Your Happiness Factor

   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