Caring for Burton St Leonards

With love from
Paul
http://additionalinfo.blogspot.com

Patrick Glass's update to his Happiness Acronym

HAPPINESS-WELLBEING ACRONYM – 'SMALL ROCK MEN FC!'

Adapted from Lord Richard Layard, the economist, William James (Habit), Maslow (Self-Actualisation), Csikszentmihalyi (Flow), and Seligman (PERMA, founder of positive psychology in 1998), and others, there are broadly TWENTY ESSENTIAL ASPECTS to personal wellbeing/happiness (in LARGE CAPITALS)  

SUPPORT: MUSIC, ART, LAUGHTER, LONGEVITY…

R – RELATIONSHIPS – Keep in good repair. Be RESILIENT

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 – don't stop until you have (Steve Jobs) - somethingWORTHWHILE

 

M – MEANING, Values & GOALSMatter.  Most crucially it's yourATTITUDE that matters: nothing more – nothing less.

E – EXERCISE.  Regularly exercise, thirty minutes a day, and you'll feel a lot better for it  

N – NEW.  Do something new everyday –an anti-habit trains the will (James) - 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 FINISHthings.  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 (Marmot).

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

Director of @actionhappiness, Mark Williamson visits our group; A red letter day of mutual appreciation

The longer video of Mark meeting the group is on this page: http://actionforhastingshappiness.blogspot.com/p/national-importance-of-hastings-and-st.html

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Vote for funding from the NatWest CommunityForce fund. It's easy to register so that you'll be able to vote to support St Leonards Sharing Consortium, when voting opens on 26th September. Please spend two minutes on registering for your three votes now, before you forget. The NatWest CommunityForce page for the "St Leonards Sharing" project is here.
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One of our wigs was in the fireworks show tonight!

And here is Action for Happiness's Great Dream Poster: 10 Keys to Happier Living

The Hastings & St Leonards Observer from Friday

This article, from page 17 has been transcribed as follows:
Group is aiming to get Hastings smiling again

An upbeat community group is on a mission to turn the town's frowns upside-down.

The Action for Happiness (AFH) organisation based at the Southwater Centre, Stainsby Street, St Leonards, is determined to make Hastings a happier place to live and is half way through its Good Week scheme.

This has included talks, workshops and complementary health sessions and seen members handing out happiness hints to commuters at St Leonards Warrior Square train station.

Paul Crosland, who heads the group, said "We are concerned that a lot of people -ourselves included - lose track of what is important in life and do not get information about how to stay on an even keel in the turbulence of modern society. Despite all the technology and resources we have, society is less happy than it was"

The AFH programme is based on scientific studies which have identified five key factors that can boost people's happiness -connecting with other people, being active and healthy, learning new skills, giving to others and taking note of the good things in their lives.

These tips have been shared with train passengers every morning this week and Mr Crosland found the range of responses quite revealing. He said:

Some people have said it is wonderful and just what Hastings and St Leonards needs to lift its mood but we have had the occasional person tell us they are not interested in happiness. Some people approach happiness from a body and mind point of view, some think it is about changing things politically and economically and some have a spiritual way in, and we want to bring all these groups together.

The Good Week events continue today (Friday) and tomorrow with film screenings, stress-busting sessions and talks on the group's aims but long-term Mr Crosland hopes they can build on this week's achievements. They are offering Happiness 101 sessions in residents' homes and they want to reach out to professions that work with the public on a regular basis like taxi drivers and hairdressers.

"When those in frequent sustained contact with members of the public have more knowledge of how people can be happier and talk about it, we believe that wellbeing will spread quicker", Mr Crosland said.
Visit actionforhastingshappiness.blogspot.com for more information about the scheme.

Sunday reflections on AGoodWeek & the space we have to offer

New link address to this blog to pass onto others:

And please add your comments below on whether the next web address be HastingsForHappiness or HappinessForHastings?
This is discussed in this YouTube clip:

Happiness petition to the Mayor of Hastings & St Leonards

What about me? the movie at 7pm

This clip is from the series rather than the movie 'What about me?'; nonethless it will suffice to remind all that at 7pm in the Main Hall we have this film on:

The film is also on on Thursday from 5.30-7.30pm

streetbank and connecting people

People want things. Not all of these people use www.streetbank.com. It therefore helps if people who know what's on streetbank are in contact with others who aren't and cross-polinate. These magical connectors are called Streetbees and the most magical cross-polination I've seen (even before the start of AGoodWeek) is Sue's wish to get the streetbank offered spade (who has offered it I don't know), to Anita who I met and filmed, but who is off-line and presumably still wanting a spade. Next installment follows soon... Please offer a service to friends who use the web less, and if you are not clear how to offer the service, please call the number on www.telephonemediation.org.uk and we'll take it from there. (Sue is part of the newly formed Hastings & St Leonards Action for Happiness group that is running AGoodWeek at the Southwater Centre & around between 20th-26th June 2011).


And here's Debbie, who I met today and who then offered to put her collection of healing books in the streetbank depot:

The flyer for AGoodWeek is ready

Thanks Barry for this flowering of creativity: Action for Happiness AGoodWeek (20th-26th June A4 flyer/poster) can be downloaded here. Please print some out and put them up.
And this is the page of Downloadable Resources where other documents will be put for download.

Copies also available from the Southwater Area Centre in colour; please arrange an approximate time to call (before 8pm) by emailing us here.

Hastings & St Leonards Action for Happiness group & AGoodWeek in the last lines of this letter

http://www.hastingsobserver.co.uk/news/observer-comment/letters

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