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

2. By Vegetarian Society
(Singapore)
animalallies.sg
George Jacobs -
nd_Happiness_19Nov2017.pptx

3. Interactive presentation: Talk to your neighbour

4. 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.

5. Some Cornerstones of Happiness
Gratitude
Strengths
Control
Kindness
Optimism

6. 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.

7. 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

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

9. Best answer!
Drink your H2O

10. 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

11. 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

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

13. 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

15. 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

16. 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!

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. Nutrition
Research suggests that eating more plant foods lowers our risk of depression, e.g., watch 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

22. 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

24. 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

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

26. A big Thank You to all of you
And to the film makers:

27. References
Achor, S. (2011). The happy secret to better work [video file]. Retrieved from
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),

28. Seligman, M. E. P. (2008, July). The new era of positive psychology [Video file]. Retrieved from
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