Tag: Inspiration

A = Awareness – The 10 Keys to Happier Living

A = Awareness – The 10 Keys to Happier Living

This blog by HWBI Ninja Lou Harris, is one in a series exploring how the 10 Keys to Happier Living. Lou explores how mindfulness and noticing can helps to boost our health and wellbeing.

“There’s more to life when you stop and notice”

Learning to be more aware and take notice can positively impact on our wellbeing. The key to taking notice is mindfulness “Mindfulness is the quality of being present and fully engaged with whatever we’re doing at the moment – free from distraction or judgement, and aware of our thoughts and feelings without getting caught up in them” (1).  

There are numerous benefits associated with mindfulness on physical health, managing stress, psychological wellbeing, relationships, performance and happiness and a recent study in March (2) found mindfulness buffered the impact of COVID 19.  

As this week is Mental Health Awareness Week, it is also worth noting that research (3) has shown that mindfulness helps reduce anxiety and depression. “It teaches us how to respond to stress with an awareness of what is happening in the present moment rather than simply acting instinctively, unaware of what emotions or motives may be driving that decision. By teaching awareness for one’s physical and mental state in the moment, mindfulness allows for more adaptative reactions to difficult situations” Anxiety.org (4)

In our busy worlds, it may not be something we practice naturally, however, I wonder how many of us may have had greater opportunity to practise mindfulness over the past few months? You can take a 15 item questionnaire to measure mindfulness called the Mindful Attention Awareness Score (MAAS). The higher your score the greater your ability to be mindful. If you don’t score as high as you would like then don’t worry through practise, we can learn to cultivate the state of mind that lets us be mindful. 

Reminding yourself to take notice of your thoughts, feelings, body sensations and the world around you is the first step to mindfulness and spring is a great time of year to start. There is so much in nature to see, hear and smell for example noticing the colour of the  flowers, the birds singing and the smell of new blossom. On my daily dog walk since lockdown, I have noticed ducks and birds that I have never seen before including mandarins, herons and parakeets (yes we do have bright green parakeets in Sefton Park in Liverpool!), flowers including gorgeous miniature daffodils, the smell of the amazing rhododendrons which are vibrant and colourful, all things that I have never really noticed before, despite walking in this park most days for four years with my dog, Indy.  

The benefits speak for themselves, and you can start practising mindfulness right away in the comfort of your own home (handy in our current climate!) so why wouldn’t you try it? Positive Psychology has lots of great information which includes 10 tips for practising mindfulness which include:

  • Take a few moments to be aware of how your breath flows in and out, how your tummy rises and falls with each breath you take.  
  • If you are walking somewhere focus on the here and now. Rather than letting your brain drift into thought, bring them back to the physical act of walking. How do you feel? Pay less attention to where you’re going and more on what you’re doing as you step and how your feet feel. This is a nice one to try on sand or grass.  
  • If you notice yourself turning back towards thinking just focus once more on your breathing. You can return your focus to how your breath comes in and out of your body, and if you can feel your muscles relax as your doing so even better.
  • Understand that your mental processes are just thoughts, they aren’t necessarily true, nor do they require you to take action. Mindfulness is about simply being and about being relaxed in accepting things around you as they are. This implies internally too – it’s part of knowing your mind.   
  • Let yourself notice when your mind drifts back towards judgement. Remember this is only natural and doesn’t have to be part of yourself. Part of mindfulness practise means freeing your mind from practices like judgement. You may find that this becomes easier with time and practise.

As well as practising mindfulness in daily life it can be helpful to set aside time for a more formal mindfulness practice such as meditation. There is a lot of great support to help you and  Action for Happiness and NHS have some great guidance on Mindfulness and how to get started. 

https://www.actionforhappiness.org/take-action/bring-mindfulness-into-your-day

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/mindfulness/

References

HWBInspiration co-founders, Su & Claire, are grateful to our Associate HWBI Ninjas for sharing their knowledge, skill and insights.

G = Giving – Why does it make us happy?

G = Giving – Why does it make us happy?

This blog is first in our series relating to the 10 Keys to Happier Living which reflects on how giving can boost our health and wellbeing.

In this time of ‘lock down’ I’ve been reflecting on a number of things, not least my own health and wellbeing.  Talking to colleagues, family and friends we have started to share more about what is important to us, what we are grateful for and during these challenging times, what gives us joy.  Often, it’s the very simple things that surface:

  • Having the time to have family meals together, eating, talking and reflecting on the day
  • Being able to connect to family and friends more frequently than perhaps we would ordinarily
  • Taking part in collective activities with family, friends and work colleagues – who knew that ‘Virtual Pub Quiz’ would take off in the way that it has.  It’s become a highlight of the week for many.
  • Having more time to do the things that help us to have space to be ‘mindful’, gardening, walking, painting, other household tasks that we’ve put off
  • Letting our minds wonder

One of the things I notice in myself is that ‘giving’ brings me happiness.  Over the years, I notice that I get that warm fuzzy feeling when I give, more so than when I receive.  It’s no surprise once I began to look into why that it is….. ‘common sense’ in so many ways and as I remind myself frequently, it only becomes ‘common sense’ once you understand more.

What’s the science behind it?

There is much written about giving and generosity.  Researchers have had rich debates about the extent to which humans are innately generous, a great deal of research strongly suggests that generosity has deep evolutionary, biological and developmental roots.  Much of the research also suggest that human generosity might be deeply embedded in human behaviour and plays a vital role in our personal well-being and our survival.  A systematic review (Allen.S 2018) draws together some of the key research findings and highlights:

  • Positive effects on givers e.g. wellbeing
  • Individual factors linked to generosity e.g. feelings of empathy, compassion
  • Social and cultural drivers e.g. expectations of reciprocity, having strong social networks may influence generosity, parenting can cultivate generosity

The act of giving and charitable behaviour comes in many forms and during COVID19 there have been so many examples:

  • Tens, possibly hundreds of thousands of volunteers coming forward to help those that are being shielded – offering to phone those that are isolated, undertaking tasks such as shopping and picking up essentials
  • Colonel Tom Moore 100th Birthday sponsored walk to raise money for the NHS
  • Different businesses donating food and gifts to front line staff
  • Local communities coming together to support key workers
  • Free resources and learning being made available to individuals working from home

All of us ‘give’ in some way.  Often, it will be simple things, kind words, helping someone out when you notice they are struggling, random acts of kindness to friends, families and colleagues.  Doing something for complete strangers seems to be the ‘norm’ in our current COVID19 bubble and the world feels a better place for it.  It seems now more than ever we need to be generous in our thinking as well as in the way we behave.  A study into the benefits of charitable behaviour (Anik. L et al. 2009) highlights that people that give more are happier and happier people tend to give more.  Feels like a virtuous circle to me.

Looking for inspiration

Action for Happiness https://www.actionforhappiness.org provides ideas, insights, training (e-mail based coaching programme) and resources.  Something for everyone if you are looking for some inspiration.  What will you give today?

S, May. The Science of Generosity, White Paper, Greater Good Science Centre 2018 https://ggsc.berkeley.edu/images/uploads/GGSC-JTF_White_Paper-Generosity-FINAL.pdf

Feeling Good about Giving: The Benefits (and Costs) of Self-Interested Charitable Behavior Anik, L., Aknin, L B., Norton, M I., Dunn, E W. 2009 https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/10-012_0350a55d-585b-419d-89e7-91833a612fb5.pdf

HWBInspiration co-founders, Su & Claire, are grateful to our Associate HWBI Ninjas for sharing their knowledge, skill and insights.