It’s Say Something Nice Day. Celebrated every June 1, the purpose of the day is to elevate spirits and spread positivity through compliments and kind words.

Welcome to the 115^th edition of The Sunday Spark, a series with weekly thoughts and highlights, nuggets of learning, and a simple living challenge for the week. In addition to the value of saying something nice, this week’s edition shares some learnings about longevity and healthy aging, and a board game designed to encourage responsible fashion choices.

On my mind this week: Say something nice today…and every day

When I heard that today is Say Something Nice Day, I immediately thought of Thumper’s famous line from the movie Bambi.

If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all.

Thumper, Bambi

Thumper was right! We all need to make more of an effort to say nice things and lift each other up. And when we can’t, we should just stay quiet.

I’m not suggesting we stay quiet and stop fighting against the injustice in the world. It’s more about keeping things positive in our day to day interactions with friends, co-workers and family.

Psychologists report humans have a natural negativity bias. It’s not a bad thing. Awareness of the dangers of life has helped us survive and evolve over generations. But this bias means negative words stay with us longer than positive ones. This means we need more positive words to outweigh the negativity.

Think about some of your recent conversations. How did you feel after a positive discussion where you shared good news and laughed? How long did that good feeling last? Now think about how you felt after hearing criticism, a backhanded compliment, or a venting session. I’ve seen how positive conversations energize me whereas complaining drains me and affects my mood for the rest of the day.

Dr. David Hamilton reports a single kind word or act can ripple to 125 people within 24 hours. So, let’s make a pact today to follow Thumper’s lead and spread positivity by saying only nice words. It will make a big difference to your mood and has the power to create a ripple effect.

And who knows! You might just get some kind words back in return.

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Three highlights of the week

It’s important to celebrate big milestones and simple pleasures in life. Keeping the trend going, here are three highlights and simple pleasures of the week gone by:

• We had a great visit with Colleen while she was home last weekend. While she was here, we stopped by the microforest to visit the tree we planted in my brother-in-law’s memory. It has doubled in size! Now Colleen is back in PEI for a few more weeks.
• I finally got my flowers and tomatoes planted in the garden and was able to wash our bedding and get it dried outdoors. Then the rain and cooler temperatures returned.
• On Thursday, my new music group made up of some new and old music friends had our first jam session. It was fun and energizing—and a little challenging to get back into singing something other than church music.

Things I learned this week

Life is all about learning. Here are three things I learned this week:

What really drives our health and longevity?

Studies have shown that socio-economic factors have a greater impact on health and longevity than healthy behaviours. In fact, 40% of an individual’s health is determined by socio-economic factors like education, occupation, or income. Health behaviours like diet, exercise and substance use account for 30%.

But don’t stash those sneakers yet! 30% is still a lot.

(Source: UCLA Health)

Understanding our healthspan

On a related note, I’ve been reading the book Whealthspan by Scott B. Fulton. It’s a fascinating look at the gap between lifespan and healthspan and the factors that impact how well we age.

Here are some thought-provoking ideas I’ve picked up from the book:

• After age 35, our brains slowly being shrinking about 0.2% per year. This decline doubles to about 0.5% per year by age 60 and increases to over 2% per year by age 80. (For tips on how to preserve brain health, check out my latest post on Second Life Vision.)
• Our primary lifestyle habits have been formed by the age of 7.
• Food processing and healthcare are big business. These giant corporations profit from your unhealthy lifestyle.
• In the last 100 years, processed foods have contributed to more deaths than cigarettes and conflict.
• Lifestyle matters. Healthy individuals are living longer. Unhealthy individuals are dying earlier.

Whealthspan is an important book, so watch for a more thorough review in an upcoming post.

New board game educates on the impact of fast fashion

Canadians individually throw away 12 kilograms (over 25 pounds) of textiles every year. Education is critical to reducing the impact of our wardrobes on the environment.

The Manitoba Council for International Cooperation has developed an educational board game for use in schools and other learning environments. The goal of Fast Fashion: The T-Shirt Board Game is to help students learn more about the fashion industry and make more responsible choices.

Even better, the board game is available as a free download!

(Source: Canadian Affairs)

This week’s simple living challenge – Declutter!

Simplifying life is a big part of living more intentionally. With that in mind, I kicked off the year with 52 ways to simplify your life this year, including a downloadable checklist of weekly tasks. There’s still time to set your own theme for the new year and resolve to build some new habits in 2025.

This week’s challenge is to declutter. Pick an area of your home and just do it! This spring, we’ve been focusing on decluttering our outdoor spaces—the garage and the shed—and it feels so good! Visit my Decluttering page for checklists, tips, and inspiration!

I’d love to hear what you think about any of this week’s topics. Drop me a comment below and let me know your thoughts and ideas.