Are Estonians Happy?

Previously I wrote a blogpost “The two faces of Estonians” about my experience with Estonian people. They tend to believe, that they are a very serious and more introvert type of people, especially when at work. In their private life and at weekend parties they dare to show their other, more playful side.

Recently I was invited by some Happy Estonians to help them make a Happy in Tallinn music video from Pharrell Williams’ hit song, after making a Happy in Eindhoven one in my own hometown. It was my role to invite the people to dance and act playful to the music while we were filming. Sometimes a bit shy at first but quickly loosening up to the music, we shot the video in two amazing days. The video was released 3 weeks ago and already got almost 20.000 views.

Some of the reactions of Estonians to the video were;

These are not real Estonian people, these are actors and it is fake. We don’t show our happiness this openly.

For me I see this as a big compliment. Apparently I was capable of bringing their playful side out in front of the camera. And I’m very proud of the result. I know for a fact that Estonians are Happy! They just need a little bit of encouragement to show it…But then again; don’t we all?

Enjoy the video:

With playful greetings,
Annemarie Steen

You’re more than welcome to get updates on my projects and resources about playfulness and playful learning by following my facebookpage.

Explosion of Happy video’s on youtube…and I couldn’t resist making one too.

1682 video’s from 142 countries! (at this moment) Have a look at this impressive list of cities that have done a Happy video clip on the hit song “Happy” from Pharrell Williams.

When I looked at this list two months ago, I say that Eindhoven, my city was not in the list. And I decided to be the one to change that fact. Why? Because I love to see people playful, spontaneous, a little crazy and daring to step out of their comfort zone. And this seemed to be the perfect chance to invite them to do just that. So, I started a facebookgroup and invited people of my hometown to join the project. I asked them on what special location in Eindhoven they wanted to have their 30sec ‘of fame’ to do a little dance. A week before the shoot I made a planning of all locations and posted this on the group.

The day itself (April 19th) everything went awesome. We were lucky to have perfect weather, everybody was at their locations in time, all very happy, some even rehearsing with a large group of friends they brought along. The youngest was 5 years old, the oldest 88! We (Me, Mike with his videocamera and Aikje with her photo camera) were shooting from 10am until 9pm, visiting 15 different locations. I was also very lucky to find a sponsor for the editing, because I have no expertise in that area. Ad Mulders did a gr8 job.

And here’s the end result! Enjoy!

When your city is not in the list (yet), I can highly recommend to make one yourself. You get a lot of happy vibes from doing it. Good luck!

Playful Greetings,

Annemarie Steen

For more updates on Playfulness & Playful Learning, follow my Facebookpage

 

Create a personal planner for your loved ones (and for yourself).

Hi,

Last week I received the most sweet email ever. It came from my dad, who is 70 years old and rarely uses a computer. My father is a man who doesn’t talk easily about emotional stuff. Every year for his birthday he asks for very practical stuff, like a new set of tennisballs, soap on a string or an agenda/planner for next year (his birthday is at the end of december). So last year, I bought him his agenda for 2012. A very plain/ boring one. But I decided to make it personal by writing the birthday’s of his children and grandchildren in it. Then I added some nice quotes I find inspiring. And I put in some questions, like “What inspired you this week?” or “What are the things that make you happy?” or “What are your personal most important values?” and even instructions, like 13-2: although Valentines Day is a commercial inititative, mum would appreciate a small gift or some flowers anyway” or “Call Mike (my partner) to remind him it’s Valentines Day tomorrow”. Also I reminded him on some day’s that I love him and am grateful to have him as my dad. 

The email I received was sending in his ‘homework’ of last year. He had taken the questions very seriously and appreciated it very much. He ended his email by saying “I know this will take some effort/time from you, but I would very much like to have such a planner for next year”. 

Apparently I have found a way to connect to my father in a personal way, by using his planner as a tool. 

Idea:

1) Do you have a good friend or relative that you feel close to, but don’t see or speak to that often. You can give them this present of a personal planner.

2) You can make such a personal planner for yourself, and remind yourself during the following year about things that matter to you.

 

With enthusiasm,

Annemarie Steen

Benefits of playful laughter, “Fake it, till you make it!”

Hi,

Yesterday I facilitated a Laughtersession for a group of 25 people from a mental/ healthcare institution. I did this as my alterego, Yamuna. I started the session with explaining how Laughter Yoga started with (Yamuna’s uncle) Dr. Madan Kataria from Mumbai India in 1995. As a physisian he believes in the benefits of laughter for your health (both physiological and psychological), so he decided in 1995 to start a laughterclub with some friends in a park in Mumbai. After a few get togethers, they ran out of jokes, so they didn’t have something to laugh about. Then, they decided they would laugh anyway for no reason at all. And they felt equally good after the session.

What Dr. Madan and his friends discovered was, that by starting to laugh for no reason in a group, soon it turned into real laughter. So the saying goes: FAKE IT, FAKE IT, till you MAKE IT!

Scientific research confirms that the body doesn’t know the difference between real and fake laughter. So when you start to laugh for no reason, your body will send signals to your brain, telling your brain you’re in a good mood, and your brain will tell your system to start producing the hormones endorphine and dopamine (which make you feel good) and reduce your stresshormones cortisol and adrenaline. Also laughter will increase vascular bood flow and oxygenation of the blood, increase memory and learning and improve alertness & creativity.

Now, over 600 laughterclubs are active around the world and they have developed many playful laughterexercises. Many of them can be found on the internet and youtube.

The most fun part of facilitating this group for me was, that I invite people to leave their comfortzone and join me in very playful exercises. The best moment was, when I asked the question of “Who knows a nice way of greeting people?”. One woman spontaneously blurted out “touching noses”, and immediately reacted shy; “oops, did I actually say that?” So we invented a “touching noses” laughter exercise on the spot and the whole group joined in. Watching the people having fun and joining in, making the woman’s ‘blurt’ an important contribution to the group, made me feel totally happy. After Yamuna was gone, Annemarie reflected with the group on their experience. They felt less inhibited, more open, more space, energized, relaxed, closer connected to eachother and tired in a good (after exercise) way.

When I ask myself why this moment gives my the greatest pleasure, it is because it touches my personal mission, which is (for now…it’s an ongoing proces):

To inspire people to leave their comfortzone (where learning & growth takes place) by sharing my experience & knowledge and by creating playful & meaningful learningexperiences.

With playful greetings,

Annemarie Steen (& Yamuna)

PS If you want to laugh with me…send me a message and we’ll set up a meeting (on- or offline)