Would You Like a Happiness Buddy

Ange Recchia — Mon, 04 May 2009 00:15:22 +0000

Headspace.org.au is a place where you can reach out for a Happiness Buddy. There are 30 centres around the nation and it is the home of Australia’s National Youth Mental Health Foundation.

The headspace mission is to deliver improvements in the mental health, social wellbeing and economic participation of young Australians aged 12-25.

They currently have an advertisement running on commercial TV which caught my eye and I found it on YouTube. What do you think?

Happiness

A while back I wrote Your Guide to Happiness 101 and didn’t consider the mental health side of things. There are a lot of youth struggling with issues related to family, school, peers and work too. It’s initiatives like headspace who provide support and counselling for these troubled kids.

Mental Health

I can’t say that I have been personally affected although I do know of friends of friends or members of their families who are. Unfortunately, it will not go away and we cannot sweep it under the rug. There are real issues and a high suicide rate among youths.

The most viewed factsheets on headspace are:

There is also a forum on bullying and cyberbullying. This issue is becoming more prominent as kids who want to be in contact and message their friends sit at home on their computers. They set up chats on MSN and sites like MySpace where the death of a teenage girl was highly publicised online and in offline media last year.

In my humble opinion, the headspace site is one that we have to draw youths to in order to provide some help for them. What we can do as a society in our every day lives is if we see or know of someone who does have issues, to offer them kindness and listen to their story. You know what a relief it is when you can talk to someone who actually listens to you and offers support.

I will be the first to admit that I don’t want to believe this goes on but the cold hard facts are that it does. The mind can play tricks on us and make us believe that the world is against us. If we listen to that little voice in our heads that says:

Who do you think you are to make your dreams a reality… How are you going to make that happen… or even, Nobody loves you…

Reprogram the Mind for Success

That little voice has a lot to answer for. Overcoming those negative thoughts is a challenge that we all face from time to time. Loving yourself first and having a belief that you are beautiful does help to reprogram the mind for success so that we can live life to the fullest.

How have you dealt with someone you love who has mental health issues? All comments are welcome here and I look forward to you sharing your experiences.

Bless

Your Guide To Happiness 101

Ange Recchia — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:26:54 +0000

First, let’s establish what Happiness is. When I searched wikipedia for Happiness, this is what it returned. “Happiness is an emotion associated with feelings ranging from contentment and satisfaction to bliss and intense joy.” There sure are a lot of words in there.

So how do we know the difference from feeling contentment, satisfaction, bliss and intense joy?

We all have our own perception of what happiness means to us. Our emotions are our own so for instance, if you were fired from your job today, it’s reasonable to think that you would not be experiencing the emotion of intense joy unless you perceived being fired as an opportunity to go forth and try something new.

According to a scientific study by Leicester University in England, the happiest country in the world is Denmark. And that’s despite having one of the highest tax rates in the world! They are paid to study. Imagine not having school fees for University! Apparently, the students can take as long as they like to complete their studies.

They are also paid to stay home in the form of paternal and maternal leave and this is paid by the government! That’s full time wages for 6 months if required.

If that’s what makes someone happy then why not!

Some of the things I think can cause a person to find happiness are:

some good friends who stick by you no matter what
a loving family who you enjoy being around
the freedom to choose when and where you work
the freedom to take a break anytime you like for holidays
the freedom to live where in the world you want to
your dream home
positive emotions
positive activities
quality of life
satisfaction in all things that you do
eating a delicious meal
playing with your children
hearing children’s laughter
listening to music that inspires you
dancing like no-one is watching
watching a funny movie
reading a good book
living in a state of gratitude

Every effect in your life has to start with a cause and for each of us it will be different. Making choices is what leads us to creating whether or not we find Happiness. Choosing what is right for you is key!

Too Many Choices

A couple of days ago I watched another TED video by Barry Schwartz which I found via Blonde2.0 Blog and thought about it for a while… then realised what he was talking about. Watch this!

Interesting… isn’t it? I’ll let you make up your own mind.

So what are your thoughts? Is it because we have too much choice nowadays that makes us un-happy or does it bring you happiness knowing that there are all these choices? Do you feel satisfied, contentment, bliss or intense joy having such a range of options available? Is it a state of mind perhaps!