Building a happier society together

Developing the three Happiness 101 circles

New pages are on this blog for the Developing the three Happiness 101 circles:

1) circle about wellbeing and life-purpose

This part of the 'happiness agenda's characterised by (Lord) Richard Layard, who has set up www.actionforhappiness.org as a mainstream encouragement to incremental quality of life enhancement.

2) circle about local economics.

3) circle about mindfulness and generosity.

Preparations for a good week in Hastings

We're looking for people to offer activities; 55 people in this area offer skills on www.justfortheloveofit.org, so we're contacting those people too.
The facebook event page for this week is here; please confirm that you'll attend sometime in the week
The list of offers for the week is here: please add yours; don't be shy! (you just type in the box)
The emerging calendar is here: It will get better than this! -with your support

Interest from Hastings Creatives

"Hi Graham
I work for the Hastings Trust as a Community Enabler and this sounds very much like something we would like to have some involvement with as most of the work my project does concerns working with the local community, individuals and groups, in order to provide support and enablement, we also work with a lot of volunteers. So I wondered if we could perhaps meet to discuss this either at the next meeting or sometime sooner?
Kind Regards
Sam" 

update from the latest meeting

6 of us attended last nights inaugural meeting which had been advertised in 4 ways:
- Leafleting Economics of Happiness Film
- Link to this blog from www.actionforhappiness.org
- Speaking to local friends
- Posters in windows at the Southwater Area Community Centre
- Facebook profile news updates

The last two methods, on this occasion, yielded no attendees.

We held a 'Happiness 101' session and formed a separate planning group, focussing on 'A Good Week' (20th-26th June), by the end of which many will have received things for free from us and be more connected with others and activities they value in Hastings & St Leonards.

(More on the plans etc will follow)
Next happiness 101 meeting (for new people) is Thursday June 2nd, 8-9pm at the Southwater Area Community Centre.

In the wake of the screening this afternoon

-St Leonards screening next; email (via Mediation Support Ltd link to the left) to support this happening soon.

Electric Palace Cinema, Hastings showing "The Economics of Happiness"

The film is being shown at 4pm on Sunday 8th May:

Both hard hitting and inspiring, ‘The Economics of Happiness’ demonstrates that millions of people across the world are already engaged in building a better world – that small scale initiatives are happening on a large scale. ‘The Economics of Happiness’ features a chorus of voices from six continents calling for systemic economic change. The film shows that countless initiatives are united around a common cause: rebuilding more democratic, human scale, ecological and local economies – the foundation of an ‘economics of happiness’. A film by International Society for Ecology and Culture.

On the same day as the new national charity for well-being, Action for Happiness, was launched, (12^th April 2011) so too was Action for Hastings Happiness.

Our first planning meeting is on Thursday 12^th May at 8pm (by St Leonards Warrior Square station at The Southwater Area Community Station, which is the pink building just next to Platform 2).

The meeting is in the Mediation Support Ltd office on the ground floor (formerly BridgeBuilder office) and the co-ordinator is Paul Crosland Tel 0780 70 66 202 (www.twitter.com/paulcrosland).

Of all the ideas on www.actionforhappiness.org Mediation Support Ltd is engaged in promoting more sharing of household items with neighbours using resources such as www.streetbank.com

From June the Southwater Centre Streetbank is being set up as a community depot to assist the lending and borrowing of items and build connections.

Please bring along your ideas for greater connection, well-being and contributing to others to the meeting on 12^th May or email actionforhappiness[at]mediationsupport.info

If you tweet, please use the Action for Hastings Happiness hash tag - #afhh

G R E A T    D R E AM

T e n  k e y s  t o  h a p p i e r  l i v i n g

Action for Happiness has developed the 10 Keys to Happier Living based on a review of the

latest scientific research relating to happiness.

(Happiness -Lessons from a New Science, 2^nd edition -2011- by Richard Layard, available on Streetbank.com in Hastings)

Everyone's path to happiness is different, but the research suggests these ten things

consistently tend to have a positive impact on people's overall happiness and well-being.

The first five relate to how we interact with the outside world in our daily activities. The

second five come more from inside us and depend on our attitude to life.

G IVING Do things for others

R ELATING Connect with people

E XERCISING Take care of your body

A PPRECIATING Notice the world around

T RYING OUT Keep learning new things

D IRECTION Have goals to look forward to

R ESILIENCE Find ways to bounce back

E MOTION Take a positive approach

A CCEPTANCE Be comfortable with who you are

M EANING Be part of something bigger

Action for Happiness at the Southwater Centre Streetbank:

First Action for Hastings Happiness Meeting 8pm Thurs 12^th May