The Happiness Advantage: Let's see if it works!

2/18/2016

The Happiness Advantage: I found this talk to be motivating and inspiring. As we have been talking about wellness this past week, mental well being and how to be positive, I think the time is right for this talk. As he speaks (quickly) about the happiness advantage, I want you to pay close attention towards the end as he offers listeners the secret that his research has helped him find. There is a key to gaining the happiness advantage! For your blog post this week, I’d like you to start a Google Doc called “Happiness Journal”. On this journal I’d like you to write down three NEW THINGS EVERY DAY that you are thankful for or that have made you happy! Once you’ve done this for (at least 5 days), on the blog write down how it’s felt trying to think of things that are positive and happy each day. Have you noticed a difference in your general attitude? Write down your observations.

Yerin

2/23/2016 03:07:10 pm

Thinking about the things that made me happy each day has made me a better person. It brought out the best in me. At first I had no idea what to write and then I thought about what I did that day and how many times I smiled. After I thought about that, all the ideas came flowing.

After writing in my happiness journal I had a better attitude towards things I didn't usually like to do. I helped around the house more, and I played with my brother.

I think if we take some time to think about our happiness and how lucky we are to have the lives that we have, we can be better people.

Khushi

2/23/2016 07:09:45 pm

After the past 5 day of writing on my happiness journal I have realized that there is more to life than money. Life is a representative of how you choose to life life and how you choose to spend your days as a human. When I first started my Happiness journal I was really puzzled about what to do and how to put down what I learned. I realized that life WILL put us through obstacles but there are easier ways to make yourself happy and to make everything make sense and fall into place.

After those long days I realized that I was getting stronger and stronger everyday and I was more enthusiastic. Along the way I also had some obstacles because I felt like the entire world was in a war against me but I realized that the only competition is yourself and not the world. I usually blame the world when I have problems but this helped me realize that everybody was born for a reason and the only way you'll realize is when you learn to live life properly.

I think that everybody spends too much time thinking about how to do things the "right way" but honestly there is no right way everybody is right and the only way you'll know your right is when you are being yourself. The world was made for a reason, We as human were made for a reason, Everything has a meaning and the world doesn't hate you the world wants you to be stronger everyday so they give you harder obstacles to face so that they know that you are ready for the next day.

Here is a quote by a person I don't know who but here it is: " Life is a dream for the wise,a game for the fool, a comedy for the rich and a tragedy for the poor". Which means that everybody is the same but still has the same meaning. If you don't know what that means then try to figure it out... See I told you, you will face obstacles in your life. So enjoy while you live because you only live one!

Khushi

2/23/2016 07:10:48 pm

Here is the link to my doc for my Happiness journal just in case you want to check it out: https://docs.google.com/a/hdsb.ca/document/d/1s_QSvwvBGN9fV4uUH10swwt-Sh0wVccH0uuQnDR724Q/edit?usp=sharing

You are gonna need to copy the link and then post in into a new tab to view the doc!

2/23/2016 07:12:42 pm

Wow. Great journal entry's!!!!

2/24/2016 06:00:17 pm

Emily

2/24/2016 04:42:09 am

When I was writing my happiness journal, I was reflecting back to what I was doing and knew that I wasn't going to forget what I did and it also made me write about something happy. Even though some days I am not in a very good mood, I still was thinking of something happy. I might have not have the best day that day but I still pulled something out of the day and made it really happy…

I just think that even though some people don't have a good day and writing this happiness journal helps because it encourages you to do something that would make you happy for example, your family, T.V. Shows, playing sports and anything else you like to do!

That is what I felt and thought of when I was writing my happiness journal.

Good Job. !!!!!!!

2/24/2016 11:40:18 am

Great Job!!!!

2/24/2016 02:53:50 pm

Connor #Being happy

2/24/2016 03:10:47 pm

When I was writing in my "happiness journal"(Truth: I didn't know so I didn't do it), I felt happier than before. It was amazing how happy I was, and when I didn't write in my made-up journal.

This is what I felt and thought when I was writing in my journal. ;)

Rayna

2/24/2016 03:47:10 pm

After writing in my happiness journal I realized how grateful/happy I was to have all these wonderful things. I think writing about what you are grateful for makes you appreciate all the things you have in life. For example most of us have iPads or iPods( or any other device) but you may not realize how lucky you are. Some people cannot afford this technology, therefore you should be grateful.

At first it was hard to think of things I was grateful for or that make me happy. But after thinking I realized I was grateful for so many things I have not even thought about.

I have noticed my attitude change. I feel more positive and I don't take things for granted anymore. In social studies we were learning about others in different countries who were suffering from diseases, dirty water, lack of nutrition etc. and I think that made me realize I am lucky.

If you remember the things that make you happy or that you are thankful for you will live a happy and positive life!

" We often take for granted the very things that deserve our gratitude" - Cynthia Ozick

Vib

2/24/2016 04:31:50 pm

My Happy Journal. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1c-8yCrzw2b4A20QtcOrDZ6WHJwPpfsNza1_9hglyYlk/edi

2/24/2016 04:32:32 pm

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1c-8yCrzw2b4A20QtcOrDZ6WHJwPpfsNza1_9hglyYlk/edit

coutts

2/24/2016 05:44:34 pm

When I h was writing in my happiness journal i just felt so goo and sad because thinking about all of my memory's and the things that made me happy are still making me happy. I feel sad because I miss all of the things that make me hay like my sister she lives 4 hours away in Detroit well not in Detroit but not that far away and I don't get to see her often and she is one of my harpy memories and she was always there for me. Anyway I felt really board writing in my happiness journal because I am not the kind of guy that a wants to talk about mos hey feelings but towards the end I kind of liked it because I got to real live my memory's and my sister.

Nicole

2/25/2016 11:03:12 am

Doing the happiness journal is going to make the whole class better. We are already a great class and the blog post this week is going to make everyone feel better. That's just going to lead it to the school, city, country etc. If we have a happy class that could change the school. Everyone loves to be happy so this is a great task.

By writing the happiness journal, it makes me realize that I am so lucky for everything I have. We wrote at least 15 DIFFERENT things throughout the week and if everyone can do that we are great. The blog post this week I'm sure is going to make everyone realize how lucky they are.

I'm not really sure if it has changed my attitude. I try to be happy all the time! And this is making me even happier. So be happy the most you can because we shouldn't live our life being sad the whole time. Remind yourself that you are lucky and hopefully that cheers you up!

Sydney

2/25/2016 12:40:28 pm

I think by doing the happiness journal as a class our spirits have lifted and we have become happier. I couldn't even imagine how much kinder our schools would become if we did this for a year, which would be awesome. Being Happy is an important skill even though what I am saying may be so easy to you, some people spend there time being angry and depressed which doesn't help at all.

By doing the Happiness journal it has made me feel fortunate for all the kind and nice people I have In have in my life and all the kind things they have done. By doing this homework our whole class have lifted each others fellings and brightend each others days.

I usually am happy most of the time in my day but by doing the happiness journal I feel those little parts where I’m not at my happiest, I was. I have appreciated what I have more such as a roof over my head, very good meals and more I have also been treating my sister kinder.
So stay Happy!

Monica

2/25/2016 01:22:12 pm

Starting from Sunday all the way to Thursday, each day I wrote down a little bit about the day and 2 things that made me happy and 1 thing that I am thankful in the day.

I learned that It feels good to write down my feelings somewhere and actually look back at what I have done, because now that it is saved in my google drive I can look back at it any time and be happy from what I have done.

I have felt more positive writing down positive stuff down and more joyful through out the day. It has made me really think back in the day and think what I could have done to improve and what I am proud of the most.

That is what I felt while writing the Happiness journal.

~Monica

Kai

2/25/2016 01:45:00 pm

After trying to be positive each day of the week, I found that it is not always easy. A lot of times I wake up and don't feel happy but I force myself to be and it usually works, but the happiness journal made it easier. This journal makes it more simple to find different ways each day on why each day is special. Even though this journal helped me, I don't want to do it again. It is helpful and makes life easier but I like finding out ways to stay positive by myself. This journal has made me a more positive person in general but I still think that it is more simple to stay positive without a journal. My family doesn't usually spend a lot of time together and sometimes we try to and it doesn't work out. My parents are really busy, My dad is one of three owners of his company, and my mom is on her fourth year of university so when they aren't busy they either have headaches or don't want to. I think that the happiness journal has made me a more positive person and I will try to stay like that.

Blake

2/25/2016 02:00:52 pm

It makes me feel very happy because I think about the happy stuff going on in my life. I am very thankful for that. It also makes me want to do more happy stuff in my life.

Chloe

2/25/2016 02:14:27 pm

I think doing the happiness journal helped out a lot. If everyone around the world started to wright about happy things that happened maybe the world won't be so mean. Its so much more easier to be nice and hold the door open for someone then to be mean and shut the door inside their face.

It made me think of the happy moments that happened that day and it made me say thanks to the people that have changed my life. I think that this have made me a better person by thinking of the good things and not the bad things. Each day I had to think harder and harder of what to wright about.

I have been trying to be nicer to my brothers but sometimes you just have to walk away from them when they start to annoy you. I learned a lot from the happiness journal and I think that I'm going to go back and wright in it when I feel sad or angry. So Just Stay Happy

Salma

2/25/2016 02:15:01 pm

After righting in my happiness journal, every single day for 5 days I realized that the smallest things can make you the most happiest. Whenever I felt down or just not feeling that good I would sometimes look at the journel and see that I had over 10 things that make me happy and there was one thing that made me sad so I tried spending time with those people I wrote down or for those things that just make me happy! It also reminded me that I should be thankful for everything I wrote down because not many people have or will ever have it. And that just how life works.

I thinkthat the most important thing you need to now is that if u wrote someone on ur happiness journel,they will always be with no matter what!

-Salma

Salma

2/25/2016 02:16:02 pm

*writing

Aidan Roseland-Barnes

2/25/2016 02:36:39 pm

Since I wrote in my happieness journal for 5 days, I have noticed a difference in the way I act and my mood. Or that was just the tournament ;). Just kidding. Even the smallest things I have done have changed the way I act, BUT small things are actually big things. You need the small things in your life. I have been having more fun in life lately than before.

Lucas

2/25/2016 02:37:07 pm

BE HAPPY!!!!!

From doing this happiness journal over the last five days I have a lot of thoughts going on and one of them is that their are stuff that you need and their are stuff that you want and some people think that you need something which you actually don't. Here is an example , ok so lets take a look and phones and ipads and the internet. Some people are thinking "well you definitely need the internet how can you survive without it" well the truth is that you don't need the internet and ipads and phones because they are a want and not a need. Well in some cases you need the internet but I am talking about the ones that you use for entertainment and amusement ya those ones you don't need those. How do you think people in the olden days did it , they survived without the internet and still lived happy life's so why cant we do that now?.

One of the observations that I took away from this is to look on the bright side of things instead of looking at things from a bad angle. I say this because if you look at something and think of all the negatives and all you think about is how bad it is ( and it might not even be bad) it will have a negative affect on yourself because it will make you sad and maybe mad or scared If you look on the bad side of things. But if you look on the good side of things and you focus on the pros and not the cons it will have a positive affect on yourself in most cases because instead of being scared or sad or maybe even mad you are happy and joyful and filled with happiness. Here is another example , ok so you are on a walk by yourself and you see a dog coming towards you , and if you think of it on the bad side and you think " that dog is going to hurt me and kill me" you will be scared and afraid so you will probably run away but if you think on the good side of things and you think " oh that dog is soooooooo cute and it looks friendly because it is only a Chihuahua " you probably wont run away you will probably go and pet the dog.

Another observation that I took away from writing this happiness journal is that after writing the happiness journal I felt very enthusiastic and I was just a really happy was looking on the good side of things when I could be looking on the bad side. I think I felt this way because when I was writing the happiness journal I was thinking about all the good things in life and things that make me happy so when I though of good things it made me look at the good things and to just be happy.

Just take the song Don't worry be happy as an example and do what we just did in class which is to think of what the song is actually implying and to listen to the lyrics carefully. One of the lyrics in the song is " the landlord said your rent is late , he might have to litigate" I don't know what litigate means but anyway I think what he is trying to say in that line is that even if you are sad or stressed don't worry and to just be happy. Because you can't find a thing that cant make you happy.

-Lucas

Another observation that I made when I was writing the happiness journal is that people can always find something that is happy. What I mean by this is that some people think that their life is measurable and they think that everything is bad in life. But the truth is even those people that I just talked about they can find something at least one thing that can make them happy or that they are happy about because I believe that everybody can be happy in this world and if everybody was happy the world would be a much better place.

Lucas

2/25/2016 02:38:31 pm

Opps my paragraphs got mixed up I don't know why this is happening it happened last week too

Cali-Rose

2/25/2016 03:51:34 pm

BE HAPPY EVERYDAY!

And I did not get what we are supposed to do but..

BUT anyways I think I will try!

I think that people should at lest try to be happy even if they are not even if I'm sad i try to be happy even if I'm not!
~bye~

Haider

2/25/2016 03:56:34 pm

Thinking about the positive things, did not have a large impact on me. The happiness journal was a homework assignment, so I didn’t feel any different or more happy/positive. I haven’t noticed any change in my general attitude. I feel like I am already a positive person, so this is why I did not notice a change.

Even though the happiness journal did not affect me, this could still be a positive experience for some people who are always stressed out.

Tom

2/25/2016 04:46:27 pm

I like the happiness journal. It tells me our world is not full of sadness. It is a great idea, because sometimes I feel sad but when think of some happy things I feel better.

The journal didn't make much different because I am always happy, be a happy person is good for you because you won't realy worried about things.

Anabanana link

2/25/2016 04:57:13 pm

I think this is a good idea for our blog post this week we all have happy times and sad we all have fun times and not so fun times and we all have anger inside us going to come out one day or another but we all can be happy our hole lives and this is why I think the happiness Journal is a fantastic blog post I do my home work on Thursdays so I dont have one but I will still tell you what I have seen over the past 5 days.

Ok so what I have seen or notest over the past 5 days was me and my brother and sister got along what we always fight I feel bad for my parents they have 4 kids they have to deal with thats a lot of kids.

I have also seen that my friends (not at school) are getting along I am friends with people that dont like my other friends back to my point they dont like each other they are only with each other cus I am with one of them but I think they are more happy with each other and that makes me happy so much happiness!!!

the last thing I need to tell you is how our school is getting more happy each and every single day we are lighting peoples days you can make are world more happy we can make the world more happy and I know what I am about to say is going to be cheesy but I have to say it here we go and thats the Honest truth!!! :D

thank you and good bye!!!

~Anabanana

Jessica

2/25/2016 05:27:05 pm

When I think about the happiness journal I think about how tough the world can be but everyone can get through it and everyone needs some happiness all the time. Everyone Should try to be a little happy even if there sad .

-Jessica

Blake

2/25/2016 06:08:01 pm

I didn't like my last blog post and I think I can improve and do better this time. Here it is. After completing my happiness journal for 5 days and 3 times a day so that is 15 times. I realized there are so many happy things going on in my life. For example I had a lot of fun doing my C.Y.O.A and my parents and my little brother are very nice to me. If you just stop and look around and see what's going on in your life you may just realize you are having so much fun and you are feeling very happy. Each day is another opportunity to be happy so make it your mission each day to do something very nice to another person and if your feeling very happy then do it again. Happiness rubs of on one another it can be kind of like baseball if somebody gets a single then everyone is happy and excited and then everybody gets singles or even doubles,triples or maybe even home runs. That is my example of how happiness can rub off on one another. This journal made me have to do happy things and after that I realized I am very happy a lot .I admit I have troubles i'm not always happy I get sad or angry sometimes but who here is happy all the time. Everybody has they're ups and downs but that's life it's not always perfect, but you can always try and be positive. Think about this your parents and other people help you so much in your everyday life's because there are some people that do so much for you and you can give back by helping them around the house. Sometimes the little things make a big difference. There are some people in the world that don't have the same privileges as us. So please try and be positive you don't have to do it all the time but please try and be positive because sometimes little things can make a very big difference. This happiness journal has made me feel more positive and hopefully I can keep my attitude like that. Happy trails!

Noah

2/25/2016 06:37:41 pm

For this weeks blog post we had to right a happiness journal and then after we have done the happiness journal for 5 days we write our observations about doing the happiness journal and what we thought about the happiness journal and hear are my observations.

My first observations was that it made me think about what I am thankful for and it made me think of how lucky I am to have all these things because a lot of people in this world don't have a lot of things like running water and a bed these are things that we don't even think about when we use it, for example one of the things that I was thankful for was music something simple but it still makes you happy because there are upbeat songs, and songs for every emotion, situation and person so you can find one that you like and that makes me happy I noticed that even the smallest things can make you happy and have very big impacts of your day to day life.

My second observation was that I felt very happy doing my happiness journal because it made me think about what made me happy and just thinking about it made me happy and improved my mood which also made me be nicer and happier to other people and myself, and thinking of stuff that made me happy made me be more patient and relaxed.

My last observation is that anyone can find something happy and just thinking about something that makes you happy will make your day better so just by doing something simple and so easy will make your day so better and even if you say that you have a horrible life like Mark in Honest Truth he does not like his life but he is happy to have a really good friend named Jessie and a really good dog named Beau so any one can find anything happy.

Vib

3/1/2016 04:47:47 pm

I was a little like Haider but i was a little happy.This was fun even though it can emoitinaly dusterb me.

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