The Ministry of Happiness

The Science of Happiness

Posted on October 15, 2010 by Michael Kane

The Science of Happiness

I am a kind of paranoiac in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy. ~J.D. Salinger

I came across an article recently in the LA Times by Karen Kaplan centered on the science of happiness. From the article,

“Among the many wise things said by President Abraham Lincoln is this take on happiness: A person will be just about as happy as he makes up his mind to be.

That sentiment is somewhat controversial among psychologists and other scientists. Some experts believe that long-term happiness is essentially unchangeable, thanks to one’s genes and personality. (One study has pegged DNA as the source of 44% to 52% of one’s happiness.) Many economists and other experts believe, like Lincoln, that people can take steps to become more — or less — happy.”

Like most things this comes back to the old argument is it nature or nurture but I would put forward that in fact, the argument is irrelevant. You may have a predisposition to be happier or sadder than others but that is just a starting point. Regardless of this starting point, which would be normal for you, you can always find ways to make your life happier, hell for most of us that could include things as simple as getting enough sleep.

The article also went on to list a set of factors that add to or detract from our happiness. I think most are pretty obvious but for your own edification here is the list:

Having an emotionally stable spouse
Helping others
Prioritizing family
Have an active social life
Get regular exercise

This list strikes me as pretty simple as it focuses on reducing stress (stable relationships, enjoying life and exercising) and doing things that you can feel proud of (taking care of others). However as with most things very often it is the simple things that best help us achieve our goals.

Below is the link to the LA Times piece:

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/oct/01/news/la-heb-happiness-study-20101004

The Dalai Lama will be live from Stanford this week

Posted on October 13, 2010 by Michael Kane

Dalai Lama

His Holiness the Dalai Lama will be participating in three public events at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, USA, on October 14th and 15th, 2010. All three events will be webcast live. Event and webcast information is available at http://dalailama.stanford.edu/

Posted in Dalai Lama | Tagged dalai lama, stanford | Leave a comment

The Dalai Lama on Happiness

Posted on October 12, 2010 by Michael Kane

The Dalai Lama on Happiness

Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive. ~ The Dalai Lama

The paragraph below is the Dalai Lama’s take on the purpose of life which he considers happiness and how to achieve it, this is just the first paragraph, the link will take you to the full reading. I’m always amazed reading or listening to his words he has an amazing amount of wisdom. I have a friend who has been blessed enough to have two personal meetings with the Dalai Lama and she tells me that he is every bit as amazing as he appears to be. More about her and their talks to come soon, have a great day.

The purpose of life

ONE GREAT QUESTION underlies our experience, whether we think about it consciously or not: What is the purpose of life? I have considered this question and would like to share my thoughts in the hope that they may be of direct, practical benefit to those who read them.

I believe that the purpose of life is to be happy. From the moment of birth, every human being wants happiness and does not want suffering. Neither social conditioning nor education nor ideology affect this. From the very core of our being, we simply desire contentment. I don’t know whether the universe, with its countless galaxies, stars and planets, has a deeper meaning or not, but at the very least, it is clear that we humans who live on this earth face the task of making a happy life for ourselves. Therefore, it is important to discover what will bring about the greatest degree of happiness.

http://www.dalailama.com/messages/compassion

Check out these posts as well!

Deng Ming-Dao on Happiness

Timeless Thoughts on Inner Peace

Happiness is a Few Minutes of Peace

Fear is Killing Your Happiness

Posted in Dalai Lama, personal happiness | Tagged be happy, buddhism, dalai lama, happiness, inner peace, meaning of life, meditation, peace, peaceful | 2 Comments

A Question of Happiness

Posted on October 10, 2010 by Michael Kane

A Question of Happiness

One joy scatters a hundred griefs. ~Chinese Proverb

So what is the most important question you can ask yourself in your personal quest for happiness? I would postulate that it is simply why. The simplest and most profound question you can ever ask, but don’t use a little word to ask too big of a question. Don’t ask yourself why am I not happy, there are just too many variables to that question. Ask yourself instead why do I do this, does it make me happy? A really interesting exercise is to take the elements of your life and run it through that simple filter. Why am I living where I live, does it make me happy? Sometimes that answer may be no and then you need to apply the second and equally as important question, can I change this?

There are lots of elements in our life that for good reason you can’t change. You may be underwater in your mortgage and given today’s housing market you may have to stay in your home. You may not be happy in your job but not have the experience or skills to get another or better job. In those cases you have two choices, either work towards putting yourself in position to change, i.e. take some classes to gain skills you need to move on. Or, accept that for this moment in time, this cannot be changed. That acceptance is not submission, but understanding that you will have to wait a little longer to make that particular change.

I bet if you apply the why filter you may find some easy and positive ways to change your life and increase your personal happiness. Give it a shot and let us know how you did and have a happy day my friends ~ Rev Kane

The art of living does not consist in preserving and clinging to a particular mode of happiness, but in allowing happiness to change its form without being disappointed by the change; happiness, like a child, must be allowed to grow up. ~Charles L. Morgan

Afghan Children’s Circus

Posted on October 8, 2010 by Michael Kane

This is a double post with my other blog, zdeaconblue.wordress.com but I thought I would share it on both sites because its so damn cool.

Saw this group on a story on CNN a few weeks ago and really dug what they are doing and though I would share it with you today. The Afghan Children’s Circus says the following about themselves:

MMCC, Mobile Mini Circus for Children, is an international non profit NGO that has been working in Afghanistan since June 2002. The main objective of MMCC is providing educational and informative entertainment for children. This aim is achieved by identifying, training, and applying the Afghan talents and potentials.

Since 2003 MMCC’s educational entertaining performances, workshops and teacher trainings have successfully reached more than half a million children and teachers in 16 provinces. New creative educational teaching methods are constantly being developed in MMCC’s Children Culture House that is also the base for 80-100 well trained MMCC-junior artists performing in Kabul and abroad.

Below is the link to the Circus’ site:

http://www.afghanmmcc.org/

And finally the link to the CNN web story (3 min):

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/world/2010/09/27/abawi.afghan.kids.circus.cnn.html

Posted in The Wisdom of Children | Tagged afghan, children, circus, fun | Leave a comment

Monday Wisdom from the Dalai Lama

Posted on October 4, 2010 by Michael Kane

Ultimately, humanity is one, and this small planet is our only home. If we are to protect this home of ours, each of us needs to feel a vivid sense of universal altruism. It is only this feeling that can remove the self-centered motives that cause people to deceive and misuse one another. If you have a sincere and open heart, you naturally feel self-worth and confidence, and there is no need to be fearful of others. ~ Dalai Lama

A reminder from his holiness that our own thoughts and attitudes can drive the way the world works, hopefully this will help us all have a better Monday and week than we had last week.

Posted in Dalai Lama, personal happiness | Tagged altruism, dalai lama, happiness | Leave a comment

Saying Goodbye

Posted on October 2, 2010 by Michael Kane

Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars. ~Kahlil Gibran

This is a post from another blog that is about saying goodbye, to the things we want to lose and the people we love. Saying goodbye properly is as important to our happiness as anything else.

http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2010/10/02/269/

Posted in personal happiness | Tagged happiness, letting go, memorial, saying goodbye | Leave a comment

A Perplexing Week but its a Happy Friday

Posted on October 1, 2010 by Michael Kane

Perplexity is the beginning of knowledge. ~Kahlil Gibran

I love Kahlil Gibran, I found my way to him by way of a friend’s wedding, I was asked to read a passage and instead of the standard Letter from Paul to the Corinthians, the reading was from his book The Prophet. The funniest thing about doing that reading was that as I stood on the altar, reading this passage I felt a little breeze and came to the sudden realization that my fly was undone. I was momentarily mortified that here I was, having been given the honor of reading at my friend’s wedding and I was standing up there on display for all the world to see. I continued to read and finished, quickly making my way to my seat only to figure out that my suit jacket had effectively concealed my wardrobe malfunction. Later as I relayed this story to my friend the bride, I was happy to find out that no one detected either the wardrobe malfunction or my embarrassment, but everyone got a great laugh out of the story.

I chose the quote above for a purely selfish reason, this past week has been perplexing at best. It started with me being called an inhuman bastard, proceeded through a relatively sleepless week and unfortunately my brother did not get a job he was a finalist for. I’m incredibly proud of him for getting that close to a very good job but that isn’t much consolation for him at this point. So here is hoping the perplexing nature of this week is the beginning of a new learning experience and I wish you all a great weekend and I leave you a thought from Fyodor Dostoevsky.

Man is fond of counting his troubles, but he does not count his joys. If he counted them up as he ought to, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it. ~Fyodor Dostoevsky

Posted in personal happiness | Tagged dostoevsky, friday, happiness, khalil gibran, work | Leave a comment

Happiness Requires an Open Mind

Posted on September 29, 2010 by Michael Kane

Happiness Requires an Open Mind

People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they’re not on your road doesn’t mean they’ve gotten lost. ~H. Jackson Browne

I recently was having a conversation with someone who is like me, science-minded, meaning that they put great faith in what the scientific method can show and teach us. At one point in the discussion we were having, things turned to relationships and the type of people that we would like to date. This person made the statement that if anyone said they were spiritual she could not date them. I probed some more as I wasn’t sure whether she meant that a spiritual person was not religious enough or was too religious. She cleared things up for me by saying that anyone who could believe in spirituality was an idiot. I countered with the names of Ghandi, Martin Luther King, and Mother Teresa and sarcastically remarked, “yeah what a bunch of idiots.”

Let us not hold ourselves above our fellow human beings, no matter how great the disparity. To withhold your scorn is already beautiful. To see how we are all of one family is compassion. ~ Deng Ming-Dao

I think it is important that we all understand that for a person to be happy, they have to be tolerant of others and open to other points of view. Happiness cannot occur if you spend all of your time being negative and looking down on others. Finally, I think it is also important, no matter how much faith you have in science, to understand there is still magic in the world. Children understand this and children are often much happier than adults, it is easy to write that off to their lack of responsibilities, but I believe there is more to it than that. I believe there is a certain wisdom in the way in which children view the world. Have a happy day my friends ~ Rev Kane

It’s never too late to have a happy childhood. ~Berkeley Breathed

Tuesday has got to be better than Monday

Posted on September 28, 2010 by Michael Kane

Seems like a lot of my friends hard a hard Monday so maybe I felt it coming yesterday and that’s why I posted. So, to quote my friend Audrey this morning, “Ok Tuesday be better than Monday, it’s a very low bar.” So here’s hoping Tuesday brings you more happiness than Monday and a little wisdom from the Dalai Lama.

Dalai Lama For the rest of your life to be as meaningful as possible, engage in spiritual practice if you can. It is nothing more than acting out of concern for others. If you practice sincerely and with persistence, little by little, step by step you will gradually reorder your habits and attitudes so as to think less about your own narrow concerns and more about others’ – and thereby find peace and happiness yourself.

Posted in Dalai Lama, personal happiness | Tagged dalai lama, happiness, monday, tuesday | Leave a comment

The Ministry of Happiness

The Dalai Lama will be live from Stanford this week

The Dalai Lama on Happiness

The Dalai Lama on Happiness

Check out these posts as well!

A Question of Happiness

A Question of Happiness

Other Posts You Might Enjoy!

Afghan Children’s Circus

Monday Wisdom from the Dalai Lama

Saying Goodbye

A Perplexing Week but its a Happy Friday

Happiness Requires an Open Mind

Happiness Requires an Open Mind

Other Posts You Might Enjoy!

Tuesday has got to be better than Monday

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