Your Happiness Factor

Finding tranquillity  To be tranquil is to be, calm, serene, and, in the moment, worry-free. The word tranquillity appears in lots of religious texts and particularly in Buddhism. In Buddhism the term passaddhi means the tranquillity of the body, thoughts and consciousness that is found on the path to enlightenment. Being tranquil allows you to a take rest from the periods of hard focused attention’so often required in modern life. Research has shown that one of the best ways to find tranquility is to spend time in a natural environment. There you can allow your imagination to wander and just soak up your surroundings and a different way of being. For me, spending a little time among trees or by the sea helps me realise that life can be lived with a much longer perspective - the troubles of one day mean very little. The first maps of tranquility were developed by Simon Rendel of ASH Consulting for a Department of Transport study in 1991. In these maps tranquil areas were def

Feeling stressed? Learn to be present! Wendy Smith is a Career Coach and Life Coach   helping you to solve difficult problems at work Many of the great religions talk about the value of being able to sit quietly in the present. Sometimes this is a prelude to prayer – sometimes sitting in the present is the prayer or at perhaps a step on the way to enlightenment.  But only recently have we understood the psychological value of being wholly in the present, with or without the religion. I work with clients who feel stressed. And being able to bring themselves wholly into the present can be a great help to them. Here is what I teach them to do. My practice of presence! Find yourself a quiet spot.  This can be a pleasant spot within your home, or somewhere quiet at work.  It is great if you can do the exercise out of doors in your garden or even on a park bench.  But you need somewhere where you can sit for a few minutes and not be disturbed.  First, focus

The piece below is from Années de pèlerinag; Suisse by Liszt. It is played by Lazar Berman. Années de pèlerinage (Years of Pilgrimage)  is a set of three suites for piano. The title Années de pèlerinage refers to Goethe's famous novel of self-realization, Wilhelm Meister's Journeyman Years. The original title for that was Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre which meant Years of Wandering or Years of Pilgrimage. Here are Liszt's words on these suites "Having recently travelled to many new countries, through different settings and places consecrated by history and poetry; having felt that the phenomena of nature and their attendant sights did not pass before my eyes as pointless images but stirred deep emotions in my soul, and that between us a vague but immediate relationship had established itself, an undefined but real rapport, an inexplicable but undeniable communication, I have tried to portray in music a few of my strongest sensations and most lively impressions.&

The Resilient Mindset – don’t let a fixed mindset defeat you How to thrive in times of change This is a challenging time for all of us. For many times are hard and the world has become a frightening place. So can you survive mentally intact and thrive? How do you develop a resilient mindset? Well accepting that we all have core values that we want to carry through life, most other parts of our thinking can changed. And a mind that is prepared to change and take on the requirements of new circumstances has most chance of staying intact. It is time to learn to challenge your own thinking. A fixed mindset will chatter away in your head, if you let it.  It will tell you all the reasons why you shouldn't change. It is also likely to fill your head with negativity. It will tell you why you are not up tot he task of change. An, slowly it will erode your confidence. The nasty fixed mindset will tell you that even if you wanted to change, you couldn’t do it! It might whispe

Getting to know people and making assumptions Most of us encounter lots of other people all the time in our everyday life.  We pass them in the street. We sit in the same cinema, or  work in the same building. And some among them, we actually start to acknowledge and get to know. We begin to recognise their faces, the shapes of their bodies and how they move. We start to make assumptions about them, usually based on our very first encounter with them. In fact most of us make up our minds in the first few seconds of the encounter. Based on the clothes they are wearing on that particular day and the expression of their face, we decide. Is this someone I am likely to trust and want to know better? And we act on what we think are the answers to those questions, based on our assumptions. What we are doing, of course, is taking a few stray facts and fitting them into our own patterns of belief. We base those beliefs; on what we were told by our parents and others when we are

Is your tiredness due to dehydration? A recent survey found that one in five people suffering from fatigue were actually dehydrated. Usually this was because they were not drinking enough. When you don't get enough fluids, the amount of blood in your blood vessels drops and your heart has to pump extra hard to pump blood round your body.  Remember we are made up of 70% water and all parts of your body, including essential organs like your brain, depend upon it. So drinking plenty of fluid is important. But keep in mind that coffee and alcohol are diuretics and they actually dehydrate the body, So you need to balance them by drinking lots of good, fresh, water. When you are dehydrated, you may feel weak and your urine is likely to be dark instead of pale yellow.  Eating five portions of fruit and vegetables each day will help because they contain water. You should also drink 2 litres of water every day - spread it through the day by drinking 200ml every

Wash away that negativity! Many religions incorporate ritual washing in water as an act of purification. Some use water specially prepared for the purpose but at the end of the day it is water that is being used. Water is so important to human survival that in many parts of the world springs and wells are places of special significance and often regarded as holy. In the Japanese religion of Shinto waterfalls are held sacred and standing under them is believed to purify. We know that water cleanses as well as sustaining us. So why not use water in a new way in your own life. When you feel negative or angry, use your own water ritual to change how you feel. Find somewhere to wash your hands in cool, clean, running, water. As you do so, feel the freshness flowing to you and the negativity flowing away. If you can be out in the open air and do this in stream that is wonderful. If you can’t even get to a tap, then how about using a bottle of water poured slowly over your h