Things Are Good


Inspirational and good news.

A 4-Day Work Week Works

Working full time can easily drain one’s life, so don’t do it. The state of Utah now has their government employees work only four days a week and everyone’s loving it. Perhaps during this time of economic recovery we can negotiate a better people-friendly work week for the labour force.
A whole series of unexpected benefits [...]

January 19th, 2010
Topic: Good Fact Tags: , , , , ,

Gross National Happiness Redux

We’ve written about Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness before, but now that the new policy has been in place in a while, it’s a good time to revisit the topic.
First, Bhutan has very nicely posted all their research online.
Second, the good news is that Bhutan’s research is being applied elsewhere, within the rubric of the burgeoning [...]

December 3rd, 2009
Topic: Good Fact Tags: , , , ,

The Dark Side of Hope

You’ve probably heard people say that we should have reasonable goals and, you know what, they’re right. If you have reasonable expectations about the world around you, you can have a happier life – some new research backs this idea up by studying happiness in people after a major surgery.
GIVING up hope can actually make [...]

November 4th, 2009
Topic: Good Fact Tags: , , , , ,

Think Good Thoughts About Yesterday for Happiness Today

This is a very simple way to make sure that you are happy and positive in life: just think about a good thing that happened to you yesterday.
It showed a 7 per cent increase in overall cheerfulness after the experiment.
”The figure is statistically significant,” said Prof Wiseman. ”I thought with a representative sample you [...]

August 13th, 2009
Topic: Mind Space Tags: , ,

Your Brain Enjoys Learning

Information is something that your brain genuinely craves and when it learns something new it gives us a little reward. New research as looked into why information is its own reward.
This preference for knowledge about the future was intimately linked to the monkeys’ desire for water. The same neurons in the middle of their brains [...]

July 27th, 2009
Topic: Body & Mind, Mind Space Tags: , , ,

Happiest Place on Earth is Costa Rica

The New Economics Foundation has declared Costa Rica as the happiest place on earth.
The New Economics Foundation looked at 143 countries that are home to 99 percent of the world’s population and devised an equation that weighed life expectancy and people’s happiness against their environmental impact.
By that formula, Costa Rica is the happiest, greenest country [...]

July 6th, 2009
Topic: Body & Mind Tags: , ,