well-being

I sympathize if you’re one of the estimated 35% of people who have already fallen off the wagon and given up on your New Year’s Resolutions, but help is at hand. Positive psychology coaching offers some useful insights into setting goals and sticking with them that might help just help you see them through.

Kate Hefferon and Ilona Boniwell have written a book, Positive Psychology: Theory, Research and Applications, with the aim of providing a comprehensive introduction to the field of positive psychology for undergraduate and post-graduate students. It provides lecturers with a clear structure for teaching the subject. It’s both accessible and engaging, so it will also appeal to anyone who wants to know about the latest developments in the field.

A few months ago I wrote about the British government’s intention to measure national well-being. This project came about because of the obvious failing of GDP (gross domestic product) to capture all the nuances of social and economic progress (and lack of it). I promised to update you on this project’s progress, and at the end of July 2011, a series of reports was issued by the Office for National Statistics.

Thanks to the industrious work of generations of scientists, we now know a great deal about the neuro-chemical mechanisms of ill-being, including what’s behind fear, anxiety, depression, and PTSD. However psychology has known little about the neuro-chemical mechanisms of well-being until very recently. A recent study by Carol Ryff explores some of the biological underpinnings of well-being.

Many of us realize the importance of a healthy diet and have started having 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day.  There is profound evidence about its benefits to…