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 [...]
Photo Credit: Mark Probst via Compfight Mindfulness and self-control are like two sides of the same coin. This is counterintuitive, because mindfulness is often described as “non-attachment” which sounds like it is more about letting go of control–letting things be as they are without judgment. The problem is that this state of non-judgmental awareness does [...]
Photo Credit: DonDré via Compfight I have many childhood memories of my mother coming to my rescue when I was sick. She was always there with one remedy or another: vitamin C, chicken soup (Jewish penicillin,) a cool washcloth on my feverish forehead or a hot saltwater gargle to soothe my sore throat. Most of [...]
Today’s article is a guest post from Dr. Larry Berkelhammer, who has learned the power of mindfulness and self-acceptance, even through his own diagnoses of several chronic illnesses. Dr. Berkelhammer has spent 19 years teaching clients how to manage their pain with mind training techniques. His background is in psychotherapy, applied psychophysiology, and applied psychoneuroimmunology. [...]
This week, Intelligent Life magazine posted an article on their blog refuting the benefits of spas. Spas often take a bad rap as being a superficial luxury indulgence (“dedicated to narcissism” the Intelligent Life article says.) The article describes spas as “a mish-mash of promises” using a hodge-podge of modern technologies alongside ancient healing remedies [...]
One of the most fascinating aspects of my studies in positive psychology has been to see some interesting overlaps and themes between what modern researchers are studying and some of the teachings of ancient eastern philosophies. Mindfulness, for example, which has been a core facet of Zen and Buddhist philosophies for centuries, is increasingly being [...]
Photo Credit: Amancay Maahs via Compfight The other day, I went for a run on my lunch break. This is something I try to do regularly, but the reality is I can rarely pry myself away from my desk. So I was proud of myself for having finally gotten a run in. When I came [...]
“Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.” ― George Carlin Researchers from the University of Switzerland, Fabian Gander, Rene Proyer and Tobias Wyss shared a poster presentation at the last world congress of the International Positive Psychology Association. They noted that while humor as a character strength has been observed to be “robustly [...]
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 [...]
