Ray’s Daily
May 20, 2019
“Happiness depends upon ourselves.”
Aristotle
Our community, like most communities is made up of a diverse set of folks. The only thing we all have in common is we are all up in years. Some of us are generally happy and don’t let worry take us down. Others are burdened by worry and anxiety.
I learned long ago that worry about things I can’t control serves no useful purpose. The problems I have encountered in the past have almost always worked out to be Ok, so I now just expect that what tomorrow will bring will be OK too. I know one thing, worrying about tomorrow will steal happiness from today.
Recently Travis Bradberry published an article on how we can increase our happiness, here in part is what he wrote.
Gratitude creates happiness – The real neural antidepressant is gratitude. Gratitude boosts levels of serotonin and dopamine—the brain’s happy chemicals and the same chemicals targeted by antidepressant medications. The striking thing about gratitude is that it can work even when things aren’t going well for you. That’s because you don’t actually have to feel spontaneous gratitude in order to produce chemical changes in your brain; you just have to force yourself to think about something in your life that you appreciate. This train of thought activates your brain to make you feel happier.
Labeling negative feelings dilutes their power – There is an amazing amount of power in simply labeling your negative emotions. In one study, participants underwent fMRI scans of their brains while they labeled negative emotions. When they named these emotions, the brain’s prefrontal cortex took over and the amygdala (where emotions are generated) calmed down.
Making decisions feels good – Similar to naming emotions, making decisions engages the prefrontal cortex, which calms the amygdala and the rest of the limbic system. The key is to make a “good enough” decision. Trying to make the perfect decision causes stress. Making a “good enough” decision activates the dorsolateral prefrontal areas of the brain, calming emotions down and helping you feel more in control. Trying to make a perfect decision, on the other hand, ramps up ventromedial frontal activity—which basically means your emotions get overly involved in the decision-making process.
It helps you to lend a hand – Taking the time to help your colleagues not only makes them happy but also makes you happy. Helping other people gives you a surge of oxytocin, serotonin, and dopamine, all of which create good feelings.
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“Happiness consists more in conveniences of pleasure that occur everyday than in great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom.”
Benjamin Franklin
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Nadine and Jill got summer jobs as cashiers in a grocery store.
Nadine is ringing up an order on her line and comes to a small dairy carton that isn’t scanning and has no price on it. She yells out to Jill, “How much is half-and-half?”
Without a moment’s hesitation Jill replied, “One.”
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Seven out of 10 people say they are feeling the pinch of high gas prices. The other three have bought siphoning equipment.
Jim Barach
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New Office Work Rules
- SICKNESS: No excuses will be acceptable. We will no longer accept your doctor’s statement as proof of illness, as we believe that if you are able to go to the doctor, you are able to come to work.
- LEAVE OF ABSENCE FOR AN OPERATION: We are no longer allowing this practice. We wish to discourage any thoughts that you may not need all of whatever you have, and you should not consider having anything removed. We hired you as you are, and to have anything removed certainly makes you less than we bargained for.
- DEATH, OTHER THAN YOUR OWN: This is no excuse. If you can arrange for funeral services to be held late in the afternoon, however, we can let you off an hour early, provided all your work is up to date.
- DEATH, YOUR OWN: This will be accepted as an excuse, but we would like at least two weeks notice, as we feel it is your duty to teach someone else your job.
- PERSONAL HYGIENE: Entirely too much time is being spent in the washrooms. In the future, you will follow the practice of going in alphabetical order, for instance, those with last names beginning with “A” will be allowed to go from 9:00-9:05, and so on. If you are unable to go at your appointed time, it will be necessary to wait until the next day when your time comes around again.
- QUANTITY OF WORK: No matter how much you do, you’ll never do enough.
- QUALITY OF WORK: The minimum acceptable level is perfection.
- ADVICE FROM OWNER: Eat a live toad the first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.
- THE BOSS IS ALWAYS RIGHT.
- WHEN THE BOSS IS WRONG, REFER TO RULE 9.
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He had delusions of adequacy.”
Walter Kerr
~~~
After a long, dry sermon, the minister announced that he wished to meet with the church board following the close of the service.
The first man to arrive and greet the minister was a total stranger. “You misunderstood my announcement. This is a meeting of the board members,” explained the minister.
“I know,” said the man, “but if there is anyone here more bored than I am, then I’d like to meet him.”
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Vuja De – The Feeling You’ve Never Been Here.
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In an American history discussion group, the professor was trying to explain how societies ideal of beauty changes with time.
“For example, he said, “take the 1921 Miss America. She stood five feet one inch tall, weighed 108 pounds and had measurements of 30-25-32. How do you think she’d do in today’s version of the contest?”
The class fell silent for a moment. Then one student piped up, “Not very well.”
“Why is that?” Asked the professor.
“For one thing,” the student said, “She’d be way too old.”
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“It isn’t what you have or who you are or where you are or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about it.”
Dale Carnegie
~~~
Ray Mitchell
Indianapolis, Indiana
Management is not responsible for duplicates from previous dailies. The editor is somewhat senile.
Ray’s Daily has been sent for more than fifteen years to people who want to start their day on an upbeat. If you have system overload because of our daily clutter, let me know and I will send you the information via mental telepathy. If you have not been getting our daily you can request to be added by e-mailing me at raykiwsp@gmail.com. Back issues are posted at http://rays-daily,com/ currently there are more than 2000 readers from around the world.
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