Studies under the expanding umbrella of positive psychology tell us that we have Hope when our goal is supported by self-efficacy and self agency (Snyder). So goal setting is good and having the means to get there and knowing how well …

At the beginning of this century, Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000) described Positive Psychology as the “science of positive subjective experience, positive individual traits and positive institutions.” Since then a vast quantity of research has been carried out on the nature of well-being and the many and various psychological traits such as optimism and resilience exhibited by happy people. [...]

Governments have tried to increase their citizens’ well-being since time immemorial. But when it comes to assessing how they’re doing, they have generally stuck to objective measures such as GDP, as famously criticized by Lord Layard. This changed earlier this summer, when the British Government became the first in the West to track its citizens’ subjective well-being.

on Haidt in The Happiness Hypothesis suggests the metaphor of a rider on an elephant for how we live life.  The rider is our conscious thoughts (and emotions).  The elephant is our unconscious emotions (and …

Coaching as a Science, an Art, and a Discipline
BOOK REVIEW: Positive Psychology Coaching: Putting the Science of Happiness to Work for Your Clients. by Robert Biswas-Diener and Ben Dean (John Wiley, 2007).
This book is about …

I have been reading about the virtues as outlined in the book of virtues by Peterson and Seligman. I have been wondering how they all relate to each other and the influence one virtue exerts …

Our lives are full of stress: we have 24 hours each day and more activities than we feel we have time for. In this age of multi-tasking and instantaneous communication through cell phones, e-mail, …

Positive interventions such as capitalizing, savoring and expressing gratitude have the potential to intentionally and explicitly cause a favorable change in subjective well-being. Capitalization is about sharing positive events with others which may increase positive emotions and a sense of increased belongingness. The more that positive emotions are shared, the greater likelihood that they will be remembered [...].

One of the great pleasures in life can be found in the food that we eat. For me, my relationship with food started out as a challenge for many years. Involved in the very aesthetically-focused …

What exactly does it mean to focus on using strengths when we work instead of trying to fix weaknesses? How does it change what we do every day? What’s the first step to take? It’s a wonderful concept, but it’s not so simple and obvious how to put it in practice. [...]