More from Cecile Andrews on Voluntary Simplicity

Happiness and the New Simplicity: The Living Room Revolution of Community by Cecile Andrews (Resilience)

Her website. Blog for the book.

Cecile Andrews: Simplicity, Joy and Social Change

Peak Moment 220: Simplicity, Joy and Social Change by Yuba Gals Independent Media (EB)

The happiness fix by Caitlin Howlett

Another piece dealing with The Economics of Happiness; at the end of the article the author provides this list of recommendations:

14 ways to chase your happiness

It takes only the simplest of ideas and actions to start fostering a sense of contentedness in your life.
1 Buy your food locally. More conversations happen at farmers’ markets and the local bakery than big supermarkets, so make grocery shopping a social outing rather than
a chore.
2 Join a community garden. Grow your own vegies, green your neighbourhood and learn from the other green thumbs in your area.
3 Build meaningful relationships. Make time for family and friends and inspire them by helping to brainstorm ideas, solve a problem, or make a connection with another friend of yours.
4 Be near nature. Just getting out into the park will dramatically lift your mood, so make a regular habit of a walk in the outdoors.
5 Declutter. The more we have, the less we seem to savour, so remember that less is actually more and donate your excess goods to someone who will use them.
6 Sleep. Get into a regular sleeping pattern and don’t burn the midnight oil too often – that way you’re getting enough rest and vitamin D.
7 Cook for friends. Share good food and good conversation with appreciative people who make you laugh.
8 Get some chickens. Being around and caring for pets helps to keep their owners happy and healthy; and chickens are a very eco-friendly addition to any household.
9 Donate your time where it’s needed. You could visit the elderly, remove weeds from bushland or clean up the local river.
10 Join or start a local group. It could be anything from a community choir to a book club. But allow for flexibility and don’t overload your schedule.
11 Help organise a local fête. Recreate vibrancy in your local community and celebrate what’s special about your area.
12 Ride your bike. Exercise is a great mood-booster, plus it’s an emissions-free transport option.
13 Write to your local MP. Share your ideas about what you’d like to see happen to make your local area even better.
14 Attend a political rally challenging consumer culture. Or get involved with groups such as Global Trade Watch, The Australia Institute, Cultivating Community, or Pigs Will Fly.

Related:
Cecile Andrews - Slow is Beautiful(blog)

Sustainability and happiness

Via EB: State of the World 2010: Transforming Cultures from Consumerism to Sustainability (pdf)
WorldWatch Insitute

Funny films for happiness and wellbeing by Cecile Andrews

How can someone who promotes sustainability and simplicity nonetheless maintain that "We need public policies that help people become happier — things like national health care, social security, and shorter work hours"? Cecile Andrews endorses the welfare state -- this isn't a shocker, really. I don't know how she thinks these programs can be funded if peak oil is reality and the days of the industrial and so-called knowledge are limited. Besides, she doesn't understand that the welfare state undermines the moral agency that makes happiness possible in the first place.

Items of Interest, 25 June 2010

Zenit:
What to Do About Pornography (Part 2)
Papal Address to Aid Agencies for Eastern Churches
"We All Desire ... Stable Peace and Solid Coexistence"

Asia News:
Pope: peace in the Middle East grows out of respect for human rights and religious freedom
Receiving the assembly of Roaco, Benedict XVI renewed his appeal to the leaders of nations to fight all forms of discrimination "in a concrete way". Christians in the region must seek, despite violence and difficulties, to remain "where they are born."

Hu Jintao to defend yuan at G20
The Chinese president agrees to greater flexibility for the yuan, but for hawks in Congress, it is not enough. Hu is in Canada where he will meet Obama. For the US leader, changes in China’s currency policy are a first step, “but it’s too early to tell.”

Counterpunch:
Winslow T. Wheeler, General Petraeus and His Senate Vassals
Michael Hudson, Europe's Fiscal Dystopia: the "New Austerity" Road
Ralph Nader, Losing It at the Airport Checkpoint
David Rosen, The New Abortion Wars
Anthony DiMaggio, No Repeal of Whaling Ban: US Says It's a Major Loss--For Whales!
Adam Engel, The System and the Drug War
Patrick Bond, What South Africa Really Lost at the World Cup
Charles R. Larson, No Room With a View

Energy Bulletin:
Less is more (original)
Joanne Poyourow, Transition US

Within the body of Transition movement literature, I don't often see references to the Simple Living or Voluntary Simplicity movement. Perhaps the Voluntary Simplicity movement is less active in the places that Transition founders Rob and Naresh have lived. Perhaps it is because at its origins, Voluntary Simplicity focused more on individual choices and individual changes than on community-centric and societal-transformation ones. I can only speculate.

Acres and pains (original)

Gene Logsdon, Organic to Be

There is a delightfully droll old book by that name lamenting the ways that nature humbles and humiliates farmers every step of the way from planting to harvest. I have been a victim of nature’s whims (my whims really) this spring and I’ve got the acres and the aches to prove it.

The doomer's curse (original)

Mickey Foley, Riding the Rubicon

This is the Doomer's Curse: to wallow in despair, to sneer at the happiness of others, to revel in schadenfreude and to believe that he has humanity's best interests at heart. The Doomer honestly thinks that a universal depression (in the emotional sense) would lay the foundation for a better world, but this belief is rooted in his own selfishness, not in a rational socioeconomic analysis.

The Trillium Patch: wine, local food, and local resilience, part 3 (original)

Don Plummer, The Trillium Patch

Gene Logsdon writes that his inspiration for home wine making is not the large industrial-scale wineries of California or the commercial cellars of Europe, both of which produce high-quality wines, but the back yards of German and Italian immigrants in American cities from the late 1800s through much of the 20th century. They would make wine out of “everything from rhubarb to dandelions, but especially Concord and Delaware grapes” (Logsdon 78). I believe Logsdon has observed something valuable and useful that will allow the production of quality wines to continue in eastern North America after cheap energy is no longer available. I want to explore this idea here in Part 3.

Related Links:
Cecile Andrews
Less is More Simplicity with Cecile Andrews
New Society Publishers, Google Books

Porn No More
Pornography Addiction Recovery and Support

Lost little sheep.

Living simply: Finding real happiness

Cecile Andrews, Energy Bulletin

We’re caught in a vicious circle: The more we’re concerned with money, the less time we have for others (making and managing money takes time). When we’re mainly concerned with money, others are our adversaries — we’re all competing for limited resources.

From the essay:

But wealth is not the central ingredient of happiness, and happiness has been on the decline. What does bring real happiness? What truly benefits people and the planet?

‘Hierarchy of needs’

Even though there’s much new research on happiness, it’s interesting to look at the work of Abraham Maslow, who, in 1943, explored what he called our “hierarchy of needs.”

First is the need for survival: We need air, water, food and shelter.

Next comes safety needs: We need to feel safe and protected.

Next are the social needs. We need family, friends, community and the public good.

Then come esteem needs: We need others’ respect, as well as our own self-respect. We need to use our own unique abilities for goals and a sense of challenge.

Finally, self-actualization — becoming the self you truly are. This involves a commitment to a higher purpose, finding a way of making the world a better place.

Maslow called these needs because if they are not fulfilled, there are negative consequences. Obviously, if a baby doesn’t get food, it will die; but if it doesn’t get love, it will grow into a violent, cruel person. If we don’t have respect, we will lack faith in ourselves and treat others with disdain. If we don’t find a purpose, our lives are diminished, and we become selfish and greedy, not caring about the common good.

But Maslow’s pyramid is a little deceptive. Each of those levels have something in common: social ties. Without other people we can’t survive, feel safe, feel respected or even feel actualized. It all involves people. But as I’ve said many times in this column, social cohesion has been severely undermined. Trust has declined dramatically; incivility haunts us.

There are many reasons — in particular, we work too many hours, and we don’t have time to come together. But probably the most important reason we’re so isolated is that we don’t understand the great need for social connections. We have always been a culture that admired self-reliance and individuality.

And because we do not realize that true security lies in other people, we have turned to wealth and possessions for a false security.

No religion, no God. The goods are external goods; there is no sense of happiness as an activity as in Aristotle's eudaimonism, except in the last good, "self-actualization," which is rather vague. Are inauthentic forms of self-actualization? Yes. Do we need rules to aid us attain true self-actualization? Yes. And is God more than a higher purpose? Yes.

Would liberals ever go back to the ancients (or the medievals) to see if they could learn from them? Probably not.

The author's website.

Gross National Happiness

Slow is Beautiful

publisher's page for the book and author; website for the author, Cecile Andrews

Slow is Beautiful blog
The Simple Living Network: Slow Is Beautiful

The Circle of Simplicity; Real Change interview;
Simple Living America | Balance in a Complex World

Deconstructing Dinner: Slow is Beautiful (Audio)
Cecile Andrews and Jon Steinman, Global Public Media
(mp3)

via EB

(from the same EB post -- When the sun is shining, break out the solar oven
Sarah Elton, The Globe and Mail

The Solar Cooking Archive
Solar Oven Society
Make a Pizza Box Solar Oven
Sun Oven Solar Cooking
Sun Oven for Solar Cooking -- 249.00
Solar oven
Solar Oven, Cooker and Dryer Tips and Solar Recipes
Making and using a solar cooker by Joe Radabaugh Issue #30
Solar Cookers International - spreading solar cooking to benefit ...