Hopedance

  • Increase font size
  • Default font size
  • Decrease font size
Home Happiness

Laughter / Happiness

Laughing

E-mail Print PDF

by Todd Walton

alt

(This article appeared in the Anderson Valley Advertiser May 2012)

“Humor is just another defense against the universe.” Mel Brooks

Once upon a time, so many years ago it might have been another lifetime, I got two kittens, a boy and girl, and after much thought and research named them Boy and Girl. Boy was an orange tabby, Girl was a gray tabby, and in the hallowed tradition of kittens, they played and slept and mewed and ate and clawed things and were wonderfully cute.

When they were about four months old, Boy and Girl played a particular game that made me laugh until I cried. No matter how many times I watched them play this game, I laughed until I cried. Sometimes other people would watch with me as the kittens played this particular game, and some of these people laughed, too, and a few of them even laughed until they cried; but there were other people who watched the game and did not laugh at all, which was amazing to me, and troubling. Here is the game the kittens played.

Last Updated ( Friday, 18 May 2012 05:32 ) Read more...
 

Can laughter really keep the doctor away?

E-mail Print PDF

Can laughter really keep the doctor away?

May 17, 2012 |

The level of humour shown at Laughter Yoga is not particularly high. An unusual movement or a funny noise, and the 10 members of this Frankfurt laughter club called "Glueck ist jetzt" (Happiness is Now) giggle, snort or erupt into guffaws.

Picture taken from www.thelaughterworkout.com

 Laughter stimulates both body and mind

Humour, after all, is not the point for the members, rather the laughing itself. "Fake it until you make it," is the motto, according to Laurenz Menzinger - in other words pretend as long as needed for it to become real.

Menzinger is a human resources consultant, but one evening a week he leads this Laughter Yoga group held in small and brightly decorated business premises in the inner city of the German financial capital.

Read more...
 

At U.N. Happiness Summit, A Coal Pile in the Ballroom

E-mail Print PDF

I spent the day last Monday at the United Nations by invitation of the Bhutanese government (along with about 600 other guests). The event was called “High Level Meeting on Well-being and Happiness: Defining a New Economic Paradigm.” I thought, “It must not be very high-level if I am invited.” Nonetheless, there I was among 600 activists, economists, NGO workers, bankers, et al from around the world, listening to speeches by prime ministers and Nobel laureates. Except for the monks, I was the only man not wearing a necktie. But that wasn't what disturbed me about the meeting.

Let me give you a bit of background. In 1972, the King of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, remarked that, instead of gross national product (GNP), the nation should strive for “gross national happiness” (GNH). I believe he meant merely to point out that GNP (or GDP, as is more commonly used today) is a poor indicator of a nation's well-being. The concept of gross national happiness had traction, though, and it wasn't long before psychologists and economists were trying to come up with metrics to put a number on the concept. Adding impetus to this effort was a growing awareness among social critics that GDP is a very poor indicator of a people's well-being. In the United States, real per-capita GDP has risen three-fold since the 1950s, but people are not three times happier by any measure. If anything, they are less happy.

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 24 April 2012 08:38 ) Read more...
 
  • «
  •  Start 
  •  Prev 
  •  1 
  •  2 
  •  3 
  •  4 
  •  5 
  •  6 
  •  7 
  •  8 
  •  Next 
  •  End 
  • »
Page 1 of 8

Subscribe

get event info by email

CLICK HERE

Event Calendar

May 2012
S M T W T F S
29 30 1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 31 1 2

Upcoming Events

Thu May 24 @ 7:00PM - 09:00PM
CHICO XAVIER in Santa Barbara
Tue May 29 @ 6:30PM - 09:00PM
THE GREENHORNS at the SLO Grange
Wed May 30 @ 6:30AM - 09:00PM
THE BIG FIX in SLO
Thu May 31 @ 6:30PM - 09:00PM
THE BIG FIX in SMaria