Joyful June

“Everyday may not be good, but there is something good in every day”

Alice Morse Earle

Are you having difficulty finding things to be joyful for at the moment?

I know personally for me, the current 4^th round of Lockdown here in Melbourne, has had a somewhat negative impact on my emotions. This time around, with Tier 1 exposure sites only 1lm walking distance from my home, it has if I’m honest shaken me.  Just as I had begun to make plans for meeting up with friends and regaining some sort of independence from 2020, it feels like I am now taking three steps backward.

I also found myself not truly believing that lockdown would end in 7 days (I was right, it has been extended so far by another 7 days). I was thinking along the lines of an extended lockdown, partly to protect myself from “getting my hopes up”, only for them to be dashed. This scenario happened far too often last year during Melbourne’s long lockdown 2.0. The goal post for lockdown ending kept getting moved on a weekly basis. This time around, I’m being more cautious and have decided to work on a 3-to-4-week lockdown duration (if it finishes earlier, it be a welcome surprise and cause for celebration). It concerns me the number of people who are severely impacted by yet another lockdown, e.g., those who work in the retail or hospitality and tourism industries, and who may be faced next week with having to decide whether they pay their bills or eat. My thoughts go out to them.

Still, compared to the trauma, and heartache of what people in other countries are facing and dealing with, my situation here in Melbourne is in relation to the global situation, relatively minor.

June’s daily actions from ‘Action for Happiness Org’s’ calendars are included to focus on positive emotions, even in difficult times, which is based on the key of Emotions: look for what’s good. Vanessa King (head of psychology for Action for Happiness) talks in the YouTube clip below, about how this month’s tips help to train our brain to notice more and “squeeze” things out that go right.

One example is to celebrate your tiny day to day achievements, and celebrate these with a mini micro personal celebration. I.e., instead of focusing on all the things still to be done on our to do list, reflect back and celebrate each of the things you do get done e.g. “Yes I did send that email”

Positive emotions help to build resilience, so although you need to be realistic about life’s ups and downs, it helps to focus on the good aspects of a situation.

Related actions are:

• Action 4 – Find three good things each day
• Action 5 – Thank the people you’re grateful to
• Action 6 – Look for the good in those around you
• Action 11 – Use positive parenting techniques
• Action 31 – Be positive but stay realistic
• Action 38 – Boost your positive ratio
• Action 46 – Make time for fun with family & friends

What is Your Positivity Ratio?

Action for Happiness Org on their web page states “Research shows that experiencing positive emotions in a 3-to-1 ratio with negative one leads to a tipping point beyond which we naturally become more resilient to adversity and better able to achieve things” This is an interesting ratio, something I certainly hadn’t considered previously.

You can get further information on related actions from the website link below

https://www.actionforhappiness.org/calendars

Calendars are available in PDF & jpeg format in the following languages (what a great way to brush up or learn new language skills)

* Albanian
* Arabic
* Bengali
* Bulgarian
* Catalan
* Chinese (Simplified & Traditional)
* Croatian
* Danish
* Dutch
* Estonian
* Farsi
* Finnish
* French
* German
* Greek
* Hebrew
* Hindi
* Hungarian
* Icelandic
* Indonesian
* Italian
* Japanese
* Lithuanian
* Mongolian
* Polish
* Portuguese (Europe & Brazil)
* Romanian
* Russian
* Serbian
* Spanish
* Swedish
* Turkish
* Ukrainian
* Urdu
* Welsh