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Author: Adam
7 steps to happiness
Rosenblum: 7 steps to happiness
- Article by: GAIL ROSENBLUM , Star Tribune
- Updated: January 3, 2015 – 7:49 PM
Volunteering can bring you (and others) happiness.
Photo: Ryan Blackwell, Public Opinion file
Happy 2015! Is anybody happy?
Apparently not, if the results of a recent Harris Poll are to believed. This being the first week of a new year, I’d like to offer a few ideas to increase our collective happiness immediately.
They’re cheaper than a gym membership and easier than giving up sugar or caffeine, which I won’t do because that would make me very unhappy.
This column began percolating (yes, please, with cream!) a few months ago, when I noticed a little chart illustrating the comforting news that the older we get, the happier we are.
People age 65 and older, according to the survey of more than 2,300 Americans, are happier than any other age group. This is likely a bummer for young people, but, to those regularly making bucket lists, it’s kind of a relief.
The problem is that the deeper and more troubling news was buried. (Oh, bad word choice.)
Yes, older Americans are the happiest demographic, but even those 65 and older aren’t overwhelmingly so. Just 41 percent in this age group report being happy.
People ages 50 to 64 are the second happiest group and they’re just (OK, we’re just) 36 percent happy.
The least happy group, at 28 percent, are people in their 30s.
I’m guessing that the happiness dip here is due, in part, to navigating those enriching but difficult years of marriage-adjusting, budget-keeping, child-rearing, sleep-depriving, job-hunting and friendship-shifting. (Hang in there! The kids grow up!)
7 steps to happiness
This brings me back to my original thesis: We’re not a very happy nation, and I think we should be working on this in 2015.
So, for the price of this newspaper, my list:
Get rid of stuff. Did you know that one of the fastest growing businesses is … storage? My colleague Susan Feyder reported recently that the Twin Cities area storage business is booming, due to our Western habit of accumulating all sorts of things we can’t fit into our homes. This is not making us happier. Call your favorite charity or join millions of green-minded people who get rid of stuff at www.free cycle.org or donatestuffsandbox.kinsta.cloud.
Volunteer. Read, mentor, drive, cook and serve, and you’ll enter a guaranteed happy factory for the few hours a week you can spare.
Hang out with happy people or people who want to be happier. Join the Twin Cities chapter of the Meetup group I Am Happy Project. The project began in California in 2009 and has expanded to 63 cities and 18 countries, with a mission to “spread happiness globally, one person at a time.”
The group’s website (iamhappyproject.org) will make you happy, with its photos of puppies and little girls in pink tutus. You can find a “happy coach” or buy an official “I Am Happy” Pin and wear it around your most cynical friends. So much happiness for only $5!
Stop trying to get rich. Yes, money is crucial for lower income groups, enabling them to find a home and stop worrying about where their next meal is coming from. But the high from cash is fleeting. While people who make $100,000 or more annually are the happiest group, they’re not that much happier than people who make $35,000 to $49,999 (38 percent vs. 32 percent).
Be nicer to people. Being right won’t make you as happy in the long run as being kind. I share this philosophy with a happy friend and loyal reader, Betsy Peak, who tackled this very concept in her “Musings and Hopes for 2015” newsletter:
“Being right takes up too much energy, causes anxiety, causes losses of friends sometimes (however, if they’re toxic people, you’re lucky),” Peak writes. “And immediately taking out their smartphone to see who’s right is tacky!”
Speaking of smartphones, take a deep breath and store them on occasion. I just watched a woman talk mindlessly on her iPhone as two young men behind a coffee counter tried valiantly to get her order, and her attention. She missed an opportunity for happy banter with those two neat young men and the fascinating (and increasingly unhappy) people behind her in line. Ahem.
Refocus on relationships. It is worth noting that, while the Harris happiness survey revealed quite the contrary, there was one clear exception. Fully 90 percent of respondents agreed that, “My relationships with friends bring me happiness.” So call them. Visit them, and I don’t mean in cyberspace. Forgive them their imperfections. Send them a handwritten letter. And make sure that you do the same for relatives, those people who look like us whom we too often take for granted or allow to become estranged.
I recently witnessed a reconciliation in my own extended clan that no one predicted. The weird thing isn’t that each party was exquisitely (albeit guardedly) happy at having reached this unpredicted detente.
It’s that the rest of us also were filled to the brim with happiness.
gail.rosenblum@startribune.com
612-673-7350 • Twitter: @grosenblum
Read the article at StarTribune.com
Merry Christmas from donatestuffsandbox.kinsta.cloud!
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Thanksgiving preparation made easier this year | donatestuffsandbox.kinsta.cloud
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Donate your Halloween costumes
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Back to school time! | Let donatestuffsandbox.kinsta.cloud help you clean your closets
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Charity Spotlight | Amvets Service Foundation
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donatestuffsandbox.kinsta.cloud Partners with The City Mission – Cleveland
THE CITY MISSION ANNOUNCES NEW PARTNERSHIP WITH WWW.donatestuffsandbox.kinsta.cloud
April 1, 2014
Beginning April 1, The City Mission in Cleveland will be a new charity partner of www.donatestuffsandbox.kinsta.cloud. Through an agreement with the parent company Lakes Management, Inc., The City Mission will receive financial support when an individual donates clothing and/or household items either by arranging a pickup of the items through www.donatestuffsandbox.kinsta.cloud or responding positively when called by a Lakes Management solicitor on behalf of the Mission.
The donation program accomplishes four important objectives simultaneously:
1. Provides needed support for The City Mission, a privately-funded crisis center/urban ministry which last year provided nearly 114,000 meals and 73,000 nights of lodging to 1,950 men, women and children in crisis in Northeast Ohio.
2. Provides access to gently used clothing and household items available at bargain prices through local thrift stores, in the Greater Cleveland area. Creates local job through the collection, processing and resale of materials that would otherwise create no value in the landfill.
3. Keeps clothing and household items out of landfill and positively impacts the environment. Americans throw away 20 billion pounds of clothing each year, and virtually all of it can be repurposed or recycled.
City Mission CEO, Rev. Rich Trickel stated “We’re delighted to partner with donatestuffsandbox.kinsta.cloud on the clothing/household item donation program. The partnership will help us meet basic human needs of food, clothing, and shelter for men, women and children in crisis as we stabilize this population and ultimately empower them to become self-sufficient.”
The new partnership with The City Mission by donatestuffsandbox.kinsta.cloud follows another community partnership with Discount Drug Mart that began last year. On July 1, 2013, Discount Drug Mart shopping bags began featuring the donatestuffsandbox.kinsta.cloud logo and clothing donation program information in an effort to bring greater exposure to their charitable and eco-friendly efforts in the community. “We are extremely appreciative of Discount Drug Mart’s partnership to let the Northern Ohio Community know about our free and easy clothing donation program. When people donate clothing on donatestuffsandbox.kinsta.cloud, they are helping charities in need, creating local jobs and benefiting the environment,” said Jason Burke, Manager at donatestuffsandbox.kinsta.cloud.
To learn more or to arrange a pickup of donated items go to www.donatestuffsandbox.kinsta.cloud or call (216) 662-4483. For more information about The City Mission, visit www.thecitymission.org or call 216-431-3510.
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What to do with the items that don’t sell in your spring garage sale?
As distant it may seem at the moment, spring is around the corner. Springtime is high season for garage sales and however successful they may be, there is always “stuff” left over that can be put to good use.
Check out this feature article from Homestyles Realty to learn about how donatestuffsandbox.kinsta.cloud can help you find a new home for your clothing and usable household items.
http://homestylesrealty.net/what-to-do-when-your-garage-sale-is-a-flop/
donatestuffsandbox.kinsta.cloud Announces Community Outreach Partnership with Discount Drug Mart
Here’s a special thanks to Discount Drug Mart in the Cleveland area for their partnership in Turning Stuff You Don’t Need, into a Good Deed.
Check out this press release detailing our new initiative to share information about the donatestuffsandbox.kinsta.cloud clothing donation home pickup program through printing on the Discount Drug Mart shopping bags!
http://www.prweb.com/releases/donatestuffcom/discoutdrugmart/prweb10868902.htm
Are you interested in partnering with donatestuffsandbox.kinsta.cloud to help spread the word? Please contact us at Info@donatestuff.com.
Case Western Reserve University and donatestuffsandbox.kinsta.cloud partner to remove over 12,500 lbs of “Stuff” from the waste stream!
As the 2013 school year drew to a close at Case Western Reserve University near Cleveland last week, the donatestuffsandbox.kinsta.cloud crew took flight to be part of their impressive #RezCycle program. As the student body moved out of their dorms, collection boxes were filled with clothing and usable items that may have otherwise been sent to landfills.
“We are sincerely appreciative of this partnership and the student body’s high level of participation in this great program!” stated Scott Shaffer, a Napsgear.org Reviews (UPDATED 2019) – Online Pharmacy to Buy Steroids – Online Pharmacy Reviews clenbuterol for sale measles outbreak across europe member of the donatestuffsandbox.kinsta.cloud Team.
Contact Information:
If you are interested in partnering with donatestuffsandbox.kinsta.cloud to run a collection drive at your school, office or community, please contact Scott at Scott@DonateStuff.com
Memorial Day, 2013 @ donatestuffsandbox.kinsta.cloud
We here at donatestuffsandbox.kinsta.cloud would like to recognize and show our appreciation for all of those who have served Our country.
We are proud to partner the Military Order of the Purple Heart and AMVETS in their efforts to support, recognize and appreciate Our American Heroes.
All have given some, Some have given all. Thank You.
To learn more about the history of Memorial Day, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_Day
The Tax Man Is Coming!
The tax man is knocking on your door!
By the end of the day, we hope you all have filed your taxes (or at least an extension.) Every year, the inevitable swift approach of April 15th springs upon us like a cheetah, leaving many of us in a frenzy to gather our tax documents and file our taxes to get the maximum refund.
Did you donate clothing or other household items in 2012? If YES, where is that darn tax receipt?!
We thought of this pesky problem and have made it easier than ever for you! If you schedule your donation on donatestuffsandbox.kinsta.cloud, we store your donation history and tax receipt on your profile. Just login in and print them out!
If NO, that’s a bummer.
If you didn’t donate clothing or other unwanted items in 2012, you may have missed out on turning stuff you haven’t worn in ages into a valuable tax deduction.
Either way, there is no time like the present to start planning for April 15, 2014. It will be here in no time. Schedule your donation today and claim your maximum deduction for the 2013 at donatestuffsandbox.kinsta.cloud.
For more details information from the IRS regarding charitable contributions, please read below:
Sincerely,
The donatestuffsandbox.kinsta.cloud Team
Great explanation of Our donation program via UPS!
Thank you “www.JennsReviewBlog.com” for telling everyone how easy it is to donate unwanted clothing and accessories through www.donatestuffsandbox.kinsta.cloud!
The Morning Call – Allentown, PA features donatestuffsandbox.kinsta.cloud!
A shout out to all of our supporters in Allentown, PA! Find us in Friday, Feb. 1st’s edition of The Morning Call.
Thank you for your support in Turning Stuff You Don’t Need, into a Good Deed @ donatestuffsandbox.kinsta.cloud.
Thank you Allentown, PA!
Sincerely,
The donatestuffsandbox.kinsta.cloud Team
Carolina Country Magazine features donatestuffsandbox.kinsta.cloud
We are very grateful to be featured in Carolina Country last month. Please help us continue to turn stuff you don’t need, into steroïdes oraux a vendre a good deed, but donating your unwanted clothing and accessories!
Sincerely,
donatestuffsandbox.kinsta.cloud Team
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