Being in the business of happiness
ROBERT STEVEN Bex Lipp’s struggle with a mental health illness inspired the Acacia Bay business woman to begin her gratitude journal publishing business.
Now, the Acacia Bay resident and her business partner have won NEXT magazine’s ‘‘Her Own Boss’’ competition.
‘‘I battled severe mental illness for a huge part of my life. Using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), taught to me by my therapist, it helped me realise you can re-wire your brain,’’ Lipp said.
Lipp now publishes gratitude journals with her company AwesoMe Inc, which she runs with her Auckland-based friend Nicky Perry.
‘‘We are hard-wired to seek the bad as a way to survive, but these days it isn’t that helpful,’’ Lipp said,
‘‘Gratitude itself is just one of the tools which helps us look for the good.
‘‘I like to flip any negative and see if I can find something to be grateful for, and in almost all situations I can.’’
Identifying and writing down things that one is grateful for can increase a person’s baseline happiness, Lipp said.
‘‘When I started using a gratitude journal, it really unlocked the way my brain processed information - especially by allowing me to raise my base happiness level and to focus on the positives.
‘‘By taking the time and energy to identify and write down our thoughts, we hardwire them into our brains, making them that much more powerful.’’ The journals include extra information and activities like colouring-in pages. References to the research the information is sourced from are provided.
‘‘For example the ‘how to manage emotions’ chapter in our new journal aimed teenagers was sourced from research by Katharina Kircanski, University of California, published in 2012,’’ Lipp said.
* Visit awesomeendsin.me for more.