Alexander the Great looked at the philosopher sitting there, impoverished, rags over the rib-thin body, and asked what he was doing. “I am experiencing nothingness,” said the philosopher. “What are you doing?” “I am conquering the world,” responded Alexander, and they both laughed. Each thought the other was a fool.
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Approaching the world as fundamentally fair makes us sensitive to when it is not. This is good and powerful and essential for proportionality and equity in our world. It is how laws are made and changed. It is what calls us to protect the vulnerable. But if we are not attentive to the biases and …
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In The 3 Promises, David Pollay illustrates a beautiful way of living and sets out a simple formula to help us get there.
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Just as the possibilities beyond the horizon are endless, so too are our potential ways of interacting with the world. The challenge is to embrace the sweet density and obscurity of life, recognize the meaning in the rawness of experience, and acknowledge that through reflection we may never catch up. What we decide now matters. …
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Slowing down re-energizes us and allows us to nurture ourselves so that we can enjoy what we are doing in the moment we are doing it. It allows us to connect with people, rather than just check in. It opens us to awe and wonder, and it lets us play and discover the beauty that …
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When my parents responded to a drunk, despondent and aggravated old woman with compassion and respect, they did not know that this kindness would reach the child quietly listening in the next room, plant seeds in his soul, and continue to grow outward for forty years. Whether we are seeking peace in middle school or …
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Forgiveness. Mercy. Prudence. Modesty. The strengths of temperance don’t get as much attention as our more muscular qualities. Yet in a certain sense, maybe this cluster of strengths enables every other strength, and thus makes the good life possible.
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Florentino is in his mid-forties, and has worked for a fortune 500 company for the last ten years. For the first six, he worked hard and stayed late. However after several small events that caused him to question his role in the organization, he was passed over for a promotion. No one acknowledged his work, …
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AllBook ReviewGoalsMotivation
(Book review) Positive Motivation: A Six Week Course by Dr. Kennon Sheldon
How do we choose our goals? How do we decide how to spend our time and energy and where to direct our attention? These are the topics covered in another workbook in Robert Biswas-Diener’s positive psychology workbook series, Positive Motivation: A Six Week Course by Dr. Kennon Sheldon. Sometimes these goals and choices are …
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AllAppreciative InquiryCommunicationParenting & Schools
The Positive Psychology Equivalent of Hand-to-Hand Combat
This semester I taught positive psychology at North Carolina State University. After our studies of, and exercises on, “savoring” one student lost 20 pounds by changing her relationship with food. Another, who reported she never did particularly well in school, received As in all of her classes. She said the difference was that she received …
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AllPathway 1 "Pleasure"Savoring / In-the-Moment_1 Positive Experiences
Tonight, Dance without a Need for “Why”
Socrates said that the unexamined life is not worth living. To which philosopher Iris Murdoch replied, “Lighten up, Socrates!” Well, I am paraphrasing a little. What Murdock really said was that people can lead moral lives without conscious self-reflection. So too, with happiness. Without a “Why” Yes, there are all sorts of positive outcomes that …
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AllAppreciative InquiryAweCommunicationGoalsGratitudeHappiness ExercisesHopeInterviewLoveMediaOptimismPathway 3 "Meaning"Positive FeelingsResilienceSavoring / In-the-MomentTopics
What Do You Wish For?
Wishes touch on so many aspects of positive psychology. That is because wishes tell us something about what it means to be human. They frame for us our vision of what is important – both those things that are “big I” Important that give us meaning and purpose, as well as the little pleasures and …
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AllAweCommunicationGratitudeHopeHumorInterviewLoveMediaOptimismPathway 3 "Meaning"Positive Feelings_1 Positive Experiences
Me, and Six Billion Others
How can our children develop these sort of empathic bonds with others if their interactions are with a screen rather than real-life, flesh-and-blood people? Photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand had an idea. While stranded in Mali in the 1980’s, Arthus-Bertrand spent an evening listening to another man’s life story. […]
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Sometimes I feel like I have this life-thing all figured out. The roof leaks: no problem. The dog pees on the Christmas presents: primo-fodder for our holiday letter! But then there are other days … I catch a glimpse of cockroaches scurrying away as I crack open the cabinet doors, and it DOES bother me. …
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AllDecision-MakingPathway 1 "Pleasure"Pathway 2 "Engagement / Flow"Pathway 3 "Meaning"_1 Positive Experiences
Poetry and Midlife
When, at 39, I was trying to decide whether to pursue training in positive psychology , I made for myself all the “practical” objections. I was already a successful lawyer, had a wife, kids, mortgage and typical routine. My wife, however, knew that deep down it was something I really wanted to do. Our conversation …
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AllGlobal PoliciesGoalsHealthHopeMindfulnessOptimismPathway 3 "Meaning"Resilience
Locating Hope in “Hopeless” Circumstances
I have always been drawn to the quote by Friedrich Nietzsche that “Freedom is to struggle with no hope for reward.” There a great deal of courage in that line. There is comfort in the notion that something can us keep us going, even when the circumstances seem insurmountable. As I have maneuvered the various …
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In his speaking and writing, Sean Doyle, JD, MAPP ’07, explores the poetry and science of well-being. Whether in the work place, parenting, community, home, or hardship, Sean’s invites us to inject a little more hope, affection, and meaning into the world. It is about recovering a reverence for being and creating a culture of …