Action for Happiness – How to stay optimistic in worrying times
Action for Happiness is a movement of people committed to building a happier and more caring society. They want to see a fundamentally different way of life – where people care less about what they can get just for themselves and more about the happiness of others, something we seem to have lost sight of in the modern world.
Their theme this month is ‘Optimistic October’ – based on their 10 Keys to Happier Living, one of which is having a sense of direction and having something to look forward to.
The idea is that setting positive goals for the future gives our lives a sense of direction and purpose – although we face many challenges there are also plenty of reasons to remain hopeful and optimistic.
By consciously choosing our priorities we can overcome issues, make progress and focus on what really matters.
“Choose to be optimistic. It feels better.”
– Dalai Lama
Feeling good about the future is important for our happiness. We all need goals to motivate us and these need to be challenging enough to excite us, but also achievable. If we try to attempt the impossible this brings unnecessary stress.
Choosing ambitious but realistic goals gives our lives direction and brings a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction when we achieve them.
Action for Happiness have produced some fantastic resources to help achieve these aims, including an Action Calendar (see below), and a phone calendar to help keep you on track (iCalendar or Google Calendar). There’s also an Action for Happiness app where you can join a supportive community and get daily actions and motivations.
Click the image to download
We could all use a healthy dose of optimism as Covid-19 continues to pervade. We need a method to maintain this optimism and to maintain our resilience through these challenging times.
Do yourself a favour and indulge in some self-love by downloading, printing and working through the calendar – with luck, you’ll feel energised and much more positive by the end of the month.
