Sharing a still from the Happy Halloween video

Happy #Halloween from #Sussex again! (a still from Fri's YouTube clip on Channel toothpaste007)#Hastings #StLeonards http://twitter.com/paulcrosland 

http://actionforhastingshappiness.blogspot.com/p/ideas-bubbling-out-of-happiness.html

Happy Halloween

To prepare for 28th Nov launch, we are pleased to announce the appointment of Nigel Ogden

Thanks for telling me that my visit to you in Bexhill today lifted tour spirits. And you lifted mine Nigel. We talk on Monday, your 30hours/week work as co-director of Restorative Technology Ltd (£30/wk pay) -assigned mostly under contract with Freelending CIC as "full-time St Leonards Sharing Timebank support worker" starts on Weds. I'm asking you to be in by 9am to lead /record the next interview with Mark on "A Land Fit for Criminals". All you need to know for doing this is on http://reviewsfrommark.blogspot.com in the latest two films we recorded together this week.
You can start earning Timebank credits from Tuesday & give these to Rosa so that she can choose to trade them for lessons from me in how to set up a company. I'd like her to be thinking what she wants her company to do & what name she wants to give it.
Yours sincerely,
Paul
P.S. Please bring your Mac to work.

Happiness Acronym from Richard Glass

HAPPINESS ACRONYM – ROCK MEN FC!

Adapted from Lord Layard, economist. Following on the work of Martin Seligman (founder of positive psychology in 1998), Layard summed up personal wellbeing/happiness into nine areas. These can be closely monitored.

R – Relationships – keep these in good repair

O – Others – think of doing things for others, not yourself

C – Count your blessings. Everyday count three things that you’ve done that are worthwhile (before going to sleep)

K - ‘Know thyself: to find yourself, think for yourself’ (Socrates). Find what your really LOVE doing and don’t stop until you have (Steve Jobs). (see FLOW)

M – Meaning and Values Matter. Most crucially it’s your Attitude that matters: nothing more – nothing less.

E – Exercise. Regularly exercise and you’ll feel a lot better for it.

N – New. Do something new everyday. Preferably something that is Risky too!

F –FLOW. Be completely committed and focussed on what you’re doing – whatever it is, get into the ZONE (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi [pronounced ‘MEE-hy CHEEK-sent-ma-HY-ee]). And FINISH things. There is nothing more satisfying than actually finishing things – preferably before time.

C – Control. People are more successful, and live longer, when they feel they are in control of their lives.

A "more caring and sharing" Hastings and St Leonards?

If you'd like a more caring & sharing environment around you, you only need to fill this page in:http://actionforhastingshappiness.blogspot.com/p/stleonardssharing.html

St Leonards Sharing -Trying to provide clearer navigation

Dear all,

There have been a number of confusions/ misunderstandings about the way I've presented 'St Leonards Sharing'. I copy this now to the blog -http://agoodweek.info and say clearly now that it was never my intention to divert NatWest money to compensate Hastings Pier Victims; I simply wanted to pay back the community for voting for "St Leonards Sharing" in as rich a way as I could. And if I didn't manage to raise this £6,000 for the "Hastings Truth & Reconciliation Commission (& associated reparation fund), my intention was to hold myself publically accountable for this shortcoming.

Unfortunately, it looks like (9 hours before the vote has closed) that the votes have not come in sufficiently for our £6k seed capital and we work on volunteer time and timebanked credits still.
The press release which was not printed by the Observer in the last two editions (much to our collective loss), I have this morning now published on:
http://actionforhastingshappiness.blogspot.com/p/ideas-bubbling-out-of-happiness.html

Kind regards
Paul
0780 70 66 202 - if a call will work better for you than an email?

"St Leonards Sharing" can be explored on the web at these three locations:
1)Our NatWest Community Force page: http://communityforce.natwest.com/project/5827
2) Our Wiki Site: http://stleonardssharing.info
3) The Blog about the Timebank etc - this page of which has an intro to Timebanking video by the pier and a link for how you express interest: http://actionforhastingshappiness.blogspot.com/p/ideas-bubbling-out-of-happiness.html

Thank you for your time reading this/ actioning it.

St Leonards Warrior Square sunset last night

http://actionforhastingshappiness.blogspot.com/p/ideas-bubbling-out-of-happiness.html

The address for info about "St Leonards Sharing" is http://communityforce.natwest.com/project/5827

Take one more step now to support the "St Leonards Sharing" Timebank (eg volunteering) and you'll find our that YOU ARE THE TRIM-TAB:
http://additionalinfo.blogspot.com/2011/10/you-are-trim-tab.html

Thank you for your time reading this/ actioning it.

Gensing and Central St Leonards (& some more)

Big Sister & Lesson to a dinosaur

Dear 2 of the main 4 Sue's I'm in at least fortnightly meaningful contact with (not to mention all the meaningless Sues!),

You two both have inadvertently expressed interest in seeing the film Big Sister (about women door-knocking for http://karuna.org) so I want to arrange for the three of us to watch this together at one of your old town addresses. How does that sound?

For those of you reading this message on a blog your chance to watch 'Big Sister' (& then ask the local Action for Happiness group for neighbour-introduction services) begins here:

http://www.appeals.karuna.org/find-out-more/movies.html

For Sue B, if there's no exams in May, can we make a plan that gets you on:

"Six week door-to-door appeals

Women: 14th April - 26th May 2012"?

Also, for info, as I still want someone to know how the blog works if I get run over, you'll see this post is going there (http://agoodweek.info) automatically, thanks to the email address that I have now shared with just you two.

And here's the last post:

http://actionforhastingshappiness.blogspot.com/2011/10/clowning-about-whilst-natwest-voting.html

Thank you for your time reading this/ actioning it.

Please do NOT reply to all unless you want your reply appearing on the blog!

Clowning about whilst NatWest voting for 'St Leonards Sharing' Timebank ends at noon

Hello to anyone interested in St Leonards developments & beyond,
I'm still wanting to get loads more to St Leonards residents at no cost and Maria Arpa from http://centreforpeacefulsolutions.org has rung this weekend and offered to come down again before Christmas to provide more team-building support.
There are now 7 roles to be filled (a commitment of 6 hours a month) to power the St Leonards Sharing Timebank & you earn credits for those hours too so it's a win-win-win(St Leonards being the last win) if you contact me and offer some volunteer time- or come along to a Timebank monthly meeting to learn more - there's one at 11am today, even!

Clowning workshops I'm trying to get here soon so here's the message just sent to my mentor in clowning:

> "Hello Jayachitta, I hope that you are well? It may seem strange to you that I get up in the middle of the night just to send this message. For me it has become time to carry on our dialogue about what I could do for you that's worth as much as money. I'm confident that you'll be pleasantly surprised to learn how hours put into St Leonards can now be reclaimed in hours delivered by a range of skilled people local to you in London. Today, the St Leonards Sharing Timebank takes it's next major step -in an 11am meeting, and we have someone from East Sussex County Council visiting to see how we are innovating here and support this initiative which is now keeping me up at night & will hopefully lead to a clowning workshop or two from you down here. As I'm very interested in the 'Silver Dreams' lottery project goals too (which will have funding attached), I'm also interested in how you'd tailor clowning for less mobile senior-citizens?
> Kind regards
> Paul (that guy you accompanied around the streets of NW London door-knocking one fruitful night.)"

http://actionforhastingshappiness.blogspot.com/p/ideas-bubbling-out-of-happiness.html -web link for an introduction to Timebanking.

Before noon on 24th October -if you haven't yet- please go to the address where you can make the difference to St Leonards Sharing getting another vote of support, even though it's now unlikely that we'll get the £6,000 prize from the NatWest bank.
The address for info about "St Leonards Sharing" is http://communityforce.natwest.com/project/5827
You can also gonthere to become a volunteer - which will boost the St Leonards Sharing Timebank.
Thank you for your time reading this/ actioning it.

Rescheduling 29th October until more interest is expressed

Blog posts about door-knocking training; please suggest revised dates for the training:

http://actionforhastingshappiness.blogspot.com/2011/10/29th-october-training-1st-draft.html
&
http://actionforhastingshappiness.blogspot.com/2011/10/door-knocking-by-sanghanath-film-3-of-3.html

TIMEBANK PRESS RELEASE IMMANENT FROM Elize from Sussex Police & Paul Crosland (St Leonards Sharing & Hastings 4 Happiness)

Just had a very successful hour and a half with Elize from the police (including photo shoot & being booked to co-facilitate a Restorative conference in the next fortnight) - the Sussex Police & St Leonards Sharing Timebank arrangement is in place and active. Press release follows.

Alsoon Cooper, who as co-ordinator of Soundspositive, has come forward to be the main recipient of the timebanked hours being given to the police to help them with restorative justice says: "I am absolutely thrilled about this because it means the police hours will be put towards more support and police participation in my ground-breaking community project that builds new and improved relationships between groups that do not usually get along- thorugh the medium of music. So I am putting in a funding bid, for a group of police and young people (at risk of offending or who have offended in their past) to put on a music concert, each performing songs or anything else they would like to do. It's not just about the music but having the time and space to build a better understanding of each other, the differences and similarities, and being ok with that. This ultimately would lead to changes of attitude and could have a huge benefit to the town and those choices individuals from either groups make in their future, whether that be more offending or how to approach each other. If anyone is interested in playing in the band please give me a call on 01424 444330. Cheers!".

Help us get those votes in for us to get our £6,000 seed funding

-and produce (or collect) flyers etc for cafes etc to engage others:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWQ7VNrlePs&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Hastings Pier Fire 1st Anniversary (4 of 4)

Hi Tony

You made the difference, as you always can, to the event a few hours ago. In the words of AA:
Please keep coming back; it WORKS:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWQ7VNrlePs&feature=youtube_gdata_player

-& the rest of what I captured last night is going on http://restorativetechnology.blogspot.com - a site that will impress the police (our latest recruits to the SLS TIMEBANK) more than http://sussexcommunity.blogspot.com

Today, the plan is to support my friend Saar in Devon & to create a highly credible HASTINGS TRUTH & RECONCILIATION COMMISSION.

Kind regards
Paul
http://actionforhastingshappiness.blogspot.com/p/ideas-bubbling-out-of-happiness.html

"Freedom is a scary thing; not many people really want it" Laurie Anderson. Use ur nxt 4 mins fdom 2 vote 4 sharing: http://communityforce.natwest.com/project/5827
& http://additionalinfo.blogspot.com/2011/10/you-are-trim-tab.html

Thank you for your time reading this/ actioning it.

Red noses Unlimited invited to town for clowning about

Dear Jayachitta, we have great need of your clowning workshops in St Leonards on Sea; in particular I'm thinking of a women's only event on the afternoon of Sunday 30th October for the "Hastings & St Leonards Action for Happiness" sisterhood. I like to arrange these things through timebanking, so let's talk soon about how that works. I hope Hastings people I know ask to be your friend; that would speed up the mutual learning curve about the deep value of clowning in the transition (part cash, part generosity, part exchange) economy we're building here in the name of Action for Happiness.

Much metta, and thank you for continually knocking on my Facebook door,

Paul
http://actionforhastingshappiness.blogspot.com/p/ideas-bubbling-out-of-happiness.html

Action for Happiness Director, Mark Williamson, sends more support

Dear 'Hastings & St Leonards Action for Happiness' group

As director of the Action for Happiness initiative I was delighted to see first hand the great work you're doing to help create happier and more connected local communities in Hastings & St Leonards.

Action for Happiness is a nationwide movement with over 17,000 members but it is local initiatives like yours that make all the difference. It's great that you've decided to reach out to people door-to-door to help create new opportunities for them to connect with their neighbours. I'm sure what you're doing will help Hastings & St. Leonards become a more caring and sharing place.

Please encourage anyone you connect with locally to make use of our wealth of online resources at www.actionforhappiness.org.

Wishing you all the very best with your wonderful endeavour,

Dr Mark Williamson
Director, Action for Happiness

Into the Wild- An empathic review by Paul Crosland.

Into the Wild- An empathic review by Paul Crosland.

Chris is a young man who practices his version of integrity unwaveringly. He has courage, discipline and a love of solo-adventure, occasionally flirting with the possibilities of deeper connection with others; being most drawn to those at the edge. His own edge is his lethal inability to process the pain of his own upbringing. On the verge of phoning his parents, who for months -then years- have no idea where he is, this ' "moneyless man" hands the coin instead to an elderly man in a neighbouring phone booth who is struggling for forgivess & reconciliation himself, but who is promptly 'hung-up on' after putting Chris's money in the slot.
Intimacy is nearly achieved with a young folk singer on a hippy-type trailer park, yet the again lethal choice made is not to make love to the 16year old (Chris is 23) whilst her parents are out. If he had, my view is that he would not have lost his connection with society so much that he left it all once and for good. The film is hard to read as a morality tale, and nature/wildness is both honoured in the film and presented as containing menace. Ultimately, it is hard to say what the existential (rather than the physical) cause of Chris's death is, though, for me, the message is that no matter how much wisdom and determination someone has, the task of life goes way beyond self is to keep expanding the boundaries of compassion. Only by staying connected to your pain, to others pain and processing it all with joy, are we both living wildly and free.

************
You have until the 23rd October, but please save me much stress & give another 2-4minutes now to registering & then voting for:
http://communityforce.natwest.com/project/5827

-and how many friends/networks have you nudged/encouraged/ set-alight?

Supplementary question if you are willing & able to go deeper:

Supplementary question if you are willing & able to go deeper:

Does your answer to the question -"tell us about a film that has changed your life?" say more about you or the film?
P.S. Please show your calculations.

P.P.S. I borrowed & watched the "awesome" Into The Wild from Sue. I will now ask her to move from being a techno-dinosaur to a higher state of evolution: www.streetbank.com , so that she meets more strangers and makes more friends with shared experiences & film tastes.

St Leonards Sharing gets £6,000 only with clicks from you and your friends

Voting for "St Leonards Sharing" Consortium to get £6,000 to employ a "Timebank developer/broker" for a year is this easy & Hastings & St Leonards Action for Happiness is supported for the next 12 months too if you click on the right page. Here are the instructions:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ2QRoHf7GQ
You have until the 23rd October, but please save me much stress & give another 2-4minutes now to registering & then voting for:
http://communityforce.natwest.com/project/5827

-and how many friends/networks have you nudged/encouraged/ set-alight?

Door-Knocking by Sanghanath

29th October training 1st draft programme

Dear all who may be expecting my most esteemed door-knocking friend and colleague Jayaraja to be leading the training on 29th October; I haven't found a budget for this -though I have asked for one:-)

Jayaraja is still welcome to lead this day instead -which will be very different then from the programme below, as Jayaraja would then control it.

I drew up the programme below the other night, and since then I've decided to add in a 9.30am 'open for tea' slot and a 9.45am slideshow of the difference that I managed to make in India (in a town called Amravati) thanks to my door-knocking in London for 6 months of the last year.

More about this in my autobiographical blog: http://imperfectidealist.blogspot.com (or is it http://theimperfectidealist.blogspot.com ?)

NB Request: Please send me addresses of your autobiographical blogs, and if you don't have one, please TIMEBANK contract with me to run a session for an hour with you that will hopefully get you up and running with this. Your lives really matter and not just because you are now my friends!; reflecting on them and laughing at yourselfs -kindly- is highly recommended.)

OFFICIAL 1st Draft Programme:

10am Introductions & a round of what each of us want from the day and what we don't want.

10.15am One of Jayaraja's energiser games from his book.

10.30 Paul's latest grand theory: That one of the biggest problems in society is that people don't ask enough of each other, or to put it another way, they do not know how to make clear, NVC requests. IF people made clear NVC requests much more clarity and 'progress' would happen.

THUS, our task as trainees in non-violence is to help draw out the implicit requests in others actions eg what is the request and the need when someone says 'Fuck Off' to a door-knocker?

10.45am This isn't door-knocking training as much as getting in touch with Courage, Compassion & Connection & handling our own sense of rejection and perfectionism (fear).

11am What do you want more of from your neighbours?

11.15am An hour to make a booklet asking for it -access to internet, printers, laminators, coloured paper and pens etc

12.15am A game to get to know each other better -favourite films, books or peope?

12.30 Where do you stand on a grid with these two axis:

Wanting to be liked-Wanting to be Right;

I don't appreciate negative feedback given face-to-face-I appreciate 'Negative Feedback Face to Face' (& what are the up-sides and down-sides of each position eg mine is I like to be right and I appreciate negative feedback -downsides are loneliness and some of the shit thrown sticks on my self-hating self-image)

12.45 A story of how I built a relationship with a benefactor, who basically funded me and my projects for a year. ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS & what that relationship is like now the money has dried up?

1pm Lunch

2pm Tony Arrives to be himself

2.10pm We draw straws to see who gets to knock on Tony's door first (each bringing our booklet to leave with him to read)

-These attempts at connection with you are interspersed with your having quiet time to read the booklets before the mock-up return visits; we all debrief each other about what we did so terribly Jehovah Witness like in talking to you and how much SHAME we feel

3.30pm Closing round and requests for door-knocking teams (if any), for more joint work on booklets (if wanted) or more training (if wanted) on the applications of nonviolent communication to social change.

 NB This draft programme was first posted to the following people in an email dated 30 September 2011 00:42:08 GMT+01:00 Tony, actionforhappiness[at]mediationsupport.info, Jayaraja, Paul Baker, which began:

Tony, I've been pulled up by the head of my previous Buddhist Community (who is also head door-knocking fundraiser). He's telling me I've made an error in getting into an argument with you over door-knocking as a strategy & that I'd do better to empathise with you first.

No wonder I was having such a hard-time getting you to say yes to coming to the training on the 29th when I phoned you this evening (until my battery gave way).

Hi Paul,

Thanks for copying me in on this, might I suggest that hear Tony's concern first, he wants to protect his and other reputation he also wants to respect people's privacy. Empathy first!

I hope this comment is welcome.

metta

Jayaraja

On 29 Sep 2011, at 16:30, Paul Crosland wrote:

Dear Tony & all prejudiced about the secret (lost) art of meeting our neighbours by ACTUALLY KNOCKING ON THEIR DOORS,

Re your comment below; that door knocking will ruin the reputation of "Hastings 4 Happiness" or whatever we're called, that all depends on how it is done. The Karuna Trust, for whom I worked for 7 months before moving here does not have this REPUTATION, though it does encounter this PREJUDICE.

The door-knocking work, as I see it is about often encountering three things that block our connection: PRIVACY, PREJUDICE & FEAR. These three are  met, at best, with COURAGE, COMPASSION & CONNECTION.

The local Action for Happiness brand will court controversy for door-knocking, controversy fuels publicity. Ultimately, the quality of the team determines the reputation.

I deeply value your cynicism Tony and really want you there for the 29th Oct Training, if you can make it.

No obligation to knock real doors, just a willingness to engage with others who were at Maria Arpa's training & who will stand/sit (as we all do) behind imaginary doors.

If you'll come, please either check your cynicism at the door or bring it in lock, stock & two smoking barrels. Either is fine with me, especially now you've discovered a third gear thanks to Maria's training, as you spoke about in the film clip on this page (you spoke second when Mark was here if you struggle to find it in this much liked 45 minute fly on the wall film of our 16th Sept meeting with Mark Williamson);

http://actionforhastingshappiness.blogspot.com/p/national-importance-of-hastings-and-st.html

Kind regards

Paul 

(Co-ordinator of the "St Leonards Sharing" Consortium : www.stleonardssharing.info)

(Co-ordinator of "Hastings & St Leonards Action for Happiness":

www.agoodweek.info)

0780 70 66 202 -phone calls often preferred to emails -for connection, clarity and making plans cooperatively.

(Does your local wellbeing group support your personal happiness, your inter-personal sharing, and the wellbeing of all? http://local-well-being-group.blogspot.com/)

*************************

Life's short; compose your quarrels. (from The Dhammapada)

********************************************

Maybrick44 has made a comment on Door knocking compare & contrast: Sorry Paul but I really do not think that knocking on people's doors is a good idea at all. At the moment, 'Action For Happiness' does not have a reputation either way, people may not know much about it but they may still be open to it. If you go down the route of knocking on doors (and thus invading peoples space at a time YOU have chosen) 'Action For Happiness' will soon garner a reputation for being a religious movement and bracketed in the same way as 'The Moonies', Jehovah's Witnesses. You can reply to this comment by visiting the comments page.

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