Community again

The Top 500 Poems is a collection of the 500 most anthologized poems in the English language.  I love picking up the book and approaching it from various angles - random, chronological, by author, by order of popularity.  Today it was Chronological.  Chaucer stands close to the beginning -

                                      .....a group
of sundry people, by chance fallen
into fellowship....

The Canterbury Tales

Seven Ways to be Happy Right Now

"If you do any of these seven things for two straight weeks, you will feel happier."

1)  Three Walks

     Studies from the Pennsylvania State and the American Psychosomatic Society
     "Half an hour of brisk walking a three times a week improves happiness."
     "Three thirty minute brisk walks or even jobs even improve recovery from clinical      depression....results were stronger than...using medication."

2)  The 20 Minute Replay

   A study from the University of Texas  "dramatically improves happiness"
   Write for 20 minutes a week about some positive experience.
   "you actually relive the experience as you're writing it and then relive it every time you read it.

3)  Random Acts of Kindness

    Study done at Stanford University
     five random acts of kindness a week  -
     over time you feel better about yourself and you feel appreciated, and short term
     "doing a kindness produces the single most reliable momentary increase in well-being of any      exercise we tested."

4)  A Complete Unplug

     Kansas State University
     Take some time periodically to deliberately unplug from electronics

5)  Hit Flow

     Mihalyi Czikszentmihalyi
     Get totally absorbed in an activity you enjoy and are really good at.

6)  2 Minute Meditations

     Massachusetts General Hospital Study
     spend a few minutes each day quietly paying attention (mindfulness) to what is happening.
     More powerful than you think
     "parts of the brain associated with compassion and self awareness grew while parts associated with stress shrank."  Meditation can permanently rewire your brain to raise levels of happiness."

7)  Five Gratitudes

     Write down five things you are grateful for from the past week.
      A study from 2003 - "happier and healthier"

Alget qui non ardet.

Alget qui non ardet.

"That which does not burn grows cold" or "He grows cold who does not burn."

Love, interest, passion, testimony, commitment are a few of the things that require tending (much like a fire) in order to keep going.