What Makes You Happy? by Fiona Robards

Author:Fiona Robards
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Self
ISBN: 9781775591764
Publisher: Exisle Publishing
Published: 2009-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

My commitment for promoting my health and wellbeing

I am currently doing well in looking after my health and wellbeing by:

My goals for my health and wellbeing are:

These things have worked for me in the past:

Sources of support and encouragement I can use are:

I can boost my confidence by:

My next step is to:

DOMAIN 5

Managing finances

Real happiness is cheap enough, yet how dearly we pay for its counterfeit. Hosea Ballou

How important is money for happiness? When money buys a way out of homelessness, or you no longer have to worry about where your next meal is coming from, it’s very important. For the world’s poor, and those poor on our doorstep, a small income is of tremendous value. 25 For wealthy people, a little extra money doesn’t make a lot of difference.

Many countries have, in real terms, become richer and on average people live longer. Despite these gains, we are not getting any happier overall. High living standards in many countries have meant most of us have ready access to healthy food, health care, clean water and stable housing. But beyond a certain point, increasing a country’s wealth does not bring greater happiness. 26

The 2012 United Nations’ World Happiness Report says that although a strong Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a valuable goal in achieving high standards of living, other things matter greatly. 12 It advises that a strong GDP should not be pursued to the loss of economic stability, where the poor and socially excluded suffer, ethical standards are compromised, or the environment is put at risk. The vibrancy of communities and the mental health of people are more important. Economic growth needs to be environmentally and socially sustainable.

So, should we pursue economic development when economic growth does little to increase our wellbeing and happiness? Certainly, the happiest countries in the world have high incomes, but they also have high social equality, trust and high-quality governance and these are the significant differences between those countries and countries that are less happy.

While GDP is the top priority of governments, polls consistently suggest individuals value other things more highly, such as family and security. Some governments have taken on the challenge of improving national happiness by boosting social systems, supporting cultural activities, and protecting the environment. Perhaps we should look as carefully at our levels of happiness as we do our levels of national debt. We could learn something from the country of Bhutan, which measures Gross National Happiness as an indicator of its wellbeing.

How would we measure Gross National Happiness? Gallup polls measure people’s assessment of their quality of life in more than 150 countries. 27 In the polls from 2005 to 2011, people from Denmark, Finland, Norway, the Netherlands, Canada, Switzerland, Sweden, New Zealand, Australia and Ireland rated their quality of life highest. Some of the features of those countries that scored highly include good social support systems (enabled by high taxation levels), comparatively evenly distributed incomes and low crime rates.

Most people who live in developed countries can afford to have

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.