Hmm…interestingly I noticed that although our Coffee Social conversation this week seemed to revolve around the theme of ‘happiness’, my subsequent facebook posts http://www.facebook.com/WORKinPetaluma didn’t do a good job of reflecting it. Perhaps it’s because ‘happiness’ doesn’t come in the form of a fun little link. Or does it? Upon a quick search I found two great TED talks:

Dan Gilbert: The Surprising Science of Happiness (I love the pop quiz at the beginning!)

Chip Conley: Measuring What Makes Life Worthwhile (which has inspired me to start counting how much I laugh and learn each day).

But, back to Coffee Talk…it all started with a guest and a member exchanging shared experiences in the world of book editing…and from a book on happiness launched a whole group conversation on what makes us happy and what hinders our happiness. Are we on the right track as a nation? Maybe not, but as one guest pointed out, if Oprah is a bell-weather the concept of mindfulness seems to be on our minds. And that’s a good thing when it comes to cultivating authentic happiness. (I just googled Oprah+Mindfulness and 757,000 results popped up!)

And what about the roll of technology? All these gizmos and gadgets promised to make life easier, give us more time. We have dishwashers, clothes dryers, microwave ovens, laptops and smart phones but has anyone out there found more time in the process? Does this mean we spend more time relaxing around the dinner table with our families or get our work done faster so we can go outside and play ball with our kids? Hardly. As one coWORKer put it, in this information age we need to get past our ‘busyness’ and let technology free us to do the good stuff like play and emote. Interestingly, this is exactly the hope for the future laid out in the final chapters of one of my favorite books, The Third Industrial Revolution by Jeremy Rifkin.  (I know I’ve mentioned it before. 🙂

An hour and a half later, the conversation ended with one coWORKer’s tip for a self-imposed “information diet” by proactively sourcing news and information. In this age of too much information, carefully selecting what you do and do not pay attention to is important. I haven’t read it get but The Information Diet- A Case For Conscious Consumption by Clay Johnson looks like a good place to start.

See you soon!

Natasha 🙂