Positive thoughts count down to xmas 5

This is a time of year to connect or reconnect with friends, old and new. Who is in our circle of influence and which of those do you call a friend? There are many terms for our circle. Steven Covey believes that we must be more mindful of our “Circle of Influence”. These are things which we can do something about. 

• How you talk about yourself and others. 
• How you look after your body and make time for relaxation. 
• How you breathe when you feel worried. 
• How you challenge and reframe my thoughts. 
• The choices you make. 
• The habits and routines you set. 
• Where do you get your news from? 
• The people you follow on social media. 
• When it is time to ask someone for help. 
• When it is time to say “No” or “Not right now”. 
• How kind you are to others and yourself. 

Are you mindful of the people that are in your circle of influence? Think about when you were a pre-schooler, your circle of influence was your family, your brothers, sisters, cousins, Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents and Parents. We were influenced by them and we paid attention to what they said and did and we learned. 

In school our circle of influence grew, we added friends outside the family, classmates, teachers, teammates boyfriends and girlfriends. We thought it cool to have a lot of friends and many who did not collect friends felt left out.

When we left school for work or university our sphere of influence grew again. Some of us discarded friends from school to make room for university or college friends. Once we started work we made sure that we included work colleagues in our circle.

However, our circle of influence now had grown to between 300 and 500 people. Too many so we acknowledged some people within our circle of influence as acquaintances, and others as friends but we kept the core of the family. If you got married most of your inner circle from your side and your partners' side were invited to the wedding.  The average wedding party number according to Google may vary a little depending on who you're speaking with, but a small wedding typically includes 50 people or under, a medium wedding has a guest list of anywhere from 50-150 guests, and a large wedding has over 150 attendees. It's important to remember that these numbers will be a little bit different for everyone.

When you die, depending on your age, if you are older than approx 80 years the normal number of people who attend is between 10–50 guests. If you die younger you could get between 100–500 people attending. 

The people at your wedding are not the same people at your funeral, but they are people that you have held in your circle of influence. These are people that you had an effect on and influenced for the positive in your life.  I have many people in my circle but only a few that I call friends. I cherish my friends and my family and make sure that they know that I cherish them. I hope you do as well.

Positive thoughts count down to xmas 6

It is interesting what you can find on the Net. US News and World Report do a yearly report on countries. They use a set of 73 country attributes – terms that can be used to describe a country and that are also relevant to the success of a modern nation. Various attributes and nations were presented in a 2022 survey of more than 17,000 people from across the globe from April 30 to July 13. Participants assessed whether they associated an attribute with a nation.

Each country was scored on each of the 73 country attributes based on a collection of individual survey responses. The more a country was perceived to exemplify a certain characteristic in relation to the average, the higher that country's attribute score and vice versa. These scores were normalized to account for outliers and transformed into a scale that could be compared across the board.

These Are the Friendliest Countries in the world along with their ranking as the best country in the world to live in.

These are the top countries viewed as friendly by global survey respondents. For more information on the rankings, see their methodology.

New Zealand #1 in Friendly #11 in Best Countries Overall

Spain #2 in Friendly, #16 in Best Countries Overall

Italy #3 in Friendly #14 in Best Countries Overall

Greece #4 in Friendly #25 in Best Countries Overall

Canada #5 in Friendly #3 in Best Countries Overall

Netherlands #6 in Friendly #12 in Best Countries Overall

Australia, #7 in Friendly, #7 in Best Countries Overall

Norway #8 in Friendly #13 in Best Countries Overall

Finland ,#9 in Friendly #15 in Best Countries Overall

Ireland #10 in Friendly  #23 in Best Countries Overall

Sweden #11 in Friendly #5 in Best Countries Overall

Portugal #12 in Friendly #26 in Best Countries Overall

Denmark #13 in Friendly #10 in Best Countries Overall

Switzerland #14 in Friendly #1 in Best Countries Overall

Thailand #15 in Friendly #28 in Best Countries Overall

Austria #16 in Friendly #22 in Best Countries Overall

Brazil #17 in Friendly #27 in Best Countries Overall

Singapore #18 in Friendly #19 in Best Countries Overall

Belgium #19 in Friendly #18 in Best Countries Overall

Poland #20 in Friendly  #32 in Best Countries Overall

Positive thoughts count down to xmas 7

When we're retired, we have a smaller world, bound by family and neighbours and limited activities. But we can still make a difference in our community, and in the people we love.

So, who are the absolute happiest people? The world's happiest countries, 2022 edition lists the top twenty countries. My country Canada ranks 15th, and my daughter's adopted country Australia ranks 12th.

1. Finland

2. Denmark

3. Iceland

4. Switzerland

5. Netherlands

6. Luxembourg

7. Sweden

8. Norway

9. Israel

10. New Zealand

11. Austria

12. Australia

13. Ireland

14. Germany

15. Canada

16. United States

17. United Kingdom

18. Czechia (Czech Republic)

19. Belgium

20. France

With the world in a state of upheaval, we could use some happy news. The 10th annual World Happiness Report has been released—just days ahead of the annual International Day of Happiness on March 20. The World Happiness Report—which ranks global happiness in more than 150 countries around the world—is released every year by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network. The statisticians base the ranking on data from the Gallup World Poll and several other factors, including levels of GDP, life expectancy and more.

With the world entering the third year of the pandemic, the report has three areas of focus in 2022: looking back; looking at how people and countries are doing in the face of Covid-19 and looking ahead to how the science of well-being is likely to evolve in the future.

The good news: This year’s report found remarkable worldwide growth in all three acts of kindness monitored in the Gallup World Poll. Some other good news, despite the pandemic: Positive emotions as a whole remained more than twice as frequent as negative ones. According to the report, there is still a lot of year-to-year consistency in the way people rate their lives in top-ranking countries.

Besides the happiest countries in the world, the report also looked at the places where people are the saddest. Afghanistan ranked as the unhappiest country in the world, with Lebanon, Zimbabwe, Rwanda and Botswana rounding out the bottom five.

So, what makes Finland so happy? “Research shows that high national ranking on these surveys is not so much about culture. It’s more about how a country’s institutions take care of their people—this leads to higher ratings of life satisfaction, According to other experts at Helsinki-based Aalto University, other factors contributing to this small country’s success include smart urban planning, access to green spaces to reduce stress and promote physical activity, an effective system of progressive taxation and strong healthcare and education systems.

Positive thoughts count down to xmas 8

 Are you happy? This is an interesting question at this time of year; the stock and short answer is yes. Are you happy most of the time or just sometimes is another question that could be asked? There is a ‘Set Point’ theory of happiness and well-being that assumes we each have a fixed ‘average’ level of happiness around which our day-to-day and moment-to-moment happiness varies.

We express our level of happiness through our temperament, mood, and emotion. The set point theory relies on the idea that when our natural temperament is stable, we will have slowly moving moods, but with momentary changes in experienced emotions.

Set Point theory showed that people who won the lottery, after the initial euphoria has died down, are no happier than people with spinal cord injuries. A question that this theory brings up is whether it is possible to get any happier, or whether we are just stuck with the happiness we are born with and that some people will always be more naturally cheerful than others. It seems a rather fatalistic position to take. Genetic studies show that there is a significant degree of inheritance in many personality factors. This implies that the Set Point may not make up all of a person’s happiness, but only a part of it.

The notion of a happiness set point suggests that we are limited to an “inborn” level of happiness that’s not likely to change much no matter what happens in life. This is good news if you are on the cheerful end of the spectrum. Not so good if you tend to be gloomy. But is it really true?

Let’s see how these studies are typically designed. It’s obvious “measuring” happiness can never be as precise as weighing in on a scale. The problem is happiness research depends on subjective self-assessments. “On a scale of 1 to 10, how happy do you think you are compared to other people?” “Do you laugh a lot?” That sort of thing. Such surveys can show what a person believes about themselves, but they don’t really prove anything. 

Simple Ways to Raise Your Happiness Set Point

Simply try to choose mindfulness. Focus on solutions instead of problems. Accept the situation, look at the choices available, and take some action.  Even baby steps help.

Make happiness your number-one goal. Don’t believe every negative thought you have. Your brain is wired to pay more attention to whatever it perceives as threatening your survival. Ask yourself if what you are ruminating about is actually life-threatening. Is it even helpful? If not, gently refocus your mind on something positive–or better yet, something that makes you laugh. Even better, laugh at yourself.

Linger on those little, positive moments. Develop a positive explanatory style. Optimists are happier and optimism can be learned.

Practice gratitude. Look for the tiny things you usually take for granted and feel appreciation for them. Aren’t you thankful for hot running water? A car that starts. Your pillow. Your next breath. Of course, you are!

Take good care of your body. Get plenty of rest, healthy food, and exercise. What’s good for your body is good for your brain.

Cultivate healthy relationships. Don’t put off calling a friend. Make it a point to spend quality time with people you love. Don’t gossip!

Smile your way to happiness and practice random acts of kindness. It’s amazing how much better you feel when you make someone else feel better. Make a positive difference in someone’s life today. Let yourself be happy. Smiles and hugs Yes! There is a way to choose to become a happier person.

However, these are just suggestions. There are lots of other ways things you can try to raise the set point of your happiness and this is the time of year to start. What are other ways you might raise your happiness set point?