2nd increment on the yardstick

What comes next after health? Security! Security means a lot of things - having a roof over your head, having a place to sleep, having something to sleep in (clothes, pjs, etc), having the money to afford all this, knowing that the place you sleep is not subject to warfare (between nationstates, terrorists or gangs), etc.

To put it another way, you gotta have a place to call home and the means to ensure that you can keep your home - "yours". It's not a cage, it's a place of comfort. This applies though to your job as well unless you have a money tree (trust fund, other source of personal wealth that won't go away). Knowing that your job is yours and that you are in a position to keep it - this is a big source of security. You may be at the end of your rope with your friends, your family, your coworkers, etc - but as long as your job, your home and your personal safety are doing alright - you can get by. This by no means however is intended to imply that huge amounts of happiness immediately follow on the heals of being "secure". It just forms part of the base that enables you to branch out and reach further toward the happiness that all of us would like to reach.

No 2 - Security...

The foundation of the Happiness Yardstick

Alright - so let's get down to it - what is element #1 of the happiness yardstick - you've all scene it before actually buried in Maslow's pyramid of need - note the word need - not happiness - but in any case - what's element #1? Health.

So Health is alot of things - not just the fact that you are physically healthy, it also include emotional health, mental health and for those of you with more of a spiritual bent - spiritual health. To get there with your Health Happiness, if you will, you have to focus on the care and feeding. So break this down right? I'm saying that you have to feed your body food, you have to feed you mind food, you have to feed your emotional being food and you have to feed your spiritual being such as it is - food. But - it doesn't stop there, you also have to care for each of these same entities. Exercise is the heart and soul of the care effort - doing more to exercise you mind will make it happier and healthier. Doing more to exercise your body will make it happier and healthier. Doing more to exercise your emotions will make them healthier and happier and finally doing more to exercise your spirit will make it healthier and happier.

Let's be careful though - the flip side of care is to know when to stop. Moderation is key with feeding and exercise. Addictive, obsessive types of efforts on any of these are just as likely to cause a break down in health and happiness rather than promoting it.

So #1 on the yardstick - Health.

Stay tuned for more to come...

The Pursuit of Happiness

Holy toledo - today may have pulled the rug out from under all of us happiness-wise. Should the economic contagion and flight of capital continue for much longer at the rate things are going...we are all going to be struggling to develop any happiness.

Stay tuned...

The Golden Green Rule

We all know what the "Golden Rule" is right? It says that we should treat all people with consideration or respect.

I'm not really satisfied with this...the rule that I want to live by is the Golden Green Rule - and what this means is that we should treat the world in which we live and all of it's occupants whether flora, fauna or hybrid, whether landmass or ocean, whether animate or inanimate - with consideration and respect.

This doesn't mean we aren't omnivorous and it doesn't mean that we don't enjoy certain advantages as the dominant species, it just means that we should always apply the golden rule to all of Gaia, not just humanity.

Think of it as respecting and considering humanity by respecting and considering the planet that supports us. :)

Founder of the Golden Green Rule -
John-Michael Scott