Welcome from Chris and Dora !
We created the Heart of Inspiration with the aim of helping you transform your life and live to your fullest potential. We also want to make this world we live in a better place now! We believe that the only way this will happen is when every one of us actively works to discover real peace, happiness, and love within ourselves. It is when we change that the world around us changes.
happiness is your birthright
happiness is in your control
happiness is a skill
happiness is a prerequisite to achieving personal and spiritual growth!
Happiness is...
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Happiness Benefits
Research shows that when people are happier they are more successful in three main life domains: health, relationships and work.
Happier people are:
Healthier both mentally and emotionally
Have a stronger immune system
Live longer
More social, active and energetic
Have more friends
Enjoy more fulfilling family lives
More altruistic, generous and charitable
More productive
Enjoy their jobs more
Earn more
Steps to happiness
Chris’ and Dora’s suggestions for a happier life:
Live in the here & now
Do yourself a favor: Switch Off the TV
Prime your environment
Learn to combat your negative thoughts.
Learn to fail or fail to learn.
Read the full list of suggestions with more detailed explanations:
1
Invest time to get to know yourself well
Happiness is about being able to accept and love oneself. Happy people accept and like themselves and are liked by others. Love of self leads to love of all.
2
Learn to combat your negative thoughts
If someone else was questioning or criticizing your performance or abilities would you not defend yourself and your actions?. But when we criticize ourselves, we have a tendency to accept our own thoughts as a definite truth, instead of defending ourselves against our negative and destructive thoughts.
3
Learn to fail or fail to learn
The most successful people in life regard failure as a learning opportunity. Ask yourself the right questions such as: What can I learn from this experience? How can I make best use of what I learnt? How can I make my next experience better? Then go out and try again. Happiness is about having the courage to get out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself, work hard, and cope (versus avoid).
4
Relax with the ‘relaxation response’
Take time to relax each day. Make relaxation part of your daily routine. Turn it into a natural reflex so that you may find some peace of mind each day. You can use this technique both as a daily practice and in emergency situations.
5
Be grateful for what you have
Make gratitude a way of life. Most of us lead a pretty good life but are used to compare ourselves with others and often focus on what we do not have. Happy people learn to focus on what they do have. You will then realize that you have much more going for you then you thought you did.
6
Live in the here & now
Learn to live in here and now. Most of us live in our past (which we can no longer influence) or our future (which has much uncertainty). The only thing we have 100% control over is the here and now. One way to learn to live in the moment is to practice meditation. People who meditate have been proven to cultivate more positive emotions than those that don’t.
7
Do yourself a favor: Switch Off the TV
Whether you are aware of it or not TV has a large influence on your state of mind and ultimately your happiness. Watching shows, movies, or the news about people hurting one another physically and emotionally has a deep impact on your mind and state of happiness. Further, advertisers influence you to believe that you will be happier once you have purchased their product or service. This compels you to look externally for happiness versus searching within.
8
Find Pleasure & Meaning
Have you ever sat down and reflected on what brings you real pleasure in life? You may discover a gap between what you are doing now and what you truly enjoy doing. While pleasure increases our short-term happiness, it is finding meaning in our lives that impacts our long-term happiness. Ask yourself what skills you have that can make a difference in others’ lives and then apply those skills to help them.
9
Prime your environment
Did you know that your environment has significant impact on your level of happiness? Consider how you would feel if you were surrounded by people who argued all of the time. What do you do to create an environment where you feel happier, more energized, and feel healthier?
10
Happiness is contagious
Happy people spread happiness, are outgoing, and tend to be social people. Make time for friends and family. Learn to laugh more. Share your happiness with others and you will see it increase ten fold. Contrary to today’s ‘scarcity mentality’ where we believe one can only have at the expense of others, happiness promotes an abundance mentality.
Test your happiness
Life Satisfaction Scale
Would you like to determine how happy you are?
Take Dr. Ed Diener’s Life Satisfaction Scale test now
Happiness at work
Company saves $420M annually in health insurance premiums
Did you know well-being programs such as happiness at work can significantly reduce your health insurance premiums? It worked for AstraZeneca (leading pharmaceuticals company).
Learn more about how to promote happiness in your workplace.
Working reality
Stress, absenteeism, and employee engagement are significant issues at work:
28% of salaried workers suffer from stress in the EU
Work days lost has more than doubled
35% of workers state ‘nothing’ in response to “What pleases you most about your job”
Discover more thought provoking statistics about our work reality.
Benefits at Work
Research shows when employees are happier they are:
healthier
more satisfied at work
creative
more productive
... read more
Measuring happiness
You can assess the level of happiness in your organization using our confidential online survey. This survey measures important factors such as employee:
motivation
productivity
pleasure
engagment
creativity
Contact us to learn more.
Thought of the month
Children's Creativity Camp
Be a Part of a Heart
