News

Vermont’s First Laughing Club

Cooper-Ellis is part of a group that has met weekly since September in the basement lobby of Burlington’s Union Station to get in a few sets of laughter and to sing the praises of hilarity. “It is physically very good for you. There are many health benefits to laughing,” said Carol L. Winfield, a teacher at the Vermont Yoga Center and the official leader of the club. “It gets the endorphins (the body’s natural proteins) up and helps you fight disease. And it is very good for the belly,” she said. Each Tuesday morning at 8, the Burlington group begins the day with stretching and breathing exercises, followed by one of three laughing sets. Each set lasts for five straight minutes. The activity is more than enough to get the heart rate racing. Winfield contends that the laughing regimen is better than a flu shot and can even deliver better results than a facial.

Posted 2 Jun 2010 by Sonam Ongmo at www.futurechallenges.com
Future Vision Eco-Village, Brazil
GNH is Profound process for social change. Not an indicator, it is a new consciousness. It is a recognition of interdependence, community vitality is important factor in GNH. Empathy also an important content in GNH. A state of total heart connection. That is where human society should be moving and I think it is moving in that direction.

Does one have to unlearn (culturally) that money brings happiness? Societies like U.S/west do.

Marketing – art of getting you to buy what you don’t need, with money you don’t have to impress people you don’t like. Since it is science these people have penetrated the psychology.Vermont has a law that prohibits billboards for many years.
Click link to online article

Gallop – Healthways Well-Being Surveys:
The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index™ has been developed to provide the official measure for health and well-being. It’s the voice of Americans and the most ambitious effort ever undertaken to measure what people believe constitutes a good life.

Over the next 25 years, the Well-Being Index will collect and measure the daily pulse of the nation’s well-being and provide best-in-class solutions for a healthier world. By helping Americans understand how work impacts life and health and conversely how life affects work and health, we can work together to improve well-being for a better way of life.

Click link to online article

Happiness is…
New Article on GNHUSA and the Conference,  GNH 2010: Changing What we Measure from Wealth to Well-Being in Seven Days newspaper, April 28th.  Click link to online article

How “Happy”are you? Click here to answer seven questions about various aspects of your quality of life, well-being and happiness.

Amartya Sen will be commencement Speaker at St. Michael’s College May 13, 2010
World renowned Nobel Laureate in Economics, Amartya Sen, to be Saint Michael’s College 2010 Commencement Speaker
Contact Information:
Buff Lindau, Marketing & Communications
802.654.2536
blindau@smcvt.edu

Amartya Sen, sometimes known as “the Mother Teresa of Economics,” though he likely wouldn’t approve of that name, will be the 2010 Saint Michael’s College commencement speaker with ceremonies to be held on Thursday, May 13, in the Ross Sports Center.

Kuensel News — Bhutan’s leading Newspaper  – Report on GNHUSA in Vermont  Dec. 23, 2009
News article on GNHUSA’s efforts to encourage discussion and development of GNH and social progress indicators and bring them into use in the United States.
“GNHUSA – Vermont in the Vanguard”

Kuensel News — Bhutan’s leading Newspaper — November 30, 2009  Prime Minister and party arrive back from GNH 5 Conference in Brazil
PM and delegation return with deepened commitment to the pursuit of GNH.
Read Article

Utne Reader, Dec. 2009  John de Graaf
Musings on using social progress indicators to help chart a way forward, following John’s presentation at the 5th International GNH Conference in Brazil, this November.
The Landlocked Heart of Gross National Happiness

BBC — The World, audiofile on Economic Recovery
Comments by Eric Zencey and others on the rising interest in new social and economic indicators to replace an increasingly deficient indicator, GDP. October 29, 2009. Jason Margolis Listen to MP3.

The French Commission on the Measurement of Social Progress
Visit the website of the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress. You can download the full Commission Report which was issued September 14, 2009 and there are links to videos of the speeches made by members of the commision headed by two nobel prize-winning economists, Joseph Stiglitz and Amarta Sen. The work of the commission was to explore the limits of GDP style measures and to examine alternatives such as Gross National Happiness (Joie de vivre) measures. http://www.stiglitz-sen-fitoussi.fr/en/index.htm

Gross National Happiness in Brazil
The fifth annual, international Gross National Happiness research conference is being held in Foz du Iguacu, November 20 – 24 (GNH5). “Gross National Happiness in Practice” will be hosted by the Future Vision Institute, UNDP/Bhutan and Itaipu International. For more info: felicidadeinternabruta.org.br or see Vermont Delegation to GNH5 entry below.

Vermont Delegation to GNH5
Sweet Mango Tours is gathering interested Vermonters for the trip to GNH5 in November. We’ll travel November 18th, attend the conference and some organized tourism, until the 25th. Members of the delegation who are interested can stay for a few more days at the Future Vision Institute and ecovillage near Sao Paulo and, with the help of conference Co-Organizer and Coordinator of the Institute, Dr. Susan Andrews, discuss implementation strategies for GNH. For more info: SweetMangoTours.com/untour.

Gross National Happiness in Vermont
Save the Date! June 1 – 4, 2010 for Gross National Happiness: Changing What We Measure from Wealth to Well-Being. This powerful, action-oriented event will engage Vermonters, from all fields, sectors and positions, in conversations about what we value, what we should measure, and how we should define social progress. Registration for the event, hosted at Champlain College in Burlington, will begn this fall. You can be kept informed by sending us a message.

Sarkozy, GNH and the G20
French President, Nicolas Sarkozy announced on September 14th that he would be taking the concept of Gross National Happiness to the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh next week, 9/24 & 25. GNHUSA is well placed to support America’s response to this stunning and brilliant announcement… although a little sooner than expected. For more info: news.yahoo.com/france_measuring_happiness.

Measuring the Progress of Societies
The OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) publishes a newsletter highlighting techical and political work in the area of developing and utilizing new GNH indicators.  OECD-Global-Project-2009-02