Happiness, or the lack thereof, lies at the root of what makes life meaningful. But figuring out what exactly constitutes happiness,especially in a culture like the Unites States that tends to conflate moneywith meaning, proves to be elusive. It's not enough, the new documentary Happy suggests, to just be able to pursue happiness—you need to have the chops to capture it.

by Bob Banner






Ladamira is a Siberian Shamana. She visited SLO County for more than a week, in mid September, 2012. Every day she was leading workshops for men, women, retreats, and presentations in healing, chakra cleansing, sexuality, relationships, and leading daily morning rituals that include dance, jogging, laughing and gratitude. It is this laughter portion that got me interested in learning more about her and her lineage.


    Being one of two laughter yoga teachers in the county and certifying about 15 people to be leaders, I was curious when I learned that when she was in SLO back in May, people who had taken some of her classes would take it upon themselves to laugh for five minutes each day. A couple of women told me that that simple exercise had “changed their lives.”

by Delia Horwitz

Imagine a country where the measure of success is not in the number of things bought and sold, but the quality of one’s soul.  That is, in fact, what is happening in the country of Bhutan, where King Jigme Wangchuk has declared they will now measure their country’s standard of living by GHP: Gross Happiness Product rather than GDP: Gross Domestic Product, often used by most other countries.