Balance

Timboon effect adventures in positivity
The Timboon Effect – Building a strong community

The Timboon Effect occurs when several factors in a small town coincide to support and empower the community to be their best, both collectively and individually. Allow me to explain. Timboon is a small town in the South West corner of Victoria. With around 800 residents, many of which are…

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Why questioning your values is essential for happiness

Questioning your values is essential for happiness. Knowing and more importantly living your values creates happiness. Your values are the things you hold dear and place above all else in your life. If you haven’t consciously thought through your values, there’s a good chance you living the values dictated by…

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Practcing gratitude with the family_adventures in positivity_2020
Practicing gratitude with the family

Practicing gratitude with the family is different from doing it on your own. For a start, not everyone will have a natural affinity with noticing and appreciating the positive. Let along expressing it. Today I’ll share how we’ve been practicing gratitude with the family recently and why we’ve needed it…

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The Geography of Bliss book review by Jodie Cooper
The Geography of Bliss By Eric Weiner – A Book Review

The Geography of Bliss was one of the books I piled up months ago in anticipation of this trip. I thought it would be the perfect way to start our adventures, reading about how geography impacts your happiness. Written by Eric Weiner, the Geography of Bliss spans ten countries and…

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The Cooper Family - #adventuresinpositivity
Learning to Simplify my life

Learning to simplify my life has been a challenge for the last 6 months. We’re pretty normal people. Well, I think so anyway. Yet we still seem to accumulate ‘stuff’ despite our ‘anti-consumerism’ stance. Kids birthday gift’s, hand me downs, and Christmas are the main culprits. Whenever I got cranky…

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The Cooper Family adventures in positivity
Planning our big lap of Oz

It’s been a long time planning our big lap of Oz, and hard to believe we’re finally here. When telling friends and family about out adventures ahead, the first question, after the audible gasp, is “how have you made it happen?” Some of Sean’s work colleagues figure we won lotto.…

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Sean Cooper_ Planning adventures in positivity
Dealing with anxiety and uncertainty – Yep, me too.

Dealing with anxiety and uncertainty is something I’m working through at the moment. We now have under 6 weeks to pack up our home, rent it out (eeek, the photographer is coming tomorrow), finish my masters, sell my car and basically get our affairs in order before we head off on…

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Mental health at work - A growing concern by Jodie Cooper
Mental Health at Work – A growing concern

Mental health is a growing concern in Australian Workplaces (Bailey & Dollard, 2019). With one in five Australian adults report experiencing a mental health issue each year (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2009), an opportunity exists for Australian organisations to find practical solutions to improve mental health at work. Individuals reporting…

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Benefitis of Kindness at work byJodie Cooper
Benefits of Kindness at work

There are so many benefits of kindness at work. Recently I read ‘The five side effects of kindness’ by David R. Hamilton, PhD. The book provides solid research into why kindness is good for us and goes into depth about how it impacts our minds and bodies. Here I’ll use…

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Managing stress with a short walk outside
Managing Stress with Micro Recovery Periods

Managing stress is our generations universal challenge. Stress is such a big factor in most people’s lives these days we need to find a different approach to managing it. Traditionally we work forty-eight weeks of the year, and holiday for four. We expect this to revive and recuperate our minds…

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Feeling grateful creates happiness
How practicing gratitude creates happiness

There is now abundant research showing how practicing gratitude creates happiness. Lyubomirsky in her book ‘The How of Happiness’ describes how gratitude creates happiness and I’d like to share her thoughts and how we put gratitude to practice in our family. By noticing the positives in our lives, gratitude enables…

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Positive Mindsets for Professionals

Positive mindsets for professionals are essential and will help improve your mindset and create a more positive work environment. Given that the average employee is unproductive for around 25% of their working day (and often stressed for the other 75%) there’s a lot of room for improvement in the average…

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