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While chatting to Yelena the Barista this morning, she mentioned that she was going to fly using hand gestures.

“Where?” I asked.

“I’m off to Berlin, I’ve got no plans” she responded, adding, “live life.”

This was very inspirational. Yelena was dedicated to living life and making the most of every day. And it got me thinking that, while most of us can’t literally pack ours bags and create a new life, we can try breaking our routine or creating new and interesting activities.

Sometimes we lose perspective.  We focus on the things that ultimately don’t bring us happiness. A good friend’s wife passed away this week after a ferocious battle with cancer. She spent her 40th birthday in agonizing pain in the intensive care unit. Her last words were not focused on her career, house or her possessions, but her family.

Ultimately, we don’t know when or whether we’ll be removed from our physical being on this planet. So, as Yelena already knows, we really need to make the most out of every day. Creating stressful, unhappy situations can have negative effects on our well being.

There are studies that indicate that engaging in activities that bring you happiness leads to overall wellbeing and improved health. You receive a flood of feel-good hormones.

Like they say, laughter really is the best medicine. And there’s a recent US study that’s produced evidence to suggest that when we laugh we release certain chemicals in our bodies that boost our immune system, relax our muscles, and benefit our hearts.

So a key ingredient to living a healthier life is to engage in activities that bring us happiness and laughter while also nurturing and developing our relationships with friends and family.

Written by Andrew Talati

Last night there was a great show on the relationship between happiness and having a sedentary lifestyle titled “Making Australia Happy”.

The the show highlighted many factors that can contribute to one’s level of happiness and leading a sedentary lifestyle played a big part in how you feel. Similarly having high stress levels led to the release of cortisol which in turn leads to changes in your body’s chemical balances.

Another factor that was taken into consideration was “mindfulness”, that is being mindful of his surroundings and other people around you. This can be as simple as taking 5 minutes out of your day to perform a random act of kindness to a complete stranger.

The idea of having this consciousness of the world around you was to focus on the present what was happening now and not allowing your forced to run away. One great activity involved doing something nice for a complete stranger, the idea being That you are engaged the world around you as opposed to being self focused.

Other factors that increase the risk of a person being unhappy was nutrition. It was disturbing to the people who participated in the study were actually consuming during the day, while this may be at the extreme end of the average person’s daily food consumption, it does highlight the appalling nutritional habits of some people. While there may be many psychological factors that influenced a person’s diet, what food is consumed exacerbates their dependency on high fatty food.

While exercise plays an important part how you feeling in the release of endorphins, similarily if you do start to exercise rigorously your body needs the right mix of energy for fuel and by eating rubbish you’re giving your body is a poor foundation to perform exercise and recover adequately.

The great thing was there was the precise way of measuring one’s activity levels during the day, this involves wearing a armband (Sensewear) which measured the orientation in relation to the ground i.e. if you’re sitting, sleeping and their level of movement. The show highlighted the effects of leading such as sedentary lifestyle, one participant in particular only managed three hours per day whereby they were not sleeping or sitting down.

This is quite a disturbing expose of how one person who perceives that they were doing some level of activity during the day i.e. a little walking while in reality the armband monitoring device confirmed that being confined to the computer desk for long periods or alternatively spending time in the car lead do minimal levels of physical activity.
This can lead to the increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

The ultimately living at physically active lifestyle not only helps with the release of endorphins target helps prepare for your body for a good night’s sleep.

So take the “Happiness test” and see how you fare, you may be surprised by the results.

What a great sight:))
While I’II see a lot of selfish acts, ie people not offering their seat to a pregnant woman or the more senior members of our society on public transport, I was touch by this kind act, the fact that this guy took the time to offer assistance, Awesome!!!
Once a week, 2-3 times a week, or better still once a day go out of your way to perform one selfless act, it will not only give you a warm fuzzy feeling but it makes the world a better place.