Tag Archives: positivity

The Amazingly Positive Life of Michael J. Fox.

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“People talk about me being a paragon of optimism and hope and all that stuff. I have a really blessed life, I have an amazing life.” Michael J. Fox

In this feature for ABC News published on 18th June 2012, Russell Goldman looks at the actor Michael J. Fox who I mentioned in a previous post as being a poster boy for optimism.   Read the article and watch his interview with ABC’s news anchor Diane Sawyer who featured him as her “Person of the Week” in her Friday night World News programme.

Michael J. Fox Looks Past Stem Cells in Search For Parkinson’s Cure

Michael J. Fox, whose turn from Parkinson’s disease patient to scientific crusader made him one of the country’s most visible advocates for stem cell research, now believes the controversial therapy may not ultimately yield a cure for his disease, he told ABC’s Diane Sawyer in an exclusive interview.

There have been “problems along the way,” Fox said of stem cell studies, for which he has long advocated.   Instead, he said, new drug therapies are showing real promise and are “closer today” to providing a cure for Parkinson’s disease, a degenerative illness that over time causes the body to become rigid and the brain to shut down.

“Stem cells are an avenue of research that we’ve pursued and continue to pursue but it’s part of a broad portfolio of things that we look at. There have been some issues with stem cells, some problems along the way,” said Fox, who suffers from the diseases’ telltale tics and tremors.

“It’s not so much that [stem cell research has] diminished in its prospects for breakthroughs as much as it’s the other avenues of research have grown and multiplied and become as much or more promising. So, an answer may come from stem cell research but it’s more than likely to come from another area,” he said.

Tune in to “World News with Diane Sawyer” Friday at 6:30 p.m. E.T. to see more of Diane Sawyer’s interview with Michael J. Fox 

Fox, who recently appeared in episodes of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “The Good Wife,” has dedicated himself to finding a cure for Parkinson’s, the disease with which he was diagnosed in 1991.

Fox said he still strongly believes in stem cell research and government support of those studies, praising ongoing research at New York’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital. When asked about earlier criticism he received from conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh about his advocacy, Fox said it only “sharpens your resolve.”

Scientists are conducting research and looking for a cure on multiple fronts, Fox said, including drug therapies, experimental surgeries, and developing tests to help make earlier diagnoses.

To that end, his Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, the largest private funder of Parkinson’s disease research worldwide,  has recently launched an online initiative to increase studies across the country by pairing patients with clinical trials in their areas.

The Fox Trial Finder (Visit FoxTrialFinder.org for more info on clinical trial participation) harnesses the power of the Internet to find patients and, based on their profile of symptoms, pair them with research scientists conducting clinical trials.

Thirty percent of all clinical trials fail to recruit a single subject,  according to the foundation’s web site, and many more, some 85 percent, are delayed because scientists are unable to find enough participants.

“People can fill out a form anonymously… and then we can let them know about… clinical trials happening in their area,” Fox said.

Some 200 trials are currently seeking recruits through the website, but one of the most promising will “try to find a biomarker for Parkinson’s, which is really important,” Fox said.

By the time Fox was diagnosed 20 years ago, he said, 80 percent of the dopamine cells in his brain – neurons instrumental in sending the signals that control movement – were depleted.

“We have no way to identify the disease before symptoms appear. If we can target progress along the way, we can arrest progress and eliminate the possibility of symptoms,” he said, adding that this area of research is “the most exciting.”

Fox, an actor who grew up in front of the camera on the 1980s sitcom “Family Ties” and starred in the “Back to the Future” film franchise, worried about the future of his career after announcing his diagnosis in 1998 and leaving the hit show “Spin City.”

In the years since, he has led the Fox Foundation, which has donated more than $300 million to Parkinson’s research.  In recent months, however, he has returned to acting more regularly, the result he says, of a new drug regimen that helps control his tics, or dyskinesia.

“I kind of stumbled onto a new combination of meds for what’s called dyskinesia… Now I thought, there’s no reason not to work so I started to accept more work. Larry David called and had a terrific idea and the ‘Good Wife’ is such a terrific show,” he said of his decisions to appear on HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and the CBS series “The Good Wife.”

Fox said that each morning he is uncertain exactly how his symptoms will affect him that day. Some mornings he can delay taking his first dose of medicine for a few hours, other days he expects a greater challenge.

“I don’t write off the day ahead of time because of that, it just means it’s going be tougher sledding,” he said.

Having struggled with the disease for years himself, Fox understands its devastating effects and the physical challenges it presents.

He said it was an abiding sense of optimism, a topic on which he has written two books, that allows him to carry on, even on the most difficult days. In 2009, he traveled to the Asian country Bhutan, which emphasizes happiness over productivity, and said he found his symptoms diminished there.

“People talk about me being a paragon of optimism and hope and all that stuff,” he said.  ”I have a really blessed life, I have an amazing life.”

 

 

Posted by Shona Lockhart, 19th June 2012

Happy World: A good news story from Africa – The Malawi Mice Boys

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I am a big fan of world music and I am always on the look out for new groups to try out. This article in the Sunday Times caught my eye not only because it is such a good news story but also having travelled to the beautiful country of Malawi it is great to see an emerging music scene there.  It is always inspiring to hear stories of people who make the most of their opportunities and the Malawi Mice Boys are poster boys for positivity. They have not allowed limited resources stop them from getting involved in writing, playing and singing music and they sing from the heart. Who would think that a small group of subsistence farmers, with a sideline in selling tasty cooked mice on a stick, could have the possibility of becoming the next big thing on the African music scene?  Watch this space.

 

Catch them if you can

The Malawi Mouse Boys sound extraordinary, and do a roaring trade from their kind of pest control
Garth Cartwright Published: 13 May 2012

Brother of invention: Nelson Muligo on a scrap-metal guitar (Marilena Delli)
I n 1859, Dr David Livingstone heard the xylophone music of southern Malawi and, with typical Scottish understatement, described it as “wild and not unpleasant”. Since then, few have ­championed music — or anything else — from this southeast African nation. When the landlocked former British colony does get western attention, it tends to focus on infant mortality and HIV rates, so the arrival of a Malawian gospel group provides a chance to celebrate this ethnically diverse (and peaceful) nation.

The Malawi Mouse Boys’ debut album, He Is #1, captures a joy and inventiveness rarely experienced in contemporary western music. Like the Buena Vista Social Club, from Cuba, or Ladysmith Black Mambazo, from South Africa, the Malawi Mouse Boys possess a distinctive sound and a ­fascinating story. Both the other acts had an American musical connection (Ry Cooder and Paul Simon respectively) that helped to launch them internationally, and so do the Malawi Mouse Boys: Ian Brennan, a leading producer, came across the band while driving through rural Malawi.

“My wife’s father had done missionary work in Malawi,” he says, “so she had experienced the nation. As almost nothing by Malawian musicians had ever been released in the West I was interested to see what we could find.”

Brennan’s previous African sojourns include producing Tinariwen, the celebrated Saharan nomads, and the ­Rwandan vocal trio the Good Ones. “They were the first Rwandan group to have an album released internationally in their native language. For me, to hear these ­genocide survivors singing these remarkable love songs was incredibly moving,” says the Californian producer, who began his career working with the likes of the Bay Area punks Green Day before connecting with Americana veterans such as Merle Haggard and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. Long interested in Africa, Brennan produced Tinariwen’s album Tassili, which won the 2012 Grammy for world music.

“My goal is to help give voice to points of view that have not been expressed. You look at, say, Mali or Ethiopia, and these nations are celebrated internationally for their music, but Malawi appeared invisible in this sense. I believe all countries have music. There are no non-musical cultures. When a world-music expert told me there was no good music from Malawi, I took that as a personal challenge.”

Arriving in the country, Brennan found it had several popular singers whose tapes were sold in markets. Yet none of them represented the kind of music-making he was looking for. “R&B, rap, reggae and country music are loved across Africa, but I wanted something more distinctive. One evening, we were driving through farmland and I saw a young guy on the side of the road, playing a guitar. I stopped and listened to him, and was immediately struck by his voice. His name was Alfred, and he stood there and shyly sang. The sun was going down, cars were whizzing around and by the time he reached the chorus, we were surrounded by local kids. They all started singing along in harmony — it was obviously a local hit — and it was one of the most musical moments of my life. Just wonderful.”

Brennan asked Alfred if he could return to record him. The youth agreed and, when the producer arrived, he found Alfred accompanied by his band. “I was surprised at first, as I hadn’t expected to record a group, but once they started playing and singing, I realised I had stumbled on gold.”

Living in villages that lack electricity and running water, the Mouse Boys use instruments that are either home-made — a drum constructed out of animal skin and bicycle spokes, a guitar built out of scrap metal — or discarded. The acoustic guitar had a huge hole in its side and only four strings.

“Necessity is the mother of invention. And it’s incredible the sounds that they can get from their instruments. It proves that what really matters is the soul and imagination you put into it. You can have a $10,000 drum kit and still sound awful.”

The band’s music is all in the gospel tradition, yet Brennan notes: “Their best songs often express doubt and longing, rather than celebrations of certainty.” Most of the eight Mouse Boys have been singing together since childhood. “Zondiwe is an incredibly soulful lead vocalist. Nelson is also a lead vocalist and a lead guitarist, and he probably has the most poignant voice. He’s their secret weapon.”

Their vocal harmonies recall Sam Cooke or the Five Blind Boys of ­Mississippi, and Brennan makes a ­comparison with “a lot of pre-TV era ­American Southern gospel. But they have never heard any American gospel records — just as Tinariwen had never heard American blues when they began making music. Africa is the source of all these American music styles, and with both bands, you hear how the music never left.”

None of the Mouse Boys is a professional musician (all work in subsistence farming) and Brennan decided to record the band playing barefoot outdoors. While this wasn’t without its problems — tiny spiders would invade the portable eight-track recording system and crash the hard drive — it allowed for lots of village interaction. “Every one of these recordings has dogs on it. Also a lot of chickens and children. The great thing about animals and children is that they are always on time, so musical and intuitive. So they are just another instrument, and it’s something to be embraced. I did some editing in the studio, but no overdubs. A lot of what gets called ‘world music’ got ruined by producers ­trying to make it sound like pop music, adding keyboards and such.”

The resulting album is, to quote Dr ­Livingstone, “wild and not unpleasant”. Actually, it’s a gem, one of the best, freshest releases of the year. Brennan admits he is ecstatic about both the album and the enthusiastic response it has generated. He then jokes that, with CD sales in steep decline, the monies he paid the band are likely to be the only wages anybody makes out of He Is #1. While hopeful that the Mouse Boys can tour America and Europe, ­Brennan states that he did not go to Malawi “looking for a new Tinariwen”. Instead, he emphasises that the most important quality of He Is #1 is how it “legitimises what they do. Never before has a record been released in Chichewa [the band’s language] outside Malawi. It’s one of the most musical ­languages in the world, comparable to Italian — lots of vowel [sounds]”.

How, I wonder, did the band become known as the Malawi Mouse Boys? ­Brennan chuckles and describes how band members earn extra income: they stand at the roadside offering a local delicacy, roast mouse. “They sell the mice on a stick. Minibuses stop and their passengers leap out to buy a stick. They’re better known locally as mouse salesmen than for their music. See, the mice infest the huts’ thatched roofs, and the boys prepare a big pot of boiling water, then whack the roof, and this makes the mice fall into the water. They clean and cook the mice, then sell them. This goes on daily. Naturally, I ­suggested that they call their group the Malawi Mouse Boys.”

Naturally, I had to ask: did Brennan ever sample the mice? “I’m a vegetarian,” he replies, “so no. But those who did said what you always hear: ‘They taste like chicken.’”

He Is #1 is released on May 28

Article published in The Sunday Times, 13th May 2012

Wish yourself a happy New Year at any time of the year

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Like many people I started the year with many good intentions and quickly found that life got in the way.  I wrote this article at the beginning of 2012 with the aim of featuring it in my brand new blog about positive psychology, which I had great intentions of setting up in January. We are now in May and thanks to my decision to sign up for the Thirty Day Challenge with  http://www.screwworkletsplay.com/  I have finally set up my blog The Happiness Experiment. It is never too late to have a happy New Year and it is never too soon to start your own journey to happiness.  This article shares some insight in to my own personal journey to happiness and future articles will share some more of the lessons I have learned along the way.  I continue to experiment daily with the lessons of positive psychology and would encourage you to try some experiments too. We are all responsible for our own happiness and like me you have the ability to significantly increase your  own well-being and to flourish – as Mahatma Gandhi so rightly said you can “be the change you want to see in the world.”

An experiment in happiness: “Be the change you want to see in the world”

 

January is traditionally the time of year when newspaper and magazine articles abound with New Year, New You features.  Headlines such as “Make 2012 your best year yet”, “10 secrets to living a happier life” make us believe that this will be the year when everything will be different and circumstances will coincide to make 2012 the year when we finally attain the happiness we have been seeking.

This year I was in the fortunate position of being ahead of the curve as I had just completed Tim Le Bon’s 10 week positive psychology course at City University in December.  This meant that in January I could skip the articles and forget the usual New Year resolutions we all beat ourselves up about for having abandoned in February, as I was already armed with everything I needed to carry out my own happiness experiment in 2012.

The positive psychology course could have been subtitled “10 weeks to happiness” as most of the participants had made significant improvements to their happiness levels by the end of the 10 weeks. We left armed with a range of simple tools and interventions which, if mastered and used regularly, can have a very positive impact on your life.  When I began the course in October I was in a similar position to many of the other students in that I had done some reading on the subject of positive psychology but had not put a great deal of what I had read in to practice – the course proved to be the catalyst for change which we all needed.

The course was a great mixture of gaining an academic understanding of the current principles and theories of positive psychology (a relatively new branch of psychology begun in 1998 by Professor Martin Seligman) and of having the opportunity to apply these ideas in our personal and working lives.  I have always been interested in the theories and benefits of optimum nutrition, popularised by Patrick Holford.  This is a way of living a life of optimum physical health by taking personal responsibility for one’s own physical well-being through lifestyle and nutrition choices rather than abdicating responsibility to health practioners.  Positive psychology, in my view, gives us the opportunity to achieve optimum mental health and the resilience to bounce back from life’s challenges without resorting to a medically prescribed “happy pill”.  In the same way as optimum physical health is not merely absence of illness, optimum mental health is not merely the absence of negative emotions or depression.   Both theories aim to help us achieve a similar outcome – a life in which we are positively flourishing and thriving and living life to the full.

We initially looked at the “happiness formula” formulated by Professor Seligman and his team which is:    H = S + C + V

The level of happiness that you experience (H) is determined by your biological set point (S) plus the conditions of your life (C) plus the voluntary activities (V) that you do.

It was a revelation to me to discover that 50% of our happiness is determined by genes (S), 10% by life circumstances (c) and 40% by our intentional voluntary activities.  Like many of the other participants I had always assumed that our happiness levels were due to a combination of our personal circumstances and to having a naturally positive outlook on life. 

I read two books related to this subject which were instrumental in changing my attitude to our ability to determine our own happiness levels.  The first one “The How of Happiness” by Sonja Lyubomirsky, contains 12 practical happiness inducing activities which are simple to implement and demonstrates that having the possibility to influence our happiness levels by 40% is hugely significant.  The pessimists on the course were secretly thinking that if we can only influence our happiness levels by 40% it is not worth trying!

The second book was “Positivity” by Barbara Fredrickson which illustrates that even those who are genetically pre-determined to be die-hard pessimists can improve their positivity ratio by using her broaden and build theory and by focusing on achieving the crucial tipping point of 3 to 1 positive versus negative experiences.  One of the first interventions we were asked to complete on the course was to write a daily gratitude journal of three good things and how your behaviour caused the positive thing.  I have realised that when you appreciate what you have, what you have appreciates in value. I now not only practice this personally every day but have introduced this positive intervention in my workplace as well.

Other topics we covered looked at 3 different routes to happiness; the pleasant life (a hedonistic approach in which temporary pleasures can elate us for a while but as we quickly habituate ourselves to them their effect diminishes), the engaged life (made up of flow experiences which use our signature strengths) and a meaningful life (in which we have a sense of purpose and connectedness and use our signature strengths in the service of something that you believe is larger than you are).

I was in a similar position to many other students in that taking a hedonistic approach to life presented me with no particular problems.  However I had always had a nagging doubt at the back of my mind that there had to be a scientific explanation to the fact that the first cup of coffee in the morning always made me much happier than any subsequent cups.   I have always tried to live a meaningful life and giving back to communities less fortunate than ourselves (particularly the bottom billion in Africa) is hugely important to me and a great source of pleasure.

However I gained 3 important insights from this topic. The first one was that although I was familiar with the concept of “flow”, having read Mihály Csikszentmihály’s book on the subject, I did not choose to put this in to practice in my daily life and did not always live an engaged life.  The second insight was the concept of signature strengths which was a completely new concept to me and which illustrates how we can become significantly happier by focusing on our strengths. Having previously always focused on my weaknesses, this was a revelation.  Once you have taken the easy strengths tests which are available online, you can think of ways to use your signature strengths in different ways and situations. The third insight was the importance of making giving personal.  I became a convert to the idea of acts of kindness practiced at a very personal level (another of our interventions from class) and was inspired to watch the film “Pay it forward”.  I have now set up an Acts of Kindness challenge in my workplace and try to think of little things I can do on a daily basis to “Pay it forward”, such as leaving a surprise bunch of flowers for my dog walker.

We also looked at the concepts of hope, optimism and luck and at the importance of having a positive explanatory style in relation to the situations and events which life throws at us.  We focused on how optimists are capable of seeing good things as permanent, pervasive and personal and bad things as temporary, specific and temporary whereas pessimists do the opposite. Optimism can be learned and your explanatory style can be worked at.

The concept of hope and the importance of perseverance and taking the long view were brought home to me by watching “Shawshank’s Redemption” a film recommended on the course recommended. I also read Viktor Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning” and learned that if you can survive the horrors of concentration camp life and still be hopeful and optimistic about the human race, then everything is possible.  This quote from the book was really enlightening: “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing; the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose - one’s own way”.

The concept of luck as a route to happiness was not something I had previously considered, but reading Richard Wiseman’s “The Luck Factor” which demonstrates that there are 12 key principles  which affect our luck and that we are all in control of these 12 principles.  I recently started putting one of the first principles in to practice, “lucky people build and maintain a strong network of luck”. This basically means that the bigger your network, the more opportunities come your way, so it is a great idea to constantly think of new ways to meet people.  It is not about having hundreds of “friends” on Face book but having a network of friends and contacts with whom you are on first name terms.  As a practical example I recently moved house and decided to invite all my new neighbours to a “Pot Luck” party as a way of getting to know people quickly rather than spending years not knowing who lives in the same street.  I am applying one principle of this book each month both in my personal life and at work. The principles can also be found on this website: http://www.theluckfactor.com/

Other aspects of the course which I will be focusing on in 2012 are lessons about savouring, mindfulness and meditation which we practised briefly in class.  This made me aware how little we live in the present and how important it is to master this skill if we want to be happy.  I will be signing up for a course on Mindfulness in the near future and intend putting this in to practice in my daily life.   We also learned about the significant role which positive relationships play in our happiness and of the importance of emotional intelligence in our overall well-being.  These are concepts which I will be studying further now that the course is over.

10 weeks is, of course, only a short period of study and I would not claim to have mastered all the concepts we were taught or indeed to have put everything in to practice yet.  It is now a month since the course finished and I still feel that I derived so much personal benefit from the course that I want to both continue studying this subject and to pass my knowledge (limited though it is at this stage) on to others.  I am implementing the teaching in my personal and work life and am already reaping the benefits.

I have never previously struggled with being hopeful about the future, but I have at times struggled with being optimistic about today.  Above all this is what Tim le Bon’s 10 week positive psychology course has taught me; that if we want to change our happiness levels we have to make that change happen.  To quote Mahatma Gandhi “Be the change you want to see in the world”.  If you would like to learn more, I would recommend you look at the course reading list as a starting point, sign up for the next 10 week course and start to take massive action.  Try out your own happiness experiment and this time next year you could be ahead of the curve too.

My personal top 10 lessons from the course

1. Be grateful and keep a positive attitude

2. Take the long view – post-traumatic growth is possible

3. Be kind and make generosity personal

4. Always stay inspired

5. Focus on strengths and use them creatively

6. Share knowledge about positive psychology

7. Never stop learning but take MASSIVE action

8. Be hopeful about the future and optimistic about today

9. Meet new people, try new experiences, learn new skills and get involved

10. Make a difference and be the change you want to see in the world.

 Article written by Shona Lockhart, 25th January 2012