We have talked before about how doing new things helps boost happiness. Those with an innate sense of curiosity are usually those most likely to try new things. It’s interesting that curiosity leads us to explore things that are unknown to us. Not only does curiosity prompt us to venture into uncharted waters; in some […]
I’ve studied wellness and have read oodles of psychology, motivational and self-help books. I’ve experimented with well-being and wellness tactics and strategies and explored various approaches with colleagues and friends. Based on what I’ve learned, I’ve come up with a recipe that I call the “Secret Sauce” for well-being. It includes 7 basic ingredients we […]
Feeling down? Don’t know why? It’s so hard to resolve feelings when we don’t know what’s causing them. Maybe we are dissatisfied with our home life? Or we don’t enjoy our jobs? Perhaps it’s because we’re in the wrong relationship or living in the wrong neighborhood? It’s possible these circumstances are contributing to our unhappiness. But […]
Scientists say we enter a state of “flow” when we are fully absorbed in something we’re doing. Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi , a positive psychologist first came up with the term flow in the 1970s. His definition: “the mental state where we are so immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the […]
What possesses a healthy person to anonymously donate a kidney to a stranger? They will not be paid or rewarded. There will be no publicity. No public or even private praise. Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? Yet people do things like this. All the time. It would be amazing if these acts of generosity happened more […]
Scientists have discovered a gene that makes some of us more likely to develop dementia. But there’s something in our control that can influence whether or not that gene expresses itself. Simply put, people who have the gene can help avoid dementia – just by embracing one simple concept and attitude: positive thinking and optimism. If […]
Welcome to How to Find Happiness in 10 Weeks or Less, Week 4: What Is My Purpose? Answers to the Most Important Question Ever. Discovering what we were born to do is highly motivating and a key to improving our well-being. When we discover our life purpose, everything we do has more meaning, and even […]
For years, I thought happy people smiled often and were generally joyful. I also thought of them as being imbued with a sense of serenity and calm. Recently, I’ve come to realize that the graceful, steady state of being I’ve aspired to is not happiness at all. It is more aptly described by a different […]
If we put other's needs before our own for too long, it can become challenging to remember what we enjoy doing. Here's how to snap out of this unhealthy pattern and remember how to be happy.
Welcome to How to Find Happiness in 10 Weeks or Less, Week 7: What You Need to Know about Healthy Relationships. “Our relationship with ourselves sets the tone for every other relationship in our lives.” – Robert Holden This quote says it all! What a perfect way for us to start off this post, which […]
Do you suffer from “comparisonitis”? It’s a difficult ailment to overcome. It’s easy to fall into the habit of making comparisons, especially comparing ourselves to others. We can find ourselves doing this related to family issues, finances, accomplishments, appearance; the list goes on and on. We may compare how popular we are to others, and […]
We often hear people say, “what goes around, comes around”, and many believe this is the essence of Karma. But karma involves much more than that. Reading a short article about the true meaning of karma was enough to make me want to keep researching it. What Karma Really Means Karma is a fundamental belief […]
Over the last decade or so, there has been a tremendous amount of research related to positive psychology. Much of it focuses on the subject of kindness. When I’m feeling down or need encouragement, reading up on positive psychology and especially kindness provides me a real lift. Somehow, learning more about a healthy practice that […]
Welcome to How to Find Happiness in 10 Weeks or Less, Week 10: How to Take Generosity and Gratitude to the Next Level. It’s our final week in this 10-week journey together, and what an adventure it has been! We’ve covered a rich collection of topics to help us understand our own definition of happiness […]
Welcome to How to Find Happiness in10 Weeks or Less, Week 9: How to Use Habits to Boost Happiness to New Heights. This week, we focus on the connections between habits and happiness. More specifically, we are going to explore how to use our natural tendency to develop habits to our best advantage by identifying […]
Welcome to How to Find Happiness in 10 Weeks or Less, Week 8: How to Use Money to Buy Happiness. We hope you are finding this series useful and interesting. Money and related issues are often at the root of our most difficult internal conflicts, and also out conflicts with loved ones. It’s important we […]
Welcome to How to Find Happiness in 10 Weeks or Less, Week 6. Blame: How to Uncover and Overcome This Negative Behavior. We hope you have found the last 5 weeks interesting and helpful. This week, we will focus on tackling another area of emotional baggage: blame. If blame plays a prominent role in our […]
Welcome to How to Find Happiness in 10 Weeks or Less, Week 5. Shame: How to Uncover, Overcome and Release It Forever. We hope you have found the first four posts of this series helpful. In Week 5, we focus on how to make the remainder of our journey to contentment and happiness as positive […]
Welcome to How to Find Happiness in 10 Weeks or Less, Week 3. The Science of Happiness: How to Apply the Research to Live Your Best Life. This installment in our How to Find Happiness in 10 Weeks series focuses on the science of happiness, including the components of happiness, what each means for us, […]
Welcome to How to Find Happiness in 10 Weeks or Less, Week 2. How to Explore Your Personal Energy Beyond Your Dreams. In Week 1, we focused on 5 key segments of well-being that contribute to a contented life. The exercises we did helped us understand areas of our lives where we are doing well, […]
Welcome to How to Find Happiness in 10 Weeks or Less. We’re glad you’re here! This post is the introduction to a FREE life coaching series. The course consists of 10 posts. Each one focuses on a specific factor that contributes to personal happiness. For each focus area, we have provided information and research on […]
Practicing gratitude can be key to improving our well-being and feelings of self-worth. There is no bad way to practice gratitude, but there are ways that can yield a greater benefit to us and help this positive habit to stick. The key is to train ourselves practice gratitude in the moment. Many of us “count […]
When we think about generosity, many people think of giving to charity. Or serving up big meals to family or friends. Or offering snacks to other people’s kids. Sometimes, when we think about being generous, we think of buying some extravagant gift. Why Generosity Doesn’t Have to Cost a Penny But the truth is, the […]
We’re often encouraged to nurture our curiosity, to explore new hobbies or activities and to basically “change it up” from time to time. This is because injecting novelty into our lives helps us stay positive, interested, and interesting. Just doing something different can completely dispel a bad mood or improve a good one. Keeping things […]
Recently, I learned a new word: Generativity. This term was invented by Erikson in the 1950s. It describes our innate desire to teach and guide the next generation. What is Generativity? According to Erikson, our desire for generativity related activity is low until we approach age 30 or so. Our need for this type of […]
Being kind becomes its own reward. And it does so many other amazing things for our minds and bodies.
