Happiness Matters- Change your mind...

Your happiness matters. Tonight we have our second installment of our new Happiness Segments. Our first week we committed to changing our focus and actually smiling and saying hello to strangers, as a means of enhancing our life as well as others. Let’s discuss how that assignment went for our audience.

What was the response to the first segment on smiling?
• Anonymous: Just smiling changed everything for me
• Ron said: I’d like to put those smiley faces everywhere in my office. I think it would change everyone’s outlook
• Ella said: Loved the assignment and even called people to say hello
• The newsroom. Everyone got a kick out of the smiley faces and they all seemed to smile more and laugh just by seeing the smile
So what element of happiness are we looking at tonight?
• Tonight we are looking at the correlation of Happiness & age.
• A 2008 study of 28,000 people from ages 18-88 showed that older Americans are happiest
• Older people are more content with what they have than younger people
• Older people have lower expectations and accept their own achievements
• 2009 study from University of California showed that older people tend to avoid stress leading to less negative emotions.
• Older adults tend to spend more time thinking about past happy events than negative events.
• Most importantly **** the odds of being happy increases 5% with every 10 years of age.
Wow, it sounds like older people may have some real techniques related to happiness. So what is our Happiness Matters assignment for tonight?
• Older people have lower expectations and tend to think in terms of optimism or happier events versus having negative thoughts
• COMMIT: Try to focus on the things that are going well in your life. Commit to trying to change your inner message by focusing on the happy events in your life. Each night before bed make mental note of 5 positive events in your day. Do this for a week and you’ll discover you have raised your happiness ratio! Learn from those who know—focusing on happy events lowers your stress level, changes your outlook, and changes your world!!

Are you a GenY-er?

GenY, GenMe or Millenials… whatever you call them…they have some different views on the world than the previous generation. Tonight we will look at some of the characteristics of those who are the Millennials—from the age of 18-29.

What are some of the priorities of Millennials?
• Millennials define themselves as technology focused
• They define themselves by their music and pop culture
• They see themselves as liberal and tolerant
• They view themselves as smarter than past generations
• They see their work ethic as different than past generations

• Most GenYers are generally more confident, upbeat and open to change
What do you mean that their work ethic is different?
• The previous generation—the Xers who were born in the 1970s were seen as slackers, and the Boomers defined themselves by their jobs--but the Millenials value their leisure time
• GenY folks say they want a job with an easy pace and lots of vacation time
• GenY people don’t really want to work overtime
• They want jobs where they can make friends- which is very important to them
• GenY see work as less central to their lives yet they want to have big salaries and status (perhaps suggesting they want their cake and eat it too)

If you are working with a GenYer, what tips would you give?
• Realize that they are not defined by their job, so change your expectations or look for someone else who might have the job expectations that you desire
• GenYers are team players and work well in goods. You can use this to your advance by teaming them up to produce.
• GenYers need some assistance with personal communication skills and following procedures in an exact format. Take the time to teach them how to go through all the steps of a job and be specific.
• Remember that GenYers want something different than past generations and they will value time sharing, working part-time and being more flexible with work hours that might help you save money due to economic concerns.

Our own HAPPINESS PROJECT!!!!!

Tonight we begin our bi-weekly happiness segments on WEEK-TV. We have some new promo commercials that will be running and we hope we can get your commitment to bring some happiness into your life.

The following is the transcript of the segment and you can check it out verbatim. We ask you this week to do something simple... JUST COMMIT TO SMILING AND SAYING HI TO 5 STRANGERS EACH DAY.

We know this will bring a change within your life in in the next week, and we'd like to hear about your response. Just click below and tell us your experience by committing to this simple technique. We'd love to have you add your comments to the blog and we will be sharing some of your comments on the show in the following weeks.

Here's the segment and the specific GOAL TO ENHANCE YOUR HAPPINESS QUOTIENT.

Your Happiness Matters and tonight we will focus on a brand addition to our Dr. Joy segment. (April 14th)

Gina: Can you tell us a little bit about our new addition?

Joy:
• We’d like to bring some happiness into your life, and with some simple suggestions and your commitment, you’ll be able to really see a change in your life
• Every other week we will focus on Happiness and some current research related to simple techniques that can enhance your Happiness quotient.
• The tips may seem simple, but research has shown these simple changes will make a real difference in your life as you begin your own Happiness Project.

Gina: This sounds like a wonderful addition to our mental health segment. I know we can all use a little happiness in our life, so where should we begin.

Joy: Let’s start with a simple smile.
• Mother Theresa said “peace beings with a smile.” So let’s work on some inner peace.
• Researchers have shown that the facial muscles used in creating the simple act of smiling triggers special brain neurotransmitters that release endorphins and immune boosting T-cells.
• The simple act of smiling
1. lowers our stress hormones
2. produces hormones that stabilizes our blood pressure
3. improves respiration
4. reduces pain
5. speeds up healing
6. lowers our chance of depression
7. Creates a change to stabilize and enhance our mood.
It takes 62 muscles to frown and only 26 muscles to smile….


Gina: So what is our commitment goal for the week?

Joy: Our goal for the week is to COMMIT TO SMILING AND SAYING HI TO 5 STRANGERS EACH DAY FOR A WEEK.
• It’s a simple as that- but you just need to commit to the change.
• If you’d like to share your experiences you can go to WEEK.com and go to ASKDRJOY and click the blog icon and share your response to this exercise on the blog, and hopefully we can share some of your comments during our Happiness segments.
• Your happiness matters and WEEK and I are dedicated to helping you make some empowering changes.

New study reveals info about abuse

A new study has been released that looks at why women stay with their abusers. You might find the study revealing.

Go to http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/04/13/despite-abuse-women-stand-by-their-man/12791.html

Teen Years Explained

A new book has just been released dealing with some of the common myths about teens. The book looks quite interesting.



Here are some excerpt from the book...

Popular Myths about Teenagers:

Myth: Teens are bigger risk-takers and thrill-seekers than adults. Fact: Teens perceive more risk than adults do in certain areas, such as the chance of getting into an accident if they drive with a drunk driver.

Myth: Young people only listen to their friends. Fact: Young people report that their parents or a caring adult are their greatest influence - especially when it comes to sexual behavior.

Myth: Adolescents live to push your buttons. Fact: Adolescents may view conflict as a way of expressing themselves, while adults take arguments personally.

Myth: When you're a teenager, you can eat whatever you want and burn it off. Fact: Obesity rates have tripled for adolescents since 1980.

Myth: Teens don't need sleep. Fact: Teens need as much sleep or more than they got as children - 9 to 10 hours is optimum.

To read the article about the new publication go to: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/184958.php

Quick Rewards Win Out

Despite the fact that we have a society that is called the Information Age, it seems that the quick reward tends to win out over informed decisions. Despite the fact that we know we should exercise more, eat better, spend less... we still tend to make decisions based on what feels good and make poor choices much of the time.

The new research research from the University of Texas is a compelling study that shows our happiness in the short term might just collide with good decision making.

To read more go to: http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/04/02/too-much-information-can-lead-to-poor-choices/12554.html

Wonderful article-- Must read

As you may have noticed, I love to find great things to post online. I found this wonderful article about 5 quotes and thought I would share it in it's entirety with you. It is a great article by E. Goldstein, Phd, (quotes only) Enjoy!

5 Quotes that Can Change Your Life!
By ELISHA GOLDSTEIN, PH.D.

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom” ~ Victor Frankl

“Amidst the worldly comings and goings, observe how endings become beginnings.” ~ Tao Te Ching

“You cannot solve a problem with the same mind that created it.” ~ Albert Einstein

“You see everything is about belief, whatever we believe rules our existence, rules our life.” ~ Don Miguel Ruiz

“What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters to what lies within us.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

Ok, one extra:

Hence, there is a time to go ahead and a time to stay behind.

There is a time to breathe easy and a time to breathe hard.

There is a time to be vigorous and a time to be gentle.

There is a time to gather and a time to release.

Can you see things as they are

And let them be all on their own?

~ Lao-tzu

A surprise is coming!

There is something exciting coming to my segment on WEEK-TV on Wednesdays. Let's just say it will make you smile, and the new change will happen every other week, so tune in and discover the surprise. It just might make you a bit happier!

Older is BETTER

Here's some great news... if you are around the age of 60 your self esteem is probably really the highest it has ever been. A new research study shows that our esteem peaks at age 60 and declines slightly as we get older.

Here's some important quotes "“Specifically, we found that people who have higher incomes and better health in later life tend to maintain their self-esteem as they age,” said Orth.

“We cannot know for certain that more wealth and better health directly lead to higher self-esteem, but it does appear to be linked in some way. For example, it is possible that wealth and health are related to feeling more independent and better able to contribute to one’s family and society, which in turn bolsters self-esteem.”

People of all ages in satisfying and supportive relationships tend to have higher self-esteem, according to the findings. However, despite maintaining higher self-esteem throughout their lives, people in happy relationships experienced the same drop in self-esteem during old age as people in unhappy relationships.

“Although they enter old age with higher self-esteem and continue to have higher self-esteem as they age, they decline in self-esteem to the same extent as people in unhappy relationships,” said co-author Kali H. Trzesniewski, PhD, of the University of Western Ontario."

Isn't it great to know that getting older, is getting better :-)

Read the entire article at: http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/04/02/self-esteem-peaks-in-middle-age/12550.html

Medication compliance

It seems we might be more compliant at different times in our life. A new research study looks at those who are medication compliant and those who aren't. The reasons may surprise you....

For more information go to http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/03/31/how-to-improve-medication-compliance/12483.html