One of my fascinations with positive psychology is the existence of its many paradoxes. So as soon as I came across this new research report Money Giveth, Money Taketh Away, my eyes lit up. The researchers explored the widely-held belief that experiencing the best things in life undermines your ability to enjoy life’s little pleasures.

Research shows we are more likely to sustain positive change by changing actions and patterns than by improving external circumstances. But that assumes we do them. Stephen Schueller is the first researcher to develop a structure for recommending positive interventions based on a person’s preferences for prior interventions.

Aristotle claimed that a virtue or strength is developed through action: “Brave people became brave by doing brave things.” He said there were six states of character development: brutishness, self-indulgence, weakness of will or caving into temptation, strength of will or mastering temptation, character excellence, and heroic excellence.

Kathryn Britton recently wrote about using positive psychology to deal with a sudden loss as she mourned her dear friend Linda. Grieving is an individual process, but while no two people have an identical experience of losing a loved one, there are several patterns that emerge. I’d like to offer some observations about how Positive Psychology is at work while people heal after a loss, even in the long term.

Have you, or has someone you know, been annoyed, hurt, or wronged by another person? Are you still holding onto that hurt? Are you hanging onto baggage, giving power to the past, being held back …

Keynote speaker, Miriam Akhtar, described the Positive Emotion Kit (PE Kit) approach to countering depression. To boost mood naturally and experience more positive than negative emotion, people can form personal PE kits by selecting interventions from five essential evidence-based categories.

The countdown of the top 10 positive psychology films of 2009 is about to begin. These are films that both appeal to a wide audience and have important messages. Many are perfect for use in …

The stories we tell weave moments, days, and years into a meaningful sense of life. Researchers have found that the way we tell those stories about our own lives is directly related to long-term …

I want to travel to Pandora, the fictional planet depicted in Avatar.  I saw James Cameron’s newest film that has rocked box offices since its release in December on I-MAX 3-D and have since …

I visited Maui, a breath-taking beautiful island where I experienced multiple moments of awe, elevation, spirituality, and connection with all things larger than myself. Stepping outside urbanization and its demands stimulated my strengths of open-mindedness, appreciation of beauty and capacity to love. Today, I am more motivated than ever to be respectful of the environment through the dozens of everyday choices that we know about, and should never fail to make.