Lisa Sansom

What are the mindsets and preconditions that are present before we can make a choice to be happy? Shawn Achor’s new book outlines the 5 hidden keys that we can all embrace and enact. In every section, Achor provides a helpful list of ways to make this exercise very practical.

In 1973, Mark S. Granovetter was one of the first to demonstrate that opportunities come to us not just through our close friends, but often through weak ties with people we don’t know well but whose social networks overlap our own. Fast forward more than 30 years, and Christakis and Fowler use social data to show that people two or three connections away from us can have very important impacts on our lifestyle, emotions, and behavioral choices.

In my experience, people high in spirituality are imbued with a strong, contagious, positive glow that others can feel. They seem to navigate life calmly and serenely with the winds of spiritual awareness and faith billowing their sails. But is this how it really works? Todd Kashdan and John Nezlek have studied questions about spirituality. Does it vary from day to day, or is it more solid and trait-like? Does it predict well-being? If spirituality fluctuates within a person and within a day, what impact does that have on well-being?

Curtains up! Light the lights! July 20-21 and the Canadian Positive Psychology Conference will soon be upon us! The conference will feature highlights of current research in the field, but we will also be hearing from practitioners who have successfully applied positive psychology in their practices. We are anticipating a rich dialogue between research and practice.

I recently interviewed Robert Biswas-Diener, author of the new book book, The Courage Quotient. We explored courage, strengths, self-doubt, and the future of positive psychology. My first question came from my 10-year-old, who wanted to know, “How do you measure courage? What would be a unit of courage?”

It’s only now with sophisticated brain imaging that we are starting to see the neurological impacts of habits, giving us new clues into how to change them. While the elixir still eludes us, Charles Duhigg has brought us a few steps forward in his book The Power of Habit, discussing not only the habits of individuals but also the habits of organizations and societies.

I recently gave a series of workshops to supervisors who all work together within the same organization. This was an interesting study for me, as I’d never before delivered the exact same material four days in a row to different audiences. The overall topic of the session was leadership, and the entire day was built on a framework of positive psychology.

It recently came to my attention, through a friend’s Facebook update, that Marcus Buckingham has produced a new strengths assessment, StandOut. According to the website, the purpose of this assessment is not solely to affirm the strengths you have, but rather “to help you accelerate your performance and contribution.”