Photo Credit: mark sebastian via Compfight When I moved to New York (over six years ago now) from Southern California, I experienced a significant cultural shift. I was moving from the laid back California beach culture to the hustle and bustle of New York city life. One of the first things that I noticed was […]
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 […]
Photo Credit: Mike Bitzenhofer via Compfight A few months back I wrote an article about “not being afraid of the pain.” I talked about being able to forge ahead even when things will be painful or difficult as the secret to most of my success. The article was well received and I got a good […]
Photo Credit: rocket ship via Compfight “The Power of Positive Thinking” was a landmark book by Norman Vincent Peale that came out in 1952. The idea of positive thinking grew in the 70s and has continued to be a popular new age prescription as a way of handling whatever happens to be ailing you. The […]
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 […]
“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 […]
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 […]
