Your Happiness Factor

“It is not your aptitude, but your attitude, that determines your altitude.” ~ Zig Ziglar Attitude is an issue in all job search. According to a survey of 1,000 employers by recruitment group REED, 96 per cent of bosses would take on someone who displayed the perfect mindset but lacked the complete set of skills, rather than a person with the right academic qualifications but wrong attitude. The same criteria applied to firing procedure. Two-thirds of employers surveyed said that, if push came to shove, they would keep those employees with the right attitude rather than those with a more complete skill-set. So, in your job search, it’s about combining your  transferable skills  with the right mindset.  Then demonstrating that mindset in your job search and through the recruitment process. James Reed, Chairman of REED and Paul G. Stoltz, a leading expert on measuring and strengthening human resilience, have produced a book based on the survey , “ Pu...

div style="line-height: 16.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">   People under stress or suffering from phobias sometimes experience moments of sudden and intense anxiety. This can leave you shaking, feeling confused or disorientated, with rapid heartbeats, a dry mouth, sweating, dizziness and, sometimes, chest pain. Chest pains should always be checked out with your doctor immediately, just to make sure it is nothing more serious. The symptoms usually peak within 10 minutes. But they can last anything between five minutes and half an hour. If you know something triggers a panic attack, it is best to avoid it and seek help from a physician or counsellor.   But Professor Paul Salkovskis, a psychologist at  King’s College, London , says it's important not to let your fear of panic attacks control you. “Panic attacks always pass and the symptoms are not a sign of anything harmful happening,” he says. “It’s important not to restrict...

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Image by alforque via Flickr Burnout is a state of emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. It occurs when you feel overwhelmed and unable to meet constant demands. As the stress continues, you begin to lose the interest or motivation that led you to take on a certain role in the first place. Burnout reduces your productivity and saps your energy, leaving you feeling increasingly helpless, hopeless, cynical and resentful. Eventually, you may feel like you have nothing more to give. The negative effects of burnout spill over into every area of life – including your home and social life. Burnout can also cause long-term changes to your body that make you vulnerable to illnesses like colds and flu. Because of its many consequences, it’s important to deal with burnout right away and take advice from your coach,  counselor  or medical adviser.  But, if you can, it is best to prevent burnout in the first place Your ...

As the sun spirals its longest dance, Cleanse us As nature shows bounty and fertility Bless us Let all things live with loving  intent And to fulfill their truest destiny. (A Wiccan Blessing for Mid-Summer) The French Anthropologist, Claude Lévi-Strauss , has written of mead marking the moment when we moved from being creatures of nature to being creatures of culture. Mead at its simplest is a fermented mixture of water and honey.  But it is, oh, so much more than that.  Apart from anything else you can drink meads with all kinds of flavours from apple to wildflowers.  In fact wildflowers flavour the recipe for Midsummer Mead that you can find at this link . You will find many other recipes for mead at the same site. We’ve  been making mead for about 7,000 years and it has run through our beliefs and our mythology in Europe, Asia and in Africa as a sacred drink. In Morse mythology it is the Mead of Poetry which turns you into a poet ...

The Elder Tree is a powerful symbol of life energy and creativity. The Elder has been honoured for a very long time and megalithic long barrows were sometimes elder leaf shaped. It is also called the "witch's tree". Certainly the village hedge-witch would have used the elder extensively, as herbally it is wonderfully rich and potent in all its parts - leaves, flowers, berries and bark.  The presence of the Old Mother energy of the tree probably also accounts for the association with wise women. It is said in Irish folklore that it is the elder stick and not ashen ones which are used by witches for their magic horses. The earliest folk tales praise elder's ability to ward off evil or malevolent spirits and to undo evil magic.  There are very strong superstitions about not cutting down the elder. In ancient time, at Samhain, the last of the elderberries were picked with solemn rites. The wine made from these berries was considered the last sacred gift ...

   Generalized anxiety is a relatively common problem, affecting 3-4% of the population.  It turns daily life into a state of worry, anxiety, and fear. Over thinking and dwelling on the "what ifs" characterize generalized anxiety. As a result, you feel there’s no way out of the vicious cycle of anxiety and worry, and you can then become depressed about life and the state of anxiety you find yourself in. Generalized anxiety usually does not cause people to avoid situations, and it isn’t having a "panic attack. It’s the   thinking, thinking, thinking, dwelling, dwelling, ruminating, ruminating, and inability to shut the mind off that interferes with your ability to deal with life. Quite often, other thoughts seem almost non-existent because the anxious feelings are so dominant. Feelings of worry, dread, lack of energy, and a loss of interest in life! Many times there is no "trigger" or "cause" for these feelings and you realize these feelings ...

   The next few posts here are going to deal with anxiety and stress - f irst - anxiety!  Anxiety is the feeling of fear we all experience when faced with a threatening or difficult situation. It helps us to avoid dangerous situations, makes us alert and motivates us to deal with problems.   It can save our lives by making us run away from danger. We all feel anxious sometimes.  It is normal.  But for some of us – about one in ten – anxiety becomes a problem.  It gets in the way of living the life we would choose.   It can turn into panic attacks and phobias. Some of us just seem to be born more anxious than others. Research suggests these problems can be inherited through our genes. But even someone who doesn't naturally worry can, under enough pressure, become uncomfortably  anxious. This video introduces us to the five  anxiety disorders and why they develop. If you have any thought...

A gentle and lovely thing from  MaireMc  -  An rud a lionas an tsúil lionann sé an croi  (what fills the eye fills the heart)   Relaxing meditation on colour & nature with background Irish music using some of her flower photographs with black & white to colour transitions  

Changing your breathing is one of the quickest and most effective was of changing how you feel. When you are feeling tense, a simple breathing technique can help you to relax and still meet the challenges a head.  Here is simple approach for your to try.

   For me the perfect recipe is simple, colourful and delicious.  Here is all I need for a perfect evening at home.  Really, it is a very easy recipe.  All you need to add is some lovely, chunky, fresh bread. Ingredients ·          4 tbsp  olive oil ·          2 medium onions, quartered ·          2 cloves of garlic, crushed ·          1 red pepper, sliced ·          1 yellow pepper, sliced ·          2 large aubergines, halved horizontally then sliced into 3cm pieces ·          3 medium courgettes, sliced into 3cm pieces ·          400 g canned chopped tomatoes ·        ...

A    I ’ve always had a problem with food!   Most of my family have had connections with the land in the past.   Unfortunately my physique, and my taste in food, seems very much more suited to hard physical labour in all weathers in the great outdoors, rather than the sedentary existence I lead now. Even when I am racing around Central London going to meetings, I don’t seem t o use up the energy my appetite seems to want me to consume.  My rather gentle approach to exercise doesn’t help.  It really should be a lot more than walking to the station a few times a week. So I’ve made a decision. I am going to develop a philosophy of eating that treats it almost as  meditation .    In future I shall take much more time to relish what I eat.   I shall work towards having as varied as diet as possible.   And each thing I eat will be the object of my contemplation.   I shall think in detail about what it is and wher...