What your tongue can tell you

If you are feeling under the weather, just stick out your tongue – the state it’s in can present an accurate picture of your health. The colour, texture and moisture of your tongue can provide signs of what’s going on inside your body. Many complementary therapies, including Acupuncture and Naturopathy, use the tongue to aid diagnosis.

When examining the tongue, the Acupuncturist looks at the colour of the tongue body, its’ size and shape, the colour and thickness of its’ coating or fur, locations of abnormalities and moistness or dryness of the tongue body and fur. These signs reveal not only overall states of health but correlate to specific organ functions and disharmonies, especially in the digestive system. Not all tongue irregularities are indications of disharmony however. Food and drugs may change the coating or colour of the body of the tongue; for example, coffee yellows the coating.

Furthermore, some people have minor, unchanging cracks on their tongue which are considered normal. Others are born with what is called a “geographic tongue,” which is covered with severe cracks and covered with hills and valleys. This is considered normal by some practitioners but a sign of disharmony by others.

The way a tongue appears is not an absolute indicator of the location of the disharmony but when taken as part of an overall pattern that includes a complete evaluation, they offer strong clues to the location of disharmony.

Tongue diagnosis can be a subtle art. To try it yourself, observe the variations of your tongue and compare it to that of friends or family members. After you have looked at a few tongues, you will see that they differ widely and with a little study can tell you a lot about the overall health of a person.

It’s not for nothing that doctors and wellness practitioners in many medical systems around the world all ask their patients to open up and say “ahhh.” A close look at your tongue (and everything else you can see inside your mouth) can reveal much about the overall state of your health.

Surface changes: Run your fingertip across the surface of your tongue, and you should feel lots of tiny nodules that feel slightly hairy or fuzzy. These nodules are calledpapillae, and they’re actually small hairs between which your taste buds are scattered. Changes to these hairs may have no rhyme or reason and be totally harmless, or they may be a symptom of an underlying condition.

• Smooth: Your tongue may feel smooth due to a nutritional deficiency. A pale, smooth tongue could be a sign of iron-deficiency anemia or a lack of B vitamins, which are important to the body’s use of food for energy.

• Map-like patches: If you spot patchy lesions on the tongue that seem to change location from day to day, you may have a harmless but sometimes uncomfortable condition called geographic tongue. It is thought that B vitamin deficiency may be to blame for this tongue surface change, but it could also be due to irritation by alcohol or certain foods.

• Wrinkled: A tongue that bears grooves, wrinkles, or furrows could be scrotal tongue, a harmless, usually inborn condition that can rarely cause burning sensations when spicy foods are eaten and make it difficult to keep the tongue properly clean and clear of bacteria.

Sores or bumps: We’ve all bitten our tongue at one time or another, perhaps hard enough to leave a sore spot. In some instances, a spot on the tongue can be a result of something more than surface trauma.

• A bump on top of the tongue could be a warning of bacterial or viral infection or of an allergic reaction to a food or medication.

• Canker sores more often pop up on the underside of the tongue, and can be identified by a round, red border and yellow or white centre.

• A white or gray lesion with a hard surface that feels thick and raised from the tongue could beleukoplakia, a disorder of the mucous membranes caused by irritation from dentures, crowns, fillings, or tobacco use. Hairy leukoplakia, which occurs in people with weakened immune systems due to illnesses like HIV or the Epstein-Barr virus, appears as a fuzzy, white lesion that usually crops up on the side of the tongue.

• A sore or lump on one side of the tongue may be a sign of cancer and should be looked at by a doctor. Untreated syphilis can develop into a cancer on the top of the tongue.

Colour changes: You’ve probably noticed how your tongue can change colour depending on what you eat (remember all of the rainbow colours you could achieve as a kid sucking on popsicles?). Variance from the usual healthy pink may be a sign that you’re overdoing it with certain habits – or it could signal an underlying condition.

• Black: From time to time, a person’s tongue may take on a black, hairy appearance. “Black hairy tongue” is a harmless, temporary, but unsightly overgrowth of tongue “hair” (papillae) that traps bacteria and other mouth debris. Poor oral hygiene could be the culprit, as could mouth-breathing, excessive use of tobacco, mouthwashes, some antibiotics, or bismuth-based stomach medications (e.g., Pepto-Bismol). Along with the colour change, you might notice a metallic taste in your mouth and generally bad breath. Brush, floss, and try using a tongue scraper to remove bacteria. Black hairy tongue resolves on its own, but check with a doctor if symptoms last beyond 10 days or so.

• Yellow: As in the case of black hairy tongue, an overgrowth of papillae on the tongue can trap bacteria and appear yellow. These small hairs that coat the tongue can become inflamed by, among other things, smoking, fever, mouth-breathing, and dehydration. Improve your oral hygiene, and the yellow hue should subside.

• White: White tongue often means the same thing as black or yellow tongue – bacteria stuck in dense tongue hair. And it shares some of the same causes, too: smoking, dehydration, dry mouth due to mouth-breathing. The white look means there are bacteria, dead cells, and debris wedged in the papillae. Pay special attention to your brushing and flossing habits, and add a tongue scraper to your oral hygiene routine. Less commonly, a pale, smooth tongue indicates anemia, and a white film on the tongue could be a sign of oral thrush, a type yeast infection.

• Red: A red tongue more often signals underlying problems in children’s health. A strawberry or raspberry-coloured tongue can be one of the first symptoms of scarlet fever or Kawasaki disease. Adults less often manifest these signs. But if your mouth hurts and your tongue looks smooth and red, your diet may be deficient in niacin, an important B vitamin.

• Brown: A spot on the tongue that has turned brown or otherwise darkly discoloured could possibly be a form of skin cancer called melanoma.

Any time that you notice pain, burning, swelling, changes in your ability to taste, abnormal movements, or difficulty moving the tongue, do not hesitate to see a doctor.

Credit…..

http://chealth.canoe.ca/channel_section_details.asp?text_id=5160&channel_id=7&relation_id=25707

http://www.thebroadstreetpractice.co.uk/2014/01/16/tongue-diagnosis-what-does-yours-say-about-you/

7 Photography Projects to Jumpstart your Creativity

Let’s face it, no matter how much we take our camera out, there’s only so many pictures we can take of our kids, pets, house and garden before we start itching to shoot something else… but what?

Hopefully this list of projects you can undertake will inspire you to find something creative to shoot.

1. 365 Days

The most popular of the projects on this list, there are multiple variations of the 365 project.  Typically, it involves taking a self-portrait every day for a year – the only rule is that you have to hit the shutter button (or remote) and at least some part of you must be in the photo.  It doesn’t sound so bad at first, but believe me, there’s only so many photos you can take holding the camera at arms length before even you get bored.  Suddenly you find yourself doing things like wrapping yourself in christmas lights, jumping in piles of leaves, or taping your mouth shut.  For inspiration, check out the 365 Days group on flickr.

If a photo-a-day seems like too much of a commitment, you can do one self-portrait a week for a year – a 52 Weeks project.

If the self-portrait part makes you a bit squeamish, you can either round up the kids and get pictures of them everyday for a 365 kids project, or you can just do a open-topic 365 project where you just have to take a picture of anything every day for a year.

2. 52 Photowalks

I use the term “photowalk” pretty loosely here.   While photowalks often include groups of people walking through cities together, all capturing images of the same landmarks from their own point of view, I’m being slightly more liberal with the term.

Basically, I’m saying you should get out of the house once a week with your camera.  I looked through all my photos from my first year with my DSLR and realized about 90% of them were in or around my house.  So I got up and walked out the door once a week. I’ve been to local parks, abandoned buildings (careful with this one: it can be frowned upon or even illegal to poke around some abandoned buildings), downtown and other small towns near me.

Besides adding a bigger variety to my photo collection, I’ve noticed two other side effects from this project so far: I’ve discovered all sorts of parks and areas of downtown that I didn’t even know existed, and I’ve been able to go to places that I already knew and see them from a totally different viewpoint.  For instance, the picture above is of a local amphitheater.  I’ve been there a number of times and never thought much of it… but being there when the park was empty, and walking to the back of the stage looking out has given me a completely different perspective.

3. 100 Strangers

This is a project I personally don’t have the guts to do, as I’m bit shy (that’s the whole reason why I’m behind the lens to begin with!), but I know some people doing this project and I’m loving their results so far.  The idea is to approach someone you’ve never met before, ask if you can take their picture, and talk to them a bit to get some kind of backstory, and then upload the photo (and a short description of who they are and what you talked about) to flickr and add it to the100 Strangers group.  Then repeat 99 more times.

Not only will get photos of different people in your collection, but you just might make a new friend or two. You can, of course, skip the flickr part and do this project on your own, but you would gain a lot of inspiration from the group.

4. A-Z

Once again, there’s a couple ways you can go with an A-Z project.  You can pick a place and try to get a picture of objects that start with or represent each letter of the alphabet (for instance, it might be easy to take a photo of the grass for G, but Q is going to be harder, maybe a picture of a kid running around could be Quick, or a picture of a completely still pond could be Quiet).  You can also try this with numbers, too – take a photo of one acorn on the ground, two ducks by a pond, three trees grouped together, etc.

The other interpretation of this project is to take pictures of things that look like the letters A-Z.  Take a look at the photo above, it’s actually a chain to a porch swing, but the one piece looks like a letter S.  Once you start this project you’ll start looking at ordinary things – buildings, cloud formations, playground equipment, etc. – in a complete different way, giving you a new perspective on things to photograph.  This project can also be done with numbers, too.

5. Pick-A-Something

Pick something and try to get a collection of photos representing it.  For instance, pick a color and try to go all day photographing only red things, or try only getting pictures of things that are square when you’re on a walk.  I was once at a cookout and, while I took photos of other things, I also tried to get  photos of people’s shoes.

The upside of this project is that it, once again, gets you to start seeing ordinary things in different way – taking a snapshot looking down at everyone’s shoes is going to start to get boring, so it forces you to start thinking creatively.  The downside of this project is that people are going to start giving you weird looks for crawling around on the ground taking pictures of shoes while everyone else is enjoying hamburgers and potato salad.

6. Go Mono

During my 365 (open-topic, not self-portraits), I decided to take one month and do all my photos in black-and-white.  My goal was to get better at converting photos to black and white, which I think I did, but I noticed I was also starting to see things differently, and figure out what photos would look better in mono, and which ones wouldn’t.

There were also a few surprises, like the leaf with water drops on it that you see above.  If I hadn’t been doing a month of mono, I would have edited that photo in color and loved it, and left it like that.  But I converted it for my 365 project, and I loved it even more.  Surprises like that made the whole month worth it.

7. Scavenger Hunt

A photo scavenger hunt is simple. You need someone to come up with a list of things to photograph (they can be actually things like “railroad tracks”, or they can be more conceptual like “fun with friends”, or even techniques like “shallow depth of field”). Then, a group of people all go out and interpret the list how they want and show them to the group.  As with a lot of the other projects I mentioned, it really gets you to start looking at ordinary things in a different way.  Looking for a list?  Do a search in the flickr groups for “scavenger hunt” and you’ll come up with a number of groups that have hunts going on.  Including a DPS Scavenger Huntgroup, made up of other DPS users that posts a new list each month.

Stolen from Digital Photography School

7 Photography Projects to Jumpstart Your Creativity

EU funding for Wales: The fact that Wales’ poorest communities still qualify for billions is an ‘indictment’ of the Welsh Government’s failure, it is claimed

What does the announcement of more than £2bn of EU funding mean for Wales?

Wales has only won a new tranche of EU funding because of the “failure” to grow the economy and lift communities out of deprivation, it is claimed.

The Welsh Government insists that the announcement that more than £2bn of EU funding is “great news for Wales” and can have a “real impact on the Welsh economy.”

However, Conservative Assembly leader Andrew RT Davies said: “Whilst this funding will be welcomed, we must not forget that it has only been granted due to the failure of successive Welsh Labour Governments to improve Wales’ economic performance in previous tranches.

“Back in 2000, former First Minister Rhodri Morgan described Objective 1 funding as a ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity.

“Well here we are again, and under Welsh Labour parts of Wales remain amongst the poorest areas in the EU, never mind the United Kingdom.”

Former Swansea University economist John Ball said he was angered that Wales still qualified for cohesion funding.

He said: “This is an indictment of the failure of the Welsh Government to address the most fundamental problem we face in Wales and that is the state of the Welsh economy. It’s as simple as that.”

The funding will be delivered over seven years with around £1.6bn going to West Wales and the Valleys and over £325m to East Wales.

It was announced on Wednesday night after previous criticism that the agreement had been held up while the UK Government agreed a partnership deal with the EU.

See the summary of the EU’s deal with the UK – and where the money is going

Welsh Government finance minister Jane Hutt said: “This announcement is a significant milestone with the European Commission confirming structural fund allocations to Wales of over £2bn.

“This is great news for Wales and this new EU funding will have a real impact on the Welsh economy and job creation. It will help us deliver more innovative and inspiring EU-funded projects.

“I am now expecting both the European Regional Development Fund and European Social Fund programmes for West Wales and the Valleys and for East Wales to be approved very shortly. This will allow us to start delivering on our shared goals across Government for sustainable economic growth and jobs.”

However, Dr Ball said he was “genuinely angry” to hear that Wales had qualified for another round of funding and argued that the nation needed to grow prosperity from within rather than pinning hopes on inward investment.

He said: “Wales can benefit by being on the periphery of Europe, perversely, if we grasp the bullet and start to build businesses from within.”

Pointing to the example of Finland, he said: “Here is a country on the fringes of Europe with no real resources to speak of, with a language nobody else speaks… and yet it has the highest standards of living, the highest standards of education of any country within Europe. Why?

“Because they have built their business and their skills and education from within.”

He added: “No successful economy was ever built on external ownership and until we grasp that fact we’re not going to get anywhere.”

David Davies, the Monmouth Conservative MP who chairs the Welsh Affairs committee, regretted that Wales’ poorest areas still qualified for funding.

He said: “I think it’s a damning indictment of Labour’s failure in Wales that 15 years after we were promised that the Assembly would be the dawn of a new era it’s still one of the poorest areas of Europe. I’m also worried that frankly the Assembly has become responsible for spending this money and I’m not sure what good any of it will actually do.

“If we want to see an increase in wealth in Wales we need to look at ways of supporting business and getting business in and for me that would be better transport links and better broadband and IT and phone signals.”

Mr Davies said the EU was returning a “small percentage” of cash sent to Brussels by the UK.

He said the country would be “much better off not giving them any of that money at all but just spending it on the areas which need it in the United Kingdom”.

A Welsh Government spokesperson hit back, saying: “As usual, Andrew RT Davies appears to have conveniently forgotten the devastation wrought by former Conservative Governments to our former industrial heartlands, and the fact that since 2000 there has been the most severe recession in living memory. This in turn has been followed by a savage series of cuts and austerity measures imposed by the UK Government led by his party.

The new funding announced yesterday will help the Welsh Government to continue with measures to help Wales climb out of recession.”

Welsh Lib Dem economy spokeswoman Eluned Parrott AM said: “Time and time again Wales has qualified for this money, but successive Welsh Labour Governments have failed to use it to its fullest potential. I want to see this cash used to improve the lives of the individuals and communities who need it the most.

“This money has arrived at an ideal time to improve public transport infrastructure in the South Wales Valleys, tying in with the long awaited Metro project to connect communities and enable people to travel quickly and easily to places of employment such as Cardiff and Newport. I want this to be the last time Wales qualifies for this handout. We need to use this cash to boost our economic output to catch up with the rest of the UK and other successful growing economies.

“The Welsh Labour Government has already failed to bring the poorest parts of Wales in line with other areas. If Wales still qualifies in a few years’ time for the next round of funding after being given £2bn to sort out our economy then the Welsh Labour Government will have failed Wales once again.”

Welsh Labour MEP Derek Vaughan said: “EU funding is vital for programs such as Jobs Growth Wales, the Welsh Government Modern Apprenticeship scheme and business support schemes like the Joint European Resources for Micro to Medium Enterprises (JEREMIE) fund which helps Welsh businesses to expand. It also provides essential support for infrastructure projects and town centre developments.

“EU projects have already helped some 186,900 people to gain qualifications and over 59,800 into work, and created some 29,000 jobs and over 9,800 enterprises. This new funding means we can continue to build on these positive results.

“I worked very hard to secure this level of funding for Wales. Initially the Tories were insisting that we received £400m less, but the Welsh Government and I lobbied the UK Government and the EU Commissioner to ensure Wales didn’t miss out.

“Wales has a good track record in terms of spending EU funding wisely on worthwhile programs and I’m confident this will continue to be the case with this new funding. I’m looking forward to seeing the positive difference that this funding makes in Wales.”

Plaid Cymru’s MEP Jill Evans said: “While this European funding is a help, this is the third time that we have qualified because of our disappointing economic situation and we are not seeing improvement. We get this funding because we are among the poorest parts of the European Union.

“West Wales and the Valleys is the very poorest part of northern Europe. Plaid Cymru thinks that this is entirely unacceptable. The aim should be that these parts of Wales do not qualify again – because we have improved our economy.

“To do that we need a detailed economic plan to transform Wales. We need to look at other countries which have used EU money effectively. We have to look at what can be done better with this series of funding.

“How can we create more jobs and work opportunities? Plaid Cymru has consulted with private sector business as we should involve them much more in the decision making process and use of European funding, as they are in tune with what will create jobs.

“We need to see long-term investment that creates more opportunities, not just spending money on short-term projects. In terms of EU benefits, structural funds are only part of the story.

“We need a Government that will work in partnership with the EU to improve transport and create real opportunities for young people.”

This One Philosophy Could Help Change The Course Of Humanity! If We Let It…

“A person experiences life as something separated from the rest -a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. Our task must be to free ourselves from this self-imposed prison, and through compassion, to find the reality of Oneness.” – Albert Einstein

Our Obsession With Meaning

I want to start by asking YOU a question. What if, you and I were connected, one? How would we treat each other then?

What is it with the human fascination about what others are doing? Is it because we yearn to be a part of everything in this human world? Have you ever met someone and felt like you have known them forever? Have you ever been alone and yet felt so much apart of everything and everyone? Have you ever walked in a pristine forest and felt the calming, tranquil nature of everything around you and an overpowering sense of love? If you have, then you have experienced what many may call oneness.

The great German mathematician Georg Ferdinand Ludwig Cantor pushed mathematics to new frontiers in the late eighteenth century as he tried to solve the mathematical equation of infinity. His peers ridiculed him in his quest to explain infinity, using mathematical equations. The more Cantor looked at the model, the more he realised that there were different levels of infinity within infinity itself. In fact, during the many years Cantor devoted to finding the answer to this elusive question the more it drove him to insanity. The complexity and immensity of infinity and the nature of the universe eluded him. He did see glimpses of what lay on the other side during his studies which he described as ‘magnificent.’ The moral to this story is that Cantor, a religious man, wanted to prove something that is in itself vast and endless.

This obsession with his search for meaning led him to distraction and in the end his mental health. Humanity has a compulsion to prove that something exists or doesn’t exist, right or wrong, black and white. The dualistic thinking of wanting to have all the right answers can drive us to distraction. Some things are unexplainable, they just are. Oneness is present everywhere, it cannot be expressed as a mathematical equation, for maths cannot describe a feeling, a touch, taste or vision. The more we let go of the needing to be right and understand that everything is in a constant state of change, the sooner we will realise our full potential.

Oneness Is Not A New Idea of Philosophy

“All differences in this world are of degree, and not of kind, because oneness is the secret of everything.” – Swami Vivekananda

Oneness is not a new idea or philosophy, it has been with humanity for many thousands of years. The word universe comes from the Latin, universus which relates to the whole, one, or totality of all things. All matter, energy, stars and galaxies have come from the one source. In Buddhism the presence of an underlying oneness that permeates humanity, is called ‘suchness.’ Suchness is the essential nature of reality, it is the common thread of consciousness that connects everything. In Confucianism and Taoism, the underlying philosophies are of interconnectedness of all things. Taoism is about helping individuals understand and realize that oneness exists in everything throughout nature, that nature itself and all that exist within the universe are one. Many of the North American Indians to Australian Aboriginals understood that oneness and inter-connectedness existed in nature and in everything they did. The Australian Aboriginals believed that there was no separation between nature and a higher presence. They therefore had no reason for organized religion. Many of the Native American cultures believed in co-dependency, connection and unity, while early settlers from the west tried to convert these indigenous people to beliefs of separation, non-tolerance and dependency. The teachings of the great master’s show there are underlying threads of oneness everywhere and nothing exists in isolation. Unconditional love for all living creatures is the cornerstone for a harmonious and prosperous society. Through developing our consciousness and focusing on oneness we become open to the global consciousness that exists. This will ultimately lead us to a more sustainable and prosperous existence. This is a difficult concept for the conditioned mind to grasp.

Nature and Oneness

“I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in Nature, which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright.” – Henry David Thoreau

Do you remember that place where peace and serenity, love and compassion exist? Have you experienced the feeling of connection? There are no boundaries between the universe, nature and sentient beings; we are all undeniably connected through a web of consciousness. As human beings, we are an extension of nature. We unfortunately sometimes see ourselves above and separate from nature. Here lies our problem. Until we recognise that we are all formed from the same matter and come from the one source we will always be in a state of separation. Through understanding this connection between all things we can awaken to the realities that exist. We can move to develop strategies and alternatives to better serve all beings, nature and the biosphere. Natural cycles exist that we must understand and align with. All things have been created by the source of divine energy, there is no escaping this. From one seed a giant tree can grow that can produce fruit in abundance. From the fruit produced other seeds are born. This cycle of abundance is continuous and can go on indefinitely. Without the bee to pollinate the flowers though, the tree will not bear fruit. Everything is connected in a wonderful synchronization of natural knowledge. Nature is our grandest teacher yet for many it is merely a resource to be used and exploited for the benefit of humanity.

Many of the ancient Chinese and eastern religions such as Taoism and Zen Buddhism view nature as something to connect with, to become one with. Only by experiencing nature can we experience our true natural and spiritual state of being. Nature allows us to experience states of existentialism and take us to places of beauty, serenity and awe. That sunset over the ocean, the silence and beauty of falling snow, the rustle of the leaves in the autumn trees, are experiences that are uplifting to the heart and soul. Why? We are reminded of our true nature, that of oneness. When we experience nature we experience stillness, a stillness that is the divine state of nature…

Article by Andrew Martin editor of onenesspublishing  and author of  One ~ A Survival Guide for the Future…

 Source: Excerpts from One ~ A Survival Guide for the Future…

10 Easy Things That Will Make You Happier, Backed By Science

Happiness is so interesting, because we all have different ideas about what it is and how to get 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 exercise. 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.

Sleep is another topic we’ve looked into before, exploring how much sleep we really need to be productive.

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 part 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.

In his book Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being, University of Pennsylvania professor Martin Seligman explains that helping others can improve our own lives:

…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 and not 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).

One of our previous posts goes into even more detail about the science of smiling.

8. PLAN A TRIP – BUT DON’T TAKE ONE

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 p, 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.

 

reblogged from http://blog.bufferapp.com/10-scientifically-proven-ways-to-make-yourself-happier

 

Swimming in the Heat

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Sunrise in Wales

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