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BACKGROUND ART INSPIRED BY THE HAPPY PAINTINGS OF PETER WEBBER |
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Founded in Mumbai India in 2007, InHappiness (International Happiness Institute) is a non-profit now working from Johannesburg, South Africa to provide evidence-based positive psychology programs that counter stress and depression and build health and happiness, mainly to AIDS orphans, PLWH and their caregivers. Proceeds are used to provide health and happiness programs to PLWH, cancer, mental and physical disability, Alzheimer's, caregivers, and others in need. Directors: Bill Gee: Happiness Coach and Laughterologist, Memory Matanda: M.Sc (Educational Psychology), Penny Makhalemele: Training Director. |
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Circle of Happiness Testimonials This page presents a small selection from hundreds of testimonials on file at InHappiness. They are organized loosely into categories: General Testimonials Impact on Stress and Depression Impact on Health Impact on Family Problems Impact in the Workplace Impact in a Daycare for Orphans & Vulnerable Children Circle of Happiness and Patients in a Healthcare Setting
This has been fantastic. “Mom we’ve never seen you so happy.” I taught my partner Circle of Happiness and we laugh together if we start feeling down. It works like a charm. Everyone is seeing a difference in me. I feel 100 times more positive and I’m coping with everything whether it’s a problem at home or at work. I was always angry and shouting at people. My road rage was legendary - I was out of my car shouting at other drivers every week. Once I drove into another car on purpose. Circle of Happiness took away twenty years of anger and rage in just two days. I'm calm, relaxed and happy. No road rage for 11 months and counting! Thank you - I'm a different and much happier person." I still struggle with depression but its not like before. Circle of Happiness has shown me how to fight back my depression. Before it often lasted 5 to 7 days. Now it only comes for a moment then it’s gone. I’m OK now that I’m happy and laughing. It made me so much less serious. Now I can see fun even in stressful situations. I don’t get angry that often. I no longer feel that I’m out of control of my life. It makes me much happier and a nicer-to-be-with person. It has changed my life. Now I’m a superwoman. No more that sickly woman who got tired very easily, walking slowly like a donkey. Now I jump – I’m a grasshopper now, jumping and full of energy and happy! It’s wonderful. I’m turning 65 next month, and this is the first time I am able to accept my life as it is. That I’m also pretty, clever, good. I’m really very happy. Circle of Happiness has helped me to accept everything about my terrible past. I’m so grateful and have forgiven all the people who have hurt me over all these years. I was a grumpy, moody person for a long time. The Circle of Happiness program helped me a lot. It got me laughing again. There’s better communication at home. In social life I’m a lot more positive and confident. I hear them say “Wow! Is that the same woman?” The program changed me a lot. Circle of Happiness has helped me. I thought it was magic come inside me. Every time I get upset, I laugh and my stress disappears. I used to have mood swings. Sometimes in the morning I felt like not talking to anybody and crying a lot. Since Circle of Happiness I’ve slowly changed. I can see I’m not the same person as before. I’m changing and growing. I used to get angry quickly and it would last in my heart. Now if I get cross I quickly forget. I’m not so serious any more. I laugh a lot more, I have less headaches, I have more energy, my relationship with my children moved up to a complete new level. It’s such fun to be a child and be silly some times, it really makes a difference. Circle of Happiness has changed my life. It’s given me a better outlook on life in general. Before I was moody and very emotional. Now I can see the change in me - even if I’m angry I do my Circle of Happiness and feel released. Circle of Happiness changed my life. I look and feel younger now. I’m active and happy. I don’t have a dull moment. It’s a good idea. Circle of Happiness has helped me a lot at home, its so much happier now. I am happy, everybody is happier. Now if I get angry, after five minutes I forget about it. Circle of Happiness has given me a better life. It has changed my life. I’m always happy now. When there are problems with my grown up kids I no longer get upset. It is their problem and they must solve it. All is well. I am so much happier. Three of my friends who are in emotional crisis tell me how much better they feel after seeing me. My happiness lifts their spirits. Circle of Happiness: Impact on Stress and Depression When I started Circle of Happiness I was suffering from burnout. Now my burnout is gone and I’m happy in my work. Circle of Happiness has brought a good change. I’m not as stressed. I used to be stressed and angry, I used to sob, I was often irritable. That’s all changed. I suffered a lot when my father died. I experienced it as a deep hurt and thought I would never get over it. I used to sob every time someone mentioned his name. Since starting Circle of Happiness I can talk about him now without crying. I thought that I thrived on workplace stress, and that I was in control of all the stress. When I started Circle of Happiness I realized that I was not. I’m feeling so much lighter now. Last month my brother killed himself and his girlfriend. It was very sad and hurt me deeply, but I accepted it and I was alright. Circle of Happiness helped me to move on. In the past I couldn’t let problems go, every time I remembered an upsetting event I would cry. Now I can accept grief and move on with my life, I’m happy. On the road I used to get furious. I thought people were doing things just because I’m a woman driver. I used to be angry most of the journey. Thanks to Circle of Happiness now I just laugh and let it go. Working with dying people is stressful. Circle of Happiness helps me to nurse patients and communicate better with my colleagues. This lifts our spirits and helps us to cope with grief. My job as fundraiser is full of stress, but Circle of Happiness really helps me cope and perform better. Circle of Happiness reduced the stress at work. Now time passes easily, when you look the day is over, but you still have energy for more. In the past, after seeing so many patients I was tired, I didn’t want to go back to work tomorrow. Doing patient files gave me a headache. It’s not like that anymore. Now I see patients, do the paperwork, and go straight back to see more patients. No stress, no complaints. I’m happy. Patients discuss their problems with me. I used to take the problems away with me and worry about them - it used to impact on my emotional wellbeing. After Circle of Happiness I can let their problems go - they’re not able to pull me down with them which is great. No stress, no problems. Now everything is sharp! Circle of Happiness and Health My hypertension is gone - BP is normal. I am diabetic but my sugar is down from 15-17 to 6.4 – 8.3. I suffer chronic back pain, but the pain has virtually disappeared. Circle of Happiness has changed by life. Circle of Happiness has had a good impact on my health. I measure my BP at home in the mornings. My hypertension just dropped - I don’t know where it went. It was very high, and used to be 150-170, but now it is normal at 120-116. These days 130-138 is high for me. I used to get lots of headaches and migraines. I still get some but seldom need pain tablets now. In the past I was very stressed and angry and always sick. Since Circle of Happiness I’m not stressed and almost never sick. I was on BP tablets, now my BP is normal. I’m no longer stressing at work. I’m a happy person, my manager told me last week how happy I look. I have more energy. Before Circle of Happiness I often felt heavy like I just wanted to sleep, but that’s gone - its over. I’m healthier than before, I feel light. Even with tablets my BP was too high. Since Circle of Happiness my BP is perfect, I don’t suffer hypertension any more. I don’t get migraines as often anymore. Body pains and aches are less. I am diabetic - was on 1000 mg of medication twice a day. After Circle of Happiness my blood sugar started dropping at 10 in the morning and I couldn’t understand it, so I went to the doctor. He stopped my medication – my diabetes is gone. My blood sugar is 5-6 all the time now. I had high blood pressure, asthma and diabetes. Since Circle of Happiness my hypertension is gone. With my diabetes I’m no longer having weakness – I’m eating well, and I’m happy. My asthma is much better. I was feeling like an old person because of these illnesses. Now I’m feeling very young and full of energy. “EK IS N SPRINGKAAN!” (I am a grasshopper!) Circle of Happiness and Family Problems I had stress with my family. I stay with my grandson & his son. I used to be tense. My stress level has come down. Circle of Happiness changed my life very well. I don’t stay angry. I don’t fight with my children so much. My grandchild is hectic, but now we laugh together instead of fighting. The mood in the house has changed – we laugh together. It has really changed me. When I feel tense I just laugh and the tension is gone. I’m more tolerant, especially towards my children, I can communicate with them better than before. I handle stress, depression and grief very much better than before. I can look at things and laugh. Now in stressful situations in the community I will be the cool one.
I used to fight with my child and say words that were not nice to
her, and it wasn’t easy for me to laugh. Now we laugh together.
Whenever I become cross or unhappy, she starts the laughter and the
stress is gone and my anger is gone. I’m more relaxed with my kids, I don’t nag any more. Circle of Happiness in the Workplace My staff are different people. They were always fighting, having personal and personality problems – there were always people in my office complaining. I felt like I spent the whole day problem solving. With Circle of Happiness the new team sprit is unbelievable. They work together and resolve their problems in a happy way. I think I’ve had 1 person in my office complaining in 2 months. It used to be 3-5 times a week with little petty problems. This program really works, it works so well. There is less conflict now. I see very few bad moods now among the staff. First thing in the morning we do our Circle of Happiness and after that there are no more moods. There’s an absolute change in cooperation. There’s a stronger bond and better relationship between all the workers. After morning Circle of Happiness we keep laughing the whole day. The bond between us has grown, and the stronger bond is better for all of us. We’re standing together and working together as a team. We’re all more energetic, and that helps us get through the day and week. Circle of Happiness has changed many peoples’ lives here. The work relationship is changed. We cooperate, we listen to each other, respect is there now. The program teaches us to know each other’s personality and not to criticize - we accept each other as we are. For me the biggest change is in my work experience. Management and staff laugh together – it puts you on the same level. For the first time in years I feel that my staff like me. We can laugh together - the attitude has changed. They see me as a person not as a manager any more. Our relationship has really improved. In the past when I gave them tasks to do there was negativity that has gone now. They are more positive in taking on new tasks. The cooperation is wonderful. With Circle of Happiness we are now working as a team. If we have a problem in our office we solve it there and then, we don’t go to the supervisor with problems. The supervisor gets less problems from us now. We are a good family now. I didn’t communicate much with management before Circle of Happiness. I was afraid to be close to the management. Now I can talk to them - I’m not scared anymore. The way we communicate at work has changed since Circle of Happiness. It’s not like before - there is a lot of laughter and now we are really working together. When someone stresses you, you both laugh. The work situation is not as tight as before. The mood has totally changed. We’re much happier. Now we are a family, a working team, united as one. If one of us has a problem we discuss it amongst ourselves and then its over. There are huge personal differences among the staff. We’re very different people with different personalities, but Circle of Happiness has brought a new acceptance of our differences. We’re really a much better team than we were before. Within the first 2 weeks of Circle of Happiness I noticed a radical difference in how my staff interacted with each other. Before they used to run to me with all their problems. Now if there’s a problem, they sort it out among themselves in a nice way. It really has built a wonderful team spirit. When people do become upset, they bounce back and get over it much more quickly now. Where previously it was common for people to remain upset for days or even weeks, they seldom take longer than a day now to bounce back. It has completely changed the way we are coping. There’s a big increase in voluntary help. Staff members voluntarily help others where they see help is needed, even when it means doing things outside the scope of their own job. Circle of Happiness releases their stress and anger and hurt. After the morning session you can literally see the change in them. That heaviness – the stress, depression, grief and burnout – is lifted. People who have experienced major personality clashes for months or years are now laughing together and cooperating with newfound respect, consideration and friendship. The mood in our workplace is much lighter. We feel better. We are now a happy place.
Absenteeism is down. There’s a big difference in those who are not part of the Circle of Happiness group. Their cooperation is not as good. You can quickly see who is in the program and who is not because there is an openness and honesty and trust – a more relaxed way of communicating with each other - between program participants. We use it in training. They love it! A few people who did not do Circle of Happiness are participating in the daily sessions. Only two people on our staff are not participating. One of our team lost her brother and she really grieved for him. She asked to be excused from Circle of Happiness, but after just 2 days she was back. We were surprised how quickly she bounced back. Circle of Happiness in a Daycare for Orphans & Vulnerable Children Wow, the children have changed! There was a little girl who never laughed or smiled and now she’s laughing. The kids enjoy it, they even lead the exercises. It’s fantastic. Before some kids were reserved and quiet, they came from home with lots of stress - now they start laughing in the but in the morning. And on their way home they are laughing - you can see beautiful smiles. It has really helped them. The children seem much happier. After Circle of Happiness they are elated, they are loud and happy and sweet and giggle. They have a new confidence to express themselves in loving ways and feel they have freedom to do so. They’ve much more loving. I get lots more hugs and kisses than before. It’s really impacting on them in a positive way. The kids are so happy now. They take turns running Circle of Happiness exercises so they’re learning and they enjoy it. They all want to lead exercises. The kids love this. They can’t wait to do Circle of Happiness in the mornings. Circle of Happiness and Patients I find that patients are much happier when I leave them now. I think my being happy helps to lift them up. Before I was often depressed, and it’s hard for a depressed person to help a depressed patient. Our patients are often in a very sad mood. We teach them to practice Circle of Happiness when they’re angry and not to brood on the cause of their anger. There is an improvement in their moods. They are not as angry as before. Circle of Happiness has made a big change to patients’ adherence to medications. They are gaining weight and they are happy. Circle of Happiness has had a big impact on our voluntary support group. Members like coming to laugh with the group. Every Wednesday we find them standing outside waiting for us to open the door. Attendance is up – before we had 6 or 7 attending and now it’s up to 20 and growing. Circle of Happiness has changed the patients’ attitude towards treatment. When someone is not taking treatment we laugh together and tell them ‘when we come tomorrow you must tell me you took your treatment & laughed and got better. And when you wake up you must take your treatment and laugh’. The patients who practice Circle of Happiness become very positive and happy. Even those who are paralyzed or can’t talk join in. There’s a big positive impact on patients.
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INTERNATIONAL HAPPINESS INSTITUTE IS REPRESENTED IN SOUTHERN AFRICA
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TRADEMARKS
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