Experts from fields ranging from neuroscience and philosophy to psychology and theology will gather to discuss the latest insights on living happier lives at the meeting in Sydney, Australia.
Drawn to workshops with titles like The Architecture of Sustainable Happiness and Practical Tools for Positive Relationships, more than 2,000 participants are expected to attend the conference.
In recent years, cognitive scientists have turned in increasing numbers to the study of human happiness. Given time, survivors of tragedies and traumas report themselves nearly as happy as they were before, and people who win the lottery or achieve lifelong dreams don’t see any long-term increase in happiness. By contrast, annoyances like noise or chronic pain bring down our happiness more than you’d think, and having friends or an extra hour of sleep every night can raise it dramatically. Story at Boston Globe
I will be at the “Art in the Park” celebration at the author’s table over the 4th of July weekend this year in Eugene, Oregon and the authors table at the Lane County Fair.
Exact times to follow or email us.
Thanks to you all the message of Unstoppable Joy! is taking root in a big way.
I have been so busy that I have not been blogging nearly enough. I have been wrapped up in creating a new animated video with a world class animator. It will demonstrate many of the Unstoppable Joy! principals with humor in under 10 minutes.
Watching this amazing creation take shape in front of my eyes is wonderful. I have always loved animation - and now my ideas will be communicated in this amazing form. I’ll keep you posted but for a hint the name is “The Story of Fear”.
I will be at the “Art in the Park” celebration at the author’s table over the 4th of July weekend this year in Eugene, Oregon and the authors table at the Lane County Fair.
A reunion straight out of the movies.
Just had a reunion with my old buddy from elementary through high school. He and I were both the social outcasts of the Catholic school - so we bonded very strongly. We really only had each other for friends - no one else would associate with us.
He is now a world famous movie sound engineer (academy nominated and various other awards) who is up in Eugene shooting a movie for the next few weeks.
He is also a fantastic country musician who has played both Grand Ole Opry and Carnegie Hall and over the years has played with eveyone from Willie Nelson to BB King.!
Just like me he became way more than expected 
Today’s blog post is going to be different than my usual.
It brings me lots of Joy to acknowledge greatness where deserved and earned. Sometimes you run into a healer whose abilities are so phenomenal that you just have to talk about her.
In this case her name is Elisa Olalde.
I ran into Elisa at the Christmas Faire in Eugene in 1997. She was working at a booth with another masseuse giving folks neck massages.I was feeling sore and worn out that day so I stopped in and had Elisa work on me for just 15 or 20 minutes.
When I walked away from that booth I’ll never forget how it felt like I was floating, rather than walking.
Her energy was so joyous and positive, her hands so skilled that I came back every weekend for the next four weekends to the Christmas Faire just to get a massage from her.
After the fair shut down I kept seeing her once every few weeks for a massage or home office.
Early last year I got a horrible rotator cuff injury when I took a fall on ice. A few of my muscles even got torn in the fall.
My friends all said I should go to the hospital and get cut up and sewn back together but instead I upped my visits to Elisa to once a week.
She would get deep in to all of my muscles in my shoulder, relax them and over the course of months of treatment for pain eventually went away.
Within nine months I had 90% of my range of motion back . These days the shoulder rarely bothers me at all.
I credit this phenomenal healing to my visits with Elisa Olalde.
A very amazing thing about Elisa is that I hardly ever have to tell her where it hurts. She is so intuitive and her hands so sensitive that it takes very little time to zoom in on exactly the problem originates.
Unlike so many masseuses I have seen, visits with Elisa Olalde are extremely peaceful. She doesn’t chatter away through a visit she focuses her mind and hands on the healing at hand. Sometimes hardly a word is said during an entire hour.
And in that hour my body goes through a transformation. My muscles relieved, my energy rebalanced, all of the stress taken away by Elisa’s loving hands.
She is an angel in my life. If you are lucky enough to live close to Eugene Oregon you an contact her through her website at
http://www.elisaolalde.massagetherapy.com/
Growth or insanity - that is the question.
In the past few years I’ve noticed many radical changes that have developed in my lifestyle.
My friends and acquaintances are quite amused by a lot of this because so many of these changes go against what I call the normal grain of our society.
And as I look at these changes I am pleased but a bit perplexed.
So for my own sanity I’m going to list them in this article and review them.
I used to love or watch movies. Like many of us I accumulated a collection of my favorites.
And of course a nice flat screen 32 inch TV to watch them on.
I realized a few weeks back that I hadn’t even turned my television on in over a month. I actually have it covered with a beautiful a batik so I don’t have to stare at the big black empty space.
I gave up watching television programming years ago but I continued to watch movies and rent them on a regular basis. I had a subscription with Netflix so there were always two or three new movies sitting around.
I gave up my Netflix subscription over a year ago. I remember how I would go look at the selection and realize there really was nothing else I wanted to see.
I still grab a major movie down at Redbox when something special comes out. But the amount of times I can get excited enough even go rent one has dwindled down to about once a month at most.
It’s because when I want to relax there are so many more beautiful things to contemplate then a television screen. The surrounding scenery, the trees, the birds, the moon, the clouds, and all of the rest of the beautiful natural phenomena in the world.
So I no longer limit visual stimulation to the light patterns emanating from a television screen.
In the evening I replaced my television with candles. I love the flickering of the candlelight and the peace it brings to my soul.
I used to love to listen to music all night through my wonderful hi-fi system.
Now I look at those giant speakers as they sit silent most of the time. It’s not that I don’t love music. I love it more now than I ever have any time in my life.
The difference is I hear music all around me now. I hear it in the wind, I hear it in the birds, I hear it in the laughter of little children, I even hear it in the buzz in the middle of the city.
The divine goddess created all of the sounds around me and they are all part of an infinite Symphony of perfection.
So I no longer limit music to the sound patterns that I choose to come from a set of speakers.
I used be willing to drive all day to get to a beautiful location.
I packed all my goodies and a lunch and headed out for places that I knew would make me feel so special.
The beach, the river, anywhere as long as it was beautiful.
.But now I find that I am always in a beautiful location. If I’m not in the city I am overwhelmed by the beauty of nature around me.
If I’m in the city or a crowded place I am overwhelmed by the beauty of love that I see people expressing towards each other. Parents and children. Mothers and babies. Young lovers. Strangers giving money to the poor. Church groups feeding hungry people. And strangers simply giving another stranger a helping hand.
Love is everywhere if you simply open your eyes and look for it. Everywhere, that is, except for the unforgiving thoughts in your mind.
I no longer limit beauty to places that fit my old limited definition of what beauty is.
And all of the wonderful possessions that I’ve accumulated over the decades are looking less like rewards and more like anchors holding me back.
So perhaps I am going insane.
Or maybe for the first time in my life sanity has finally opened my eyes.
“The sky is falling..the sky is falling” Chicken Little
2009 is gonna be Divine.
When you hear all the nay sayers in the mass media trying to raise your stress level by predicting economic chaos be sure to consider this. There are about 14,000 paid professional economists in this country. Out of those 14,000 only 4 to 10 saw the Oct surprise coming. All those other 13,990 are still at work - and it is their predictions that these mass media stories are based on.
Logic dictates that their models are seriously flawed.
Instead of planning and creating our future based on the whims of Wall Street, let’s all get creative, get to work, start reaching out and helping each other and make 2009 the best and most prosperous year ever.
Real prosperity - not prosperity built on some third parties opinion of what a piece of paper with a white male president’s picture on it is worth.
Let us create a new bull market of Joy.
The real prosperity of community and joy. The prosperity of celebrating under the full moon together.
The prosperity of being human enough to offer help where needed and the abundance of asking for help when you are in need.
The financial security of knowing that when needs arise - a community will be there to help you, as you have helped them.
Let us build new communities of creative folks who use a new economy.
The economy of the “golden parachute” of supporting our elders in their old age and utilizing them for their wisdom, not to greet folks at Wal Mart.
The “investment strategy” of seeing children and their needs as sacred and never ignoring a hungry child.
The “options” of seeing women and men as 2 sides of the exact same coin.
The “killer deal” of recognizing that ancient wisdom, techniques and healing arts have thousands of years of experience and real world testing.
The “portfolio diversity” of accepting all religions, faiths, orientations and beliefs into the community so we all benefit from multiple perspectives.
The “blue chip stock” of nurturing and supporting our artists and creative folks and watching out minds and community bloom with beauty.
A new economy of love - not gold and silver.
I know - it’s a big project. There are a zillion obstacles.
And I say to you.
If not now…when? If not us…who?
“To dream the impossible dream…to fight the unbeatable foe….to go where no one will dare going…”
So do we cower and grovel at the feet of the false prophets of economists?
Or do we dream impossible dreams and reach out for the unreachable star of a new world where all are fed and healed with or without the poker chips of money? Where every human sleeps secure and well fed whether 6 months old or 109?
You know which one I choose.
You are all invited to join me.
Blessings and Joy
Ed Osworth
Author of “Unstoppable Joy -
A Happier You in 12 Simple Steps”
UnstoppableJoy.com
http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/web/sports/columnists/3780733-41/story.csp
The local paper here in Oregon did a wonderful article on my deeds here.
By Bob Welch Register-Guard Published: Dec 6, 2008 06:44PM
When Ed Osworth of Lowell read Thursday’s column about Sheldon High’s new Random Acts of Kindness Club — and how being nice got the students kicked out of a mall and questioned by the police — he was taken back to Grants Pass on a rainy Christmas Eve 1997.
Osworth, now 57, had lived the good life in the San Francisco area. He helped launch a lucrative business, got into real estate, became rich, drove a Mercedes.
Then it all unraveled. He went bankrupt. Got divorced. Gained 100 pounds. And lost hope.
“I was sitting in a beat-up old car. The windows were fogged up. I felt like the ultimate failure. And then a woman walked by, smiled and said, ‘Merry Christmas.’?”
Her random act of kindness, he says, changed his life.
continued at Register Guard Site
