On an apparently meaningless bus drive home, Gretchen Rubin had an epiphany: “I am not as happy as I could be.” She also realized that the problem might not be the conditions of her life, per se, but with how she lived and perceived it. She wondered if she could change her life without actually changing her life, and made a year-long commitment to work on improving her happiness.

Dear Student,
Don’t worry when people tell you it will be hard to find a job. What the doom-and-gloom folks don’t understand is that they have something as contagious as the H1N1 virus– anxiety. Like the flu, they are probably “carriers” without even realizing it. You can innoculate yourself.

“The future is looking a whole lot better”
It was the reference to that classic film “Back to the Future” in the title of this new piece of research on future thinking that first caught my …

Earlier this month, I attended the Evolution of Psychotherapy. Billed as the world’s largest psychotherapy conference, it is held every 4-5 years and attracts over 6,000 people. I first attended the Evolution conference …

Are you looking for a way to personalize your well-being by adding and subtracting the research-based, positive psychology way? Don’t miss The Happiness Equation: 100 Factors That Can Add To or Subtract From Your Happiness, …

Your Holiday Strengths
Some people anticipate the holidays with excitement and enthusiasm. Some find it can be a stressful time with obligations to fulfil and busy schedules to juggle. Wherever you are along this continuum, …

Type in the word “happiness” on iTunes.com and you’ll discover a long list of apps on this topic.  There are two interesting apps developed based on positive psychology research: Live Happy and Gratitude Journal.
Live …

Another workbook in the series presented by Robert Biswas-Diener’s Positive Psychology Services, Positively Happy: Routes to Sustainable Happiness is a superb workbook.  Sonja Lyubomirsky and Jamie Kurtz have culled positive psychology’s best researched methods …

Failure does not breed success when it comes to the brain, according to MIT scientist Earl Miller whose study of monkeys is cited in the Boston Globe article of August 3: “Why success may breed …

My experiences in Buenos Aires thus far have been speaking to me with a persistent message: “Dana, be proactive and self-motivated!” This message has sometimes come in a whisper, and this time when I …