What Is The Meaning Of Life For You?
“What is the meaning of life?” I struggled with this question throughout my teenage years and young adulthood. My parents tried to convey their meaning of life to me when I was a teenager. Yet my contrarian streak prevented me...
The Right Way to Fake a Smile (For Health and Happiness)
I use to fake smiles and pretend I wasn’t upset or anxious. The result wasn’t pretty – I felt worse for longer and developed psychosomatic symptoms like irritable bowl syndrome and sciatica. The science replicates my experience;...
The Happiness Genes Lottery: Have You Had The Luck To Be Born Happy?
Joy begets joy. You probably know at least a few people who are eternal, effervescent bundles of bliss: no matter how tiring or challenging their day, they just exude happiness. And whenever they enter a room, every person inside it...
Ancient Philosopher Walks Into a Bar… And Meets Modern Psychology.
Research is emerging that indicates that acting virtuously does more than just buy you a ticket to heaven – it can make your stay on earth much more pleasurable. Weird, right? We associate virtue with characteristics such as ‘boring’,...
How Positive Should You Be? Here’s The Scientific Answer.
The Losada ratio is the sum of the positivity in a system divided by the sum of its negativity. A ratio of 3.0 to 6.0 has been found to be highly correlated with high performance. The Losada ratio is also known as the positivity ratio,...
Having a Puppy Doesn’t Make People More Happy, Research Suggests
If you want more happiness, get a pet. In the 80s and 90s, research came out suggesting many benefits from pet ownership. From reduced risk of asthma, allergies, and cardiovascular disease to increased mood and wellbeing. Some doctors...
The Hedonic Treadmill – If Only Happiness Were As Easy As Marriage, a Big House, and Kids
Creating happiness is harder than you think – many of the activities you think will make you happier… do very little. People are exposed to many messages that encourage them to believe that a change of weight, scent, hair color...
7 Steps To Stop Overthinking The Past
Overthinking is evil. Like the whispers of a devil, it pretends to help while just making the situation worse. What can you do to reduce it? Unfortunately, the cure is as complex as the cause. But follow these 7 steps and you can slowly...
A Mini Zen Guide To Not Being Frustrated All The Time
Pretty much all of us experience frustration on a daily (or even hourly) basis. We get frustrated by other people, by ourselves, by technology, by work situations, by small crises that come up all the time. You know you’re frustrated...
How self-fulfilling prophecies are ruining people’s lives (including yours)
There is one particular phenomenon that saddens me personally, but fascinates me profesionally. It happens when people experience failure as a result of their own mistake or series of mistakes, but think that the cause of this failure...