The other day I yelled at my 2-year-old son Dylan after one of his wooden blocks bounced off my forehead, narrowly missing my eye. “NO!,” I shouted. “You DO NOT throw things!” I thought I was being as clear and direct as possible, but if I put myself in young Dylan’s shoes, this is not […]
This week and next, children of all ages will be sharpening their pencils (or I guess nowadays this should be “powering up their ipads”) and heading back to school. You can almost hear the groans of agony, as the joy of summer becomes a faded memory and students set aside their personal passions and social […]
I have a confession to make: I’ve never been a big believer in specific goals. My “anti-goal” philosophy is not one I’ve shared on the blog previously, in part for fear of rejection or ridicule. I mean, everyone knows how important goals are, and there’s tons of research on goal theory to prove it. But […]
For most of my life, I have lived near the ocean. Being near the shore has always had a calming and even spiritual effect on me. (see my recent article on “Spirituality, Wellbeing, and Maui Moments.”) There is something about the vastness of the ocean, and in particular the sky over the ocean (especially at […]
Our minds don’t work as well as we think they do. Don’t get me wrong–our minds are incredible. Every day we make hundreds of decisions, process tons of sensory information, and perform complex analyses and calculations. It is easy to be so amazed by the complex accomplishments of our grey matter that we overlook many […]
Yesterday was the launch of my new book on The Psychology of Spas & Wellbeing. For those who don’t know, I work in the spa industry and a lot of my research in psychology is driven by trying to understand how we can create holistic wellbeing experiences for guests in a spa setting. In a […]
My new book on The Psychology of Spas & Wellbeing is now available! It is currently available as an e-book in Kindle or PDF versions but I am also looking into a print version in the future. This book evolved out of my capstone thesis project in the Master of Applied Positive Psychology program at […]
Previously, I wrote about the new trend of “personal biological monitoring,” citing several new and future technologies for allowing people to track a variety of physiological metrics to better understand their health on a moment to moment basis. (As I write this, I’m wearing a Smart Health watch that I got from Dr. Jay Williams […]
I am disappointed that I won’t be able to attend the International Meaning Conference coming up in Toronto at the end of July. They are putting together an all-star line up of researchers in positive psychology with an emphasis on “healing and flourishing through meaning.” The headliners will include Todd Kashdan, author of the must-read […]
In Martin Seligman’s book, Authentic Happiness, he uses a simple equation to describe where happiness comes from: H = S + C + V Where “H is your enduring level of happiness, S is your set range, C is the circumstances of your life, and V represents factors under your voluntary control.” I hear Seligman […]
