BIRTHDAY POST (3) - Guide to work, health and happiness, taken from Oprah's website

My other favourite cake (especially if you love great pastry) Gateau St Honore, from La Renaissance Patissierre, The Rocks. Puff and choux pastry base. Filled profiteroles surround vanilla creme patissiere, topped with whipped cream and fresh fruits.

WORK

In his recent book, The Art of Happiness at Work, coauthored with the Dalai Lama, psychiatrist Howard Cutler, MD, reports three basic approaches to work, whatever the profession. "People tend to see work as a job, a career, or a calling,".In the job approach, work is seen as a means to an end (money), offering no other reward. Career-minded folk have a deeper personal investment in their profession, marking achievements not only through monetary gain but through advancement within their chosen field. Finally, those who view their work as a calling show passionate commitment to "work for its own sake," focusing as much on fulfillment—human relationships, how what they do affects the world—as on monetary gain.

In 1997 Amy Wrzesniewski, PhD, who is now an assistant professor of management and organizational behavior at New York University's Stern School of Business, coauthored an important study of people in various occupations, from so-called menial to high-level professional. The reported levels of Subjective Well Being (SWB) were consistent with the approach each individual took toward his or her work. Those subjects who felt it was a calling had "significantly higher" SWB than those who saw it as a job or a career. Work—whether inside or outside the home—can be a place to express ourselves, a place to practice being happy, or the seventh circle of hell. We can learn to "craft" our jobs into a calling. ' believing that what they were doing— however outwardly mundane—mattered nevertheless. '

Professor Lord Richard Layard, director of the Well-Being Programme at the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics, says "We find, as nations grow wealthier, that once we're above abject poverty, wealth makes little difference to citizens' well-being." "When everyone is striving, it's like a football game where everyone stands up: You still have the same view only now you're less comfortable because you're standing." With upward mobility comes other unfortunate side effects as well, depriving families of time together and fragmenting communities.

In his lectures, Layard points to evidence that rates of clinical depression, alcoholism, and crime have all increased in the post–World War II era despite periods of economic growth. Working beyond our own limits, as Layard suggests, not leaving enough for ourselves on the side, we often compromise our own happiness as well as the greater good. "The last two decades have seen a serious assault on the communitarian ethic," says Layard. "There is such a thing as objective happiness, but it must be shared." If we stop focusing on personal gain as the only path to happiness, then perhaps we can turn outward. "I badly want to reinstate the Enlightenment belief that the moral act is always the one that produces the greatest overall happiness.

HEALTH

Dr Mehmet Oz Ultimate Health Checklists :

1. Find a doctor and schedule a checkup.
People who have doctors live longer and they live better.

2. Know the five ingredients to avoid.
"When you look on the back of a food label, they have to list the ingredients from the most common to the least common. You want to actually make sure these five ingredients are not in the top five on the food label."

- High fructose corn syrup.
Inexpensive sugar, Commonly in soft drinks.
- Sugar
Dr. Oz says when you eat sweets, your brain receives schizophrenic messages. "It says: 'I got calories, but I didn't get any nutrients,'" he says. Your body will keep craving food until it gets those nutrients.
- "Enriched"
products made with "enriched" flour, like white bread. "Why would they take bread and have to enrich it? Because they take all the important vitamins out of it, and they sprinkle just a little bit back in there," Dr. Oz says.
- Trans fat
Also known as hydrogenated fat, these are fats that were once in liquid form but have hydrogen added to make them solid at room temperature. "It extends the shelf life of the product, But it shortens the human life."
- Saturated fats
These fats come from four-legged animals like pigs and cows.

3. Healthy foods to add to your diet.
Starting with foods that don't need a label, like fresh fruits and vegetables. "If they're coming out of the ground looking the way they look when you eat them, they're good for you in general,"

-Antioxidants
( tomatoes, broccoli, kidney beans, blueberries, artichokes and prunes. Try to eat five to seven servings of these foods every day.)

-Omega-3 Fats
( 3 grams a day. "Remember, 80 percent of our brain is fat," Dr. Oz says. "We need to have the right kinds of fats in our body to make sure our brain is the most resilient to stress and can learn the fastest." Some good sources include ground flaxseeds, walnuts, salmon, scallops, soybeans and squash.)

-Fiber
( about 24 grams/day. Oatmeal, 100 percent whole grain bread, lentils, pine nuts, peas and raspberries)

-Olive Oil
( about a tablespoon every day).

4. Take a multivitamin every single day.
If you are pre-menopausal, take multivitamin that contains iron, as you'll need the iron to make new red blood cells.


5. Know your numbers.
Measure waist size (less than half of your weight), blood pressure (approximately 115 over 75), your resting heart rate (when you get up in the morning, close to 60), cholesterol, blood sugar, vitamin D.

6. Find a health advocate.
Can be anyone (friend, spouse), Bring someone who is actually going to pay attention, and understands the process and takes notes.

7. Organise your health records.
Update your medical file, know your family history.

8. Get the medical tests you need.
Annual check up, dental check up every 6 months, eye exam every 2 years. more variety as you get older.

9. Exercising.
Walking, get your heart rate up, Flexibility, Strength training (rebuild those muscles so you dont get frail as you age)

10. Get 7-8 hours of sleep per night.
You can lose the benefits of step 1-8 if you skip sleep.

HAPPINESS

" Just as Italians have eight words for for love, we need more colors for happiness. The simple-minded version will not do; life is too complex, we know too much, there's too much pain to be satisfied with a naive idea of what it means to be happy—and to be human. To accommodate a larger vision, Martin Seligman, PhD, the godfather of the positive psychology movement, has created a three-zone model of happiness.

Beyond the first tier, what he calls the Hollywood view of happiness ("getting as much positive emotion as possible"),

a second kind of happiness arises from discovering our "signature strengths," which range (in Seligman's list of 24) from honesty, kindness, and forgiveness to ingenuity and love of learning.

Seligman's third zone consists of using your strengths in the service of something larger than yourself.

So it seems that transcending our own needs, now and then, and learning to sacrifice what we want for the greater good could boost our happiness to another level. "


QUOTE

What I know for sure by Stephen Doyle, Creative Director, Doyle Partners :

Don't tell me, show me,
Don't show me, touch me,
Don't touch me, tell me.