MAP Strategic Wealth Advisors

Five takeaways:

Gretchen Rubin is a writer who explores happiness and success. After a decade of researching the components of human happiness, she noticed that she had overlooked the role of the body in making us feel more connected, less stressed, and more alive.

By intentionally channeling each of the five senses, Rubin found new and untapped sources of happiness. Here are her five tips for bringing this benefit into your own life:

1. Need a burst of energy and cheer? Use your sense of smell.
   The introduction of scents can provide an instant mood boost, heighten awareness, and bring you into the present moment. Everyday smells—like fresh towels or fine wood—can be uplifting. Specific scents, such as eucalyptus, may transport you to a meaningful past experience.
2. Stressed out? Use your sense of touch.
   Items like fidget spinners and soft blankets offer a soothing effect and can reduce stress immensely. This is why they are often used in palliative and pediatric healthcare settings. Rubin, before public speaking events, finds comfort in a single ritual: holding a pen.
3. Feeling distracted and unproductive? Use your sense of sound.
   The more you can control your surroundings, the less likely you are to be bothered by errant noises. Some may prefer the silence of a library; others might feel more concentrated or at peace amid the bustle of a coffee shop. Be intentional about creating an auditory environment that fits your preferences– it will build a more sustained feeling of comfort and attentiveness.
4. Need a creative spark? Use your sense of sight.
   Be intentional about noticing the small visual details around you. By setting intentional “noticing” challenges—like spotting a certain color while on a walk, or studying the details of old buildings—you can train yourself to see beauty and whimsy in everyday surroundings. The world is full of hidden patterns and colors. Noticing them enhances our sense of creativity and connection.
5. Want to feel closer to other people? Use your sense of taste.
   Enjoying unique foods and flavors with other people is one of the most ancient and universal human customs. So: eat with others. Rubin notes how invigorating it was when a recent gathering of friends tried to identify the five basic tastes of sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami in the food they were eating– and how it bonded the group.

By Gretchen Rubin for CNBC
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Takeaways:

A 2024 study analyzing 103 elephant populations from Tanzania southward—the most comprehensive of its kind—reveals that conservation efforts have successfully halted the decline of savannah elephants in southern Africa over the past 25 years. By 2020, their population had rebounded to 290,000, matching the numbers recorded in 1995.

In 2019, International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) launched the Room to Roam initiative, aiming to secure and connect 12 critical landscapes, each home to at least 10,000 elephants.

Researchers found that the “core-buffer model” – creating large, well-connected areas/habitats, rather than confined protective parks, helps sustain elephant populations. Though they are less protected, these open reserves & wildlife corridors allow elephants to migrate when core areas are overcrowded or threatened by poaching or environmental changes.

Previously, elephants had been confined to “fortress parks” designed to protect them from poachers and other threats. But though these parks may be large, they rarely offer the natural flexibility and variance that elephants require to thrive. Instead, researchers have begun connecting parks and creating corridors that allow elephants to follow natural migration patterns.

Anti-poaching efforts have also stepped up dramatically– a 2019 agreement by multiple philanthropies and government agencies saw rangers equipped with a base, enforcement vehicles, a canine unit and drone support. There hasn’t been a single incident of illegal poaching targeting elephants in Hwange National Park since the agreement.

The “buffer” aspect of the “core-buffer” model is the institution of regulated buffer zones between the outer boundaries of wildlife reserves and human population areas. Elephants will often travel into these areas as part of their natural movements, and human interaction is heavily regulated.

The improvement seen in recent years is the result of 20 years of research on population dynamics of elephant clusters, growth rates, genetic makeup and population distribution. IFAW is coordinating with governments, communities and other key landscape actors to restore and set aside these areas for elephant conservation– and will continue to assess ongoing threats against elephant populations.

It takes individuals to do the collective work of reversing 100 years of negative population growth. The scale of human effort and investment that has gone into researching, planning, executing, and sustaining this progress is an inspiring example of our power to affect change.

You can learn more about IFAW’s work in Africa at their website.

By Veronika Perková for Reasons to be Cheerful
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Takeaways:

It is natural to fear disappointment, and to look at it as something to be defeated when it does rear its ugly head. It can make us feel powerless, which we are naturally inclined to find massively unpleasant.

Psychologists relate the phenomenon of “disconfirmed expectancies,” with disappointment, a term used to describe the difference between what you think will or should happen and what actually happens. Disconfirmed expectancies can trigger neuromodulator dopamine, which governs both rewards and the anticipation of rewards in our brains. If we anticipate rewards that we do not get, we become disappointed.

Optimists, in particular, tend to experience greater feelings of disappointment because they expect above-average outcomes. A 2010 Emotion study found that while naturally optimistic students reported feeling no better than any other students prior to an exam, they tended to feel worse afterward since their expectations were further from reality.

Though disappointment is unavoidable in life, Brooks argues that it would be a mistake to go through our days expecting the worst. The key, he says, is to convert your optimism to hope. Hope “does not require that you make any prediction at all about what might happen. It simply asks that you believe that whatever happens, you will have the ability to make circumstances better and you can give some thought to what that action might be.”

So: as you set your sights on what you want in life, be mindful of your expectations. If you’re hoping for a big promotion, avoid predicting the outcome. Instead, acknowledge your desire for the reward and focus on the practical steps you can take if you don’t get it.

From Arthur C. Brooks at The Atlantic:
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