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domenica 13 novembre 2011


In ACT (Acceptance and commitment therapy) giving up the need or strive to control emotions is a main point.
That is not the goal anymore.
It is a sense of “effortless effort”, of floating in the quicksand, of swimming in the quicksand, of being bigger than quicksand, of enjoying the feeling that quicksand is not the point that eases pain of anxiety away.
This is just my personal experience with anxiety. As long as I kept on fighting it, trying to control, it would attack me back. When I gave up the idea of control it, expanding my ability to accept it, it is not so much of a problem anymore.
ACt- acceptance and commitment therapy- Russ Harris


giovedì 19 maggio 2011

HappinessKit travels to Brazil again: 30th of May-Rio de Janeiro- charity "aperitivo" night


















the NGO "il sorriso dei miei bimbi" and the "centro social de educacao e cultura da rocinha" are throwing a charity "aperitivo" night in Rio on May, the 30th and the Happiness kit will be will be there once again, to drink, dance and sustain!


martedì 10 maggio 2011





a little contribution to sustained Happiness
for a charity purpose!

XXX Hiro




José's contribution to the Happiness Kit:


Every child needs nice clothing, every tree needs leaves,
and there you go: Thanks José for sending me from Barcelona
your creative contribution for the Kit.
I love you amiguito, and I love your creativity!
Hiro

martedì 8 febbraio 2011

HappinessKit travels to Brazil



http://www.ilsorrisodeimieibimbi.org/index.php?id=215&lang_id=en


HappinessKit travels to Brazil, and it is quoted in "ilsorrisodeimieibimbi" website.
Soon, very soon, everything will be ready for the kit to be sold online!
Yes!
Hiro

BAD is good, the Brain Awareness Day, London



Phineas Gage was amazingly hit in the head by an iron bar, the bar perforated his skull and even more amazingly cauterized the wound and left him a little ;-) dizzy yet alive and awake.

The most amazing thing of all is yet that he changed. His personality changed. The bar hit his brain and the damage changed his way of being, transforming him from a quite, reliable, reasonable man into an inconsiderate, risk-loving betting-prone individual. The brain as a host for personality, cognition, emotions.

During the International Brain Awareness Week (14-20th March 2011) here in London Dr Ashok Jansari has thought and developed (wow, what a brain!) a BAD day (Brain Awareness Day) at the School of Psychology at UEL Stratford campus. Some of us students: Astrid, Rebecca, Kitty and myself will be somehow the BAD girls, trying to help with organization.

There will be an open lecture ‘The Life of Brian (the Brain)’, with a sum of the history of our understanding of the brain. Dr Jansari will demonstrate how we can understand the devastating consequences of some forms of brain damage and also the preserved abilities following trauma.

This discussion will help to grasp the MIRACLE of a healthy brain functioning and to use this information to develop rehabilitation making patients' existences easier.

The event will be hosting Mr. David, who cannot recognise any faces (including his wife’s), but can tell people’s emotions and football teams t-shirts (who does he stand for?)

Mrs. Nicola will also attend. She is a profoundly amnesic patient, yet Dr Jansari’s team taught her to use an electronic device to remember to take her medication (despite this remarkable learning, each time she sees the device, she says she never used it before).

Between 7 and 8pm there will be a reception with information displayed by organisations that work with individuals with brain-related issues (e.g. Headway and the Encephalitis Society), posters about research at the School of Psychology and even models of the brain that the audience can touch and take apart.

The evening will conclude with a panel discussion about ‘living with brain damage’ where two of Dr. jansari’s patients will discuss both what it means to live with these challenging conditions but also the ways they learnt to cope with them.

BAD is good ;-), and someone doesn’t need to be an academic to attend. If you are simply just interested in brains and what they do, you are greatly welcome. it’s FREE and open to all – Wednesday 16th of March, 6-9pm, at UEL’s Stratford Campus

You can also find Brain Awareness Day listed on the Dana Foundation’s website.

domenica 6 febbraio 2011

clear instructions to happiness


My friend X has some issues. She has some OCD tendencies, she sometimes has panics attacks, she overreacts and exaggerates, she extra-loves, she is adorable and sometimes unbearable, at times her self-esteem is very low. In a few words, she is healthy, but she has some issues. Many people are the same, many of us we have issues. X has been in therapy for years. She has been treated with several different approaches, and yet once she told me something that really got me thinking: “I have been in therapy for so long and they all tell me my self-esteem is low, yet no one ever gave me CLEAR instructions”.

Good point: concrete instructions. What do you do when you are feeling depressed? How to you build upon your weakened self-esteem? What tools, instruments, screwdrivers, hammers, kneels do you need to take care of your inner building site?
Well. I cannot but think about this point, as, going through my studies, I make psychological discoveries: how could how transmit this? How do I keep this simple? How do I build a toolbox, a KIT?

A kit is something people carry around, it helps, it is a small set of strategic items you need in strategic moments. If you travel, you want to carry a sleep-well kit: you have a smooth satin sleeping mask, you have some lavender drops, a little pillow, a lovely book to read, the most modern kits might contain some music device. You have first aid kits, go-to-the-toilet-when-abroad kit, sewing kits, beauty kits, press kits….

WHAT ABOUT THEN AN HAPPINESS KIT? When you need happiness (we always do), we extract something from the kit and we use it. USE. Concrete, practical.
So what did I do? Easy: I took a little bag and I put some objects in it. Which objects?: some of the TWELVE OBJECTS that Positive Psychology has taught me they bring happiness.
A small selection will do, you most probably don’t need them all twelve. You carry them around, you touch them, you look at them, you start practising a “cognitive reconstruction” which sounds boring but means that practise makes perfect.

In order to make the whole project even more perfect (yes!), I thought I could sell these happiness kits and part of the proceeds could go to charities (which brings even more happiness ;-).
Perfect, isn’t it?






venerdì 28 gennaio 2011

Why a happiness kit?

A portable programme for lasting happiness

If you strive for happiness (who doesn’t?) and have people you care about
that are striving as well (yes, again, who doesn’t?), then allow me to introduce
you to a new way of looking at things.
With the happiness kit, I want to show you how to increase your level of
happiness in a way that looks simple, though it’s serious ;-). What you
will be able to achieve with the easy principles contained in the happiness kit,
is quite impressive!
And it is not about self-help, whishy washy tricks that come from
common sense. It’s about science; the serious science of happiness ;-).
It’s about the fact that happiness depends a great deal from genetics (50%),
a little from life conditions (10%), but interestingly enough 40% from
intentional activity: things that we can do to feel good, to feel great.
Each tool in the kit has been tested by serious scientists in white lab-coats.
They are Positive Psychologists and, for them, happiness has never been
so serious ;-). As far as I am concerned, I come from a background in fashion,
in crafts, in creative worlds: I could not be too serious!
I have tried to create an enjoyable approach to happiness, an approach
of play and lightness. This approach is about positive emotions, being committed,
having a purpose and meaning, and it is easy and hands on. Once I started
to be active towards happiness, I not only started to feel much
stronger, resilient, optimistic; I also never stopped thinking how I could share
it easily with others.
Here is what I thought could be the way!

http://www.happinesskit.co.cc/
http://www.ilsorrisodeimieibimbi.org/Link.html
“to change one’s life, start immediately, do it flamboyantly, no exceptions”
(William James)