book – Crisbie Coach

How to Make Others Happy

Making others happy is simpler than you might think. There is a scientific explanation behind the phrase “a smile is contagious”. Researchers at Harvard University have found that happiness is contagious: when a person is joyful, people around them are 25% more likely to be happy as well. Imagine what could happen if every person in the world would do one act of kindness a day to another person. The repercussions would be staggering. You would not need to do great things, as even small gestures may make others smile.

Try these ideas to see if you would bring more happiness around you.

How to Make Others Happy #1: Sharing Books

Two Australian friends wanted people to quit the habit of watching their phones on the public transport and replace them with a good book. That is why they launched @booksontherail. This initiative invites people to place a sticker on a book they liked and leave it somewhere for someone else to pick it up and read it. After reading it, the book could be left again somewhere for another person. Why not give it a try? Next time you finish a good book, instead of leaving it on a shelf to gather dust, leave it somewhere and invite with a post-it the person who finds it to read it, and continue the literary chain of happiness.

In Brussels, there are small free “book shelves” on the streets where people can exchange books for free, of course. If you live in an apartment, why not set one up in the lobby of your building, or why not also at work?

How to Make Others Happy #2: Giving Compliments

“If you think something positive about someone, you should tell them,” says Steven Bartlett, who runs one of Europe’s biggest podcasts, Diary of a CEO. “It’s the easiest way to add positive things to a world that needs it so much.”

How to Make Others Happy #3: Making a Cake

Why not bake a cake for your colleagues? Don’t wait for a reason, just make it to share a few moments away from your work and simply enjoy a piece of cake together. In addition, sharing food has been shown to increase happiness.

How to make others happy #4: Sharing your Garden

Take a little branch of your favourite plant from your garden or balcony and give it to a friend to integrate a part of your world into their world. Every time they look at it, they will think of you and they will put a smile in their face.

How to Make Others Happy #5: Pay for a Coffee In Advance

A “caffè sospeso” is a “hanging coffee” in Italian. This term was created in the workers’ bars of Naples more than 100 years ago. Some people will pay for two coffees while having only one so that people in need could enjoy the second one for free. When you order a coffee next time, ask the waiter if you can buy one for someone else as well. Some bars have regular visits from homeless people to whom they can offer your coffee.

How to Make Others Happy #6: Opening Doors

By “opening doors” I don’t mean metaphorical doors, I really mean opening a door for someone else who is behind you. “Something as simple as keeping a door open for someone else coming in can really lift both spirits,” says psychologist Jess Baker. “It only takes a few seconds, but it’s a moment of connection that shows that you’ve seen the other person, that you’ve taken them into account, and that you’re doing something to make their day more pleasant.”

What would you do to make others happy?

two coffee latte — Photo by Anna Urlapova on Pexels.com

Ideas to Try out in Your Free Time (part four)

The journey to explore ideas to try in your free time continues today. Other ideas have been published earlier. Let’s check them out!

Here are some new ideas to try out in your free time.

Organize a picnic. Choose a date, a place and invite your friends and/or family. The formula, particularly convivial, is declined in many ways and can integrate a theme, a specific culinary style, a walk, or even games for the youngest and, why not, also for the older.
Take a trip alone. This may seem like a very bold big step if you are used to travelling with your partner, family or friends. The advantage is the incredible freedom to really do what you want, not to compromise with others on what you want to do, and to plan an itinerary only according to your wishes.
Read a book outdoors. Choose a comfortable place, a park with a beautiful lawn for example, and take a blanket to sit on. Take advantage of your time to read a book by occasionally looking at the people around you, walking, children playing, dogs running. Enjoy the life that unfolds around you, without you having to do anything. And if you finish the book, why not leave it on a bench with some advice for those who want to take it?
Cultivate your own garden. Whether you want medicinal plants, vegetables or flowers, making a garden is fun and instructive. If you don’t have land, you can also do it on a balcony. And if you do not have a balcony either, there are plants that live well also inside. This activity is particularly healthy because it allows you to regain contact with nature, to understand its dynamics and to observe its wonders.
Immerse yourself in nature. As I said before, being in contact with nature is extremely energizing, relaxing and reassuring. Whether it’s a walk in a forest, in a park or a full immersion in nature, like camping, listen to your wishes and make them come true.

Would you have other ideas to add? Let me know!

close up of beer bottles on wood — Idea – Photo by Bruno Scramgnon on Pexels.com

The Magic of Synchronicity

You miss the train and on the quay you meet the love of your life. You receive money in the exact moment you need it: this is the magic of synchronicity; they are coincidences that sometimes leave you speechless and let you see a new path.

What Is Synchronicity?

Psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung brought us the term “synchronicity,” which literally means “falling together in time.” Synchronicity describes the surprise that occurs when a thought in the mind is mirrored by an external event to which it has no apparent causal connection.

Read this story told by Jung to understand what synchronicity is about.

A young woman of high education and serious demeanour entered Jung’s office. Jung could see that her quest for psychological change was doomed unless he was able to succeed in softening her rationalist shell with “a somewhat more human understanding.” He needed the magic of coincidence. He asked for it, searched his surroundings for it. He remained attentive to the young woman, while hoping something unexpected and irrational would turn up.

As she described a golden scarab—a costly piece of jewellery—she had received in a dream the night before, he heard a tapping on the window. He looked and saw a gold-green glint. Jung opened the window to coincidence. He plucked the scarab beetle out of the air. The beetle, closely resembling to the golden scarab, was just what he needed—or just what she needed. “Here is your scarab,” he said to the woman, as he handed her a link between her dreams and the real world.

A synchronic event goes beyond mere coincidence because it has a transforming power, which marks a before and after in your personal history.

In order to notice synchronicity, you need to develop attention and spirit of observation.

If you begin to notice with curiosity what happens to you during the day, your everyday life would become a joyful space of possibility and opportunity.

Hidden or obvious, these ephemeral messages are so precious that they deserve our full attention. You will see that then, the more you notice these significant coincidences, the more they multiply and will help you get out of your routine. Moreover, you will be headed for something new. By changing your perspective, you will also be able to make your reality move.

Try one of these games and see what feelings you get.

Here is the first one that is called Bibliomancy.

Write down a question in a notebook or a sheet.
Pick up your favourite book, or the book that is nearest to you. Note down its title.
Close your eyes, and open up randomly the book.
Before opening your eyes, run your hands along the page and point with one finger at a random line.
Open your eyes and read the sentence or paragraph. Note down the page number and line number.
Consider what implication the passage you pointed to has on the question you posed, and write down some reflections.

Here is another one, that I call “The Sidewalk Observation Game”. Even with this game you can get an unexpected message by putting you in touch with a symbol or situation.

Start by writing down a question. Walk with your senses in full alert and notice all the details. For example, catch some elements of a conversation between two people you cross during your walk, read an advertisement, look at a graffiti or a newspaper left on a bench. These are signs that can help you find the answer to your question.

Even slips or dysgraphia can be a clue to explore. For example, I often write massage instead of message. I think I may need to get a massage …

These tips come to you so that you can open doors and not close them. They offer you the opportunity to enjoy meaningful experiences with enthusiasm and enjoyment and to abandon the plans established by your ego.

In this way, you have the opportunity to connect to the collective unconscious because you adhere to positive and non-blocking beliefs. The more you pay attention to synchronicity, the more your neurological and emotional circuits are positively stimulated and they create new behavioural patterns, installs beneficial habits that connect you with the consciousness of the universe.

The time of synchronicity

As the Greek root of this word shows, synchronicity refers to time (syn means meeting and chronos means time). The ancient Greeks conceived synchronicity in three distinct ways: the chronos, which corresponds to a linear flow; the aion, or the endless cycles; the kairos, that is the right moment to act.

In the Greek mythology there is the winged god Kairos. When Kairos passes by there are three possibilities:

You don’t see him;
You see him but you do nothing;
In the moment he passes by you give him your hand to grasp the chance he is offering you.

In practice, synchronicity is telling you carpe diem, namely seize the moment.

What do you do when Kairos passes by next to you ?