7 Daily Mantras of Encouragement

A simple way to feel at ease is by taking a deep breath and practicing an encouraging mantra. A mantra is a positive statement repeated to promote calmness and concentration. We loving using them to create peace in our day! Today we’re sharing 7 of our favorite daily mantras plus a printable download too 💕

7 Daily Mantras of Encouragement

1. I will seek out the good in an unpleasant situation.

2. I will let go of one thing I cannot change.

3. I will trust my journey even if I may not understand it yet.

4. I will grant myself permission to be me.

5. I will practice kindness toward a stranger.

6. I will be the best version of me.

7. I will continue to check in with myself to ensure I’m on the right path.

CLICK HERE to print these mantras to display on your desk!

Is there a mantra you like to incorporate in your day? Share with us in the comments below!

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IDEAS.TED.COM

Jan 14, 2020 / Meik Wiking

Jared Oriel

Studies show we’re better at remembering the novel and the new, so let’s use this tendency to add to our storehouse of memorable and meaningful moments, says happiness expert Meik Wiking.

Ask any older person to recall some of their memories, and there’s a good chance they will tell you stories from when they were between the ages of 15 and 30. This is known as the reminiscence effect, or reminiscence bump.

Memory research is sometimes conducted by using cue words. If I say the word “dog,” what memory comes to mind? Or “book’? Or “grapefruit’? It’s best to use words that are not related to a certain period in life. For instance, the phrase “driver’s license” is more likely to prompt memories from when you were a specific age than the word “lamp.”

In studies, when participants were shown a series of cue words and asked about the memories they associate with those words and how old they were at the time of the memory, their responses will typically produce a curve with a characteristic shape, the reminiscence bump. The recency effect — a final upward flip of the curve — can usually be seen, too. For example, when asked what memory comes to mind when cued with the word “book,” what people have read recently may pop up more easily than what they read 10 years ago.

You can also see the reminiscence effect in some autobiographies, where adolescence and early adulthood are described over a disproportionate number of pages. If you look at Agatha Christie’s autobiography, which is 544 pages long, the death of her mother happens on page 346, when Christie was 33. In the period that covers the reminiscence bump in her life, memories fill more than 10 pages per year. In contrast, she sums up the events of 1945 to 1965, when she was aged between 55 and 75, in just 23 pages — a little over one page per year.

What do you remember about being 21, or from another year? And how do your memories from different decades compare?

One theory behind the reminiscence bump is that our teens and early adulthood years are our defining years, our formative years. Our identity and sense of self is developing at that time, and some studies suggest that experiences linked to who we see ourselves as are more frequently retold in explaining who we are and are therefore remembered better later in life.

One study found that 73 percent of people’s vivid memories were either first-time experiences or unique events.

Another theory is that the period involves a lot of firsts. Our first kiss, our first flat, our first job. In the Happy Memory Study we conducted at the Happiness Research Institute, we found that 23 percent of people’s memories were of novel or extraordinary experiences.

Novelty ensures durability when it comes to memory. Several studies show that we are better at remembering the novel and the new, the extraordinary days when we did something different. One study by British researchers Gillian Cohen and Dorothy Faulkner found that 73 percent of vivid memories were either first-time experiences or unique events. Extraordinary and novel experiences are subject to greater elaborative cognitive processing, which leads to better encoding of these memories. That is the power of firsts. Extraordinary days are memorable days.

The importance of firsts also means that, say, if you go to university, you are more likely to remember events from the beginning of your first year than later in that same year. In a study led by David Pillemer, professor of psychology at the University of New Hampshire, participants were asked to describe memories from their freshman year in college. “We are not interested in any particular type of experience,” said the researchers, “just describe the first memories that come to mind.” The researchers interviewed women who had graduated 2, 12 or 22 years ago from Wellesley College in Massachusetts.

In the second part of the study, participants were asked to analyze, one by one, each of the memories they had described earlier. The memories were rated on the intensity of the emotions the experience involved, the impact the event had on their life (both at the time of the memory and also in retrospect), and the estimated date of the experience they remembered.

The study showed that the majority of memories took place at the beginning of the academic year: around 40 percent in the month of September and around 16 percent in October. These results suggest that transitional and emotional experiences are especially likely to persist in the memory for many years. That is the power of firsts.

In our study, we also found evidence of the power of extraordinary days and novel experiences when it comes to happy memories. That is why I remember every first kiss I’ve ever had — including the very first.

In our study, we also found evidence of the power of extraordinary days and novel experiences when it comes to happy memories. More than 5 percent of all the happy memories we collected are explicitly about firsts. First dates, first kisses, first steps — or traveling alone to Italy at the age of 60 for the first time. The first job, the first dance performance or the first time you watched a movie in the cinema with your dad.

That is why I remember every first kiss I’ve ever had — including the very first. Her name was Kristy and I was 16 and scared of her dad, who was a professional rugby player.

If you want to create a night to remember for dinner guests, serving them something they have not tasted before might do the trick.

New and memorable experiences can also come in the form of food. I was 16 when I first tasted a mango. It was in 1994, I was an exchange student in Australia, and mangoes had not yet been introduced to supermarkets in Denmark, where I grew up.

I remember the sweetness, the texture. I remember thinking, “Where have you been all my life?” Since then, I have been chasing mangoes — other great food experiences out there which I have not yet had. I have tried fermented Icelandic shark and snails in a street market in Morocco. Both made me throw up a little, but I remember those moments quite vividly.

My point is that firsts can come in the shape of gastronomy. If you want to create a night to remember for your dinner guests, serving them something they have not tasted before might do the trick (but maybe not fermented shark, if you want them to come again). Ideally, it would be something that is not over and done with in a second, like a shot of licorice vodka at 3 AM. Nobody remembers that — for several reasons.

Better to go with something like an artichoke, which takes a bit of an effort to eat, as you have to peel each leaf off, dip it in salted butter, then use your teeth to harvest that wonderful flesh. This makes the whole experience longer lasting and multisensory.

It might also be the reason why life seems to speed up as we get older. When we’re in our teens, there are a lot of firsts, while firsts at age 50 are rarer. This is also why studies find that people who immigrated from a Spanish-speaking country to the US have their reminiscence bump at different times, depending on how old they were at the time of the move. Temporal landmarks of firsts and changes of scene play an important role in organizing autobiographical memory. There is a before and an after.

If we want life to slow down, to make moments memorable and our lives unforgettable, we may want to remember to harness the power of firsts. In our daily routines, it’s also an idea to consider how we can turn the ordinary into something more extraordinary in order to stretch the river of time. It may be little things. If you always eat in front of the television, it might make the day feel a little more extraordinary if you gather for a family dinner around a candlelit table—and if you are always eating candlelit dinners, it might be nice to eat dinner during a movie marathon.

Adapted from the new book The Art of Making Memories: How to Create and Remember Happy Moments by Meik Wiking. Published by William Morrow. Copyright © 2019 by Meik Wiking. Reprinted courtesy of HarperCollins Publishers. 

Watch his TEDxCopenhagen talk here: 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Meik Wiking is CEO of the Happiness Research Institute, research associate for Denmark at the World Database of Happiness, and founding member of the Latin American Network for Wellbeing and Quality of Life Policies. He is the author of The Little Book of Hygge, and he lives in Copenhagen, Denmark.

“But we, insofar as we have power over the world and over one another, we must learn to do what the leaf and the whale and the wind do of their own nature. We must learn to keep the Balance.”

-URSULA K. LE GUIN, The Farthest Shore

Friday, November 22, 2019

The team from Charity Navigator, the nation’s largest independent charity evaluator and leading donor advocate, shares their thoughts on emerging nonprofit-sector issues and offers tips to better inform your intelligent giving decisions.

Find a charity to support today

I don’t know about you, but I love this time of year. For a few weeks, it feels like we’re largely able to put aside our differences for a renewed spirit of goodwill, hospitality, and generosity.

For many of us, the holiday spirit manifests itself in gifts to loved ones, as well as charities working on the causes close to our hearts. This year, make the most of those gifts by using Charity Navigator to inform your charitable giving. 

Keep reading for tips on how to get the most of our (forever) free charity ratings and donation resources this holiday season.

Discover an Organization

Has the holiday spirit ignited your inspiration and generosity? If you already have a favorite charity, or charities, you can skip down to “Review their Rating.” If you’re looking for a charity that aligns with your philanthropic interests, stay here.

Charity Navigator provides in-depth evaluations for more than 9,000 of America’s largest and most well-known organizations. We understand that you’re busy, especially this time of year, which is why we’ve made discovering the right charity for you quick and easy.

Through our Discover tool, you can find a charity working on a current issue (or Hot Topic), or begin your search with the cause you care most about. Simply select your favorite cause and sub-cause, and use the search filters in the left corner to filter your results. Some donors filter their search by a charity’s size, regional scope, or star rating.

Take some time to review your results–read through the charities’ mission statements to understand where and how an organization is tackling the issue it set out to solve. You can also scroll to the bottom of the charities’ profiles to view a list of charities performing similar kinds of work.

Review their Rating

Charity Navigator’s free charity ratings make it easy to determine whether or not a charity is worthy of your support. Our multidimensional ratingsconsider a charity’s financial health and accountability/transparency: two important indicators of an organization’s efficiency and efficacy.

Organizations receive a 0-4 star rating for their financial health, accountability and transparency, and overall performance. Charity Navigator strongly encourages donors to consider 3- and 4-star rated organizations, which we consider to be highly-rated and meeting or exceeding industry standards. Organizations that receive 0-, 1-, or 2-star ratings are in need of varying degrees of improvement to come in line with best practices.

Charity Navigator provides the information and data you need to do as deep a dive into a charity’s health and performance as you’d like. We have found that all some donors need to make their donation is a quick glance at our evaluations. Others prefer to spend time reviewing how much a charity spends on things like programs and fundraising, or what policies they have in place to protect their staff, constituents, and donors. Whichever route you decide, Charity Navigator has what you need to feel confident giving generously this holiday season.

Make your Donation

Once you’ve discovered a charity and reviewed its rating to determine that its worthy of your support, you’re ready to make a donation. Charity Navigator’s Giving Basket makes it easy to support the charity, or charities, you’ve been researching without having to leave our site. 

Charity Navigator’s Giving Basket is an easy, secure way to support the causes you’re passionate about. To initiate your donation, click on the green “Donate to this Charity” button at the top of the organization’s rating profile. A pop-up window will guide you through the donation process.

There are two additional features our users love about the Giving Basket. The first is their ability to give anonymously. Before you finalize your donation through the Giving Basket you have the opportunity to elect how much personal information you want to share with the organization you’re supporting. Whether you choose to share full information or remain anonymous, your gift will be properly receipted fully tax-deductible.

The second is their ability to support multiple charities in one, easy transaction. This saves time, keeping you from having to bounce from charity website to charity website to make all of your donations. It also eliminates the hassle of tracking down and saving all of those donation receipts. You will immediately receive an electronic receipt that reflects your individual and total contributions and the tax-deductible nature of your gifts.

Since its launch in October 2015, donors have used Charity Navigator’s Giving Basket to direct more than $67 million dollars to efficient and effective organizations. Join this community of satisfied donors by using the Giving Basket to make your year-end donations this holiday season.

More Tips and Tools

Charity Navigator helps America’s donors give confidently by providing them with the resources they need to make better-informed giving decisions. Thanks to the generous support of our users, we continue to offer all of our resources for free, all year round.

In addition to our ratings, some of our most popular resources are our Hot Topics, curated lists of highly-rated organizations working on a particular cause or issue; our Top Ten lists and Tips for Donors; and, this blog, which features expert voices, opinions, and guidance on topics like CEO compensation and support disaster relief effectively. And, there are many more tips and tools available to you at charitynavigator.org.

To our loyal readers who continue to use Charity Navigator to inform your charitable giving: thank you. Thank you for making us America’s largest and most-trust charity evaluator. To our new readers or first-time users: welcome. We hope you find our service and resources helpful, and welcome your thoughts and feedback. Please contact info@charitynavigator.org to ask questions and share comments with our team.

Written by Ashley Post, Communications Manager at Charity Navigator.

As a 501 (c) (3) organization itself, Charity Navigator depends on public support to help donors make informed choices. Please consider investing in the future of Charity Navigator by making a donation today.   Donate now >> at 2:04 PMEmail ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to PinterestLabels: Charity Navigator, discover feature, giving basket, giving tips,Holiday Giving, hot topics, ratings, resources, top 10