idea in a lot of places :-) So here is my first attempt :-)

Just to see what it looks like if you include pictures I am including a picture in this email too.