Plant Based Diets and Happiness Dinner, Film and Discussion: 19 Nov 2017, Eight Treasures Restaurant, Singapore

By Vegetarian Society (Singapore) www.vss.sg animalallies.sg https://www.facebook.com/VegetarianSocietySingapore George Jacobs - george@vss.sg https://www.academia.edu/35185320/Veg_a nd_Happiness_19Nov2017.pptx

Interactive presentation: Talk to your neighbour

5 Key Ingredients of Happiness: PERMA Positive emotions: positivity represents these emotions and is promoted by the other four elements of PERMA Engagement: we are involved in activities that capture our attention Relationships: we are involved in mutually beneficial interaction with others who matter to us and for whom we matter Meaningfulness: we feel that what we do serves beneficial purposes Achievement: we make progress in what we do.

Some Cornerstones of Happiness Gratitude Strengths Control Kindness Optimism

Appreciating the good in people, non-human animals, places, events, objects in our lives: past, present and future Please introduce yourself to one person next to you.

Gratitude Activity Task: Take turns to tell your friend about one person, non-human animal, place, event, object, etc. for which you are grateful: now or in the past Explain why you are grateful. grateful to my grandfather for teaching me to appreciate homemade bread grateful to the hotspot on my phone for allowing me to go online almost anywhere

Optimism Seeing the glass as half full, not half empty Dwelling on the positive, not the negative

Best answer! Drink your H2O

Task: Tell your friend about one positive experience you had in the past 24 hours. Explain what made the experience positive. you had a nice chat with a family member you planked for longer than you had ever done before

Noticing our own strengths Strengths of others Highlighting those strengths Task: use your phone to message someone and praise them for a strength they have

Showing kindness to others and ourselves Kindness links to empathy Doing empathic acts generates happiness chemicals Acts of Kindness can be random or planned

Kindness A random act of kindness would be taking time to explain to a restaurant manager how to improve one of their vegan dishes A planned act of kindness would be posting on Facebook about an upcoming vegan event Task: Tell your friend about a kind act you performed recently

Some people feel that their happiness is largely determined by external factors: luck, their family, the people with whom they work, the health of the economy Other people believe that their happiness is largely determined by internal factors

We Can Be Happier! Express gratitude Be optimistic Show kindness Notice strengths Exercise regularly Eat a healthy diet Take time to quiet our minds We Can Be Happier!

2. How We Can Use Happiness to Promote Veg’anism Start with ourselves - Happy vegan advocates are likely to attract more people, and can be more creative in how they promote advocacy Research suggests that positive emotions are linked with better performance and greater productivity

How Happiness Cornerstones Connect with Plant Based Diets Gratitude – By eating plant based, we show our gratitude to nature, because plant based diets are green diets Strengths – To succeed as plant based advocates, we need to recognise and build on our own strengths and those of our fellow advocates

Kindness – By eating plant based, with every meal, we should kindness towards our fellow animals Control – We face many pressures to conform with the average lifestyle in society. We need self-control to stay on the plant based path

Optimism – By being activists for plant based, we show our optimism; we show we believe that people can change We cherish a vision of a world in which all animals, including humans, can be happy

Nutrition Research suggests that eating more plant foods lowers our risk of depression, e.g., watch www.nutritionfacts.org/video/plant-based-diets- for-improved-mood-and-productivity People on high carb – low/no animal fat diets have better scores on depression, tension, anger and fatigue than people on low carb – high animal fat diets

A Study Including Depression and Productivity A study at a large US insurance company. 2 groups of overweight and diabetic employees: one group - 5 months instruction on whole food, plant based diets; the other group, no instruction The plant based group: improved on depression, anxiety and productivity

Please thank your friend for sharing with you during this session Tell your friend (1) what you already do to be happy and (2) what more you will do

Cornerstones of Happiness and Success as Vegetarians Gratitude Optimism Strengths Kindness Control

A big Thank You to all of you And to the film makers: http://pursuinghappiness.com/

References Achor, S. (2011). The happy secret to better work [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLJsdqxnZb0 Fredrickson, B. L. (2012). Positivity: Groundbreaking research reveals how to embrace the hidden strength of positive emotions, overcome negativity, and thrive. New York, NY: MJF. Kok, B. E., Coffey, K. A., Cohn, M. A., Catalino, L. I., Vacharkulksemsuk, T., Algoe, S. B., ... & Fredrickson, B. L. (2013). How positive emotions build physical health: Perceived positive social connections account for the upward spiral between positive emotions and vagal tone. Psychological Science, 24(7), 1123- 1132.

Seligman, M. E. P. (2008, July). The new era of positive psychology [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FBxfd7DL3E Seligman, M. E. P. (2011). Flourish: A new understanding of happiness and well-being – and how to achieve them. London, United Kingdom: Nicholas Brealey Publishing. Here in SG: Vadivu Govind – JoyWorks https://www.joyworks.sg