Saturday, April 22, 2017

Love and Happiness for Earth Day

Happiness Newsletter for Earth Day 2017

Happy Earth Day.  The first Earth Day took place in 1970, seven months before the creation of the EPA. In the 47 years since the first Earth Day, a lot has changed; an enormous amount of effort has been put in to protect and restore our rivers and streams, soil, forests, oceans and fields.  

Yet, still the stories of dangerous climate change, forest and fisheries depletion, species extinction, vanishing habitats and ecosystems on the precipice, mount. These and other facts are overwhelming.  Even if one dedicates their life to saving the planet, it is not enough. So, what is there to do?

Last year, on earth day, we gifted you 4 things the Dalai Lama says will make you happy, and the year before, we gifted What if Everyday Were Earth Day: 10 things you can do. This year, on behalf of the board of directors of the Happiness Alliance, we are asking you to gift us your thought on four questions:

  • What does living in balance mean in a world with 7 billion people?
  • How do we live congruently with the knowledge that we are not separate or different from this planet, but that we are the planet, just as a bird, tree or river, is?
  • Why don't we take more care of our environment when we have the ability to plan for the future and restrain ourselves?
  • How do you connect happiness and nature?
Send us the gift of your thoughts to directors@happycounts.org.

Happiness Movement Updates

ISQOLS Webinar 4The International Society for Quality of Life Studies (ISQOLS) hosted its very first webinar with the Happiness Alliance last week, about the links between community and public policy. 

For Earth Day we issued three new tools for in our Pathways to Happiness in the domain of the environment. Pathways to Happiness look at policies and programs a city can take to secure people's inalienable right to pursue happiness. 

We all know that each area has its own unique circumstances. Pathways to Happiness starting places and ideas.

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With our office in Seattle, we are looking to bring back the Seattle Area Happiness Initiative and will be fundraising to support it through Give BIG on May 5th, 2017. View the video about our hopes and plans

More Happiness News

The World Happiness Report for 2017 tells the story of how happiness has fallen in the USA, and the role of employment and mental health.

Findings from a study by Clark, Fleshe, Layard and others in their book  Origins of Happiness were released in a conference in which it was announced all but member of the OECD  (Japan) is measuring happiness, yet governments need evidence of policies and programs. It is our strong belief this will come from communities. 

Take a Happiness Leadership Training July 29 and 30 and gather the tools and knowledge we have garnered as participants at the Dialogue for Global Happiness, our work on the IEEE Wellbeing Committee for ethically designed artificial intelligence, Sustainability and Spirituality Assisi Conference (and audience with the Pope- yes really!) and many other high level meetings.

Read what past participants have to say about the Happiness Leadership Training:
I  have had the pleasure of participating in Laura Musikanski’s excellent Happiness Leadership Training events. I highly recommend these workshops for those who want to develop practical skills to build happier communities or learn about the GNH philosophy.
Tom Barefoot, Co-founder of Gross National Happiness USA (gnhusa.org)

In May of 2014, I attended the Happiness Leadership Training as part of my research into the Happiness Movement. As a PhD candidate writing my dissertation on the happiness movement, the training exceeded my expectation in terms of what I learned about how to  bring purpose and meaning of one's own life, and happiness and well-being to one’s community.  I keep in touch with Laura very often, as in addition of making me personally happy whenever we talk, she is a resource of knowledge and experience you cannot find anywhere else. This training is done in an interactive and loving way that contributes to your life as an individual, and as a member of a company, an organization and a community.
Anat Fanti, 
Doctoral Candidate, Bar-Ilan University

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