happiness Archives

October 2, 2019 By GOQii Leave a Comment

Make a Difference with GOQii Karma

We often think of karma as an intangible entity, something that we can’t touch or predict. There’s a fair chance that our notions of karma might not be true at all but that doesn’t negate the fact that doing good creates personal happiness and paves the way for gratitude.

It has been scientifically proven that the selfless act of giving creates happiness and promotes overall wellbeing. The opportunity to do good is a quality present in all of us. Humans by nature are altruistic beings. It is in our nature to help. All we must do is recognize that part of us and walk together for the greater good. That’s what GOQii Karma is all about! A tangible way to see the impact you make on the world by being healthy.

How does it Work?

Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s iconic Dandi March of 390km, for every 390 steps you clock while using GOQii, you are awarded 1 Karma Point. Once you accumulate sufficient GOQii Karma Points, you can choose to donate these points to social causes listed in the GOQii App’s karma section. The points you donate are converted into monetary contributions by our Karma Partners and our Karma Partners help the underprivileged via these causes.

What Has GOQii Karma Achieved?

Since 2015, with the Karma Points donated by our players to our Karma Partners, we have helped and enabled many individuals throughout India. Some of our key highlights include:

1. Supporting Victims Affected by the Tamil Nadu Floods: The heavy rainfall that plagued Tamil Nadu in 2015 drove thousands of people out of their homes. 5479 GOQii Players walked and contributed a total of 3.9 million Karma Points to Oxfam India to support those affected by providing them hygiene kits, non-food items, dry food ration kits, soap and chlorine tablets and hygiene promotion activities.

2. Ratna Nidhi Charitable Trust: With Ratna Nidhi Charitable Trust (RNCT) as our Karma Partners, we were able to make a difference along with RNCT to the lives of many.

Food For Education: Through this program RNCT distributed free food prepared in their kitchen to poor children attending any formal or non-formal educational class on a daily basis. The program had been very effective in arresting school drop-out rates. This cause was aided with a total of 62,55,289 Karma Points.
Disability Project: RNCT gave new life to 874 disabled people who had been deprived of their basic privileges of mobility and hearing. These persons with disability have gained their self-confidence back and are now living a normal life and have the potential to become contributing members of society. This cause was aided with 1,60,87,615 Karma Points

3. Empowering Women against Violence: Through our Karma platform we were able to aid Oxfam India in their quest to end violence against women. Through this program, Oxfam India reached out to more than 42,000 women to end violence and established 23 support centres within formal and informal locations to provide psycho-social counselling and legal aid to women facing this issue.

4. Upcycling to Slippers for Children in Need: This cause enabled the collection of old shoes and Rs. 199/pair to upcycle them to slippers and donate them to children in need. Greensole’s vision is to contribute to social good, by creating a self-sustaining infrastructure that facilitates the provision of the basic necessity of footwear to everyone. This cause was completed with 1, 30, 00,000 Karma Points donation by our players.

5. Trees for Rural Communities, Chintamani, Karnataka: Still an on-going cause, Grow-Trees.com wants to allow users to satisfy a private purpose of greeting someone through an eTreeCertificate, while doing social good by planting trees. With Grow-Trees you can plant trees with just a few clicks and gift them to celebrate festivals, birthdays, anniversaries or other special occasions using their personalized e-certificate. The cost of each tree is INR 85.

You can browse through some of the causes on the Karma section in the GOQii App. Just like this, every step you take makes a difference. So clock in your daily steps, collect and donate karma points as you never know who you might be helping.

On the day of Gandhi Jayanti, pledge to walk daily so you can help someone else get on their feet!

#BeTheForce

March 21, 2019 By Twinkle Thakkar 8 Comments

Does Happiness Affect Our Health?

Happiness is a great feeling! Whether you choose to equate it with optimism, joy, wellbeing, personal achievement or all of the above, it goes hand-in-hand with healthier habits. People who are in good spirits tend to eat better, exercise more frequently and get better sleep than those who are not. In turn, these healthy habits engage the hormones and neurotransmitters that influence our happiness. When our mood is down, we are more likely to skip workouts, do some heavy-duty emotional overeating and have difficulty sleeping.

Beyond these rather common-sense associations, however, is an intriguing research that suggests there’s something more about happiness that makes us healthy.

Let’s understand the 10 health benefits of being happy!

1. Smile

Science suggests that when we smile, whether we are happy or not, our mood is elevated. When we smile, even if it is a fake one, muscles of our face are stretched and this muscular movement triggers the brain to release the “Happy Hormones” which makes us feel good and boosts our mood. Our smile not only makes others happy but releases our own stress as well.

2. Laughter

Laughter is said to be the best medicine. When we laugh, we exhale more air out of our lungs over longer periods and inhale more oxygen. Our blood gets purified more rapidly and we feel more refreshed and rejuvenated. We also feel more relaxed as pure blood circulates in the brain. Some people practice laughter just to reap its health benefits. No wonder we find laughter clubs in almost all parks and open spaces.

3. Happy Hormones

As per Psychoneuroimmunology, a new branch of science that studies the mind-body connection, the thoughts and emotions that we choose get instantly transformed into chemicals. These chemicals are, effectively, either self-administered injections of ‘slow poisons’ or of ‘healing medicines’ that eventually freeze into and become our physical states, i.e. Disease or Health. So let’s understand the role of the chemicals associated with Happiness.

Happy hormones generally refer to Endorphins, Serotonin, Dopamine, Oxytocin, Phenylethamine and Ghrelin. Technically, some of these are neurotransmitters and not hormones, but we shan’t bother ourselves with those scientific details here. Let’s just understand how they help us to be healthy:

Endorphins block pain. They are the body’s natural painkillers. When rigorous exercise depletes our muscles of glycogen (oxygen stores), endorphins allow us to push on. For instance, we often feel blisters only after and not during the activity
Serotonin boosts our mood and makes us more agreeable and sociable. It prevents irritability and depression
Dopamine helps us feel mentally alert. The lack of it might cause lack of attention, lack of concentration and bad moods. It motivates us to take action to achieve the exercise goals so we can experience the pleasure of the reward
Estrogen helps form serotonin and protects us from irritability and anxiety, keeping our mood steady
Progesterone helps us sleep well and prevents anxiety, irritability and mood swings

4. Immune System

Do you know a grumpy person who always seems to be getting sick? That may be no coincidence. There is a link between happiness and a stronger immune system. Happy people have a high antibody response to any vaccine which is a sign of a robust immune system. There is reduction in the size of telomeres – the protective caps of our immune cells, which causes premature aging of the immune system in stressed out people. On the contrary happiness seems to be literally working on a cellular level to strengthen our immune system.

5. Heart

Happiness predicts lower heart rate and blood pressure. There is a link between happiness and another measure of heart health: heart rate variability, which refers to the time interval between heartbeats and is associated with risk for various diseases. Happy people are less likely to develop coronary heart diseases.

6. Blood

Happy people have lower levels of a blood protein called fibrinogen, following a stressful task. This molecule makes blood “sticky” and is vital in the clotting process, but high concentrations can signal future coronary heart disease problems.

7. Aches and Pains

Unhappiness can be painful—literally. Painful and negative symptoms like muscle strain, dizziness, and heartburn and even arthritis and chronic pain seem to be lesser painful when we are happy. Mainly because we have more endorphins in our blood stream effectively acting as natural pain killers.

8. Stress

Stress is not only upsetting on a psychological level but also triggers biological changes in our hormones and blood pressure. Happiness seems to temper these effects, or at least help us recover more quickly. Happiness also seems to carry benefits when stress is inevitable. The happier we are, the lower our cortisol levels. Cortisol is a stress hormone, of which high levels are linked to conditions such as type II diabetes and hypertension. And lower heart rates are associated with good cardiovascular health.

9. Genes

Yes, Happiness can alter our genes! People with a deep sense of happiness and well-being have lower levels of inflammatory gene expression and stronger antiviral and antibody responses. This falls into the realm of epigenetics – changing the way our genes function by turning them off and on. Epigenetics doesn’t change the genetic code; it changes the readout of a single gene to create over 30,000 different proteins. When a human being encounters happiness and love, the growth genes are activated. When a human being encounters fear, the protection genes are activated. Thus, perfectly normal genes can result in cancer or death. Vice-versa, in the right happy environment, mutant genes won’t be expressed.

10. Lifespan

In the end, the ultimate health indicator might be longevity—and here, especially, happiness comes into play. As we become older, the other condition that often afflicts us is frailty, which is characterized by impaired strength, endurance, and balance and puts us at risk of disability and death. However, happier people are less likely to be frail. In essence, true happiness – the kind rooted in virtue – can help prevent disease. It keeps inflammation – which is linked to numerous illnesses in the body, including heart disease – at bay while still fighting off infection and disease.

That’s perhaps one reason why Mother Theresa lived till the age of 87 despite being around the sick and dying for so many years.

I would like to end the blog with a quote by Voltaire – “I have chosen to be happy because it is good for my health.”

Have you?

October 3, 2018 By Divya Thampi Leave a Comment

Setting Myself Free from Grudges

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Having arrived half an hour ahead of time, I settled in with my laptop, a bottle of drinking water and adjusted the client’s chair carefully at the right angle. With 5 more minutes to go for the first client to arrive, I made a call to the account manager of the company which had hired my services for this project. The arrangement was that I would visit this client’s premises once every fortnight for a few hours. As I had been travelling for the last few weeks, I was resuming service after a month’s interval, and saying “hello” to the account manager seemed like a good idea. With a smile on my face and a tune on my lips, I dialled his number and waited for the response. After about five rings, I heard his voice say “Hello”. With a widening smile, I asked about his health and went on to update him about my arrival at the client site.

Anger

There was a pause on the other side of the line. Wondering if I had lost him, I checked “are you there?” He confirmed that he was. Then sounding sheepish he told me that there had been an oversight on his part and he had forgotten to update me about a change of schedule. Essentially, he was telling me that I wasn’t supposed to be there that day. My smile faltered and eyebrows knitted together, while my mind tried to make sense of what he said. I could hear him carry on saying that my travel expenses would be reimbursed and that he really was sorry about the mix-up. As the full implication of what he was saying dawned on me, I sensed the blood rush to my face. But, before my protests could leave my lips, he repeated his apology and bid a hurried goodbye.

In a matter of seconds, my breath had quickened, my jaws had clenched and I could feel anger bubbling up within my chest. Thoughts about how unprofessional he had been, how his company was taking me for granted and how his apology didn’t sound sincere, added fuel to the already burning fire.

The thing about being a practising Emotional Wellness coach is that while you can choose to not practice some of the things you preach about regulating emotions, awareness of the feelings rising and falling within the self, is not something you can completely ignore, even if you wish to. It was almost as if there were two of me. One experiencing the anger and frustration and the other observing the first, calmly. This ‘calm me’ gently pointed out to the ‘upset me’ that just a few weeks back I had promised myself that I would let go of chaotic thoughts and feelings, that had the tendency to drag me down and drain me of vitality. I tried hard to ignore that quieter voice. But it persisted.

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Parallelly, my mind had been busy plotting revenge by considering demanding pay for my lost time, writing detailed emails about unprofessional behaviour of the manager to the top boss and eliciting a sincerer apology from him. Suddenly, the quieter voice in my head took control and drew attention to the ridiculousness of all these plans (a sincerer apology? Really). It occurred to me that the situation couldn’t be reversed. No matter how much I seethed, the schedule was not going to change. Recognizing the futility of holding on to anger towards the manager, helped me consider the choices I had at this moment. I could either go on being upset, telling myself stories about how unfair others had been to me and how I deserved more respect, OR then I could spend this spare time on something more rewarding.

“Every ego confuses opinions and viewpoints with facts. Furthermore, it cannot tell the difference between an event and its reaction to that event. Every ego is a master of selective perception and distorted interpretation. Only through awareness – not through thinking – can you differentiate between fact and opinion. Only through awareness are you able to see: There is the situation and here is the anger I feel about it, and then realize there are other ways of approaching the situation, other ways of seeing and dealing with it. Only through awareness can you see the totality of the situation or person instead of adopting one limited perspective.”–Eckhart Tolle

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As I calmed myself down by slowing down my breathing, an option to view the situation from a different perspective, presented itself – Maybe there had been a genuine and unintended oversight and maybe the manager was truly sorry? I thought about all my past interactions with him and it was evident that he was indeed a sincere person who took his work and responsibilities seriously. I reflected further and was convinced that the oversight couldn’t have been deliberate. ‘He is only human and we all make errors’, I reflected, ‘I have been there too. How would I feel if I made an unintended error and someone tried to rub my nose in it?’ Turning my attention back to me, I studied my own waning anger with more compassion and recognized my emotional patterns that tended to play out on automatic mode whenever my awareness was low. As my empathy towards myself increased, so did my compassion towards the manager. Taking deep breaths, I allowed these calming thoughts to wash over me.

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“As I look back on my life, I realise that every time I thought I was being rejected from something good, I was actually being re-directed to something better.” – Steve Maraboli

As the moments passed I could feel the smile returning to my lips and with a sudden sense of adventure I mentally ran through the many exciting options I had for spending this newfound time, in what had been an especially packed week. I eventually decided to meet a longtime family friend who stayed close by. A quick call confirmed that they would be more than happy to have me over for lunch and with a spring in my step I set out to explore the day!

After a wonderful time with friends and some additional time to catch my breath at home, I felt revitalized for my next assignment that evening. When the day turned to night, I received a text message from the account manager expressing his sincerest apologies and acknowledgement for the frustration I must have experienced during the day. I hastened to let him know that I had been upset for all of 2 minutes. I went on to elaborate that I trusted his sincerity and that I was not upset in the least. Saying this, flooded me with a sense of gratitude and realized that this experience had been a gift; an opportunity to practice letting go.

“One thing we do know: Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness. How do you know that this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at this moment.” – Eckhart Tolle

It doesn’t come this easy every time. Each time I start to bask in the assumption that I have mastered the art of calming down, yet another episode pops up to remind me of my fallibility. But it is in those very humbling experiences, where I have been beaten by my own resentment and upset feelings that I have learnt the most valuable lessons on setting myself free from my own grudges!

May 23, 2018 By Shilpa Govindan 1 Comment

Cue to happiness

Happiness is a very subjective matter and differs from person to person and ultimately all our efforts and desires lead us to one underlying fact of attaining happiness in life. Don’t we all live to be happy?

Many thought processes exist within us. These ‘thoughts’ create our belief systems, these beliefs urge us to have ‘emotions’, these emotions seep into our ‘energy body’ or the ‘aura’ and then finally settle down in our ‘physical body’ or ‘physical world’.

To elaborate, the brain sends out electromagnetic waves to the body for any action or reaction and basic functions of the body, including breathing, heartbeat, hormone secretion etc. are controlled by the mind whether we are awake, asleep or in a state of trance.

So, if the Mind can do all this, it would be natural for us to assume that the mind is also capable of restricting the blood flow, heart rate and movement. It can even restrict the functioning of the digestive and liver thereby decreasing metabolism and adding weight, causing BP, Cholesterol etc. At the end of the day, we may call this Disease and one of the most important factors of its cause is dependent largely on our thought process or rather how we think.

Disease originates from our mind-activity and it has been researched subjectively that worry affects your spleen, fear affects the kidney, and grief targets your heart and so on. The impact of our thinking mind has a resultant effect on our physical body, good and bad.

Therefore, when it comes to healing yourself, you have to also sort it out at the thought level and soon you will realize that it will have a positive and long-lasting effect on your physical body. The same goes with your physical world and surrounding. It is the inner workings that have the most result.

All this energy and thought process also reflects our real-life circumstances. You may have experienced that if you feel upset one morning, there is a chance that your entire day would be bad. Repeated negative thinking, once ingrained into the mind can create repeated negative experiences outside control. The good news is that it is not permanent and can be changed!

Here’s why and how,

Happiness in itself is a HABIT- a conditioning or association the Mind has received from a very early age through REPETITIVE thinking. All habits are created through repetition. So, learning to be thankful and having gratitude for simple things, even the very oxygen we breathe, is essential, so as to understand how not react to troubled situations but instead respond with ease, peace and compassion.

With our awareness and understanding and wisdom to respond positively to a situation, we find that the issues in life that used to upset us miraculously feel minuscule and sometimes even disintegrate. Our energy body changes in frequency and vibration thereby attracting more positive opportunities and experiences to us.

How we cultivate this habit of happiness, can vary widely, we can choose to;

1) Meditate regularly teaching the body and mind to regularly let go of stress and create an environment of peace and calm

2) Use a hobby as a trigger for happiness

3) Use a technique called ‘Affirmations’; where we use a statement that is completely opposite to our current limiting belief, and repeat the sentence as many times with feeling. It is to pass a command from the conscious mind to the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind has the ability, to accept anything as true, to do whatever it takes to turn it into reality, creating a new neuro-pathways in the brain. For eg; Limiting belief – It’s hard to lose weight. New belief you want to cultivate – Losing weight is easy for me

4) Express gratitude or keep a journal of thankfulness

5) Not to identify with suffering, loss, or illness as being who you are. Being kind to yourself and others is a skill and developed with practice and mindfulness, which leads to happiness.

Lastly and most importantly, is to keep consistent because we are all human. Emotions and experiences are a part of growth and learning and wisdom of a wonderful life, meanwhile, we can always train our minds to ‘let go’ of things that affect us adversely.

Learn Happiness!