I
am the 70s child of a health nut. I wasn’t vaccinated. I was brought up
on an incredibly healthy diet: no sugar til I was one, breastfed for
over a year, organic homegrown vegetables, raw milk, no MSG, no
additives, no aspartame. My mother used homeopathy,
aromatherapy, osteopathy, we took daily supplements of vitamin C,
echinacea, cod liver oil. I had an outdoor lifestyle; I grew up next to a
farm, walked everywhere, did sports and danced twice a week, drank
plenty of water. I wasn’t even allowed pop; even my fresh juice was
watered down to protect my teeth, and I would’ve killed for white,
shop-bought bread in my lunch box once in a while and biscuits instead
of fruit like all the other kids. We only ate (organic local) meat maybe
once or twice a week and my mother and father cooked everything from
scratch – I have yet to taste a Findus crispy pancake and oven chips
were reserved for those nights when mum and dad had friends over and we
got a “treat.”
As healthy as my lifestyle seemed, I contracted measles,
mumps, rubella, a type of viral meningitis, scarlatina, whooping cough,
yearly tonsillitis, and chickenpox, some of which are vaccine
preventable. In my twenties I got precancerous HPV
and spent 6 months of my life wondering how I was going to tell my two
children under the age of 7 that mummy might have cancer before it was
safely removed.
So having the “natural immunity sterilised out of us” just doesn’t
cut it for me. How could I, with my idyllic childhood and my amazing
health food, get so freaking ill all the time? My mother was the biggest
health freak around–she would put most of my current “crunchy” friends
to shame. She didn’t drink, she didn’t smoke, she didn’t do drugs and we
certainly weren’t allowed to watch whatever we wanted on telly or wear
plastic shoes or any of that stuff. She LIVED alternative health. And
you know what? I’m glad she gave us the great diet that we had, I’m glad
that she cared about us in that way.
But it just didn’t stop me getting childhood illnesses.
My two vaccinated children, on the other hand, have rarely been ill,
have had antibiotics maybe twice in their lives, if that (not like me
who got so many illnesses which needed treatment with antibiotics that I
developed a resistance to them, which led me to be hospitalized with penicillin-resistant quinsy
at 21–you know that old fashioned disease that killed Queen Elizabeth I
and which was almost wiped out through use of antibiotics).
My kids have had no childhood illnesses other than chickenpox, which
they both contracted while still breastfeeding. They too grew up on a
healthy diet, homegrown organics etc. Not to the same extent as I did,
though, as I was not quite as strict as my mother, but they are both
healthier than I have ever been.
I find myself wondering about the claim that complications from
childhood illnesses are extremely rare but that “vaccine injuries” are
rampant. If this is the case, I struggle to understand why I know far
more people who have experienced complications from preventable
childhood illnesses than I have EVER met with complications from
vaccines. I have friends who became deaf from measles. I have a partially sighted friend who contracted rubella in the womb. My ex got pneumonia from chickenpox. A friend’s brother died from meningitis.
Anecdotal evidence is nothing to base decisions on. But when facts
and evidence-based science aren’t good enough to sway someone’s opinion,
then this is where I come from. After all, anecdotes are the
anti-vaccine supporter’s way. Well, this is my personal experience. And my personal experience prompts me to vaccinate my children and myself. I got the flu vaccine recently, and I am getting the whooping cough booster to protect my unborn baby. My natural immunity from having whooping cough at age 5 will not protect him once he’s born.
I understand, to a point, where the anti-vaccine parents are coming
from. Back in the 90s when I was a concerned, 19-year-old mother,
frightened by the world I was bringing my child into, I was studying
homeopathy, herbalism and aromatherapy; I believed in angels,
witchcraft, clairvoyants, crop circles, aliens at Nazca, giant ginger
mariners spreading their knowledge to the Aztecs, the Incas and the
Egyptians and that I was somehow personally blessed by the Holy Spirit
with healing abilities. I was having my aura read at a hefty price and
filtering the fluoride out of my water. I was choosing to have past life
regressions instead of taking anti-depressants. I was taking my daily
advice from tarot cards. I grew all my own veg and made my own herbal
remedies. I was so freaking crunchy that I literally crumbled. It was
only when I took control of those paranoid thoughts and fears about the
world around me and became an objective critical thinker that I got
well. It was when I stopped taking sugar pills for everything and
started seeing medical professionals that I began to thrive physically
and mentally.
If you think your child’s immune system is strong enough to fight off vaccine-preventable diseases, then it’s strong enough to fight off the tiny amounts of dead or weakened pathogens present in any of the vaccines.
But not everyone around you is that strong, not everyone has a choice,
not everyone can fight those illnesses, and not everyone can be
vaccinated. If you have a healthy child, then your healthy child can
cope with vaccines and can care about those unhealthy children who
can’t. Teach your child compassion, and teach your child a sense of
responsibility for those around them. Don’t teach your child to be self
serving and scared of the world in which it lives and the people around
him/her. And teach them to LOVE people with ASD or any other disability for that matter, not to label them as damaged.
And lastly but most importantly for me – knowingly exposing your
child to childhood illnesses is cruel; even without complications these
diseases aren’t exactly pleasant. I don’t know about you, but I don’t
enjoy watching children suffer even with a cold or a hurt knee. If
you’ve never had these illnesses you don’t know how awful they are–I do.
Pain, discomfort, the inability to breathe or to eat or to swallow,
fever and nightmares, itching all over your body so much that you can’t
stand lying on bed sheets, losing so much weight you can’t walk
properly, diarrhea that leaves you lying prostrate on the bathroom
floor, the unpaid time off work for parents (and if you’re self employed
that means NO INCOME), the quarantine, missing school, missing parties,
the worry, the sleepless nights, the sweat, the tears and the blood,
the midnight visits to A and E,
sitting in a doctor’s waiting room on your own because no one will sit
near you because they’re rightfully scared of those spots all over your
kids face.
Those of you who have avoided childhood illnesses without vaccines are lucky. You couldn’t do it without us pro-vaxxers.
Once the vaccination rates begin dropping, the less herd immunity will
be able to protect your children. The more people you convert to your
anti-vax stance, the quicker that luck will run out.
Amy Parker is a 37 year old mother of two teenagers, with
a new arrival on the way. She was brought up in the idyllic countryside
of the Lake District, England by my health conscious parents–an artist
and a ballet teacher. I currently live on the Fylde coast where I teach
piano and singing and run arts and crafts workshops for children and
adults.
If
your car was powered by thorium, you would never need to refuel it. The
vehicle would burn out long before the chemical did. The thorium would
last so long, in fact, it would probably outlive you.
That’s
why a company called Laser Power Systems has created a concept for a
thorium-powered car engine. The element is radioactive, and the team
uses bits of it to build a laserbeam that heats water, produces steam,
and powers an energy-producing turbine. Thorium
is one of the most dense materials on the planet. A small sample of it
packs 20 million times more energy than a similarly-sized sample of
coal, making it an ideal energy source.
The
thing is, Dr. Charles Stevens, the CEO of Laser Power Systems, told
Mashable that thorium engines won’t be in cars anytime soon.
“Cars are not our primary interest,” Stevens said. “The automakers don’t want to buy them.”
He
said too much of the automobile industry is focused on making money off
of gas engines, and it will take at least a couple decades for thorium
technology to be used enough in other industries that vehicle
manufacturers will begin to consider revamping the way they think about
engines.
“We’re
building this to power the rest of the world,” Stevens said. He
believes a thorium turbine about the size of an air conditioning unit
could more provide cheap power for whole restaurants, hotels, office
buildings, even small towns in areas of the world without electricity.
At some point, thorium could power individual homes.
Stevens understands that people may be wary of Thorium because it is radioactive — but any such worry would be unfounded.
“The
radiation that we develop off of one of these things can be shielded by
a single sheet off of aluminum foil,” Stevens said.” “You will get more
radiation from one of those dental X-rays than this.”
We indeed are what we eat and what we are eating in many ‘first world
nations’ is quite scary. The chemicals added to these ‘foods’ are
disrupting our hormones, causing cancer and leading to a variety of
health issues.
“In the 21st century our tastes buds,
our brain chemistry, our biochemistry, our hormones and our kitchens
have been hijacked by the food industry.” ~ Mark Hyman
The Omnivore’s Dilemma
by Michael Pollan is one of my favorite books. He describes his journey
through 4 different ways of obtaining food: industrialized (or fast)
food, conventional farming practices, organic/symbiotic farming
practices, and people that hunt/forage for their meals. He follows the
food chain literally from the ground to the table.
“Much of our food system depends on our not knowing much about
it, beyond the price disclosed by the checkout scanner; cheapness and
ignorance are mutually reinforcing. And it’s a short way from not
knowing who’s at the other end of your food chain to not caring–to the
carelessness of both producers and consumers that characterizes our
economy today. Of course, the global economy couldn’t very well function
without this wall of ignorance and the indifference it breeds. This is
why the American food industry and its international counterparts fight
to keep their products from telling even the simplest stories–”dolphin
safe,” “humanely slaughtered,” etc.–about how they were produced. The
more knowledge people have about the way their food is produced, the
more likely it is that their values–and not just “value”–will inform
their purchasing decisions.” ~ Michael Pollan
I highly encourage you to do your own research in regards to not only the products that you put into your body but also the products you put onto your body (check out the Skindeep website
to research your personal care products). If you’d like to live a life
full of health and vitality, start by controlling your food choices.
This is the easiest and most controllable factor in regards to health. I
always aim for fresh, local and in season produce. And in regards to
what I DON’T ever eat, well that’s this list below.
1. Canned Foods - We live in a world where
convenience is king. I know this. It’s hard to find fresh produce and to
only eat what is in season, kind of. When you buy canned foods,
however, you are also buying BPA
– a toxic chemical linked to reproductive abnormalities, neurological
effects, diabetes, heart disease and a heightened risk of breast and
prostate cancers. Canned foods that are highly acidic, such as tomatoes
for example, cause the BPA to leach into your food. I recommend you
avoid canned foods, whenever possible, and stick to what’s fresh and
season. You can also switch over to glass containers or frozen foods
instead.
2. Processed Meats – Most deli meats are typically
made with meats from animals that are not raised in an ecologically
sound fashion. They are given growth hormones, antibiotics and other
drugs that stick in their bodies and are passed on to you when you eat
their flesh. They are also raised in horrible conditions that gives rise
to innumerable diseases that are then treated with more drugs. These
meats are also treated with sodium nitrite (which adds color and flavor)
which your body converts to nitrosamines, which are cancer-causing
chemicals. Most processed meats also contain a variety of other cancer-promoting chemicals including HCAs, PAHs, and AGEs. Says Michael Pollan in his book the Omnivore’s Dilemma, “were
the walls of our meat industry to become transparent, literally or even
figuratively, we would not long continue to raise, kill, and eat
animals the way we do.” If you’re going to eat meat, avoid all
processed meats at all costs. Go for local and sustainably raised (and
grass-fed) meat. Wild caught salmon (and other fish) are a great
alternative as well.
3. Margarine – The low-fat diet craze is perhaps one
of the worst diet fads to happen in the last 50 years. Healthy fats are
ESSENTIAL to your diet as your cells are built with fat. Margarine, and
other butter impostors, are loaded with trans fats, free radicals,
emulsifiers, and preservatives. Any of these alone can lead to: heart
disease, cancer, bone problems, hormonal imbalances, skin disease,
infertility, and many more health problems. Don’t let clever marketing
fool you. Good old fashioned butter, when made from grass-fed cows, is a
healthy substance filled with conjugated linoleic acid which actually
helps to fight cancer and diabetes.
4. Vegetable Oils - Vegetable oils (and margarine,
made from these oils) are oils extracted from seeds like the rapeseed
(canola oil) soybean (soybean oil), corn, sunflower, and safflower. They
were practically non-existent in our diets until the early 1900s when
new chemical processes allowed them to be extracted. Vegetable oils are
manufactured in a factory, usually from genetically modified crops that
have been heavily treated with pesticides. Unlike butter or coconut oil,
these vegetable oils can’t be extracted just by pressing or separating
naturally. They must be chemically removed, deodorized, and altered.
These are some of the most chemically altered foods in our diets.
Vegetable oils are found in practically every processed food, from salad
dressing to potato chips to mayo to conventional nuts and seeds. Today,
people consume, on average, about 70 pounds of vegetable oils
throughout the year! Anytime you cook a food, you run the risk of
creating heat-induced damage. The oils you choose to cook with must be
stable enough to resist chemical changes when heated to high
temperatures, or you run the risk of damaging your health. One of the
ways vegetable oils can inflict damage is by converting your good
cholesterol into bad cholesterol–by oxidizing it. When you cook with
polyunsaturated vegetable oils (such as canola, corn, and soy oils),
oxidized cholesterol is introduced into your system. As the oil is
heated and mixed with oxygen, it goes rancid. Rancid oil is oxidized oil
and should NOT be consumed–it leads directly to vascular disease.
Trans-fats are introduced when these oils are hydrogenated, which
increases your risk of chronic diseases like breast cancer and heart
disease. Instead, whenever I cook, I use either butter or coconut oil.
Coconut oil is practically 100% saturated, which means it is stable at
high temperatures. It also is very beneficial to the health of your body.
5. Microwave Popcorn - Honestly, you shouldn’t eat anything that’s been put in a microwave, but especially microwave popcorn! The bags of microwave popcorn contain
chemicals called perfluoroalkyls which keep the grease from leaking
through the fast food wrappers. These ‘gender bending’ chemicals disrupt
the endocrine system and are carcinogenic. They are linked to
infertility, thyroid malfunction, cancerous tumors, and immunological
problems. I highly recommend you toss your microwave out today. Opt for
the old fashioned route of stove-top or air-popped popcorn. And also
know that most fast food or junk food wrappers contain these chemicals
and are adding toxicity to your body.
6. Non-Organic Produce – I’ve read plenty of articles about the ‘safest non-organic’ produce
to eat. Which simply makes me laugh. Sure, the thick skin of the fruit
or vegetable may ‘protect’ the edible portion inside, but what about the
fact that the chemicals are sprayed on the plants, leach into the
groundwater and are absorbed into the plant by the roots? And what about
the workers and the surrounding areas of conventional farms that are
affected by the toxic chemicals? Produce that has been treated with
toxic chemicals affects the planet as a whole regardless of the
thickness of the skin of the product. Do yourself, and the rest of us a
favor, buy local and organic whenever possible.
7. Table Salt - Did you know that processed salt is
98% sodium chloride and the remaining 2% consists of dangerous chemicals
like ferrocyanide and aluminosilicate in addition to fluoride? Natural
salt, like sea salt for example, is only 84% sodium chloride with the
remaining 16% consisting of trace minerals like silicon, phosphorous and
vanadium. Salt is essential to your health in it’s natural form. I
personally enjoy the flavor of Himalayan sea salt. But there are a
variety of salts out there. Try black lava salt from Hawaii or Fleur de
sel from France. But like anything, go easy on the salt in your diet.
Even though the minerals are good for your body, too much can still lead
to a variety of health problems like high blood pressure. And remember,
most processed foods are loaded with sodium, so avoid them at all costs.
8. Soy Products – Soy
is one of the leading genetically modified (GM) foods on the planet
today (along with corn). GM soy has been shown to cause damage to the
female reproductive system and is toxic to the placenta. Soy can be
found in practically everything from protein bars to bottled fruit
drinks to soups and sauces to baked goods and even breakfast cereals!
It’s important to read labels as soy is hidden in many processed foods.
The only soy which can promote health is organic fermented soy products.
9. Artificial Sweeteners – Without going into too much scientific detail, aspartame
forms methanol in the body. Methanol is carried into the brain and bone
marrow, where it’s converted into formaldehyde, which damages DNA. All
animals, except humans, can harmlessly break down methanol into formic
acid. This is why animal testing is incorrect in regards to the safety
of artificial sweeteners and humans. If you need to sweeten something go for natural sweeteners like honey, maple syrup or stevia.
10. Sugar – As a continuation of the point above, sugar
suppresses the immune system, leads to weight gain and leaches precious
minerals from your body. Sugar, even in small amounts, is detrimental
to your health. It suppresses the immune system for hours and plays
significant effect on your hormones, throwing your body out of balance
and into a state of biochemical chaos. If you eat sugar, morning, noon
and night, your body is always in this state of chaos leading to
disease. Furthermore, sugar is actually an anti-nutrient, meaning that
it leaches nutrients from your body! Because certain nutrients are
removed from sugar in the refining process, your body cannot process it.
So, it leaches minerals from your body to attach to the refined sugar
molecules in order to move the sugar through your body. Also, because
it’s an anti-nutrient, sugar also causes calcium to be lost in the
urine, which in turn is replaced by calcium from the bones, leading to
osteoporosis.You may say ‘but I don’t eat sugar,’ but what you mean is
that you don’t ADD sugar to your meals and drinks. Once you start
reading labels of boxed foods, you’ll soon learn that sugar (in all of
its chemically created/altered forms) is present in most, if not all,
processed foods. It’s almost impossible to avoid! Stay away from
processed foods and drinks in order to stray away from sugar and stick
to the natural sweeteners.
Honestly – the easiest way to stay healthy is to eat whole un-refined and fresh foods. As Michael Pollan stated beautifully: “If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t.” Words to live by, my friends.
The idea of beating the banks at
their own game may seem like a rich joke, but Dmitry Agarkov, a
42-year-old Russian man, may have managed it. Unhappy with the terms of
an unsolicited credit card offer he received from online bank Tinkoff
Credit Systems, Agarkov scanned the document, wrote in his own terms and
sent it through. The bank approved the contract without reading the
amended fine print, unwittingly agreeing to a 0 percent interest rate,
unlimited credit and no fees, as well as a stipulation that the bank pay
steep fines for changing or canceling the contract.
Agarkov
used the card for two years, but the bank ultimately canceled it and
sued Agarkov for $1,363. The bank said he owed them charges, interest
and late-payment fees. A court ruled that, because of the no-fee,
no-interest stipulation Agarkov had written in, he owed only his unpaid
$575 balance. Now Agarkov is suing the bank for $727,000 for not
honoring the contract's terms, and the bank is hollering fraud. "They
signed the documents without looking. They said what usually their
borrowers say in court: 'We have not read it,'” Agarkov's lawyer said.
The shoe's on the other foot now, eh?
Quartz
|
By Christopher Mims
Posted: 08/07/2013 9:57 am EDT
“Tell me what kinds of toxins are in your body, and I’ll tell you how
much you’re worth,” could be the new motto of doctors everywhere. In a
finding that surprised even the researchers conducting the study,
it turns out that both rich and poor Americans are walking toxic waste
dumps for chemicals like mercury, arsenic, lead, cadmium and bisphenol
A, which could be a cause of infertility. And while a buildup of environmental toxins in the body afflicts rich and poor alike, the type of toxin varies by wealth.
America’s rich are harboring chemicals associated with what are normally considered healthy lifestyles
People who can afford sushi and other sources of aquatic lean protein
appear to be paying the price with a buildup of heavy metals in their
bodies, found Jessica Tyrrell and colleagues from the University of
Exeter. Using data from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination
Survey, Tyrrell et al. found that compared to poorer people, the rich
had higher levels of mercury, arsenic, caesium and thallium, all of
which tend to accumulate in fish and shellfish.
The rich also had higher levels of benzophenone-3, aka oxybenzone,
the active ingredient in most sunscreens, which is under investigation
by the EU and, argue some experts, may actually encourage skin cancer.
America’s poor have toxins associated with exposure to plastics and cigarette smoke
Higher
rates of cigarette smoking among those of lower means seem to be
associated with higher levels of lead and cadmium. Poor people in
America also had higher levels of Bisphenol-A, a substance used to line
cans and other food containers, and which is banned in the EU, Malaysia, South Africa, China and, in the US, in baby bottles.
Previous research has established that rich Americans are more likely to eat their fruits and vegetables
and less likely to eat “energy-dense” fast food and snacks, but this
work establishes that in some ways, in moving up the economic ladder
Americans are simply trading one set of environmental toxins for
another.
There is a theory that at least a partial explanation of the decline of
Ancient Rome can be found in the heavy use of lead in Roman society.
Lead was used in pipes (our word for plumbing comes from the word for
lead in Latin, Plumbum), and of course, the wealthier one was in Rome,
the more plumbing one could afford in one's house. The Romans also
cherished powered lead for its smooth creamy look, and used it in
cosmetics. Romans had a taste for wine with a touch of lead flavoring.
One of the earliest effects of lead poisoning is a reduced fertility in
young adults, and children born of persons who are suffering from lead
poisoning are less healthy, and robust. Another effect of lead poisoning
is a reduced intelligence. Whether these effects were sufficient to
"dumb down" the wealthier classes of Rome, and lead to a social decline,
is an interesting speculation.
It therefore not unprecedented that the
wealthier classes in our own society, may be suffering from this curious
effect of the higher consumption of products contaminated by heavy
metals.
Some societies, such as India, have a high consumption of foods
spiced with curry, which contains turmeric. A component of turmeric,
curcumin, can assist the human body in removing heavy metals, and
turmeric also acts as a natural agent that resists spoilage, i.e. it
acts as a preservative in foods, important in an area where
refrigeration is problematical.
Happiness
is so interesting, because we all have different ideas about what it is
and how to get it. It’s also no surprise that it’s the Nr.1 value for Buffer’s culture, if you see our slidedeck about it. So naturally we are obsessed with it.
I would love to be happier, as I’m sure most people would, so I
thought it would be interesting to find some ways to become a happier
person that are actually backed up by science. Here are ten of the best
ones I found.
1. Exercise more – 7 minutes might be enough
You might have seen some talk recently about the scientific 7 minute workout mentioned in The New York Times. So if you thought exercise was something you didn’t have time for, maybe you can fit it in after all.
Exercise has such a profound effect on our happiness and well-being
that it’s actually been proven to be an effective strategy for
overcoming depression. In a study cited in Shawn Achor’s book, The Happiness Advantage,
three groups of patients treated their depression with either
medication, exercise, or a combination of the two. The results of this
study really surprised me. Although all three groups experienced similar
improvements in their happiness levels to begin with, the follow up
assessments proved to be radically different:
The groups were then tested six months later to assess
their relapse rate. Of those who had taken the medication alone, 38
percent had slipped back into depression. Those in the combination group
were doing only slightly better, with a 31 percent relapse rate. The biggest shock, though, came from the exercise group: Their relapse rate was only 9 percent!
You don’t have to be depressed to gain benefit from exercise, though.
It can help you to relax, increase your brain power and even improve
your body image, even if you don’t lose any weight.
A study in the Journal of Health Psychology found that people who exercised felt better about their bodies, even when they saw no physical changes:
Body weight, shape and body image were assessed in 16
males and 18 females before and after both 6 × 40 mins exercise and 6 ×
40 mins reading. Over both conditions, body weight and shape did not
change. Various aspects of body image, however, improved after exercise
compared to before.
We’ve explored exercise in depth before,
and looked at what it does to our brains, such as releasing proteins
and endorphins that make us feel happier, as you can see in the image
below.
2. Sleep more – you’ll be less sensitive to negative emotions
We know that sleep helps our bodies to recover from the day and
repair themselves, and that it helps us focus and be more productive. It
turns out, it’s also important for our happiness.
In NutureShock, Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman explain how sleep affects our positivity:
Negative stimuli get processed by the amygdala; positive
or neutral memories gets processed by the hippocampus. Sleep deprivation
hits the hippocampus harder than the amygdala. The result is that
sleep-deprived people fail to recall pleasant memories, yet recall
gloomy memories just fine.
In one experiment by Walker, sleep-deprived college students tried to
memorize a list of words. They could remember 81% of the words with a
negative connotation, like “cancer.” But they could remember only 31% of
the words with a positive or neutral connotation, like “sunshine” or
“basket.”
The BPS Research Digest explores another study
that proves sleep affects our sensitivity to negative emotions. Using a
facial recognition task over the course of a day, the researchers
studied how sensitive participants were to positive and negative
emotions. Those who worked through the afternoon without taking a nap
became more sensitive late in the day to negative emotions like fear and
anger.
Using a face recognition task, here we demonstrate an
amplified reactivity to anger and fear emotions across the day, without
sleep. However, an intervening nap blocked and even reversed this
negative emotional reactivity to anger and fear while conversely
enhancing ratings of positive (happy) expressions.
Of course, how well (and how long) you
sleep will probably affect how you feel when you wake up, which can make
a difference to your whole day. Especially this graph showing how your
brain activity decreases is a great insight about how important enough
sleep is for productivity and happiness:
Another study tested how employees’ moods when they started work in the morning affected their work day.
Researchers found that employees’ moods when they clocked
in tended to affect how they felt the rest of the day. Early mood was
linked to their perceptions of customers and to how they reacted to
customers’ moods.
And most importantly to managers, employee mood had a clear impact on
performance, including both how much work employees did and how well
they did it.
3. Move closer to work – a short commute is worth more than a big house
Our commute to the office can have a surprisingly powerful impact on
our happiness. The fact that we tend to do this twice a day, five days a
week, makes it unsurprising that its effect would build up over time
and make us less and less happy.
According to The Art of Manliness, having a long commute is something we often fail to realize will affect us so dramatically:
… while many voluntary conditions don’t affect our
happiness in the long term because we acclimate to them, people never
get accustomed to their daily slog to work because sometimes the traffic
is awful and sometimes it’s not. Or as Harvard psychologist Daniel
Gilbert put it, “Driving in traffic is a different kind of hell every
day.”
We tend to try to compensate for this by having a bigger house or a better job, but these compensations just don’t work:
Two Swiss economists who studied the effect of commuting
on happiness found that such factors could not make up for the misery
created by a long commute.
4. Spend time with friends and family – don’t regret it on your deathbed
Staying in touch with friends and family is one of the top five regrets of the dying.
If you want more evidence that it’s beneficial for you, I’ve found some
research that proves it can make you happier right now.
Social time is highly valuable when it comes to improving our
happiness, even for introverts. Several studies have found that time
spent with friends and family makes a big difference to how happy we
feel, generally.
I love the way Harvard happiness expert Daniel Gilbert explains it:
We are happy when we have family, we are happy when we have friends and almost all the other things we think make us happy are actually just ways of getting more family and friends.
George Vaillant is the director of a 72-year study of the lives of 268 men.
In an interview in the March 2008 newsletter to the Grant
Study subjects, Vaillant was asked, “What have you learned from the
Grant Study men?” Vaillant’s response: “That the only thing that really
matters in life are your relationships to other people.”
He shared insights of the study with Joshua Wolf Shenk at The Atlantic on how the men’s social connections made a difference to their overall happiness:
The men’s relationships at age 47, he found, predicted
late-life adjustment better than any other variable, except defenses.
Good sibling relationships seem especially powerful: 93 percent of the
men who were thriving at age 65 had been close to a brother or sister
when younger.
In fact, a study published in the Journal of Socio-Economics states than your relationships are worth more than $100,000:
Using the British Household Panel Survey, I find that an
increase in the level of social involvements is worth up to an extra
£85,000 a year in terms of life satisfaction. Actual changes in income,
on the other hand, buy very little happiness.
I think that last line is especially fascinating: Actual changes in income, on the other hand, buy very little happiness.
So we could increase our annual income by hundreds of thousands of
dollars and still not be as happy as if we increased the strength of our
social relationships.
The Terman study, which is covered in The Longevity Project, found that relationships and how we help others were important factors in living long, happy lives:
We figured that if a Terman participant sincerely felt
that he or she had friends and relatives to count on when having a hard
time then that person would be healthier. Those who felt very loved and
cared for, we predicted, would live the longest.
Surprise: our prediction was wrong… Beyond social network size, the
clearest benefit of social relationships came from helping others. Those
who helped their friends and neighbors, advising and caring for others,
tended to live to old age.
5. Go outside – happiness is maximized at 13.9°C
In The Happiness Advantage, Shawn Achor recommends spending time in the fresh air to improve your happiness:
Making time to go outside on a nice day also delivers a
huge advantage; one study found that spending 20 minutes outside in good
weather not only boosted positive mood, but broadened thinking and
improved working memory…
This is pretty good news for those of us who are worried about
fitting new habits into our already-busy schedules. Twenty minutes is a
short enough time to spend outside that you could fit it into your
commute or even your lunch break.
A UK study from the University of Sussex also found that being outdoors made people happier:
Being outdoors, near the sea, on a warm, sunny weekend
afternoon is the perfect spot for most. In fact, participants were found
to be substantially happier outdoors in all natural environments than
they were in urban environments.
The American Meteorological Society
published research in 2011 that found current temperature has a bigger
effect on our happiness than variables like wind speed and humidity, or
even the average temperature over the course of a day. It also found
that happiness is maximized at 13.9°C, so keep an eye on the weather forecast before heading outside for your 20 minutes of fresh air.
6. Help others – 100 hours a year is the magical number
One of the most counterintuitive pieces of advice I found is that to
make yourself feel happier, you should help others. In fact, 100 hours
per year (or two hours per week) is the optimal time we should dedicate to helping others in order to enrich our lives.
If we go back to Shawn Achor’s book again, he says this about helping others:
…when researchers interviewed more than 150 people about
their recent purchases, they found that money spent on activities—such
as concerts and group dinners out—brought far more pleasure than
material purchases like shoes, televisions, or expensive watches.
Spending money on other people, called “prosocial spending,” also boosts
happiness.
The Journal of Happiness Studies published a study that explored this very topic:
Participants recalled a previous purchase made for either
themselves or someone else and then reported their happiness.
Afterward, participants chose whether to spend a monetary windfall on
themselves or someone else. Participants assigned to recall a purchase made for someone else reported feeling significantly happier immediately after this recollection; most importantly, the happier participants felt, the more likely they were to choose to spend a windfall on someone else in the near future.
So spending money on other people makes us happier than buying stuff for ourselves. What about spending our time on other people? A study of volunteering in Germany explored how volunteers were affected when their opportunities to help others were taken away:
Shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall but before the
German reunion, the first wave of data of the GSOEP was collected in
East Germany. Volunteering was still widespread. Due to the shock of the
reunion, a large portion of the infrastructure of volunteering (e.g.
sports clubs associated with firms) collapsed and people randomly lost
their opportunities for volunteering. Based on a comparison of the
change in subjective well-being of these people and of people from the
control group who had no change in their volunteer status, the
hypothesis is supported that volunteering is rewarding in terms of
higher life satisfaction.
…we scientists have found that doing a kindness produces
the single most reliable momentary increase in well-being of any
exercise we have tested.
7. Practice smiling – it can alleviate pain
Smiling itself can make us feel better, but it’s more effective when we back it up with positive thoughts, according to this study:
A new study led by a Michigan State University business
scholar suggests customer-service workers who fake smile throughout the
day worsen their mood and withdraw from work, affecting productivity.
But workers who smile as a result of cultivating positive thoughts –
such as a tropical vacation or a child’s recital – improve their mood
and withdraw less.
Of course it’s important to practice “real smiles” where you use your eye sockets. It’s very easy to spot the difference:
According to PsyBlog, smiling can improve our attention and help us perform better on cognitive tasks:
Smiling makes us feel good which also increases our
attentional flexibility and our ability to think holistically. When this
idea was tested by Johnson et al. (2010), the results showed that
participants who smiled performed better on attentional tasks which
required seeing the whole forest rather than just the trees.
A smile is also a good way to alleviate some of the pain we feel in troubling circumstances:
Smiling is one way to reduce the distress caused by an
upsetting situation. Psychologists call this the facial feedback
hypothesis. Even forcing a smile when we don’t feel like it is enough to
lift our mood slightly (this is one example of embodied cognition).
As opposed to actually taking a holiday, it seems that planning a
vacation or just a break from work can improve our happiness. A study
published in the journal, Applied Research in Quality of Life
showed that the highest spike in happiness came during the planning
stage of a vacation as employees enjoyed the sense of anticipation:
In the study, the effect of vacation anticipation boosted happiness for eight weeks.
After the vacation, happiness quickly dropped back to baseline levels for most people.
Shawn Achor has some info for us on this point, as well:
One study found that people who just thought
about watching their favorite movie actually raised their endorphin
levels by 27 percent.
If you can’t take the time for a vacation right now,
or even a night out with friends, put something on the calendar—even if
it’s a month or a year down the road. Then whenever you need a boost of
happiness, remind yourself about it.
9. Meditate – rewire your brain for happiness
Meditation is often touted as an important habit for improving focus,
clarity and attention span, as well as helping to keep you calm. It
turns out it’s also useful for improving your happiness:
In one study, a research team from Massachusetts General
Hospital looked at the brain scans of 16 people before and after they
participated in an eight-week course in mindfulness meditation. The
study, published in the January issue of Psychiatry Research:
Neuroimaging, concluded that after completing the course, parts of the
participants’ brains associated with compassion and self-awareness grew,
and parts associated with stress shrank.
Meditation literally clears your mind and calms you down, it’s been
often proven to be the single most effective way to live a happier live.
I believe that this graphic explains it the best:
According to Shawn Achor, meditation can actually make you happier long-term:
Studies show that in the minutes right after meditating,
we experience feelings of calm and contentment, as well as heightened
awareness and empathy. And, research even shows that regular meditation
can permanently rewire the brain to raise levels of happiness.
The fact that we can actually alter our brain structure through
mediation is most surprising to me and somewhat reassuring that however
we feel and think today isn’t permanent.
10. Practice gratitude – increase both happiness and life satisfaction
This is a seemingly simple strategy, but I’ve personally found it to
make a huge difference to my outlook. There are lots of ways to practice
gratitude, from keeping a journal of things you’re grateful for, sharing three good things that happen each day with a friend or your partner, and going out of your way to show gratitude when others help you.
In an experiment
where some participants took note of things they were grateful for each
day, their moods were improved just from this simple practice:
The gratitude-outlook groups exhibited heightened
well-being across several, though not all, of the outcome measures
across the 3 studies, relative to the comparison groups. The effect on
positive affect appeared to be the most robust finding. Results suggest
that a conscious focus on blessings may have emotional and interpersonal
benefits.
The Journal of Happiness studies published a study that used letters of gratitude to test how being grateful can affect our levels of happiness:
Participants included 219 men and women who wrote three letters of gratitude over a 3 week period.
Results indicated that writing letters of gratitude increased
participants’ happiness and life satisfaction, while decreasing
depressive symptoms.
Quick last fact: Getting older will make yourself happier
As a final point, it’s interesting to note that as we get older, particularly past middle age, we tend to grow happier naturally. There’s still some debate over why this happens, but scientists have got a few ideas:
Researchers, including the authors, have found that older
people shown pictures of faces or situations tend to focus on and
remember the happier ones more and the negative ones less.
Other studies have discovered that as people age, they seek out
situations that will lift their moods — for instance, pruning social
circles of friends or acquaintances who might bring them down. Still
other work finds that older adults learn to let go of loss and
disappointment over unachieved goals, and hew their goals toward greater
wellbeing.
So if you thought being old would make you miserable, rest assured
that it’s likely you’ll develop a more positive outlook than you
probably have now. Want to chat about this article? Leave a comment below or send me an email with your thoughts.
Oh and before I forget, we’ve recently launched the new Buffer for Business. Take a look, it’s the most powerful Buffer yet to help you better manage your social media everywhere.
This phenomenon, familiar to anyone, is becoming a global problem.
According to the WHO, over the past 100 years, people began to sleep an
average of 20% less. Severe lack of sleep creates the risk that different parts of the brain move into a phase of slow wave sleep in the state of wakefulness.
As a result, a person can’t concentrate and his fine motor skills
deteriorate. The regular lack of sleep leads to brain cell death.
2. Lack of breakfast
Skipping the morning meal affects the performance
and energy of the person during the day. It seems obvious, but the
point here is not so much the consumption of energy necessary for the
body, but the fact that lack of breakfast lowers the level of sugar in the blood. This in turn reduces and hinders the flow of nutrients to the brain.
3. Sugar
The preceding paragraph explains why it is recommended to eat sweets, especially dark chocolate, to have a good brain performance.
However, excessive amounts of sugar cause problems with the
assimilation of protein and nutrients. It leads to the same result as
the low level of blood sugar: the brain does not receive enough nutrients.
4. Stress
Severe emotional stress weakens the connections between neurons
and thus complicates the understanding of cause-effect relationships
and sequence of events. Strong nervous excitement, poor memory and the
feeling that everything goes wrong are also linked to stress.
5. Tranquilizers and sleeping pills
The use of sleeping pills and popular tranquilizers such as Xanax can impair memory up to amnesia, cause dementia and obsessive suicidal thoughts.
6. Smoking
Speaking about the negative effects of smoking on the body, the image
of black lung and damaged teeth first comes to mind. At the same time,
it is not said much about how cigarettes affect the brain: nicotine narrows its vessels. Besides the problems associated with lack of nutrients in the brain, this greatly increases the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
7. Lack of sun
Lack of sufficient sunlight directly affects cognitive abilities. First, ultraviolet light produced from sunlight regulates blood circulation, that is, the flow of oxygen and nutrients. Second, sunlight helps produce serotonin – the hormone that affects a person’s mood.
8. Lack of water
Lack of water causes a decrease in brain volume, which considerably reduces its efficiency and leads to almost zero ability to memorize information. It is recommended to drink an average of 1,5-2 liters of water per day.
9. Too much information
Year after year, the amount of information to digest increases
enormously. This would seem quite useful for the brain exercise and the
maintenance of its performance. However, brain responds to such an information excess with resistance. It is expressed in the fact that at a certain moment the information is no longer absorbed causing up to memory lapses.
10. Multitasking
Another anomaly of the information world: people simultaneously process multiple streams of information. As a consequence, none of them is absorbed properly, and the mind gets used to this way of working. Information is perceived superficially, while being focused and doing only one thing without frequent change of activity is becoming more difficult.
