The following poem is attributed to Charlie Chaplin. Supposedly, he recited it on his 70th birthday but that has never been confirmed. In fact, it’s from a little book by Kim and Alison McMillen, a collection of wisdom that is startling in its simplicity. Anyway, beside the speculation about the author of this beautiful poem, […]
Happiness
Serenity and Avidyā
Serenity is the word of the year. At least for my year 2015. Serenity is such a powerful and complex word. It describes the state or quality when your mind is still, perfectly calm and peaceful. But it doesn’t necessarily mean quietness, it’s also an expression of delight and joy. Serenity supports the function to […]
Icelandic People = Happy People?
Volcanic eruptions, frequent earthquakes, sandstorms, long and almost entirely dark winters, inclement weather conditions year round, a severe financial crisis with serious negative impact on the economy… just to name a few of the conditions and things Icelanders have to deal with. How come that – according to the Better Life Index (BLI) – despite […]
Mathematical equation shows the key to happiness
Scientists found that day-to-day well-being does not reflect how well things are going, but whether things are going better than expected. The subjective well-being or happiness of individuals is an important metric for societies and a common question in the social science of well-being asks “How happy do you feel on a scale of 0 […]
100 Happy Days
A while ago I wrote about “One happy moment a day” and that I wanted to write down at least one happy moment every day on the cards of my calendar box. But it didn’t take long until I stopped doing it. No time, nothing special happened, … excuses are always easy to find. It seems […]
International Day of Happiness 2014
Today ist the International Day of Happiness. Although, in my opinion every day should be a day of happiness, I like the idea of the UN announcing happiness as a global priority. The UN campaign is coordinated by Action for Happiness, a non-profit movement of people from over 140 countries all over the world that […]
The space between things
Sometimes there are things in Yoga I don’t know what they are good for. As I’m a very analytical person, I need a reason for everything and I am often questioning things. In one of the the Yoga classes a couple of weeks ago, the teacher mentioned to focus on the space between all things: […]
Being thankful.
The theme of the Anusara Yoga class I joined earlier today was thankfulness. Of course, as today is Thanksgiving. Anette, our teacher, reminded us of many things we should be thankful for. Moreover, she pointed out that being thankful does not only describe the moment of actually saying “Thank you” to someone. For example when […]
Practice Aloha.
The Hawaiian Islands of Oahu and Maui were part of my trip around the world this year. The first word that comes to one’s mind when thinking of Hawaii is ALOHA! I always thought Aloha is just a greeting, especially used among surfers. But far wrong. There is so much more to Aloha and you […]
One happy moment a day.
Some time ago I started to write down three happy moments each day. Moments or experiences I was grateful about, things that made me smile or put me in a great mood. This may sound simple, however I found it quite difficult. Maybe I was too picky with my happy moments… remember, it’s the little […]
