Happiness 3

Myth 5: Happiness is all about hedonism. continued... "When people help others through formal volunteering or generous actions, about half report feeling a 'helper's high,' and 13% even experience alleviation of aches and pains," says Post, professor of preventive medicine and director of the Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics at Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, N.Y. "For most people, a pretty low threshold of activity practiced well makes a difference," Post says. This might involve volunteering just one or two hours each week or doing five generous things weekly -- practices that are above and beyond what you normally do. First documented in the 1990s, mood elevation from helping is associated with a release of serotonin, endorphins -- the body's natural opiates -- and oxytocin, a "compassion hormone" that reinforces even more helping behavior, Post says. Could compassion be rooted in our neurobiology? A National Academy of Sciences study showed that simply thinking about contributing to a charity of choice activates a part of the brain called the mesolimbic pathway, the brain's reward center, which is associated with feelings of joy. "Although just thinking about giving or writing a check can increase our levels of happiness, face-to-face interactions seem to have a higher impact," Post says. "I think that's because they engage the [brain's] agents of giving more fully through tone of voice, facial expression, and the whole body." Myth 6: One size fits all. If you're seeking a magic bullet or mystical elixir to enhance your happiness, you're bound to be sorely disappointed. There is no "one size fits all" for happiness. Instead, there are many ways to boost your happiness. Here are options to try: Pick an activity that is meaningful to you, Cohn says. Whether you choose an activity that promotes a sense of gratitude, connectedness, forgiveness, or optimism, you'll be most successful if your choices are personally relevant to you. And, he adds, this may also keep you from adapting to them too quickly. Assess your strengths and develop practices that best use these gifts, Post suggests. Are you a good cook? Deliver a meal to a shut-in. A retired teacher? Consider tutoring a child. The possibilities are limited only by your imagination. Vary your activities because promoting happiness is largely a question of finding a good fit, Lyubomirsky says. To that end, she helped Signal Patterns develop a "Live Happy" iPhone application that starts with a short survey to identify the happiness strategies that you're suited to, such as journaling or calling someone to express gratitude. "You can lose your will [to do those activities] if it's not a good fit," Lyubomirsky says. And when it comes to happiness, maintaining your will -- and acting on it -- might just put a pleasurable, meaningful life well within reach

Happiness 2

Part 2 artice from WebMD Myth 3: You always adapt to your happiness set point. It's true that people tend to adapt fairly quickly to positive changes in their lives, Lyubomirsky says. In fact, adaptation is one of the big obstacles to becoming happier. The long-awaited house, the new car, the prestigious job -- all can bring a temporary boost but then recede into the background over time. Why does this happen? One reason, Lyubomirsky says, is that we evolved to pay more attention to novelty. For our ancestors, novelty signaled either danger or opportunity – a chance for a new mate or food, for example. We're attuned to contrasts, not sameness. But that also means we readily adapt to positive experiences that happen to us, Lyubomirsky says. "I argue that you can thwart adaptation, slow it down, or prevent it with active ways of thinking or behaving," says Lyubomirsky, who, after moving to Santa Monica, Calif., found herself adapting to her beautiful surroundings. To counteract this trend, she put effort into appreciating the view she saw when running on a path overlooking the ocean. She says she now savors that view every day, trying to see it "through the eyes of a tourist." To help thwart adaptation, you can also use novelty to your advantage. For instance, if your home has become a little ho-hum, you might try rearranging furniture or hosting parties for a variety of friends. Voluntary activities like these are most effective because they require you to pay attention, Lyubomirsky notes. Myth 4: Negative emotions always outweigh the positive ones. For quite some time, research has indicated that negative emotions are more powerful than positive ones, Cohn says. For example, studies show that people don't have equal reactions to winning $3 and losing $3, he says. The loss tends to have a stronger effect than the gain. Negative emotions might edge out positive emotions in the moment, Cohn says, because they're telling you to find a problem and fix it. But positive emotions appear to win out over time because they let you build on what you have, a finding reinforced by Cohn's recent study. "We found that as positive emotions go up, there comes a point where negative emotions no longer have a significant negative impact on building resources or changing life satisfaction," Cohn says. "Positive emotions won't protect you from feeling bad about things, nor should they. But over time, they can protect you from the consequences of negative emotions." This may not be true for people with depression or other serious disorders, although they do show benefits when positive emotions are added to conventional psychotherapy, Cohn notes. Myth 5: Happiness is all about hedonism. There's more to happiness than racking up pleasurable experiences. In fact, helping others -- the opposite of hedonism -- may be the most direct route to happiness, notes Stephen G. Post, PhD. Post is co-author of Why Good Things Happen to Good People: The Exciting New Research That Proves the Link Between Doing Good and Living a Longer, Healthier, Happier Life.

Happiness-Facts and fiction 1

This is an articel from WebMD by:Annie Stuart Myth 1: Either you have it or you don't. Say you have two kids you've raised just the same, but they have opposite personalities -- one sour, the other sunny. This makes it hard to dispute the fact that genes play a powerful role in each person's happiness. And there's evidence that suggests genetics contributes to about 50% of your happiness "set point" -- the level of happiness that seems most normal for you. But that's a far cry from 100%, says Sonja Lyubomirsky, PhD, author of The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want and professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside. "If you do the work," Lyubomirsky says, "research shows you can become happier, no matter what your set point is. You probably won't go from a one to a 10, but you can become happier. It just takes commitment and effort as with any meaningful goal in life." Not only can you become happier, she says, but it gets easier over time. Work on nurturing relationships, writing in a gratitude journal, committing random acts of kindness, or developing a program of morning meditation or exercise. Changes like these -- proven methods for enhancing happiness -- can become habits after a while, which means they eventually take less effort. Myth 2: Happiness is a destination. Many people think of happiness as a destination or acquisition -- whether it's marriage, money, or a move to a new location. Sure, things like these can contribute to happiness, but not as much as you might think, Lyubomirsky says. They account for only about 10% of your whole happiness picture. If you've done the math, you now realize that about 40% of your happiness is in your hands. Lasting happiness has more to do with how you behave and think -- things you control -- than with many of life's circumstances. Robert Biswas-Diener, co-author of Happiness: Unlocking the Mysteries of Psychological Wealth, agrees. "Happiness isn't the emotional finish line in the race of life," he says. It's a process and a resource. Biswas-Diener says there's a mountain of data showing that when people are happier, they become healthier and more curious, sociable, helpful, creative, and willing to try new things. "Happiness is not just an emotional flight of fancy," he says. "It's beneficial for the long run, serving a real function in our lives." In psychological lingo, this is called the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, says Michael A. Cohn, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher with the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Cohn recently conducted a study with 86 college students who submitted daily emotion reports. The researchers measured the students' ability to flexibly respond to challenging and shifting circumstances and used a scale to assess life satisfaction. The study showed that positive emotions increased resilience -- skills for identifying opportunities and bouncing back from adversity -- as well as life satisfaction.

Happiness-Facts and fiction

ADHD and Excersise

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is diagnosed as a disability in

children who are inattentive, hyperactive, and impulsive. Children with ADHD suffer

from acting with thoroughly thinking through a situation. Although a definite cause

of ADHD has not being found, scientists believe a low number of neurotransmitters,

heredity history, and environmental toxins play a large correlation with the

disability. About 90 percent of children who have ADHD take a stimulant medication

such as Adderall to stimulate the pre-fontal cortex which is responsible for

attention and impulsivity. Research has also shown that exercise also plays a large

role in stimulating neurotransmitters associated with ADHD.

When are children responsible?

The childhood playfulness of attention comparative study between preschool and elementary school children had some very interesting results.

The fact that children under the age of six do not have the cognitive reasoning to realize that making a decision with insufficient information will statistically correlate in a wrong answer essentially gives them a moral free pass when deciding upon actions.

Therefore, children should not necessarily be responsible for their moral decisions under the age of 6, because attention and reason are not yet connected. So next time my 4 year-old cousin decides “wrongly”, it may not be his fault, yet, and it will be difficult for me to scold him.

Importance of Early Education

At age 19 I found myself teaching "headstart" in the urban village (slum) Savan, St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands.

The vital importance of this program was far more signicant to these children than their wealthier USA neigbors. It led me to a life long committment to "early childhood" experience to prepare people for the world of learning.

(side note) couple years ago my family stopped on a cruise for a day in St. Thomas, rented a car and found one of the schools I used to teach in. 45 years later, no longer a ramshakle shack with no running water, it was a modern elementry school that could have been in any us city. It had a huge sign that read PEACE CORPS ELEMENTRY SCHOOL! I got tearful and embaressed my sons.

Founded by Friedrich Froebel in 1840, the kindergarten-childcare center grew out of the necessity for children to experience careful nurturing which inhibited successful development. Pre-school programs in modern times follow three basic principles in order to maintain a developmentally sound atmosphere. The three princes are to understand each child develops on their own path, know children learn best through firsthand experiences, and recognize play is extremely important to overall childhood development. Furthermore, the child must be exposed to developmentally appropriate practices for their age in order to help, and not hinder, their development. For example, a child at a daycare allowing children to bully one another inhibits notions of learning empathy and compassion and eventually will lead to problems in emotional development. Overall, as long as they daycares strictly follow the three principles and use developmentally appropriate practices when instructing, childhood development should blossom successfully into the middle and late childhood.