Tag: action for happiness

self care

Give Self Care September a Try!

Christine Hennebury

Yes, I know that September is really full of ‘get back into the swing of things’ pressure but that’s all the more reason to give Action for Happiness‘ Self Care September suggestions a try.

After all, finding new ways to create more space for yourself in your own life is a great way to decide just how many other things you want to fit in around that space.

This calendar has a lot of ideas but remember that you don’t have to do EVERYTHING. You can just pick SOME things.

Pick a few that appeal to you and run with those.

Please be kind to yourself about this (and about everything else.)

a calendar of self-care tips
Image description: a calendar of self-care tips from Action for Happiness. The blocks are blue, red or pink and the text in each one is white, blue or red. Cartoon images illustrating the tips are scattered around the edges of the calendar.
A video entitled ‘Self Care 3: 3 top tips with Vanessa King’ from the Action for Happiness YouTube channel. Still image is of a smiling person looking toward the viewer, with various flowers in vases in the background. The title is in red and yellow text on the right side of the screen.

If you are interested in developing more self-care practices, I really enjoyed Dr. Pooja Lakshmin‘s book ‘Real Self Care: A Transformative Program for Redefining Wellness (Crystals, Cleanses, and Bubble Baths Not Included)’ because she gets into the deeper issues surrounding taking good care of ourselves. There’s a good written summary of many of Lakshmin’s key points here from a podcast called Inspired Together Teachers. (By the way, I haven’t listened to the podcast yet, I just read the summary.)

fitness · habits · health · self care

Great news! It’s too late to do Joyful June perfectly!

Christine Hennebury

It’s June 9th so we’ve already missed the first part of the Action for Happiness Joyful June calendar.

Isn’t that terrific?

No, I’m not excited that we missed it.

I’m actually thrilled that we can’t do it perfectly.

Since perfect is no longer possible, we’re all free do what we can – small or large – to find a bit more joy in June.

Here is the Action for Happiness calendar of daily tips for this month.

A multicoloured calendar of daily tips for finding joy in June. The calendar is decorated with cartoon drawings of joyful things, flowers, singing birds, a person building a sand castle, etc.​
A multicoloured calendar of daily tips for finding joy in June. The calendar is decorated with cartoon drawings of joyful things, flowers, singing birds, a person building a sand castle, etc.

(By the way, if you download their app, you can receive the daily tip as a notification.)

Here’s this month’s introductory video:

A YouTube video from Action for Happiness entitled Joyful June with Vanessa King. The still image shows a woman with shoulder length blonde hair and bangs wearing a brightly coloured shirt. Behind her are vases of flowers and some shelves of books.

And here’s a quote that was shared on the Action for Happiness website.

Image description: A quote reading ‘
 every day may not be good, but there is something good in every day, a green rectangular background with a small banner on the bottom that says ‘Action for Happiness’ on the right is a cartoon line drawing of a person looking at a bird in a tree.
Image description: A quote reading ‘
every day may not be good, but there is something good in every day, a green rectangular background with a small banner on the bottom that says ‘Action for Happiness’ on the right is a cartoon line drawing of a person looking at a bird in a tree.

For me, this quote is helpful and hopeful without ‘bright siding’* me.

It’s not asking me to forget my struggles or to pretend everything is great, it’s just reminding me to look for something good to help make my day a little easier.

I can get behind that.

And I hope you can, too.

Good luck with Joyful June!

*I don’t remember if Barbara Ehrenreich actually uses the term bright siding the way I have here but I am referring to the kind of ‘reckless optimism’ and toxic positivity she writes about in her 2009 book Bright Sided: How the relentless promotion of positive thinking has undermined America Meanwhile, I read the book a long time ago so I may have stitched her ideas into a quilt with other ideas about the irritating nature of many ‘just be positive!’ messages by this point.

Meaningful May! Are you in?
fitness · mindfulness · motivation

Meaningful May! Are you in?

Christine Hennebury

I may not have my own goals for this month quite figured out yet but I’m definitely going to be borrowing some ideas from this month’s Action for Happiness calendar.

Meaningful May!

Finding meaning in our tasks, actions, and plans is good for our brains and for our hearts.

A yellow rectangle featuring a quote that reads “Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.” - William James.
Image description: a quote from William James that reads ‘Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.’ The text is in pale yellow against a light orange background. On the right hand side is a cartoon drawing of a person marching while holding a sign with a heart drawn on it. The words ‘Action for Happiness’ are on the bottom on a small banner extending from the left side.

Here’s this month’s calendar:

The daily tips calendar for Meaningful May.
Image description: a calendar of daily tips for Meaningful May. Individual calendar blocks are either red, pink, light blue or dark blue and the edges of the calendar are decorated with cartoon drawings of someone drawing, two cups of tea or coffee, a tree, a sunrise, etc.

Here’s a video about Meaningful May from Vanessa King, Head of Psychology at Action for Happiness.

Obviously, you don’t have to take on another daily practice if you don’t want to.

However, it could be fun to pick a few things from the calendar to try this month.

advice · fun · habits · health

Christine invites you to play along as Mindful March becomes Active April

Christine Hennebury

Were you following along with the Mindful March calendar from Action for Happiness?

I wrote about it last month and I did have a very mindful March, even though I didn’t do every activity on the calendar. I’m always happy to add more focused moments in my day so every activity I did was bonus.

If you didn’t hear about Mindful March until now, you can do the last two activities today and tomorrow. Today’s activity is “Mentally scan your body and see how it is feeling” and tomorrow, March 31, is “Discover the joy in the simple things in life.” That last one is a tall order for a single day but perhaps you can think of one simple thing you really enjoy and take a moment to do that.

For example, I really love when my tea mug is the perfect temperature for me to hold it in both hands and enjoy the warmth radiating from it. I’m going to take an extra moment or two to enjoy that feeling in the next couple of days.

a photo of a person's hand holding the white handle of a brown mug
Okay, so this isn’t a photo of me holding my mug in both hands but this image gives me the same kind of feeling. I love to sit on my front step in the sunshine and slowly drink a cup of tea – even looking at this photo feels good to me. This particular photo is from May 2019 and this is one of my favourite mugs. Image description: a photo of a small light brown mug with ‘Speak Your Kind’ in gold text on the front. My right fingers are wrapped around the white handle of the mug and my thumb is resting on the top. The mug and my fingers are in focus but in the background is a leafless tree, part of my lawn and driveway, and part of my street.

And, of course, you can always do the Mindful March activities at any time. It’s a good list of small ways to take a breather in your day.

And, of course, the daily tips from Action for Happiness switch up every month so, as Mindful March ends, we move right into Active April. If you click on the link in the previous sentence and scroll down to the bottom of the calendar, you have the option of downloading an ics file of the April calendar or viewing it on Google calendar – you can even add their calendar to your calendar list so you see the daily tips in your own calendar.

Here’s a copy of April’s calendar in case you want to do a little planning before Active April starts.

a multicoloured calendar of tips for being more active in April
Image description: A calendar for April 2023 from the Action for Happiness website that shows a different active tip for each day in April. The calendar squares are different shades of blue and green and around the edges of the calendar there are black and white cartoon drawings of people exercising and there is one drawing of a bunch of smiling fruits and vegetables.

Mindful March? Sounds Good To Me!
mindfulness

Mindful March? Sounds Good To Me!

Christine Hennebury3 Comments

I know, I know, everyone and their dog is tell you to be mindful these days.

Image description: Khalee, a light-haired dog in a green sweatshirt on a bright yellow leash is standing on some hard-packed snow​ and looking to the left of the camera.
For the record, Khalee is very mindful but she’s not going to boss you around about it. She trusts you to do what’s best for you. Image description: Khalee, a light-haired dog in a green sweatshirt on a bright yellow leash is standing on some hard-packed snow and looking to the left of the camera.

Mindfulness is touted as a cure-all, the answer to everything and that can definitely get annoying.

It’s especially annoying when people get pushy and holier-than-thou about mindfulness, acting as if the only key to true living is to follow in their saintly footsteps.

And, of course, they either have no actual advice for how to be more mindful OR they have an extremely expensive program to sell you.

However, despite those jerks, finding ways to be more mindful in your day to day can actually be good for you.

It’s not a cure-all, it’s just helpful, and for most people it will provide a little well-being boost.

Note: I say ‘most people’ because I’m sure that I have read somewhere that meditation/mindfulness can be detrimental for people suffering from some mental health issues. So, I don’t want to be one of those pushy jerks and declare that everyone needs more mindfulness. Just be kind to yourself, whatever that looks like for you.

If you feel like mindfulness would boost your well-being, this month’s calendar from Action for Happiness is a good place to start. It’s not pushy and it’s not selling you anything.

And it’s definitely not holier-than-thou.

Their ‘Mindful March’ tips are all just small things to try each day to add a little mindful moment or two to your routine. Totally doable, at least most days!

Sound inviting?

Check out their calendar below.

A Mindful March calendar from Action for Happiness with each block coloured either dark green, light green, orange, or yellow, with the tip for that day in a complementary colour. The edges of the calendar are decorated with cartoon drawings of people doing mindful activities like watering flowers or chatting with a friend.
A Mindful March calendar from Action for Happiness with each block coloured either dark green, light green, orange, or yellow, with the tip for that day in a complementary colour. The edges of the calendar are decorated with cartoon drawings of people doing mindful activities like watering flowers or chatting with a friend. You can download your own copy at the Action for Happiness website.
Social Fitness? I’m here for it!
fitness · habits · self care

Social Fitness? I’m here for it!

Christine Hennebury1 Comment

Until I received this month’s email and calendar from Action for Happiness, I had never heard of social fitness but I just love the idea of making a conscious habit of strengthening our relationships for our own well-being (and the well-being of those around us.)

And you know I’m going to be all over any system that gives you clear steps for building a habit a little bit at a time while helping you to notice (and celebrate) your efforts.

So, if you want to give yourself a happiness boost by strengthening your relationships, give some (or all) of these tips a whirl.

a multicoloured calendar decorated with cartoon images of people. Each day lists a tip to enhance your social fitness during ‘Friendly February​.’
Image description: a multicoloured calendar from Action for Happiness decorated with cartoon images of people. Each day lists a tip to enhance your social fitness during ‘Friendly February.’

Remember: you don’t have to take on everything at once and you don’t have to overwhelm yourself. (You don’t have to sacrifice self-kindness in order to reach out to other people!)

Just like with your physical fitness, or any other type of practice for your well-being, every effort to increase your social fitness counts.

Every tip you try is an opportunity to add a little bit of happiness, a little bit of fun, or a little more connection to your life.

What do you think? Are you in?

Christine is letting an app boss her around
health · mindfulness · motivation · self care

Christine is letting an app boss her around

Christine Hennebury

I have been receiving the Action for Happiness newsletter for years. I usually read it at the beginning of the month, glance at the included calendar, and occasionally I refer back to it a few times over the following weeks.

Here’s the ‘Self-Care September’ calendar:

a multi-coloured Action for Happiness calendar with cartoon drawings of a clock, a person looking at photos, two people hugging, and a kettle, tea and cookies around the edges. This month's theme is 'Self-Care September' and each block of the calendar has a different prompt for self-care.
Image description: a multi-coloured Action for Happiness calendar with cartoon drawings of a clock, a person looking at photos, two people hugging, and a kettle, tea and cookies around the edges. This month’s theme is ‘Self-Care September’ and each block of the calendar has a different prompt for self-care. An accessible PDF is available here. Image source

This month, though, something made me give it a closer look and I finally noticed that Action for Happiness is on Instagram and that they have an app.

And even though I usually avoid letting apps send me notifications, I impulsively agreed to let them interrupt me. And I am really glad I did.

I am now on my third day of being bossed around by this app and I LOVE it.

It’s such a cool thing to get a reminder of one simple way to be kinder to myself today (I mean, that’s my kind (ha!) of thing anyway but it’s fun to get a prompt that I didn’t come up with.)

For example, here’s yesterday’s prompt:

Image Description: an embedded image from the Action for Happiness Instagram feed. There is a pink background and a simple drawing of a person with beard washing dishes in a sink. There are several dishes on the counter beside the sink. The caption says ‘Notice the things you do well, however small.’ The bottom right corner of the image appears to be folded back so there is a red triangle in that corner. A small white banner at the bottom reads ‘Action for Happiness.’

When I got that on Thursday morning, I actually took a moment to think about the fact that I’m good at remembering everyone’s schedule and that I was happy with the drawing I had made the night before. Without the prompt, I still would have known those things but I probably wouldn’t have taken the moment to consider them and I would have missed out on that feeling of satisfaction.

I’m looking forward to a whole month of being bossed into moments of happiness.

I think it will be really good for my brain and that has to be good for the rest of me too, right?

PS: If this kind of calendar seems vaguely familiar, it’s because I wrote about them before.