I have a new initiative, a non-profit organisation called The Happy Project on Facebook.
I also have a webs account to blog on The Happy Heart, read and participate while the book unfolds.
This is an extract from one of the blogs on this site.
There are three parts of the program. I have studied the process of creativity and innovation extensively. I have taken the different stages and condensed them into three stages, recovery, discovery and prosperity. Prosperity is a mainstream word, that I find comes the closest to represent the third stage of creativity, which embraces insights, and the integration of these insights into one's experience and across all areas of one's life. This learning is free of context and therefore can be applied universally, very much like one would use a metaphor and apply it to different contexts.
The term I prefer using to represent the third stage of prosperity is "innovery". It is a term I have coined and embodies the true essence of this stage of moving beyond all that already exists.
If I was to elaborate on the characteristics of recovery, I would liken it to falling out of the sky in the middle of the desert. You are stunned and disorientated... Who Am I? In Recovery, one is so entangled in one's story and overwhelmed that one no longer has a sense of the unlimited self. Flight, fright and freeze are active modus operandi. Recovery is initiated when one realizes that one is confused and that there is more. It is an awakening that "oh, I am stressed, I forgot my heart, my courage, and so on". One then takes the initiative to restore some balance.
Inadvertently or consciously, one realizes this is not who I am, I am more, I can reach for that now. Discovery is discovering that "you never left Kansas". Your personal power, happiness, strength, courage is inside you and you can reconnect. Your capacity for happy never separated from you, instead you turned your attention away from the things to appreciate.
Innovery is when you receive this insight amongst others and decide to integrate it into your life. You look through believing eyes fully and clearly seeing possibilities are endless. You incorporate new insights into your thinking practices and you seek to create new practices, projects and connections.
How Can You Be Happier?
Here are 3 practices that can make a difference:
- Express appreciation to someone you want to connect with in a more authentic way
- Pay attention to your self talk. What words are you using? Take 3 of these words, write them down. Now make them more positive. For the rest of the day, take the opportunity to use your 3 words that make a difference.
- Write down one belief you have about what makes you happy. Ask yourself 3 questions, any questions, about this belief.
- What makes you happy?
- Can I be happy right now?
- What can I do to reconnect to my happy feelings?
In very simple terms, the stages are:
EXPLORE, PLAY, APPRECIATE
