Green Ideas editor

The habits of happy people

Green Ideas editor Greg Roughan 26 March, 2014

I was chatting to my cousin the other day – he lives in Canada, so we were using a phone app called Voxer (which is a cool new way to communicate, but that’s another story) – and he told me they’d had a presentation at work from a Harvard expert on happiness.

Really? Harvard University has people who study happiness? That’s intriguing already, I told him. So what did this guy have to say?

Well, according to my cousin, this researcher said that truly happy people had several habits in common – and that one of these so-called secrets of happiness was regularly expressing gratitude.

Funny, huh? To me it seems a bit back-to-front to think that by expressing gratitude to other people, the happiness somehow bounces back to you, and makes you feel good in a meaningful, long-term way.

It also got me thinking about the latest Green Ideas magazine cover – which features the rather likeable Loz and Tom Heaphy, who were on that home renovation show The Block NZ.

If you watched the show, you’ll know they didn’t do very well at the end, and on the final, live episode, their disappointment was written all over their faces. They’d worked hard, they came last, and they were gutted.

Yet afterwards they repeatedly said how grateful they were for the experience – and having met them for the story we did in Green Ideas, I reckon they really mean it.

They seem like genuinely gracious, grateful people – and they also seem like pretty happy people too. So maybe there really is something in this gratitude/happiness malarkey?

Alright then, perhaps I’ll give it a crack. So brace yourself, this could get a bit syrupy. But here goes:

I’m actually really grateful that Loz and Tom are in our magazine this month. Their story about using waste to make beautiful furniture is a perfect fit for Green Ideas.
And I’m really grateful to our readers, too. The support we’ve had since we launched a year ago has been phenomenal, and makes this the most rewarding job I’ve had.
Finally, I’m also grateful that it’s nearly Christmas – I’m really looking forward to spending more time with my lovely family – and I hope you guys have an awesome time too.

Whew.

Well that wasn’t so bad. I dunno how it went for you lot, but I’m getting a bit of a glow.

Merry Christmas.

Greg Roughan
Editor, Green Ideas magazine