wellbeingandhealth.net » Social Context http://wellbeingandhealth.net All aspects of wellbeing and health Sun, 04 Jul 2010 09:29:33 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Happy Rich http://wellbeingandhealth.net/uncategorized/happy-rich/ http://wellbeingandhealth.net/uncategorized/happy-rich/#comments Thu, 17 Jun 2010 00:39:55 +0000 Evan http://wellbeingandhealth.net/?p=1710 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> Nacie Carson is a long-time blogging friend who has just released an excellent product called the Happy Rich System. It is for those who no longer wish to do work just so they can make enough to live on.

It is a video and accompanying worksheets. (There is also the option of buying Nacie’s book at the same time.)

I have seen the video – it is clearly delivered, logically laid out, and provides all you need to know to start your own on line business. It is not salesy hype but do-able steps in a logical sequence.

If you are looking for a change from working for others, this is an excellent guide to building your own income on line. Find out about it here.

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]]> http://wellbeingandhealth.net/uncategorized/happy-rich/feed/ 0 The Pilgrim http://wellbeingandhealth.net/psychological-health/the-pilgrim/ http://wellbeingandhealth.net/psychological-health/the-pilgrim/#comments Sun, 30 May 2010 07:53:29 +0000 Evan http://wellbeingandhealth.net/?p=1694 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> The Pilgrim sets out on a journey. And the pilgrim knows where they are going. They may know that the way will be difficult – and sometimes this is a meaningful part of the pilgrimage, but in a sense both the way and the destination are known.

There may be surprises on the pilgrim’s journey but these are secondary. Being on a pilgrimage may be enjoyable but the enjoyment is not the point. There is a difference between a pilgrimage and a holiday; between a pilgrim and a tourist. For the pilgrim there is a purpose and to depart from this purpose is to stop being a pilgrim.

The pilgrim sets out on a pilgrimage for a known purpose – to pay a debt, to express penance, or to seek a blessing. A pilgrimage in this sense is a closed loop – it can be planned, a pilgrim is not open to any experience but chooses among experiences. A pilgrimage has focus and perhaps even a touch of austerity. A pilgrim does not take our everyday concerns and involvements with complete seriousness – they are moving on.

To be immersed in the everyday, involved in our normal relationships, fulfilling our usual roles, is not compatible with a pilgrimage. Pilgrimage may not be a lifestyle, it can be limited in time, but it relies on the everyday – the pilgrim is sustained by their own past and others current work. Just as in modern life our holidays rely on the work that we have done and that others do.

Modern Pilgrims?
The pilgrim is an old archetype; it comes with a quite medieval flavour. There are of course millions of people on pilgrimage every year. In this sense there are lots of modern pilgrims. But there are figures that feel much more modern to me – the worker, the tourist, even the scholar.

What feels different to me about the pilgrim is the sense of time involved. In some sense the pilgrim is set apart from the everyday; the pilgrimage is a time apart from ordinary time. For me, the modern doesn’t have this sense of a different time – time in the modern world feels all the same. It is simple duration marked off in seconds, or days or years. Time is not qualitative in the modern world, it is always the same. A time of mourning in the modern world can have the sense of a particular amount of time, rather than being a time devoted to a task and characterised by particular feelings.

I think the pilgrim doesn’t quite fit with our modern time sense – with our measurement and precision. And I wonder if this modern time sense isn’t in some senses a loss. If pilgrimage was an honourable and important part of our lives I don’t think we could be so clock driven. There would be a sense of a different order, a sense in which clock time is judged and evaluated – and by more than efficiency.

In brief, I think what I’m reaching for is the sense that, for the pilgrim time can have meaning; it is not only a quantity.

I’m wondering if you have been on a pilgrimage, or, perhaps have the sense of being on one? Do you have the sense that some times are more special than others for you? I’d love to hear your experiences in the comments on this post.

Would you like to feel less stressed?
Could you do with more joy in your life?

The answer is living authentically. Buy the book or sign up for the course now from my Living Authentically website.

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]]> http://wellbeingandhealth.net/psychological-health/the-pilgrim/feed/ 4 A Visit to a Very Strange Place http://wellbeingandhealth.net/social-context/a-visit-to-a-very-strange-place/ http://wellbeingandhealth.net/social-context/a-visit-to-a-very-strange-place/#comments Thu, 29 Apr 2010 06:02:38 +0000 Evan http://wellbeingandhealth.net/?p=1659 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> Long, long ago, in a universe far, far away (or so the story goes) there was a very strange land.

The name of this land was Slauq. In the land of Slauq all the people did all day was compete for jackets. There were many jackets – many colours and styles to fit many shapes and sizes. But the most coveted of all was the white jacket. The most able and talented all over the land of Slauq would compete for the right to where a white jacket.

Why did people want to wear such a thing? In Slauq it meant you were more likely to earn more money and people who could wear the jacket were deemed more trustworthy. (This meant that everyone would talk about the wearers of white jackets who turned out to be untrustworthy.) Those with the right to where the white jacket were allowed to do things that others weren’t.

The curious thing was that the way you earned the right to a jacket had little to do with what you did once you had it. Those who could memorise the words of the ancients were entrusted with training the new generation. Those who could say exactly where to find the words of the ancients were considered wise. Not only this, but there were even rules about how you could say where the ancients had said something! Slauq was a very strange place.

These jackets were different to any that exist in the normal world. They were made so that they became part of the person who wore them. They would gradually sink into the person so that they moved in particular ways – and even thought in particular ways. Most surprising of all, this was known and desired by those strange people of Slauq. It was a great compliment to a Slauqian to tell them that the jacket had sunk into them, had become part of them and that you could no longer tell where they stopped and the jacket began.

In all of Slauq there were only a very few people who thought this was silly. They said that it would be good to think about the future. They even asserted that it didn’t matter too much how you told others where the ancients had said what they said. Nobody paid any attention to these strange people – they were even laughed at. Slauq was a very strange place.

Would you like to feel less stressed?
Could you do with more joy in your life?

The answer is living authentically. Buy the book or sign up for the course now from my Living Authentically website.

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]]> http://wellbeingandhealth.net/social-context/a-visit-to-a-very-strange-place/feed/ 5 Changing Ourselves and Changing Others http://wellbeingandhealth.net/relationships/changing-ourselves-and-changing-others/ http://wellbeingandhealth.net/relationships/changing-ourselves-and-changing-others/#comments Wed, 21 Apr 2010 00:41:56 +0000 Evan http://wellbeingandhealth.net/?p=1652 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> I have a guest post on the Psychology, Philosophy and Real Life blog. It is called Changing Ourselves and Changing Others.

This is a very big topic to take on all at once. I look at the way that we influence each other and how demanding that others change is likely to produce the opposite. I also talk about the need to know what the change is that we want. I hope you like it, Evan

Would you like to feel less stressed?
Could you do with more joy in your life?

The answer is living authentically. Buy the book or sign up for the course now from my Living Authentically website.

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]]> http://wellbeingandhealth.net/relationships/changing-ourselves-and-changing-others/feed/ 0 The Political and the Personal http://wellbeingandhealth.net/social-context/the-political-and-the-personal/ http://wellbeingandhealth.net/social-context/the-political-and-the-personal/#comments Thu, 08 Apr 2010 00:20:44 +0000 Evan http://wellbeingandhealth.net/?p=1643 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> I have a guest post on the Psychology, Philosophy and Real Life blog. I thought it was time to look at our context and the impact it has on us from a slightly different perspective.

I’m old enough to remember the impact of the discovery that, ‘the personal is the political’. I look at the division of into the public and private and the use of power in the private sphere and express the hope of nurturance being extended into the public sphere. I hope you like it; it’s called The Political and the Personal.

Would you like to feel less stressed?
Could you do with more joy in your life?

The answer is living authentically. Buy the book or sign up for the course now from my Living Authentically website.

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]]> http://wellbeingandhealth.net/social-context/the-political-and-the-personal/feed/ 2 Societies Characterised by a Healthy Old Age, Care about Family http://wellbeingandhealth.net/uncategorized/societies-characterised-by-a-healthy-old-age-care-about-family/ http://wellbeingandhealth.net/uncategorized/societies-characterised-by-a-healthy-old-age-care-about-family/#comments Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:08:02 +0000 Evan http://wellbeingandhealth.net/?p=1601 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> When we set out to study old age, we are to some extent studying recent history. We are studying the way the currently old behaved in their youth and middle age. And this can be 20, 50 or even 70 or more years ago, if we are looking at the very old.

Things have changed a lot in the last 20 years, let alone 50 or 70. This is a problem, because we want to learn what we learn from studying old people (and the societies that encourage a healthy old age). The question is if we can apply what we learn in today’s world, which has changed so much from the world that the old people grew up in.

One part of our western culture that has changed dramatically is the place given to family. Partly due to the cost of housing (especially in Australia, where I’m from, where the real cost of housing is increasing dramatically) it is rare for an extended family to live within walking distance. It is now common for them to be scattered between cities.

Does this mean that we must have a shorter life or a less healthy one than the healthy old people studied? To change our culture back to valuing family is more than one person (or perhaps even many thousands) can do.

What can we do?
Small things

  • Prioritise friendship. Think up ways to spend enjoyable times with friends. If you go for a walk by yourself each day, you could perhaps involve a friend once a week. Make a time in your diary once a week or once a month where you do something to develop a friendship (new or old).
  • If you are thinking of moving to a retirement village check out the kinds of communal facilities they offer. These will make it easier to form clubs and spend time with others.
  • See if there is a club you can join around your interests.
  • If you are in a tradition of faith, see if you can find a group that you are comfortable with and that would welcome you.

All of which takes time and lifestyle adjustments, which leads us to . . .

Big things

  • See if there is a way to work part-time and spend your time developing friendships and doing things you love.
  • See if there is a co-housing scheme which you like and where you want to live.
  • Is there a way to design your life so that you are interruptible? So that you can easily stop what you are doing to help a friend?

These are big things and could take consistent work over quite a while to achieve. However, a healthy old age is a big concern, and these changes can often be made in small steps. And each step can be an improvement and feel good – it doesn’t require ‘discipline’ to keep on with these changes, just enjoying ourselves and finding ways to enjoy ourselves more. This is pretty much the ideal kind of change.

If you liked this post you may also be interested in these posts on,

How people live in societies characterised by a healthy old age, and,

What we can learn from how people live in societies characterised by a healthy old age.

My next eBook is going to be about societies characterised by a healthy old age and how this applies to our health. It will be mixing the research about the healthy old with research about the simple things we can do to stay healthy.

Would you like to feel less stressed?
Could you do with more joy in your life?

The answer is living authentically. Buy the book or sign up for the course now from my Living Authentically website.

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]]> http://wellbeingandhealth.net/uncategorized/societies-characterised-by-a-healthy-old-age-care-about-family/feed/ 8 Fulltime Work Should Be Abolished http://wellbeingandhealth.net/relationships/fulltime-work-should-be-abolished/ http://wellbeingandhealth.net/relationships/fulltime-work-should-be-abolished/#comments Sun, 17 Jan 2010 03:38:45 +0000 Evan http://wellbeingandhealth.net/?p=1552 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> Some Australians (those as old as me), will be able to remember ‘Kingswood Country’ – a sitcom that ran for a few seasons and was quite popular.
It was about a family – the father was called Ted. Ted was a fairly crass and insensitive character. When Ted had a difficulty with something he often voiced the view, “Somebody ought to blow up [whatever he was having a difficulty with]”.
[Funniest line I remember from the show. Ted’s wife Thelma was sick with a cold. When Ted gets up in the morning a house guest enquires, “And how’s Thelma feel this morning Ted?” Ted’s reply, “Uh, soft and rubbery as usual”.]

This is how I’m feeling at the moment, “Somebody ought to blow up full time work!”!

For the last year I’ve been working both a full-time and a part-time job. This hasn’t lead to any major disasters or had a terribly negative impact – but it is a long way from what I would prefer. I would have like to spend much more time exploring qi gong, going for walks, spending time with my partner, preparing nice meals . . . the list is long.

Most people I know value the time they spend with their family and loved ones. Most people I know spend most of their time away from those they love, doing what they don’t particularly enjoy.

There are other costs too: Time spent commuting, the price of clothes, possibly eating not as well as at home.

Full-time work just seems like a rotten way to organise our lives.

A Sign of Hope
The ‘downshifting’ phenomenon seems to mean that many people are deciding that full-time work and other aspects of a consumerist lifestyle are not how they want to live. A survey of this downshifting phenomenon in Australia found that in a five year period 25% of people had voluntarily reduced their lifestyle (this excluded those who had retired or returned to study). This amounts to a huge social movement – which has (for the large part) been resolutely ignored by the media and politicians.

What to do?

Trade-offs

In Australia (where the price of renting and buying a house is very high) most people work full-time to buy a house. (And as the affordability of housing continues to decline it will increasingly mean both partners working full time.)

It’s likely that giving up full-time work means giving up hopes of owning a house – in a major metropolitan centre anyway.

Downshifting

Another kind of trade-off is reducing your lifestyle to a lower income. Usually this means getting rid of the car. (This is very difficult to do with young children I think; especially in developer built suburbia where shops and services usually aren’t within walking distance.) Other things it can mean: changing the kind of entertainment to spending time with people at homes and in public rather than going out to eat or be entertained. Making and taking food places instead of buying it at a destination. Making and taking lunch to work. Walking each day instead of a gym membership. Buying and cooking ingredients instead of heating pre-packaged food.

Innovation

Working from home
Some kinds of work can be done from home. Even if you spend as much time working you will stay save the time commuting and perhaps be able to eat lunch with friends and family. This does require being able to set boundaries and not work all the time (if you like others to maintain boundaries for you then you may end up working more hours than you did going out to work.)

Your own business
If you have the ability to sell then you have an advantage. Any one with their own business needs to sell. This means either finding other people’s stuff to sell or making your own stuff to sell.
At the moment it is relatively cheap, quick and easy to see if you could have your own business. The costs of entry for an online business are tiny compared to bricks and mortar businesses. This depends on the kind of business – you can’t do a massage online. If it is a hands-on business you can usually start trying it out with friends – be sure to ask for an honest answer about how much they would pay (figure out a way for them to do it anonymously – such as giving them a self-addressed envelope with a feedback form – if you need to).
If you want to try your own business, make sure you plan one that can be done part-time. Think about if you are prepared to be on call a lot to build clientele in the early days. Think about how you will cut this back as you go. Think about if the business could involve you working enjoyably together with those you love.

Not working = doing what you love
Can you find someone to pay you to do what you love (an employer or a customer)? If so then this can do away with a lot of the unpleasantness of full-time work.

These are my thoughts. What are your thoughts on full-time work? A necessary evil? A valuable necessity? I’d like to hear how you have responded to full-time work? Avoided it? Embraced it? Found ways to cope with it? I look forward to hearing from you in the comments.

Would you like to feel less stressed?
Could you do with more joy in your life?

The answer is living authentically. Buy the book or sign up for the course now from my Living Authentically website.

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]]> http://wellbeingandhealth.net/relationships/fulltime-work-should-be-abolished/feed/ 12 Financial Dependence and Independence http://wellbeingandhealth.net/relationships/financial-dependence-and-independence/ http://wellbeingandhealth.net/relationships/financial-dependence-and-independence/#comments Wed, 13 Jan 2010 21:57:49 +0000 Evan http://wellbeingandhealth.net/?p=1550 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> I have a guest post on the Psychology, Philosophy and Real Life blog. It is a follow-up to a post I did earlier on dependence and independence. In the comments people asked about how dependence and independence applied to finance. This is my attempt to answer this question. This is the first of two parts. It is called Financial Dependence and Independence, Part One: Primal Issues. I hope you like it – I’ll be very interested to hear what you think, I think this topic is one of the tough ones, Evan.

Would you like to feel less stressed?
Could you do with more joy in your life?

The answer is living authentically. Buy the book or sign up for the course now from my Living Authentically website.

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