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Weve come a long way since we held our first Happiness & Its Causes conference back in 2006, following the success of our first conference, Mind & Its Potential in 2005. Thinking then it could be a one-off, although hoping it might sustain for another year or two, were delighted it has become an annual event. Not only that, it has been a huge hit with the literally thousands of delegates who have attended due to what many have said are its life changing effects. If youve attended any of our events, youll understand their appeal. For every conference, we work hard putting together a p rogram designed to facilitate exploration of and discussion about the things that matter most to YOU how to be happier, how to find meaning in your life, how to be more creative, how to maximise your potential and how to contribute to the lives of others. Of course, we couldnt do any of it without the expertise of the great many speakers we invite to present sessions and worksh ops at our events about the amazing work thats being done here in Australia and overseas in the fields of psychology, education, neuroscience, sociology, conservation, anthropology, spirituality and more. Our speakers are extraordinary individuals in terms of the information they share and the difference they are making to the wellbeing of society and our planet. Were delighted to be able to share their messages through our Think & Be Happy blog, e-newsletter and Happiness & Its Causes Facebook page and Twitter feed. We often feature articles about upcoming speakers built around an interview or presentation theyve already given. In our lat est eBook offering, we have compiled eight such posts from our blog, all featuring top notch presenters you will hear at Happiness & Its Causes 2014. If you havent registered yet, I guarantee that after reading these, youll be seriously tempted.
www.happinessanditscauses.com.au
If to lose oneself is to experience bliss, what can we do to more easily cultivate this state? The answer lies in research pioneered by Professor Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi, one of the greatest psychologists of our time. When Czikszentmihalyi started on his quest 40 years ago to better cognise the causes of happiness, he began to look at creative people trying to understand what made them feel that it was worth essentially spending their life doing things for which many of them didnt expect either fame or fortune. One person he interviewed was a composer who described feeling ecstatic whenever he composed music. Czikszentmihalyi was intrigued by his use of the word ecstatic, which in Greek means simply to stand to the side of something. Or to put it another way, this composer entered an alternative reality. Not only that, he claimed to lose all sense of himself in the process. Czikszentimihalyi says this is, in fact, what literally happens because our nervous system is incapable of processing more than 110 bits of information. Thats not very much especially when you consider we apparently need 60 bits per second merely to process what someone is saying.
Given creative endeavours use up even more bits, its no wonder those poets, writers, painters and musicians who report experiencing total immersion in their craft dont have enough attention left over for the usual human preoccupations, says Czikszentimihalyi adding that their body disappears from their consciousness because they dont have enough attention to do well something that requires a lot of concentration, and at the same time to feel that they exist. What we now know about these fully absorbing flow states is that anyone can get in the zone under the right circumstances specifically when we encounter a challenge that tests our skills, and our skills and capacities are such that were able to meet this challenge. Read the full blog here.
Since the first Happiness & Its Causes conference in 2006, over 15,000 people have been moved and inspired at what is now one of the worlds largest and most important forums on human happiness!
Ricard says, That very sentence already reveals the doom of destruction of happiness: to have everything. If we miss something it collapses. It also doesnt help that we overestimate our control of the outer world which is limited, temporary and often illusory, says Ricard. His advice is we look instead at inner conditions. Arent they stronger? Isnt it the mind that translates the outer condition into happiness and suffering? Certainly, we know from experience that when we give in to our anger, jealousy, pride or greed, we feel lousy and so do the people around us. We also know that when were exuding love, warmth and generosity, everyone benefits. But do we know that we can change our negative emotions, traits and moods or are we simply resigned to living with them because we think theyre an inevitable part of being human? Ricard says that if we investigate the nature of mind or consciousness through practices such as meditation, well discover its primary quality is awareness and that because of this there is a possibility for change because all emotions are fleeting. That is the ground for mind training.
And yes, given the increase in narcissism has been most marked since 2005-2006, Twenge has no qualms pointing the finger at what she regards as the combined effects of Internet technology, in particular social networking sites, with easy credit, celebrity-drenched media and permissive parenting.
Read the full blog here.
Inspirational, grounding, uplifting. Coming here is akin to plugging in to the main power station of love, joy and happiness and coming away recharged.
Catherine Gunn, QLD Health
himself that he would then share with the class in order to kick start them into writing about their own experiences. In the process of doing this, Griffiths says he began filling up books full of memories, then dreams and I was soon creating fiction. And taking the best of what I wrote and photocopying [the material] into little self published books. This eventually gave him the confidence to quit teaching in 1991 in order to pursue writing full time. During this next phase, Griffiths continued to self-publish little books which he sold at markets where a growing albeit small fan base convinced him there was an audience for his nutty sense of humour. In contrast, those publishers he sent his early manuscripts to just sent him rejection letters. Griffiths says he received 12 of these before his fortune took a dramatic turn after illustrator Terry Denton agreed to illustrate Just Tricking!, the first volume in the much loved Just! Series. The book came out in 1994 and was the first of many that went on to sell tens of thousands of copies and earn the author rave reviews and numerous awards. Hardly surprising that Griffiths today is a household name especially if that household has children. Read full blog here.
King agrees that religious traditions have been a rich source of wisdom for her, probably ever since she was a child and experienced what she can only describe as a moment that occurred quite serendipitously when she was simply running around the side of the house, and suddenly the whole physical world seemed to be completely transparent, and there was this blinding, glorious something that was in everything. Despite having what sounds very much like a flash of insight into ultimate reality, King still had her own rocky road to travel including childhood illness, family suicide and then when she was in her early 30s, a serious cancer diagnosis that, she says, brought her face to face with a black hole of painful feelings shed been resisting to detrimental effect her entire life. The story she tells of surviving this and other ordeals, how she was able to explore and discover the heart that can contain all of the anguish without losing any capacity to love continues to be an inspiration to all those who flock to Quest seeking out Kings wisdom and guidance. Read full blog here.
www.happinessanditscauses.com.au
www.mindanditspotential.com.au