Your Happiness Factor

Changes in life like redundancy affect us all deeply. They change us and they change our relationships. Redundancy is like bereavement and can leave you with the same gut-wrenching sense of loss, the furious “why me?”. Everyone says it’s not personal, but of course it feels that way to the one who has lost their job. But that sense of loss isn’t just felt by us, it is felt by those close to us as well. Their lives have been changed and probably in ways they would never have chosen for themselves. Sometimes in mass redundancies you can turn that anger outwards and on to the employer or the perceived cause of the problems for example the Bankers. Then the group binds together against the world. If a whole community is facing difficulty, there is likely to be lots of support from within that community – think of the pit villages in the North East of England between the thirties and the seventies. Under siege you pull together. But most of us live in communities without that kind of tradi

   We all feel down sometimes.   I’m talking about those days when something has gone wrong or those odd days when you just wake up feeling down.    I'm not talking about depression here!  If it is happening on more than the odd day, then please have a word with your doctor because depression can strike anyone of us and you will need help to overcome it!  But let us assume you are not ill, you just feel down today. First of all understand that it is OK and perfectly normal to feel down now and then.  It may just mean that you need to take a rest.  Anyway, if you just want to feel brighter, try on these simple techniques to raise your mood. Get a pen and some paper and write down 20 things you are grateful for right now.   It might be the film you watched you last night.  It could be your favourite soap – I love Coronation Street and East Enders .   It can be as simple as the blue sky above you or the smell of the earth after rain; or even what you had for breakfast. Bu

     Daniel Goleman , in  The Meditative Mind :   The key elements of flow are The merging of action and awareness in sustained concentration on the task at hand, The focusing of attention in a pure involvement without concern for outcome, Self-forgetfulness with heightened awareness of the activity, Skills adequate to meet the environmental demand, and Clarity regarding situational cues and appropriate response. When I sit down in my office at to write,   I enter a state of flow and I love it.   I see and feel nothing but the words before me. The state of flow is when you are so fully focused on the task at hand that you no longer realize the passage of time.   You may not feel heat or cold (I don’t) and   you may not hear what is said to you. Being in this state of allows you to achieve high productivity and be happy at the same time.   To enter the flow state, you need a goal; you need to know what you want to do and why.  Vague in

Action for Happines s is a new movement for positive social change . They're bringing together people from all walks of life who want to play a part in creating a happier society for everyone. For fifty years we've aimed relentlessly at higher incomes. But despite being much wealthier, we're no happier than we were five decades ago. At the same time we've seen an increase in wider social issues, including a worrying rise in anxiety and depression in young people. It's time for a positive change in what we mean by progress. Read more  

I've  decided to add another blog to the family –  Leaving the Public Sector  - and I’m seeking your help.  Following the 2010  Spending Review  it was revealed that between them UK Government departments were expected to shed over 100,000 civil service posts as part of their efforts to reduce administration costs.    The Government's cull of quangos, in which 192 public bodies are to be abolished and a further 112 will be merged, will also contribute to an overall headcount loss in the civil service In addition vast numbers of posts are likely to be lost from the wider public sector - Local Authorities, the NHS etc . Many public servants have already been invited to consider taking voluntary redundancy, and many more will be invited to do so as reorganisation plans begin to take shape.  Compulsory redundancies cannot be ruled out. For many public servants this is a time to consider the future and the challenge it presents. Four years ago I was facing the same challenge.

For me, like most of us, happiness (and health) comes from keeping a balance between body, mind and spirit! I tend to be obsessive!   Again, like all of us, there are times when I have focussed on one part of the triangle at the expense of the others. Unfortunately I go to extremes. In my time I have;       Been so focussed on work that I ignored the early signs of quite a serious illness.   Trained in the gym five days a week and weakened my immune system by combining that with an almost completely fat-free diet!   Taken up quite bizarre religions in my search for spiritual fulfilment and ended up disillusioned and depressed! A sad tale and I’m still working on maintaining the balance!  Still I do not eat a balanced diet and get the right amount of exercise – I’m trying hard! I really enjoy my work, but I need to be a bit more disciplined about getting away from it sometimes. As for spirituality, well simplicity has won out! Simple awareness and awe of a cosmos that

Inspiration - Daffodils Every day, even when I am working at home, I make sure I get out of the house and go for a walk.  Today, I didn’t want to go – it is a dark, cold, grey kind of day and I wanted to stay inside in the warmth and comfort of my home. But I pushed myself and got out there.  Wasn’t I pleased that I had!  Even in suburban South London, there the signs of early spring and these are as bright as sunshine!  Inspiration - Primroses I found a small clump of primroses shyly smiling at the world.    In sheltered spots there were the first dafodils!  And there it was, my Mother’s  favourite,  forsythia; blooming away and determined to flash its colours to the dismal sky.  They made me feel inspired and so when I came back in, I decided to write this post! You see we all can find inspiration around us!  And it is not just in nature! Inpiration - Forsythia Are there books that you have always loved?   How often do you go back to them? Do you remember th