The good news is that according to a new study by Inglehart, Foa, Peterson and Welzel, happiness is actually increasing: in this longitudinal study between 1981 and 2007, happiness levels went up in 45 out of 52 countries. Happiness has risen, they suggest, due to increasing democratization over the past 25 years, which means that people increasingly feel they have free choice (e.g. freedom of speech, to travel and in politics) and control over their lives.

Have you ever noticed how food influences mood? What should you eat to be alert and persuasive for the big presentation? Or to be a divine conversationalist for the cocktail party? What, then, is the optimal brain food for good moods? Here are the four golden rules…

A comedian on a late night talk show was recently discussing how he felt about turning 50. He said his friends tried to cheer him up by telling him that “50 is the new 40.” To this attempt at positive re-framing, the comedian promptly retorted, “Yeah, and rain is the new sun!” There is no escaping the “graying of America” as a demographic fact.

Have you ever been:

• So nervous that you made your stomach churn?
• So excited about something that you could hardly sit still?
• So worried you wound up sick over it?

These phenomena refer to the psychosomatic principle, that is, the mind’s ability to have physiological effects on the body.

Four billion people watched the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony, significantly more than watched any other recent TV program. Perhaps the Olympic Games have an inexplicable magic such that even people like my mother who do not follow sports closely are unable to take their eyes off the TV broadcast. Why do we so strongly appreciate the Olympic Games? I propose three sources for our appreciation of the beauty of the Olympic Games.

One of the most impressive scenes of the Olympic Games may have been when U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps shed tears on the medal podium when his sight met his mother’s on the spectator stand after achieving his unparalleled goal of winning 8 gold medals in the Olympic Games.

I am irrevocably changed by my divorce. For the better.

Don’t get me wrong – I am not an advocate of divorce as a way to bring about “happiness,” as it is typically defined in our culture. In fact, going through my divorce was like walking through fire and having the outer layer of my skin burned off. It was no quick fix, and it hurt like the dickens. I am, however, acutely aware ….

Germs and colds aren’t the only things we spread in the workplace. Our emotions, both positive and negative, are just as contagious. Have you ever walked into a meeting and felt so much tension that you became tense, too? Conversely, have you ever walked into someone’s office and felt so much openness that you started to feel more open and welcoming as well? This spreading of emotions from one person to the next is what psychologists call Social Contagion Theory.

If we are to find meaning in life, we must pay as much mind to our limbic “hearts” as to our neocortical cognitions. … To see meaning as due to purpose, values, self-esteem and efficacy is to judge the brain book by its cover. Positive emotions, not cognitions, are the engines that drive meaning. The positive emotions that create meaning are love, compassion, hope, awe, gratitude, trust and joy.

Louis J. Alloro is a consultant to schools in the area of character education. He has an intriguing perspective on making leadership come alive in organizations. I wanted him to share some of his thoughts this month.