Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Aiming for a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous New Year

At this time of year, many of us are sending and receiving wishes for a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous New Year. What can help us achieve and maintain these desirable states?


Happiness

The late Dr David Servan-Schreiber lists positive social connections and an active interest in matters higher than ourselves as essential human needs on a par with the physical needs for food, water, and shelter. http://www.amazon.com/Instinct-Heal-Depression-Anxiety-Without/dp/1594861587/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1388471285&sr=1-1#reader_1594861587


Let's use our Green New Yorker Meetup group to increase our connections and our involvement and thereby our happiness ;-)


Health

Dr Servan-Schreiber's observation;
"Every single place where American diet has spread has seen massive increases in obesity rates and cancer rates. Japan is increasing consumption of red meat and dairy products and seeing an enormous increase in obesity and great increases in prostate cancer and breast cancer, which were extremely rare before." http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brainstorm/200904/david-servan-schreiber-cheating-death

Dr Schreiber, who kept his own brain cancer at bay for 19 years, gives us 19 simple anticancer and prohealth rules:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-servanschreiber-md-phd/20-new-anticancer-rules_b_450166.html

His book:
http://www.amazon.com/Anticancer-A-New-Way-Life/dp/0670021644

(Dr Servan-Schreiber has been roundly crticized by the medical establishment for "going over to the woo". Despite this I remain a very big fan of this version of "woo"!)

Prosperity

Does it seem as though our current economy is geared towards wealth destruction? Is it easy to think of ways our society increases the GDP in the short term while actually decreasing human living standards in the longer term?

In contrast, designing a way of living based on the way natural systems capture and use resources leads to prosperity that is genuine and sustainable. http://shadesofgreeninc.org/about/what-is-permaculture/

Wishing everyone an exciting and successful journey towards Happiness, Health, and Prosperity in 2014!