Everyone likes games, right? In this case, GAME is a fun acronym that we can use to remind ourselves how we can intentionally impact our happiness. Here's what it stands for:

G is for Genetic. We all have a genetically-inherited happiness set point that we were born with. Luckily, it can significantly change over time.

A is for Activities. The activities we engage in can greatly affect our level of happiness.

M is for Mental shifts. We can learn and practice tools to shift our minds into a happier mental state.

E is for Environment. The environment we surround ourselves can increase or decrease our level of happiness.

Let's go into a little more detail with each one of these categories.

Genetic

Each of us is born with a disposition toward a certain level of happiness. About half of our happiness comes from our genetics. According to a well-designed study of twins by Tellegen and colleagues, happiness was found to be about 50% heritable.¹

Scientists have collected the MRI images of individuals' brains and found that people with more activity on the left and front side of their brains tend to be the happiest. Conversely, people with more right frontal activity are unhappier. Neuroscientists have labeled this activity our happiness set points. ²

So does that mean we are stuck with the level of happiness we are born with? No. Science says that what we are born with is only a starting point. If we were dealt the low end of the happiness deck, all is not lost. It just may mean we need to work harder.

The experiences we have in life can significantly increase or decrease the happiness level we are born with. Regardless of the set point you were born with, you can now consciously choose to bring more happiness into your life by choosing the activities, mental shifts, and environmental conditions that increase happiness for you.

Activities

The activities that we choose to bring into our lives strongly influence our happiness. Socializing with friends is an easy example of an activity that makes just about everyone happier.

Examine your own set of activities. Make a list of the activities that you like the best. Things like hobbies are going to be personal to your likes and not universal. For example, not everyone likes to garden.

Look over the list. Are there activities on the list that you wish that you could do more of? If so, what's stopping you from doing them more often? If there's a way you can arrange your schedule to accommodate more of the activities that make you happy, voila!

Correspondingly, make a list of your least favorite things to do. The goal here is to brainstorm how to rid your schedule of these items! Can you delegate any of them (to people who love doing them)? Can you add something to them to make them more fun? For example, I have never been all that excited about cleaning my house. I turn on the soundtrack to the movie Amadeus, which includes Mozart's Requiem. Cranked up loud, I make wild sweeping composer motions while I dust the house. Now, housecleaning is almost fun for me.

Mental shifts

It's true, we literally can be our own worst enemies, or at least our minds can. That voice in your head can be so much meaner to you than your worst enemy. To be happier, we need to rid ourselves of thoughts, beliefs, and mindsets that promote negative thinking and hold us back from the greatness that we are.

In an article in the spring 2006 issue of Tricycle, Andrew Olendzki said, "All experience is shaped within a matrix of cause and effect. Our mental attitude of aversion or pleasure is a product of one's dispositions - nothing more than learned responses built up during a lifetime of acting and reacting in the world - understand this and can have an immediate breakthrough liberating the mind."

Environment

What are your surroundings like at home? At work? Do they promote beauty, freedom, and creativity? Or do you feel boxed in? is it bright and spacious or dark and cluttered?

Create an inventory of each of the environments you spend time in. Note what your five senses take in. Is there anything that's just plain negative? Can you eliminate it or transform it? How can you adjust your environment to support and nurture who you are?

A great example of an environment that is totally authentic to its owner is AHA Board member Dr. Aymee Coget's house. It's filled with happy face clocks and dishes, motivational posters, framed magazine covers with happiness as their cover story, lots of thriving plants, comfy pillows, and cozy chairs. How can your environment support you?

GAME

Remember the happiness GAME next time you're ready for a happiness booster. Work with your Genetics, Activities, Mental shifts, and Environment to get your boost of happiness.

How can we possibly experience happiness with all the negative stuff going on in our lives and the world? Layoffs, the economy, traffic, crime, bank failures, pirates, taxes, boring corporate meetings, terrorist threats, and depressing news stories, to name a few, can put a happiness damper on the most cheerful people you know.

If you're like most people, you face many of these things every day, and they often end up ruining your day, dampening your mood, or getting you depressed. How can we live happily in such a toxic environment?

This teleseminar is designed to answer that question and help you live more powerfully in spite of the negative things surrounding you. If you want to bring more joy and happiness into your lives, you must dial in to hear this seminar. We'll do an exercise that will transform the peak low points of your day into something you can look forward to.

During the hour, you'll discover tools, keys, and habits that will help you create an environment that embraces you and helps you to be the best, happy person you can be.

We'll also provide some tips on how to find more time and more energy. Who doesn't need that!?

And the best part is happiness experts Sandi Smith and Dr. Aymee Coget will answer your personal questions and challenges about happiness. You'll have a chance during the question and answer session to ask Sandi and Aymee your toughest, most challenging questions.

The teleseminar will be professional hosted and moderated by Jon Polmar, founder of TheSelfHelpSchool.com, PTATeleseminars.com and co-founder of TPGMarketing and The Polmar Group. Jon has been studying and leading teleseminars on a variety of self-help topics including the Hawaiian study of Ho'oponopono, Zen, Authentic Living and he moderates the Happiness Club's monthly teleseminars with Lionel Ketchian and Dr. Aymee Coget.

Dr. Aymee Coget (pronounced Co jjayy) is founder of her own ground-breaking international happiness practice based in San Francisco, CA, USA, where she teaches groups, coaches individuals, and actively promotes sustainable happiness on the planet. The New York Times labeled Aymee the Suze Orman of Happiness. She's been featured in Bliss Magazine, is a regular blogger on Proctor and Gamble's Capessa and Yahoo! Health, and runs San Francisco's Happiness Club.

Sandi Smith is President and Founder of BrainWays Training & Development based in San Jose, CA, USA where she helps companies create brain-friendly workplaces and helps individuals master fearlessness. She is one of a handful of females alive to co-pilot a single-engine airplane around the world. Sandi is an avid traveler and has visited 100 countries, including a backpacking trip alone around the world. Her volunteer work in Kenya, Russia, and Nepal earned her an AWSCPA Public Service Award and a Baird Community Service Award.

Remember the February unemployment report? Bleak indeed. Here's another way to look at it that wasn't reported:

• 142 million Americans have jobs.
• If you are an adult woman, you have the highest employment rate at 93.3%. Asians follow at 93.1%. Hmmmm, if I were a reporter, I'd want to know what women and Asians are doing right.
• The health care industry added 27,000 jobs in February.
• 820,000 people left their job on their own will. They were not forced to leave their jobs.
• The construction industry may not be hiring, but what about retooling for the green industry which is booming? Also, health care construction is booming.
• Losses in transportation and publishing are excellent for the greening of the planet; less oil consumed and roadway pollution produced, less trees killed.
• Losses in retail and leisure are good for our psyche; less junk purchased that will eventually hit the landfill and more time spent at home reading to our kids, staring at each other, and having the good old fashioned story-telling conversation.
• There were job increases in over 25 industry segments.

Until mainstream news gets the positive message, check out these three sources for a positively good news read.

http://www.happyherald.com/
In May 1995 the Happy Times came from an overnight vision so profound it attracted the right people and circumstances to create a unique and beneficial publication. Eleven years later we“ve grown to over ¼ million readers and have become the #1 Positive News Source in South Florida. The vision of spreading positive news has unfolded, changing lives and inspiring the best in us all.

http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/greatergood/
Greater Good is a new voice of compassion, hope, and inspiration. Four times a year, it highlights ground breaking scientific research into the roots of altruistic human relationships, and fuses this research with inspiring stories of compassion in action. In the process, it provides a bridge between social scientists and parents, educators, community leaders, and policy makers. Its underlying goal is to highlight the strides we're making (and obstacles we're encountering) toward becoming a more benevolent society.

http://www.goodonyaaustralia.com.au/
The people of Australia are now at the stage where we are not prepared to just sit back and let this doom and gloom take over the country! We want to make a stand against those that are promoting the negatives and creating fear about our economy just because bad news sells. Good Onya Australia brings all these people together so we can spread the positivity and work together to pull our country out of this negative spiral.