Louis Alloro

The film, Inception, explores the phenomenon of ideas. Where do they start? How are they influenced? Can we extract ideas from each other, and when we do, to whom do they belong? Can we cause others to incept (take in) ideas by influencing them to think what we want them to think? The film shows …

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 been urging friends to run, not walk, to see this movie. The message inherent in the panoramic view is profoundly positive …

It’s all by matter of connection. Empathetic relationships are what predict successful lives. George Vailliant has shown this in the Harvard Men’s Study of Adult Development and in his PPND article, Yes I stand by my words: Happiness is Love, Full-stop.  What we need are more superheroes in the world, real-life superheroes that can inspire …

One of the main principles of social psychology and positive psychology is that we are social creatures.  On the other hand, I see a big discrepancy when I hear of research by Dutch organizational researcher Geert Hofstede on the immense prevalence of individualism in America and in many other cultures.  How can we be both …

I am driven to distraction. It’s just what is and what it’s always been. “No grass grows under his feet,” my mom used to say of me as a small boy, because I was always moving, always doing. Even now as an adult, I have trouble sitting still. In sitting to write these first paragraphs, …

Hello Mudder, Hello Fadder Greetings from summer sleep-away camp. Really. I write this tucked away in the woods in northeastern Pennsylvania – a tiny spot of heaven called Camp Happy Times – aptly named for a place where two hundred kids who have or have had cancer come for a week’s time of fun, fun, …

Last week I saw (from the first row, and in 3-D) Disney Pixar’s Up , an animated film about life, adventure, and friendship. The film certainly pulled on my heart strings in a very “other-people-matter” positive-psychology way. The film also speaks to this month’s theme of fun and play. […]

The voices in our heads can be real buzz-kills. “I’m not whatever enough.” I should be (doing) X, I should be (doing) Y, I should be (doing) Z. Some call this voice “the gremlin” or saboteur. Whatever you call it, these voices have harmful effects. Our own, self-deprecating mind chatter can become our reality.

I have had the good fortune of being born into a large, Italian family, for which I am utterly and completely grateful…. Communitas is a ritual-building process that inspires and revitalizes while reaffirming relationships within a community, state University of Virginia psychologist Jonathan Haidt and his colleagues. According to Anthropologist Victor Turner, building communitas is …

Why does school often feel bad for kids? As a student, I often felt I wasn’t good enough: who I was and what the world expected me to be were at odds. As a result, I felt marginalized and alone at school. I felt voiceless. And then I became a teacher. Finally! On the other …

When we change ourselves, it is important that we invite those in our spheres of influence into the new possibility we have created for ourselves. This invitation comes with energetic and joyful dialogue with others about our visions, hopes, needs, values, and desires.

While all people possess the ability to have hope, variability – like different grades of fuel – exists from person to person. The good news is that hope is malleable, which is to suggest we can bring people to more premium grades of hope.

Let’s make this December a creative challenge: an opportunity to invent new rituals for being with family and friends.   In the throes of this recession, many of us are strapped for cash. The contagious nature of the mistrust in the markets is making many of us perpetually anxious. With that stress – on top …

We form habits of thought around stories, and each time we retell them the old way, we reinforce the habit. The ruts get deeper and harder to get out of. But what if we told different stories? It’s About Stories Today I actually stopped a client cold in the middle of a story. We were …

“Who doesn’t need a coach?” is the question I am left pondering after attending this weekend’s sold-out conference presented by Harvard Medical School and McLean Hospital, its largest psychiatric affiliate (September 26-27, 2008). The conference, “Coaching: A New Horizon – Theory, Emerging Evidence, & Practice,” attracted nearly 500 professional researchers, medical doctors, psychiatrists, psychotherapists, teachers, …

Lou·is [loo-is] A·lloro [uh-lohr-o], M.Ed., MAPP is a change-agent working with individuals and networks in systems to enable positive evolution. He is one of the first 100 people in the world to earn a Master of Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. There, he published a framework for how communities evolve called Social-Emotional …