I arrived to India today in preparation for the Global Spa & Wellness Summit taking place in Gurgaon this weekend. Interestingly, tomorrow, the India government shuts down. But unlike the US, this is not because the politicians have failed to reconcile their differences; it is due to a national holiday in celebration of Mahatma Gandhi’s […]
“You keep using that word . . . I do not think it means what you think it means.” –Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride Have you ever played “Taboo?” It’s a fun game by Hasbro that forces participants to describe something without using many of the words that people might commonly use to describe it. […]
proisraeli via Compfight Human beings are strivers. This has been a common theme of different theories of psychology over the years: we thrive on accomplishment. You could argue that this human need for mastery goes all the way back to the first amoeba struggling to crawl its way out of the primordial slime. We have […]
Gerry Balding via Compfight You may have heard of humorous stories of baby ducklings who follow around humans because they are genetically programmed to “imprint” on the first creature they see (presumably their mother, but not always–see cute duckling imprinting video here.) Because of this interesting phenomena, the name “duckling effect” is sometimes used to […]
peasap via Compfight One of the worst parts of being a parent is delivering bitter medicine to a child. When one of my sons had an eye infection for example, I had to administer eye drops a couple of times a day. This can be very traumatic for a small child (so much so, that […]
I have a pet peeve when I travel: It really bugs me how people insist on crowding around the baggage claim to wait for their bags. If everyone would simply stand back about 5 or 6 feet from the carousel, it would be so much easier for everyone to see the bags going by, and […]
I recently moderated a panel on marketing health and wellness to consumers at the New York Spa Alliance. As is often the case at spa industry events, the “pampering vs. wellness” debate popped up. Is pampering an important part of wellness? Or should spas avoid referencing pampering at all cost lest they be perceived as […]
Jacqueline Samuel is a cuddler. By this I don’t mean that she is a touchy feely kind of person (although she most certainly is that.) I mean she is a professional cuddler. For $60, you can go to her house, slip into bed with her, and . . . snuggle. As you might imagine, […]
Have you ever made one of the following decisions? Smoked a cigarette. Drank too much. Ate too much. Ate things that were bad for you. Neglected working out. Had unsafe sex. Drove a car without a seatbelt. Drove a car after drinking. Drove a car faster than the speed limit. Used an illegal drug. If […]
One aspect of the emergence of positive psychology and the trendiness of happiness has been to see businesses incorporating happiness into their business models. Zappos’ business is based on “Delivering Happiness,” Huggies has it’s “be happy” campaign and Coca-Cola’s “Open Happiness” video commercials have been hugely successful. At least in the case of Coca-Cola, their […]
