I would like to think I am a person who believes everything is a miracle, however occasionally it is just down right difficult to see the beauty of the current situation. Maybe the miraculous part is that I am even here to experience the world around me at all. I think what it boils down to is that happiness or success is something that doesn’t just happen to you. It takes the X, Y, and Z of life to maintain long term happiness.

For me I get a great deal of personal satisfaction from work. It makes me feel like part of a larger working system and that I am a benefit to my community. I can also say I get a lot of joy and “battery recharging” from taking time off as well. At this point in my life I have found it is beneficial to take a day off from time to time and do as little as possible. This gives me the much needed opportunity to reflect on things and appreciate all the great things that I do have. It can be daunting at times when I start to think of all the “things” I need to do or say, and I find myself getting upset. That is when I need to learn to keep my mouth shut, and acknowledge that these are just thoughts and we are not our thoughts. Many people around are feeling the same way and maybe don’t need to be reminded of the negative aspects of life via my complaining. So for me I think the lesson is to choose my words wisely and speak more about the positive things in life, plans for the future, funny stories and things that make others think, smile or laugh.

Many sensitive and prominent entrepreneurs, intellectuals, scientists, artists and cultural promoters participated with their understanding, knowledge and experiences through the Seven International Empathy Gatherings we held in Guadalajara from 1985 to 1995. Among them we listened to Jerry Wagner, Larry and Barbie Dossey, Marilyn Ferguson, Karl Pribram, Lorin Hollander, John David Garcia, José Rogelio Alvarez, Willlis Harman, Joan Borysenko, George Beelen, Rosa Larios, Juan Lafarga, Frank Hider Jr., Sue Gill Rose, Carlos de Obeso, Joanna Lester and Jo Ellen Jorde. The harvest of these Gatherings was the realization of Empathy’s importance for the achievement of integrated individuals, capable of designing and constructing an integral planetary society of wellbeing, happiness and meaningful culture.

We navigated among these Valleys, exploring in each one of them a specific theme related with the essential qualities that Empathy has within the human psyche and soul: The Valley of the Quest, The Valley of Love, The Valley of Intuition, The Valley of Detachment, The Valley of Unity, The Valley of Astonishment and The Valley of Comprehension.

Wagner used empathy as the glue for unifying business and art. Lafarga expressed the humanistic relationship between empathy and walking a couple of miles in the shoes of the other. Dossey related empathy with integral healing beyond the physical body. David Garcia presented the interaction among empathy and the universal perception. Borysenko stated the link between empathy and minding the body by mending the mind. Harman equated the practice of empathy with the creation of a sustainable planet. Alvarez expanded the practice of empathy towards the generation of a truly human History. Pribram presented his exploration related with the holistic storage of data in the human brain. Rosa Larios explained how the practice of empathy helped her to transcend her cancer. Lester performed empathy as the link between love and music. Ferguson explained the crucial role of empathy in the conformation of a new age. Gill Rose, Hider Jr., Beelen and Jo Ellen Jorde demonstrated with their actions the power of empathy in the creation of cultural alliances throughout the world. Hollander opened with his music our empathy to accomplish a personal mystical experience. Carlos de Obeso traced the route for navigating the Seven Valleys with the writing of the Empathy Manifesto. At the end of the Seventh Gathering, having crossed the Valley of Comprehension, we departed to our communities with the sense that the Empathy Journey was successfully completed.

Great was my surprise when in 2006 Jerry Wagner sent me an incredible book titled “A Whole New Mind” by Daniel H. Pink. As soon as I read the book, I obtained an incredible confirmation for all the efforts we made during those years related with the Empathy Odyssey. I came to fully accept Pink’s realization that the application of design, storytelling, symphonic interaction, empathic attitude, playfulness and the generation of meaning are the new qualities needed now for the creation of the future. Pink’s text ascribes these qualities to the use of the right side of the brain. However, remembering Pribram’s contributions about the holistic manner in which the human brain storages memory and Dossey’s explanations about the existence of One Mind, I found myself full of gratitude for the comprehension gained through the collective experiences we had from the journey of the Seven Empathy Valleys.

Coming to the present, the readings of the clear and diverse emotional concepts posted in the Wellbeing posts have motivated me to recognize your influence towards my practical sense of wellbeing and happiness, opening a call for exploring together the Eightfold Empathy Valley of Gratitude on July 7 of this year in Guadalajara, as a means for accepting the creation of a future in which we, planetary citizens, are able to perceive ourselves in each other’s experience, with a clear understanding that no future is possible without a sustainable and harmonic integration of all humanity’s happiness and wellbeing. I wish you will be here at Guadalajara for uniting together our empathic wellbeing with joy and happiness.

When I was growing up in the 70’s in the San Francisco Bay Area, most summer days were so smoggy you could not see the hills on the other side of the bay.  And, no matter how smoggy it was in the Bay Area, when I would visit the Los Angeles area, the smog would be so bad that my lungs would hurt if I went out for a light run. Now most Bay Area summer days have much clearer air with hills all around visible.  Even when I am flying through LA now and can gaze at the San Gabriel Mountains, I cannot help but think of how much better the air quality has become.  For this transformation in air quality, I am grateful for the clean air regulations enacted and enforced by the EPA. I understand that as a Californian, I have to pay higher prices for my “clean” gasoline, a cost I am delighted to bear for sake of the cleaner air that I now enjoy. I am grateful for the active Spare-the-Air program that closely monitors air quality, alerts us when that quality degrades, and provides incentives (sticks and carrots) for the community to choose cleaner alternatives.  When growing up, I frequently smelled diesel exhaust and cigarette smoke.  Now when I smell these, I am actually surprised and take notice. We have come a long, wonderful way.

In spite of all this progress, I find that the quality of our air, water and food are continually under attack.  For instance, filmmaker Josh Fox has exposed how the practice of hydraulic fracturing, “hydrofracking,” can contaminate community water supplies.  In his movie Gasland, he documents the contamination of drinking water in communities near hydrofracking operations. The water coming out of the faucets smells like diesel, is contaminated with carcinogens, like benzene, and in some cases can be lit on fire! Really!  Fox is now working on Gasland 2.  This past week he tried to film a House Subcommittee meeting on hydrofracking contamination of the water supply in Pavilion, Wyoming, and he was escorted out of the public meeting in handcuffs and charged with unlawful entry. Meanwhile President Obama in his state-of-the-union speech this past week touts our country’s natural gas resources and how the techniques to exploit these resources are a huge scientific success for government research. He failed to point out how these techniques are polluting water supplies around the country, and he failed to point out that the burning of this gas does increase CO2 in the atmosphere. On the other hand, he did mention the need to monitor the chemicals used in the hydrofracking process.  I want to hold President Obama accountable to those words and suggest that he strongly advocates for transparency and tight regulation of this process.

We may have started with clean air, water and food, but I have come to realize that humans are their own worst enemy in consuming and polluting these precious resources. Those of us interested in clean air, water and food, in the name of physical wellbeing for all, find ourselves in the position of having to fight with other humans for their preservation.  This year, some progress was made in that fight.  A company called Transcanada plans to build the Keystone XL pipeline from the tarsands oil reserves in Alberta to the Gulf Coast in Texas.  This pipeline will transport highly toxic material over farmland and the Ogallala aquifer, one of the nation’s most important fresh water supplies.  Toxic spills are not uncommon in these projects, and contamination of this important water resource could impact food and water quality for generations. Not to mention, consuming the tarsands oil for fuel will impact CO2 levels and air quality.   The Keystone XL pipeline proposal was the straw that finally moved me to action. Albeit a small step, this was the first time I was moved to email the President and ask him to stop the pipeline by executive order, an act that fully resides in his power.  I am pleased to report that so far the President has delayed the construction of the pipeline.  He has stood up to loud calls from pipeline advocates to proceed with the project.  I am grateful to the President for taking this important stand.

Clean air, water, and food – for the sake of our physical wellbeing and for the wellbeing of our planet, I believe a pollution-free environment is a cause worth fighting for. I hope you will join the fight in whatever way you feel you can.

I like to keep myself busy but the last week has seen the convergence of employment, personal and family commitments in a wave that has me spluttering and looking for air. It happens. Yet, I have just found that it is a time for greater reflection and recognition to gain clarity and confrontation of my blind spots.

When I am tired I am not the person I strive to be, and that comes out in impatience and anger that normally I’m able to recognize. I’m breathing in my own exhaust. My dear colleague Jonathan Peck, of the Institute for Alternative Futures, describes it:

Art by Ping. Concept by Jonathan Peck , www.altfutures.org

“Circumstances are driving your behavior.

That’s your life having you.

When that occurs, you will see and feel the difference.

When you felt overwhelmed by circumstance, when it drives from the optimism to the pessimism, it becomes endemic.

It shows up as blame—you get negative emotions of guilt, if we only had done this, we would not be here now.

Fear of never getting out of here: anger, fear, guilt, blame.

Starts to create a cloud of exhaust.

That cloud is filled with rationalization.

There’s a lot of explanation, justification:

I can only do this because of x,y,z …. It’s an endless loop conversation you have with yourself that leads nowhere.”

Yesterday, I began the fight back for whole life well-being. Each week, as you may remember from my last post on mindful awareness, there is an hour I set aside to be with friends and colleagues on a phone call lead by Home Nguyen who is working on his PhD on this topic at Columbia. We do a quick check in. Then we calm ourselves as Home takes us through a breathing exercise to take in the fresh air and release the old air, letting out the toxicity. Oxygen – the gift that we take for granted – is so vital for our whole life well being.

When the pressure released from my brain, I then could see better what was happening. I was entering a moment of transformation, when the winds around me are changing, and I was filled with worry that after all we had done to get to this point, I might mess up my part of the change.

So I spoke “When things are changing hugely, it is hard to know what to hold on to and what to shift – because things that have worked in the past may not work in the future and things that have not worked in the past may be just what we need in the future.” Just saying that brought to mind

Art by Eileen Clegg. Concept by Jonathan Peck , www.altfutures.org

the metaphor “Driving by looking in the rear view mirror”. By looking only to the past and seeing what worked then, we are doing just that.

I had found myself trapped in a mouse-wheel of learned helplessness.

Yet, we are driving into the future, why don’t we look ahead? And the answer came – because we cannot look ahead alone. It has to be done with others, in a group, where we can balance ourselves out – recognizing the see saw is always in motion, sometimes I’m up and sometimes you are down. Just like for this blog, Gerry Wagner has been there, silently encouraging me, even though the deadline is past – he waits, knowing it will come. And for me to write out this episode is a great way to remember what happened this time, for the next time it happens to me.

So how do we look ahead together? Ahh… that take cultivation, time, and nurturing, but most of all caring about ourselves, each other and the ones who come after us. The search for meaning is what Victor Frankl was privileged to understand in Auschwitz and Turkheim in World War II, when he lost his wife and parents. “It was due to his and others’ suffering in these camps that he came to his hallmark conclusion that even in the most absurd, painful and dehumanized situation, life has potential meaning and that therefore even suffering is meaningful. “……
“Spiritual life strengthened the prisoner, helped him adapt, and thereby improved his chances of survival. “

When our feet are stuck in the mud, we might go around in circles, but when we see a point on the horizon, it gives us something to head toward. That is what an aspiration can be, a rallying point for ourselves. Back to Jonathan Peck, who helps people think about what it is we aspire to.

Art by Ping. Concept by Jonathan Peck , www.altfutures.org

“What are your aspirations? This is different from your ambitions. It is the deepest statement of who you are when you are most fully yourself. It may not be who you are showing up day to day—this is the deeper that you connect with, who you are when you are really fully present and you really know your deepest self is there in the world.

When we can align personal aspirations, you can start to find that there is shared identity when you align: Here’s who we are. If it is really deep, it will keep you connected through thick and thin, so long as you know we are empowered and aligned. It makes your identity very clear in the minds of others.

We want to see people walking their talk. There is also an inner-world integrity. If you think something and it doesn’t feel right, it’s a loss of integrity. If logic points one way, but if misaligned with your gut, it shows up like stress. Something that is an internal stress shows up organizationally. We want to see the alignment of behaviors: drive down to next level in 3rd circle. Circumstances that show up, allow us to respond purposefully: Because of who we are, this is what we have done.

What changed in the world, what are the circumstances that affirm this identity? When this happens, you get profound feedback on who you are in the world.”

I needed that reminder this week, to turn the vicious cycle of learned helplessness to profound affirmation of my belief in whole life well being. I am filled with gratitude to all of you for the chance to speak my voice about this moment. With each of you, I am “all in” the fight for health!

Ever since I met Dr. Wagner back in 1967 I have been impressed with his devotion to education and continuing self-improvement. I can’t recall a time in those 45 years when “Jerry” wasn’t aligned in some way with an educational institution. And that was in the midst of his creating companies and achieving highly admirable business success. In fact, he’s one of the few I know who, over the years, has made a successful transition from the academic world to the business world and back. So I decided some years ago to emulate his formula, never hoping to reach his levels, but simply to enjoy what I knew he gained by his open and extremely creative mind.

In California, regardless of what the pundits have to say about our state, we do enact some interesting ideas that often go unnoticed by even some of our most important residents. One feature in particular has made what I believe are important contributions to the wellbeing of our senior citizens. If you are 60 years of age and over, you can attend any of the California State Universities, take courses in any subject, and pay a nominal fee per semester. Many have taken advantage of this offering and most have significantly improved their lives. One such individual is my long-time friend, Edward Marouk, at a young 86 years of age. He’s within a semester or two of earning his Master’s Degree in Art, with a sculpture major. That’s just the culmination of his work because he’s been attending Fresno State for at least the last 30 years, while earning his keep as a practicing attorney here in the Central Valley for the past 50 years. The outcome of his “going back to school” has been fame in the legal profession for some very important sculptures. He recently completed, and the school dedicated, a sculpture of David Snodgrass, a past Dean of the University of California Hastings College of Law in San Francisco during the 1950’s when Ed attended. (Snodgrass himself inadvertently practiced senior wellness. He hired almost the entire faculty of the law school from retired judges and attorneys over age 65 because WWII had taken all the younger teachers. Because of that, Hastings is considered one of the finest developed law schools in the nation). Ed also has several bronze portraits of Judges on display here in Fresno and his work has been featured in legal magazines. His sculptures have been widely sold throughout the Western U.S. If you knew him, you’d say his attitude and willingness to learn new concepts have made him seem far younger than his 86 years. He attributes that to both education and humor, a worthy combination.

Yes, of course, the five elements of wellbeing are important and we should not focus on only one to the exclusion of the others. But what we are all doing and writing about is itself a wonderful act of increasing our wellbeing and contributing to others through this website. Following in his footsteps, I have used Jerry Wagner’s experience to enrich my own life through my association with educational institutions. Having been involved in science and business most of my career I decided to challenge things a bit by enrolling in Fresno State, in art, and start my 6-year struggle with sculpture. I finally was able to convince a committee that I knew enough about art and art history and carved enough alabaster to earn a Master’s degree in Art. That was in 2008 and I am now enrolled in the Geography department embarking on an original research project looking at the distribution of wealth within major U.S. cities. Why is this important? Because I believe that personal wellness and growth come from a variety of sources with continuing education as one of the most important of these.

Just imagine for a moment what you might learn simply sitting in a classroom full of college students, most of who are thumbing away on their smart phones or peering intently at the screen of their laptops or iPads while the professor is trying to point out something on the white board. Technology has changed the classroom in ways hard to imagine when many of us were first attending school. But these experiences with the young students and their methods of learning are mind challenges that broaden our perspective on life and learning.

While I fully agree that reading at home alone is often a nice way to enrich your life and stimulate your mind, I am also convinced that jumping into the middle of college classes and learning to “swim” in that new environment is a worthwhile experience. If your State has a similar way to encourage seniors and others to get back to school, I heartily endorse that way of maintaining your health and wellbeing. We are enriching our own lives while we hope we are doing the same for countless thousands who have or will visit our website.

Led by the radical Industrial Workers of the World, the strike lasted for two months. The workers faced clubs, bayonets, and frequent arrests.  Many were hauled off to jail, children in tow.  But national sympathy for the impoverished strikers grew. American newspapers were moved to support the workers’ cause.  Finally, in March, the mill owners cried uncle, conceding to the strike demands.

The strike is commonly referred to as the “Bread and Roses” strike because a story about the strike, whose accuracy remains unconfirmed, tells of a group of women who held up a banner declaring, “We want bread, and roses, too!”

In 1980, Judy Collins popularized a song about the strike:  http://www.blight.com/~scarlett/traditions/songbook/breadandroses.html).  Many other versions can be found on You Tube.

Small art and love and beauty their drudging spirits knew,

Yes, it is bread we fight for but we fight for roses too! 

The final line:

Hearts starve as well as bodies, give us bread but give us roses. 

Hearts starve as well as bodies.   It’s an old message from our religious traditions, and one with important implications for the well-being movement.

For half a century after the Lawrence strike, Americans fought for both higher wages—bread—and shorter hours—roses. Time to smell the roses.  Time for non-material sources of happiness.  Time for “art and love and beauty,” time for families, for nature, for learning, for friends and community, for reflection, rest and regeneration, time to meet non-material needs that deliver happiness, time to love and be loved.  Yet somehow, we came to believe we could live on “bread” (stuff) alone, and the roses were left to wilt.

One reason is that “bread”—money in colloquial terms is really all that matters in our current measurements of economic success. Our prime economic indicator—the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)—measures only what we spend on final products and services. If it is bought and sold it counts; otherwise, it’s worth nothing.  Robert Kennedy got it right back in 1968. He observed that the Gross National Product (as the GDP was called then) “measures, in short, everything but that which makes life worthwhile.”

We need new measurements to tell us if our economic activities are adding benefits or costs, whether they are delivering or destroying bread and roses. Around the world, new indicators of success are emerging that measure the roses as well as the bread.

One such measurement is a survey of well-being recently introduced by The Happiness Initiative, (www.happycounts.org).  The survey measures how well we are doing in ten areas of life:  material well-being; physical health; mental health; access to arts, education, recreation and culture; time balance; confidence in government; environmental quality; work satisfaction; community participation and social support.

The modern science of happiness has shown that each of these conditions plays an important role in our well-being.  When you take the survey, you get a score comparing your results to the American average.  Communities—from Seattle to Eau Claire, Wisconsin and Nevada City, California—are now using the survey to assess their well-being as are nearly a hundred colleges and universities.

The centennial of the Lawrence textile strike reminds us to ask “What’s the economy for, anyway?  (full disclosure: that’s the title of my new book).  It calls us to be gardeners of happiness, awakening our senses and watering the roses again.

Since that date of December 2006, what were just first signs of an economic downturn turned out to be the most severe economic crisis since the great depression. It is not necessary to remind readers that many so-called developed countries have been in the middle of economic turmoil. We all know of the financial collapse of such emblematic U.S. investment banks as Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, of the troubles faced by many U.S. firms such as J.P. Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, General Motors, AIG, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac. We all know of unemployment rates which are near two digits in the U.S. and that resist to go down. We all know of the U.S. facing a downgrade in its sovereign debt classification. We all know that the economic crisis has not restrained itself to the U.S. The list of countries facing economic troubles is large: Ireland, Estonia, Iceland, Portugal, Greece, Italy, Spain and so on. For example, unemployment rates in Spain are near 20%, while younger Spaniards face an unemployment rate that almost doubles the national one.

As expected, the economic crisis has forced economists to review their theories and to look for new recommendations. There has been a relative consensus about the causes of the crises. As stated by Baily, Litan and Johnson in his paper untitled The Origins of the Financial Crisis: “The financial crisis that has been wreaking havoc in markets in the U.S. and across the world since August 2007 had its origins in an asset price bubble that interacted with new kinds of financial innovations that masked risk; with companies that failed to follow their own risk management procedures; and with regulators and supervisors that failed to restrain excessive risk taking.” In other words, there has been a misuse of the lending-borrowing schemes in the country.

There has been a review of the theories as well as a discussion about the economic policies that ought to be implemented in order to get out of the crisis. However, I see little discussion about where we ought to get out from this crisis. Following the same spirit expressed by the former president; the economic authorities in the U.S. have opted to stimulate people’s purchasing. The Federal Reserve Bank has applied a lax monetary policy; the interest rate is near zero in order to induce people to keep borrowing in order to keep purchasing. The ‘cash for clunkers’ program provided subsidies for the purchasing of new cars in order to induce people to keep buying. Some congressmen argue in favor of reducing taxes to stimulate consumption. All these policies are based on the idea that we must stimulate shopping in order to get out of the crisis. Thus, the idea is to find the light at the end of the tunnel by looking backwards and going back to the pre-crisis situation, where people’s role was to purchase in order to keep the economy moving on.

I wonder whether people were borrowing because they could not satisfy their basic needs; I wonder what people with an average per capita income of about US$ 40000 dollars per year need to borrow for; I wonder how people spent the money they got from mortgage loans; I wonder what are the well-being benefits from spending on the satisfaction of wants, desires and even craves; I wonder what the well-being implications of borrowing money to getting rid of a five-years-old car in order to buy a new model are.

There may be different ends in the tunnel and we risk following the wrong light when trying to get out. We would not take full advantage of the crisis if we just want to go back. The crisis could be a factor for catharsis and for understanding of what ought to be the final aims in society and what are the role of people and the role of commodities and production. In other words, I am concerned about what exit we aim for when attempting to get out of the crisis. It seems to me that we have not understood that the deeper causes of the crisis have to be found in a system based on promoting shopping so as to keep producing. This is a system that has forgotten that the well-being of people must constitute the final aim for any social organization, while production and consumption are no more than mere instruments for attaining that final aim.

I think the president of the U.S. got it wrong when he encouraged his fellow citizens “to go shopping more” in order to keep the economy moving on. I think many economists who are advising about the way to get out of the crisis do also got it wrong. It may not be wrong economics, but it is a wrong principle to base a social organization on. I am concerned about a reversion taking place in the role of consumption and human beings in society. In principle, production and consumption play instrumental roles in the pursuing of people’s well-being. However, as expressed by the president of the United States, it seems that now the role of human beings is to purchase –not even to consume- to keep the financial system sound.

If we forget that the final goal of any social organization is the well-being of its citizens then we risk converting human beings in instruments and we risk making of people no more than mere gadgets within a system which aims to producing more, to selling more, and to keep generating profits. If there is no deep learning from this economic crisis we risk ending up with more of the same. I think the study of people’s well-being can make a substantial contribution to placing the horse before the cart and to understanding that not all lights at the end of the tunnel are equally worth for.

On July 19th, 2011, the United Nations called on governments to measure happiness, or wellbeing, rather than just Gross Domestic Product (GDP) “with a view to guide public policy.” Daniel Kahneman, Nobel prize winner and sometimes called the “grandfather” of wellbeing science, agrees. He suggests that data about subjective wellbeing is exactly what policy makers today need. It is no doubt clear to readers of this blog that GDP, which measures “everything…except that which makes life worthwhile,” (Bobby Kennedy) is not a sufficient measure for the wellbeing of a nation. But exactly how to measure happiness to influence policy may be a little less clear.

That’s where the Happiness Initiative comes in. For the last year and a half, I have been working on a small team dedicated to supplying Americans a way to transform our standard metric for governments, businesses and individuals from GDP, profit and wealth to happiness. We dubbed the project “the Happiness Initiative,” based it on the model Bhutan developed to increase its “Gross National Happiness,” and built it to be easily replicated and ultimately scalable. The project encompasses a survey paired with objective metrics, town meetings, policies and projects and happiness reports.

The survey was developed by team scientists at San Francisco State University donating hundreds of hours to the task. The lead scientist, Dr. Ryan Howell, says that, “When you take into account both time efficiency and comprehensiveness, I firmly believe this is the best wellbeing survey out there anywhere. Individuals, organizations, academic institutions and governments can all benefit from using this survey.” It measures affect (how you feel) and satisfaction with life, but goes beyond that to measure the conditions of happiness, or what really makes for wellbeing. These are the ten domains of happiness: Material wellbeing, Governance, Environment, Community, Culture, Education, Health, Psychology, Time-Balance and Work Experience. Over 10,000 people have taken the survey, with people from every state. Cities conducting a happiness initiative include Seattle, Washington, Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Nevada City, California and others.

On November 17th, we issued the very first The Happiness Report Card for the Seattle area. It was no surprise that people my age scored low. It was a huge surprise that people 19-25 scored even lower. The science says we start out life happy, and go on a slow slide down until our middle age, then travel upwards until we reach old age, when we are as happy as babes. So young people should be pretty happy. They are not.

But then, if we believe that happiness is not just a personal decision, and that indeed we need the conditions of happiness- an economy that gives us secure and meaningful jobs so we can meet our needs and we don’t feel one step away from homelessness or choices between heath care and heat, an environment that will not poison us, a community that provides opportunities for creativity, love and real connection to each other – then it makes sense that the youth of today are not “happy.” It also makes sense that those of us no longer in our youth but struggling through these times are not happy.

Science says I will get happier in two years. But I am not leaving it to science. Instead, I work on the Happiness Initiative to create and provide a solution for anyone to expand our understanding of wellbeing, and to connect individual and community wellbeing to policy so that someday, as Thomas Jefferson put it “happiness is the sole purpose of government.”

The project, including the survey, a downloadable toolkit, and the first report can be found online at www.happycounts.org

Before all the travel, my routine was 4 to 5 Bikram yoga classes per week (1.5 hr each) and since I live in San Francisco, I normally walk to any destination that is within a 45min walk instead of taking the car. That combined with healthy food, meant that both my body and mind were in a great state. It has been proven that being active improves your state of mind as well. It definitely works for me. In addition, my body punishes me for not being active with all kind of aches especially my back.

Barely being at home this year, meant that I had to find new routines to keep my body and mind in shape. Most of these were outside activities, like walking, hiking, snorkeling and swimming.

Now, we are at that time of year when the days are growing shorter and colder. Most of my outside activities are cut short because of lack of light or non existent because it is too cold. To make matters worse it is also that time of year when we tend to eat more due to several holidays or simply because where we live the food in the winter is more calorie rich.

So here are some of my tricks to keep my body in shape this winter. Some might work for you, while others might inspire you to new ideas.

1. Timing – The only way I was able to fit 4 to 5 Bikram yoga classes into my busy schedule was by going first thing in the morning. Knowing myself all to well, I knew there would be too many excuses and interferences to fit it in later in the day. This meant waking up at 5:20am to make 6am yoga. I am not a morning person at all so this was a painful activity. However, what made me crawl out of bed every morning was the knowledge that I would feel great the rest of the day. I was also able to deal with a lot more stress at work on days I had gone to yoga.

2. Buddy up – I have a tendency to encourage other people to come with me. This works both at home as on the road with colleagues. The effect is that even if I really would like another hour of sleep or have to finish some work, I have committed and someone is waiting for me.

3. Broadcast your intentions – If there are no people around to buddy with or they are not interested, what works for me is to tell several people of my intended activity. The knowledge that other people know of my intention, is a strong motivator for me to put that intention into action, else I will feel ashamed to face them and have to acknowledge I didn’t come true on my word.

4. Simplicity – I have a tendency to give myself stretch goals. For staying in shape I have found that doesn’t really work. It has the opposite effect of discouraging me when I do not make my self-imposed goals. So instead of setting the goal of going to the gym five times a week, I might focus on 5 days of at least 45min of activity which could include a brisk walk to town or the grocery market, walk up and down to our 11th floor apartment three times a day, or while traveling take the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator and walk instead of using the moving walkways.

Not being at home this winter means I am missing out on my regular yoga. So my plan to stay in shape will be: going to the gym twice a week, walk to town and back (45min) twice a week, do yoga stretches at home on the days I’m walking , walk the stairs to the 11th floor at least four times a week and go skiing or something else active in the weekend.

Good luck this winter season and don’t forget to have fun while you’re at it!!!!

Before I left for that trip, I was still trying to sort things out in my new direction. I was taking on client work to keep bills paid and mouths fed, but really wanted to focus on building my own products. I took two months off, a big risk as a freelancer, to focus on developing my first idea. This was something I had never done before and when I thought about it too much I really scared myself!

And then there came set-backs in the product design. And I became overwhelmed by the huge amount of work it would take for me to make the product a reality. I took on more client work because I began to worry that I wouldn’t be able to get more work when I needed it later. With the new client work I had less time to focus on the design of my own product. I began to lose confidence in my idea, in my ability to execute it, in my capacity to juggle clients and my own product work effectively.

My self-doubt left me unable to overcome the hurdles I needed to make my dream come true. Then this amazing trip to Spain happened, and my inspiration and creative energy blossomed.

I returned and suddenly found ways around the setbacks. Within weeks I had brought together all of the pieces that before the trip seemed overwhelming. In a few months after returning from Spain, I found myself launching my first product. I was now living what I had only dreamed about a year before.

Looking back now, it amazes me that I was able to complete my journey to launching a product when I was so certain it was impossible months earlier. And it also amazes me that I was letting some small setbacks get in the way of what I knew I needed to do, and could do. I have always been one of those people that believe anything is possible if we put our minds to it, yet, I had been closed off to the possibility that I could make my product happen. I psyched myself out at a time that nearly prevented me from ever making my dream come true.

With a more open and vulnerable heart, I was able to plod along and create without worrying about if and how I might finish my work. I just trusted the journey, I surrendered to it.

We stop ourselves from achieving so much. We keep ourselves from realizing our dreams. But if we look back over our previous accomplishments, we find that we can really do anything our heart desires.

We just have to forge ahead with our hearts open.