Action for happiness...

DM7903

Making contact..or not.... I thought it would be useful to make contact with the bigger organisations involved with helping others. The SDGs and the plans the Scouting organisation are putting together with the Million Hands project, I really wanted to interview the project team involved in such a plan... unfortunately nobody was able to provide comment at the moment, but I keep trying.

Through my research I have found a business called Empathylab.uk It is aimed at children and providing stories to build empathy.

They see it as a vital social skill that needs to be nurtured and develop.

In the book Visual consumption by Jonathan E Schroeder (Rutledge 2002). Schroeder references Plato's theme of visual dynamics, where Plato proposed in a cave analogy, that we could sense people in the cave who were not actually in the cave - by looking at their shadow... a first form of virtual reality. https://www.scahilldesign.co.uk/post/s2-ar-vr-week-1

The visual world and escapism is a platform that Comic book heroes can inhabit we can create discussions in a safe way.

So my next area of investigation will be the usefulness of the medium to promote good deeds.

What is Happiness...

Happiness is an emotion and a feeling, it is said to be our default position our natural human state (J.Parr, 2019). How can we spread happiness around ourselves and others? How can positivity be stronger than negativity, our society seems to be tailored to making the negative a default position.

In the TIME article https://time.com/collection/guide-to-happiness/4070299/secret-to-happiness/

The author Jenny Santi is a philanthropy advisor wrote a book: The Giving Way to Happiness: Stories & Science Behind the Life-Changing Power of Giving.

She lists 6 qualities required for personal happiness:

1. Find your passion

2. Give your time

3. Give to organizations with transparent aims and results

4. Find ways to integrate your interests and skills with the needs of others

5. Be proactive, not reactive

6. Don’t be guilt-tripped into giving

Whilst doing this research I discovered a brilliant website: https://www.actionforhappiness.org/10-keys-to-happier-living/do-things-for-others/details

Action for happiness...

Action for happiness recognised the key point that in order to change thinking, people should come together, they have a social network, 10 Keys Groups that offer Action for Happiness supporters the chance to meet up (online for now) to practice putting the 10 Keys to Happier Living into action allowing you to be part of something bigger.

The group has a mass of information and resources and see's children's attitudes as the key to a better society. Some thought provoking ideas here, the app is a great daily source of positive statements and ideas a whole resource I had to try and find it was not obvious.