When you think of the meaning of your life, do you think of making it, searching for it, finding it, or noticing it? Do you associate meaning with times of well-being or do you believe meaning becomes apparent primarily in times of suffering?
Kathryn Britton
Kathryn Britton
Kathryn Britton is a coach working with professionals to increase well-being, energy, and meaning. She teaches positive workplace concepts at the University of Maryland and blogs irregularly at Positive Psychology Reflections.
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Last Friday I started to explore Daniel Kahneman’s book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, by looking at some of the sections I had underlined. Today I conclude with the final set of quotations. I hope you can see just how much there is to learn from this book.
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Daniel Kahneman’s book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, is so dense with interesting ideas, descriptions of research, stories, and wise commentary that I’ve almost despaired of writing about it. An earlier draft made me think of a 90-second Hamlet. But my goal is to entice you to read the book, not to boil it down. So …
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AllHealthHome and FamilyPositive agingPositive EmotionPositive FeelingsRelationships
Life Stories of the Oldest Old
What happens when the oldest old look back over the course of their lives and share their stories with younger generations? Can helping older people retell their stories can be an effective way to support and prolong their well-being?
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Bridget Grenville-Cleave’s new book is distinctly small, not much bigger than the size of my hand and lighter than a medium-sized sandwich. That may seem like a strange way to start a review. But a book that is lighter than a sandwich can go anywhere with me. So now that we’ve established that it’s an …
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We are members of the Sandwich Generation, providing advice and support to both our children and our parents. For our children, we can draw on memory to understand what they’re going through. But for our parents, memory doesn’t serve. We’ve never experienced what they’re experiencing. Informed imagination has to take over.
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Do you think of marketplace behavior as neutral, negative, or moral? Paul Zak and other researchers argue that market behavior on the whole is moral behavior that both benefits from and contributes to social connectedness. Surprised? Read on.
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AllConferencesDecision-MakingMindfulness
IPPA Closing Session: Short Snippets of Research on Meditation and Thought
As the very last event of the IPPA Conference, Dr. Richard Davidson and Dr. Barbara Fredrickson invited a panel of five scientists to give very brief reports on their own work related to meditation and decision-making. Bethany Kok, Helen Weng, Clifford Saron, Erika Rosenberg, and J. David Creswell each gave 10 minute excerpts.
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The last day of the IPPA Conference opened with a keynote address by Dr. Richard Davidson about changing the brain by transforming the mind, finding pathways to sustainable well-being. A Propitious Time in the History of Science A neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dr. Richard Davidson made a commitment to the Dalai Lama in …
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AllConferencesGlobal PoliciesHealthMediaPositive EmotionResilience
IPPA Fellows at the Opening Night
The opening night at the IPPA World Congress included naming 6 new IPPA fellows, followed by addresses from three exceptional men. Ed Diener on 5 research findings, Chris Peterson on 6 directions that positive psychology is moving, and Martin Seligman on measuring and extending well-being.
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In her keynote speech at this summer’s IPPA Congress, Barbara Fredrickson invited the audience to suspend their ideas about love for 45 minutes in order to absorb her definition, and then see what resulted when they put her definition together with what they already knew.
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What is passion? Is it always beneficial? Are there different kinds of passion? What actions can we take to nurture beneficial passion in ourselves, our colleagues, and our children?
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It’s Memorial Day, a time to think about people who are gone. It’s also a good time to think about posttraumatic growth, the experience of positive change that comes through struggling with loss. Growth emerges from struggling with a broken picture of the world, putting it back together in new ways. What kinds of posttraumatic …
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What should we expect when we lose someone who is important to us? Is there an evolutionary purpose for sadness? What does it mean that people also laugh at funerals? What distinguishes resilient mourning?
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AllHealthPositive agingPositive Emotion_1 Positive Experiences
As We Age: Positive Emotions and Emotional Complexity
Early this year, I spent a week visiting my mother in a supported living facility. I lived there, sleeping on a cot in her room and taking meals with her in the communal dining room. The staff have established a culture of respectful “just-enough” caring. They help when help is needed, and let people manage …
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AllBusinessParenting & SchoolsRelationshipsStrengthsTaking Action
High Status, Low Status: What Difference Does it Make?
What difference does status make in the way we work together? How does it affect performance? Is there anything we can do about it, or are status differences just part of what it means to be human? Status in School Back when my children were in elementary school, group projects were common. Like many of …
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What does interpersonal touch contribute to human life? Researchers such as Alberto Gallace, Charles Spence, and Robin Dunbar believe that interpersonal touch plays an important role in our emotional well-being, conveys emotion more powerfully than language, helps us calm down from stress arousal, and enhances trust between individuals.
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In about two months, my husband I will celebrate our Pearl Anniversary (30 years). While we haven’t yet shown the stamina of my grandparents’ generation, I think we can claim some stick-to-it-iveness. Fortunately for us, it has gotten easier and more rewarding with practice. Why is that? That’s what I’d like to explore here, based …
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I’ve been invited to give a lunchtime talk on resilience for a conference of nurses in the Veteran’s Administration Polytrauma System of Care. Because I’m feeling a wave of humility — these nurses care for patients with very serious conditions — I’d like to organize my thoughts here, so that the community can tell me …
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Most people can’t imagine having an excess of free time. Yet busy people often suddenly become less busy. A semester ends, or a deadline is met, or a family member no longer needs care, or a person retires. When this happens, people aren’t necessarily happier. Life can seem suddenly empty, aimless, and without structure. How …