About

Michele Connolly

Name: Michele

Home: Sydney

Author: How to Be Thin in a World of Chocolate

Belief: Choose to be happier – and you will be

Quote: Happiness is not a destination,
It is a method of life. (Burton Hills)

Psychology and happiness

Only when searching for my B Psych (Hons) thesis topic did I discover the theories and research surrounding this fascinating field of happiness. Guess what! There’s plenty of evidence that people can think and act differently to be happier. But the research can be hard to find, and you have to decipher academglish.

At Happiness Strategies you get some of that happiness research in a user-friendly format.

No – I’m not ‘naturally’ happy!
Now don’t think I’m one of those Pollyanna types who never has a bad day. I score high on the personality traits of introversion and neuroticism, the two traits most firmly linked to unhappiness. I’ve been miserable in relationships and felt unfulfilled despite a successful career.

But I’ve found that I’m much less a victim of these externals than I used to think I was. In short, I’ve learned to be happy. And you can, too.

Where am I going with this?
I’ve recently completed a Certificate IV in Life Coaching. Life coaching takes the perspective that people can make powerful, positive changes in their life with a little help from a collaborative partner, or coach.

I’d like to combine psychology, happiness research and life coaching into a system for boosting happiness. So that’s what’s on my drawing board.

Now back to our scheduled programming.

Update:

I’m now writing about happiness over at Get Organized Wizard. There I focus on strategies and programs that help people overcome procrastination and take action for a happier and more organized life.

Come and take a look!

10 comments

  1. Michele,

    I love your insights and am delighted to have discovered your site. Your scientific data backs much of what I have learned about happiness as a channel (a person who connects with higher consciousness and translates the insights learned to others). We’ve just completed a book called The Toolkit For Happiness – A Guide to Creating a Lifetime of Happiness. It has been a great joy compiling this and if you are open, I would love to send you a copy for your review. I would be fascinated to learn about the connections between your work and mine. Meanwhile, keep up the happy work and follow your bliss!

    With love & happiness,
    Linda

  2. Michele,

    I’m so glad I found your site today, through my helpful Google Alerts.

    Certainly there’s a lot of talk about happiness–what it is, how to increase it, etc–but there’s less talk about happiness vis-a-vis our children. And yet nearly every parent I know “just wants their kids to be happy.”

    My co-author and I have written a book about the “I just want my kids to be happy” mentality: it worries us, that mentality, and, we argue, it cripples the kids. I’d like to send you a copy of the book. Are you interested? Where shall we send it?

    Aaron Cooper, PhD
    author, I Just Want My Kids To Be Happy!

  3. Hey Aaron,

    Thanks for your comment – and welcome!

    Your books sounds wonderful and I’d love to take a look. The address is
    Happiness Strategies
    PO Box 527
    Chatswood NSW 2057
    Australia

    You might also enjoy next week’s post about happier classrooms – keep an eye out mid-week.

    Michele 🙂

  4. Hi Michele! I really love your happiness blog! I’m actually moderating the blog for Pursuit-of-happiness.org. It’s just getting started. We’re an organization dedicated to promoting happiness and wellbeing through education. I was wondering if you’d be interested in being a guest author on the blog? I love your writing style!

    BTW – I’m also a life coach who uses PP strategies in my work: http://www.aaholzer.com

    It’s great to meet you!

    Warmly,

    Allison

  5. Im so glad you discussed the big hole in our educational curricula…and so eloquently too…our website pursuit-of-happiness.org is devoted to the idea. If you would like to be a guest blogger you would be most welcome.

    Best wishes

  6. Hi Allison & Mark,

    Congratulations on the Pursuit of Happiness website! I’m putting together some happiness resources for my blog and I’ll be sure to include your site.

    Thank you both very much for your kind comments re my blog. Like you, I’m passionate about happiness! And I’d love to guest blog – let me know what you’re looking for and I’ll put on my happiness-thinking cap. 🙂

    I wish you all the best with your site – the more that people choose to be happy, the better the world will be for everyone.

    Ciao for now,
    Michele

  7. hi michelle
    i liked ur website. my suggestion is to monetize it and put google ads.
    with the number of visitors u have, u can make millions! and be happier 😛

Comments are closed.