August is a funny time for volunteer non-profits, particularly August. Board meetings are often not held in August. Foundation deadlines often don't fall during August. Meetings are harder to schedule - people scramble to take that summer vacation before its too late. And, of course, summer day beacon for lassitude and the easing of heat in the evening threaten the cooler months.
At the same time, August can be great time to get things done. Not much is happening to divert your attention. Earlier this summer, the Happiness Alliance's board gathered for its second annual retreat. We met on a houseboat on Seattle's Lake Union. We talked for two days while the ducks paddled past, neighbors plunged into the water to escape the afternoon heat and the houseboat swayed in the wake of summer boating traffic. The dreams and plans from our annual meeting the last year were all coming true, and we were excited to create our dreams for this year.
One of those dreams is to contribute to the mending of gap between personal happiness and
social change in the happiness movement. Our work - that of the Happiness Alliance - is all about helping to create a new economic paradigm: one where money, consumption and economic growth is not paramount and the well-being and happiness of all beings is paramount.
Imagine if the government used a comprehensive measure of wellbeing - the Gross National Happiness (GNH) Index could be the subjective side of this - instead of just Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Imagine if companies cared as much about their employees and the communities they operated in as they did about profit. And imagine if your internal and socially conditions marker for your success where whether you were happy, and not your financial status.
And so, in the last month I have been working with my board members and others to create resources for personal happiness. Many of them are on our home page
and one of my favorite is a short (8 min) video explaining the connection between positive psychology and the happiness movement:
I am looking forward to this next year, and to what focusing on the connections between personal happiness and a new economic paradigm bring.
- Laura Musikanski, JD, MBA
Executive Director of The Happiness Alliance, home of the Happiness Initiative and GNH Index
At the same time, August can be great time to get things done. Not much is happening to divert your attention. Earlier this summer, the Happiness Alliance's board gathered for its second annual retreat. We met on a houseboat on Seattle's Lake Union. We talked for two days while the ducks paddled past, neighbors plunged into the water to escape the afternoon heat and the houseboat swayed in the wake of summer boating traffic. The dreams and plans from our annual meeting the last year were all coming true, and we were excited to create our dreams for this year.
One of those dreams is to contribute to the mending of gap between personal happiness and
social change in the happiness movement. Our work - that of the Happiness Alliance - is all about helping to create a new economic paradigm: one where money, consumption and economic growth is not paramount and the well-being and happiness of all beings is paramount.
Imagine if the government used a comprehensive measure of wellbeing - the Gross National Happiness (GNH) Index could be the subjective side of this - instead of just Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Imagine if companies cared as much about their employees and the communities they operated in as they did about profit. And imagine if your internal and socially conditions marker for your success where whether you were happy, and not your financial status.
And so, in the last month I have been working with my board members and others to create resources for personal happiness. Many of them are on our home page
- Laura Musikanski, JD, MBA
Executive Director of The Happiness Alliance, home of the Happiness Initiative and GNH Index
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