Christmas Reminder

We all tend to forget that Christmas is not just about gifts.

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Gratitude is Key to Happiness

Gratitude, the emotion of thankfulness and feeling blessed, is one of the essential ingredients for living a good life. One of the simplest tool to increase happiness therefore is to remind yourself regularly of all the people, experiences and things you can be thankful for that they are in your life.

This week, I asked students in my Psychology 101 class for what they will be grateful tomorrow at Thanksgiving. Most answered spontaneously “family, friends, and good food”. However, some students answers revealed life experiences, hardships, and maturity one might not expect in such young people.

One young woman for example told me about her struggles as single mother. She described herself as trouble maker in high school and then being pregnant at age 17. The baby was her wake-up call, and today she is a doting young mother and aspiring nurse. She is thankful for having been able to turn her life around.

A young man told me about his family back in Haiti who is making sacrifices to support his education here in the US. He feels blessed for having his family, and is sad that they can’t celebrate with him.

Another young woman, who has lost her forearm in an accident, simply stated that she is grateful for her health.

Also mentioned by students was gratitude for having a decent life and not being homeless like friends, and an older student mentioned to be grateful for one more Thanksgiving with his parents though their health is failing and they need his assistance a lot.

After listening to the students, I truly feel blessed that I have the good fortune to be grateful for family, friends, and good food.


How to buy happiness

If you belong to the few lucky ones, who still have some extra cash to spend, don’t “waste” it on the newest gadgets. Instead, buy yourself happiness. You may need it in a tough time like now.

“One can’t buy happiness”, I hear you saying. Well, Ryan Howell, assistant professor of psychology at San Francisco State University, begs to differ. He believes that if you spend your money right you can increase your happiness.

The trick is not to “waste” your money on material things. Instead, buy yourself experiences, such as a meal out, going to the theater or to a baseball game.

Howell did a study with 154 people ages 19 to 50 and found that people feel more alive and inspired after they have made experiential purchases. They also appreciated the positive memories they were left with. An additional benefit was the social nature of those experiences, i.e. being together with other people and thus satisfying the need for social connectedness. Overall, buying experiences made people happier than buying stuff.

In conclusion, Howell suggests that his findings can also be applied to purchasing gifts for other people. If you give a certificate for a restaurant, for tennis lessons, or a spa visit, you will not only brighten the day for the person, but also create long lasting happy memories.

Christiane is psychologist and Life & Career coach.  She teaches Psychology at a College in the Greater Boston area. Visit her website at www.coach4u.net


Women’s Happiness More Recession Proof

 

How often are we reading it in these financially difficult times: Money can’t buy Happiness?

Well, it turns out; this may be true for women.  Men however, beg to differ.

 

Results of a global happiness survey from the Nielsen Company show that for men happiness and satisfaction with their financial situation are closely related.

 

A woman’s happiness depends more on the quality of her friendships and relationships with family and even with her boss and co-workers.  Thus, it seems, women find it easier to be happy in economically tough times:  In 48 of the 51 countries surveyed, women are happier than men and are also more optimistic about the future.

 

The global survey polled more than 28 000 people and asked about the contribution of a variety of factors to happiness.  As main factors emerged the personal financial situation, mental health, job/career and being satisfied with your partner.   

 

The study also showed that in different parts of the world some factors are more important than others: For Lithuanians and Indonesians money was far more important than for South Africans and Venezuelans. For people in Vietnam and Indonesia happiness depended on access to unbiased information (news, internet) and their sex life.  People in Switzerland and Finland depend more than people in other countries on physical health to be happy and for Australians mental health is a key factor for happiness. Americans need good relationships with co-workers, even more than good relationships with their own family.

 

Christiane is psychologist and Life & Career coach.  She teaches Psychology at a College in the Greater Boston area.  Visit her website at www.coach4u.net


Quick thinking as mood booster

Who doesn’t feel occasionally down, particularly during these long and cold winter months?

Researchers at Harvard and Princeton University may now have found a simple method to get the spirits up again: Do a rapid thinking exercise, for example list quickly all kinds of uses for a paperclip, generate a variety of problem-solving-ideas or solve a soduko as quickly as you can.

The researchers found that research participants felt more elated and creative after experiments with a variety of quick thinking tasks.

I found particularly interesting the explanation that the researchs offered: For one, they believe the improved mood may be related to an increase in the neurotransmitter dopamine, which in consequence increases feelings of pleasure. But the researchers offer also a different explanation: they say, many people believe that good mood and fast thinking are related like “If I’m in a good mood, I can think fast.” Now, if I find myself in the course of the exercise thinking fast, then the reverse must be true ” If I’m thinking fast, I must be in a good mood”.

Read more on Harvard’s website

 Christiane is a Life & Career coach, psychologist and college teacher. Her website is http://coach4u.net


Standing tall, chin up can improve your mood

Today I read an article about studies in England, France and the US, which show that your posture might have an effect on your emotions.

Straighten your spine, throw your shoulders back and hold your chin up and according to these studies, you will feel much better about yourself.

The reason could be that neurons involved in sensations, motor functions, and emotional memories are interconnected, and therefore just adopting a certain posture could activate the emotions that normally go with it. An alternate explanation is that someone with posture and facial expression associated with positive mood, optimism, and confidence evokes positive responses from people around him/her. These positive responses now could in turn improve the mood of the first person.

Whatever the reason is, demonstrate confidence and optimism at all times. Even if you are just putting on an act, you might end up believing yourself – and this wouldn’t be bad, would it?

Christiane is a Life & Career Coach in Massachusetts. In addition, she teaches psychology at a Community College.  Her email is ten.u4hcaocnull@enaitsirhc .


Secret of Optimism

I have a good friend whom I admire for her energy, curiosity about life and optimism. She is well into her eighties with an unbroken zest for life.

A while ago, she told me the secret for her positive attitude: “When I get a box with a variety of chocolates, I will eat only one per day. On the first day, I will select the one that I like best. The next day, I will take the best of the remaining, and this I will repeat every day until all are gone. This way, I get to enjoy every day just the best of all my options”. 

Christiane is a professional Life and Career Coach. She works in private practice in Massachusetts and teaches psychology at a college in the greater Boston area. Her email is ten.u4hcaocnull@enaitsirhc


Health benefits of Gratitude – not only to Thanksgiving

Though most of us live better than our parents and grandparents, we often forget to appreciate the abundance we enjoy.

That’s a pity because learning to be grateful for even small joys could improve many areas in our life. As it turns out, people who are grateful – not only to Thanksgiving, rather on a daily basis- sleep better, feel less stress and depression, have more energy, feel more alert, alive and positive. People with high blood pressure could even lower their blood pressure.

Grateful people focus more on the positive things in life and are less focused on pain and problems.

A few strategies help learning to become more aware of one’s own blessings:

  1. Start a gratitude journal and list daily or weekly the positive things that happened; whether you met an old friend, you cooked a delicious meal or the bus was on time……There is something to be grateful for on even the worst days.
  2.  For the coming holidays: List all the people in your life who you take for granted. Then picture your life without these people. How would it be? What would you be missing? In your holiday cards to these people thank them for being in your life and for the difference they are making.
  3. Make a sign for your fridge or bathroom mirror: This week, I’m grateful for…..

I’m grateful for being healthy. I’m now cancer free for 10 years. In addition, I’m thankful for my family.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Christiane is a professional Life & Career Coach (coach4u.net). In addition, she teaches Psychology at a Community College near Boston.


Optimism key to White House?

Researchers at the Positive Psychology Center at Penn University have determined that in the past 100 years, the most optimistic candidates have won more than 80 percent of presidential elections. The reason why voters prefer optimistic candidates could be that they inspire hope.

With regard to the current candidates, the psychologists find Barack Obama and John McCain to be equally optimistic and Sarah Palin slightly more optimistic than Joseph Biden.

To read more about the study go to: http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/article.php?id=1452


End of summer blues?

Four days until Labor day and I’m affected by end of summer blues. The summer went by way too fast. It seems like we were either on the road or -in between trips- I was working in the garden, doing laundry etc to get ready for our next departure. First, we were for two weeks in Texas and then another two weeks on our annual family visit in Austria. If I had only two more weeks before school starts….

I know that I’m not the only one who wishes for a longer summer. Many people are returning this weekend from vacation and would love to have more time to get adjusted before their usual crazy-busy life starts again. A few tricks might help to ease the re-entry:

Don’t return on the last minute. Give yourself one extra day at home to relax from the travel itself, catch up on emails and do the laundry.
Back home, don’t look right away at the bills. Do pleasant things first, like calling your family and friends.
Keep the first day at the office meeting free and – if possible – keep the ‘out-of-office’ email for one more day. This buys you time to catch up on other backlogged work.
If you suffer from jet lag, don’t pack too much into the week. It takes time to adjust- in average, one time zone per day.

And if you are reading this while still on vacation: don’t forget to buy some food as mementos, like chocolate or spices. You will feel like on vacation when savoring these delicacies at home.