5 Things to Know on the Hunt for Happiness

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happinessRolf Dobelli chatted with The Huffington Post about happiness. He says that since we can’t pin down exactly what quantifiable thing it is that makes up happy, instead to achieve happiness, we need to clean our lives of things that are known to cause unhappiness or destroy happiness. Here are his top things you should know to stop undermining your happy.

  1. Understand that You Don’t Know What Will Make You Happy: In other words, the things we think will make us happy- for example a big purchase like a new car- often only provide a short-term thrill lasting up to 6 months. Instead, experiences, projects and new challenges tend to contribute more to long term happiness. Try trading more of those instead of the instant gratification of a purchase to boost your mood.
  2. Cut it Out with YOLO Already: While yolo is a great excuse to throw caution to the wind in the moment, being happy in life takes planning and hard work that will pay dividends down the road. Don’t totally abandon spontaneity and fun, but reserve it for a special couple days a week, and use the rest of the time to keep your nose to the grindstone forging on toward your long term goals.
  3. Make Your Own Path: Don’t copy those around you, instead make your own decisions. Follow your instincts, and try not to let what everyone else is doing effect what you want to do, and choose to do with your own life.
  4. Stop Watching the News: FINALLY someone else is with me on this. 90% of breaking news is either a downer, or not relevant to your life. Instead of constantly trolling your twitter feed and RSS reader for the LATEST trend, instead spend time reading longer articles on your particular interests, and learning new things about it.
  5. Get Out of “The Moment”: While it’s great to be focused on your experiences as they happen, keep it in the back of your mind that things are happening (in the world, in other people’s lives) that you just can’t perceive. Don’t be too hung up on every minute detail of the moment for a happier life.

In other news, Australia is the happiest country among the developed nations. With all the beach, time spent outdoors, and beautiful country, I can’t say I’m surprised. You?

Tuesday Reading

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links
Hi Friends! I can’t believe it’s almost the end of May already can you? I’ve spent the past month, celebrating birthdays and new homes with friends, going to a roller dance party, seeing all of the action blockbusters at the movies, and attending a music festival in the fine city of Boston.
I’m sure everyone is still getting the cobwebs out after the long weekend, so here’s some links for your enjoyment while you procrastinate actually getting down to business at work this week.
What have you been reading lately?

5 Places I’d Like to Go

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vacation

It’s the Friday before a long weekend here in the United States, which means that everyone at work is anxiously anticipating their weekend getaway to kick off the unofficial start of summer. While I’m at it, I’ve been reminiscing about my trip to Costa Rica I took this week last year, and doing a little day dreaming about trips I’d like to take.

I  the incredible luck of have growing up in a family that liked to go places and do things. We took vacations in the Outer Banks when I was little enough I could barely swim in the giant ocean waves. We crossed national borders into Canada to see Niagra Falls from the other side. We travelled to Florida in the winters to visit my grandparents. We camped and hiked in the summers. It gave me a taste for different environments, climates, and a desire to explore new places that I carried with me up to the point when I decided to study abroad, passing over Australia as a tempting destination so I could see as much of Europe as possible in 5 months. By the time I was done with that trip, and a few more in the upcoming years, I have visited 12 different countries. Since I’ve been so many places internationally, this year I decided to check off United States destinations including Vegas, Austin, and Chicago. But, if time off from work and money were no object, there’s a few different points on the globe I would direct my attention to, ASAP.

If I could go anywhere, I would go to these places first:

  1. A hike down the length of the Appalachian Trail and a loop by car around the continental U.S.
  2. A leisurely tour of the Greek Isles
  3. A few weeks luxuriating on a beach in Bali
  4. Austrailia and New Zealand
  5. South Africa

How about you?

Give Your Fine Hair Loads of Volume

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curlers

For every curly haired gal longing for straight, smooth locks there’s a girl with superfine hair that doesn’t require a keratin treatment to dry pin straight. Call it grass-is-greener syndrome, but we always seem to want what we can’t have in the hair department. Or, as I like to tell myself, we just like variety. If it’s curly we like to wear it straight. Or in this case, if it’s ultra-thin, naturally we covet the bombshell hair you see all over Victoria’s Secret runways. To get it, you can try teasing the under layers of your hair to give it a little extra boost (a technique best used with strategic bobby pinning), spraying hairspray on your fingers then massaging your roots, or a healthy spritz of dry shampoo to plump up locks. I’ve tried all three, and they definitely work. OR you can try this handy gif from The Cut that will show you step-by-step how to use those velcro rollers you have sitting in the back of your closet. 6 easy steps from flat to fab!

5 Ways Water is Good for Your Health

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water

I’ll preface this by saying, I drink a lot of water. Ever since I was a little girl, and my mom let me take a pretty water mug with me every where, I have never really been without a water bottle in my purse. While my co-workers may think I’m diabetic because of the number of trips I take to the water cooler daily, I just enjoy being hydrated. Now The Scoop is backing me up with 5 reasons drinking water is awesome (and good for your health).

  1. Though it’s gross to talk about, new research shows that staying hydrated may keep things regular in your digestive tract even more effectively than that bowl of fiber one with a cup of coffee in the morning.
  2. Drinking lots of water is associated with losing weight
  3. Lots of H2O can lower your risk for kidney disease.
  4. Hydrated runners are faster, safer runners who can maintain their body temperature more regularly and keep their heart rates healthier.
  5. It can prevent headaches, fatigue, difficulty concentrating and bad moods (hellooo, remember how you feel when you’re hung over?) by staving off the bad symptoms of dehydration.

Additionally, water keeps your body temperature at a steady place, cushions joints, protects your spinal cord, and clears the body of waste through sweating and peeing. Now drink up!

Checking In at that Concert From Your Couch?

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couch cachet

I am all for social media. I have facebook, twitter, instagram, and loads of other apps that can share things with the world on my phone. I like how it keeps me up to date on what’s going on in the world, and my friend’s lives in one place. I have been known to tag my friends while out when we’re having so much fun, that I can’t resist bragging a little online. It’s fun to share our cool experiences with others.

 But there are some major negatives from all this sharing. Even Scarlett Johansson mentioned it in her interview for May’s Marie Claire magazine, talking about how we almost exploit ourselves [using social media] to feel seen. There is commonly accepted  syndrome now, FOMO (fear of missing out), that makes people feel inadequate from seeing all the fun stuff their social network is up to. There’s actually a different kind of anxiety associated with each different social media platform (even pinterest!). But I think when you keep things in perspective, social media for the most part is fun when you don’t make it your end-all, be all. The important thing to realize is that people use it to cultivate the image they want the world to see, updating when they’re happy, fun, or feeling pretty hip, not necessarily on bad hair days when they’re feeling rejected for being passed over for that party invite.

Which is why I think this new site, Couch Cachet is taking things a little too far. When you’re at home, you can plug in your address to find fun parties, shows, or events in your neighborhood, sounds good, right? But then! It checks you in at one of those events via Foursquare, while you sit on the couch- even allowing you to choose multiple stops for the night. The whole idea behind the app is to make you seem cooler on the internet than you actually are in real life by posting that you are attending fun events while you’re actually at home. It promotes lying on social media just to make your life seem more awesome, and to me, just seems like it would exacerbate FOMO if everyone starts always being 100% awesome all the time even when they’re sitting around watching another marathon of Say Yes to the Dress. And, really, what are you going to say when someone asks you how that awesome concert you (fake) raved about was?

Fake it til you Make it

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emotions

We’ve all faked an emotion at one point or another to make the social situation we’re in a little bit more comfortable- laughing at a joke we don’t find particularly funny, smiling at someone you don’t like in greeting- yet some emotions (particularly fear and sadness) are more difficult to imitate. An article in Popular Science explains that it’s because these emotions are usually based on an internal struggle that results in a complex facial reaction. Wanting to cry, but at the same time, wanting to control your emotions can lead to a quivering lip. The stress of fear can be combined with other feelings, making it harder to pretend. However, they say your best bet when pretending to feel a certain way is to blend in with the emotions of everyone around you. People naturally project their own feelings onto others, so if you’re with a group of happy people, they’re more likely to take your fake smile at face value than notice you’re not genuinely grinning. Or, if all else fails, use physical cues that will draw attention away from your face. Think putting your head in your hands, or throwing up your arms in surprise.

Disney Makes Over Merida to be a Sexier Princess

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meridaDisney princesses are known for a few things. They’re really nice. They have beautiful dresses, and they have a prince counterpart who usually stages some sort of gallant rescue when the main protagonist finds herself a damsel in distress, needing to be saved. Snow White is reprieved from death by poison. Ariel attains her life goal of being human through a prince’s kiss. Cinderella is swept up from poverty and abuse to the life of her dreams by a charming fellow. These pretty princesses, while they make wonderful movies, have become an enterprise of their own which little girls look up to as role models, and can even go visit in person at Disney World. (Interestingly enough, the princes staging the rescue are not typically seen as gallant behavioral models for little boys, and don’t even exist in person at the theme park to visit). Yet, when we really think about it, is this the set of ideals we want our daughters to try to live up to? Look pretty enough, be nice enough, and a handsome man will come give you all of your heart’s desires?

Disney has tried to break the mold a few times with Mulan (only semi-successfully, since she’s not normally included in their princesses line) and more recently Brave’s heroine, Merida. Merida doesn’t care about her hair, is into archery, shuns pretty dresses, and rides off into the sunset on her own horse sans Prince Charming. It was a major step forward in the creation of a strong female role model (perhaps made possible by the overwhelming popularity of The Hunger Games which debuted a few months before?) in cartoon form. But then, Disney had to go and ruin all of that forward progress by sexing up Merida before creating her princess doll. In other words, they let the movie happen, then revamped her image to more closely fit their idea of what a princess- or if we’re taking this role model thing a little farther, a woman–should be. They smoothed her hair into long, glowing locks, narrowed her waist, nixed the bow and arrow, and put her in a more revealing gown. And while I do love the Disney princesses and their accompanying movies, I find it a little offensive that they give such a narrow view into the possible roles for girls to grow into. As a dress-wearing, pink tulle-loving girl, I don’t think there is anything wrong with promoting girly things. A lot of women are into looking their best, and wearing pretty things. But why not allow for other options if fashion and beauty aren’t your cup of tea? And can we stop making the princesses’ entire identities revolve around locking down their prince? The young women of the world who love being athletic, or don’t have time to worry about fixing their hair because they’re too busy out saving the world themselves, not waiting for a prince to do it, should have a character they can identify with.

Disney retracted the new image in the United States after a huge backlash, but has not released a statement on the matter. Merida’s creator spoke with The Daily Beast about what the Disney-ification of Merida meant to her. It seems like this time around, it’s one step forward, two steps back.

Women’s Immunity Stays Stronger, Longer

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immunity

It’s fairly common knowledge that women tend to, as a general rule, outlive men. Now research completed in Japan is hinting at why. Women tend to have stronger immune systems for longer, which makes them more able to fight off and recover from disease until a more advanced age. This may be the key to their greater longevity. The research found that as women aged, multiple important kinds of white blood cells, those little warriors responsible for defending against infectious diseases, decreased at a lower rate in women than in men. Additionally, another type of immune cell that fights viruses and tumors increases more quickly in women than in men. The combination results in a stronger immune system as women grow older than men.