Jon Pollard's blog

We live in a very strange world where some people are obese while others are struggling to find food and neither state is a particularly happy one. 

 It's heart warming to see so many people getting out and about and doing something to change the world. Unfortunately, I can't help feeling that they are campaigning for the wrong thing!

 Listening to the today programme on radio 4 this morning I heard a story about how we should test  kids in PE to make sure they are getting fitter. And I thought, well, hey, why not teach them about what makes people happy - and then test how happy they are - and then see if we can make them happier.

Which is either crazy, or a brilliant idea which will happen pretty soon! Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference.

I've just been looking through a great site - www.actionforhappiness.org - doing all the things that we should have been doing here but haven't had the time or resources.

 I've just been watching Question Time, and the general public seem to be hostile to the idea that the government should be concerned about their happiness. "What a waste of money" seemed to be the general feeling. 

That is the main heading this morning on www.bbc.co.uk and here is a link to the full story:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11833241

The campaign launches today, so the news will probably be full of happiness.

I was just looking through books about happiness on Amazon when I stumbled across a link to a Google sponsored talk by one of the authors:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1424079446171087119#

Very intersting. It describes a link between brain functioning and meditation. Tibetan buddhists are finding a scientific basis their practices in order to spread more happiness in a largley secular world.

A very interesting watch!

 It looks like David Cameron has been reading this site, he's announced a new index of well being for Britain - GWB, General Well Being as opposed to GDP. This is how The guardian reported it.

And how is this for quite an amazing quote from a Conservative Prime Minister...

"Taking part in gardening can make a child feel happy and boost their development, research suggests."
 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/10427338.stm
 
Of course, we already knew that, but here is yet more research to back it up!

I saw this news story on the BBC News site the other day: 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/10197763.stm  

Mary Portas (a retail expert) is concerned that the domination of supermarkets is having a detrimental effect on the quality of life - "Portas said she believed communities were being sacrificed for convenience."