Be smart in December – and set yourself up for a happier new year

December can be crazy – shopping crowds, stressful relatives, too much eating, drinking, and spending – too much everything! When the end of the year is filled with excess it can really put the kibosh on your plans for a great start to a happy new year. If you want to avoid falling into the… Continue reading Be smart in December – and set yourself up for a happier new year

Happiness Life Strategy: How NOT to find your lost weight

The November 2007 issue of Australian Women’s Health magazine looks at the strategies of that rare breed of weight-loser – the one who keeps it off. The findings are from the National Weight Control Registry (NWCR), which has more than 6000 members who’ve managed to misplace at least 14kg without finding them again. Founders of… Continue reading Happiness Life Strategy: How NOT to find your lost weight

Happiness Life Strategy: How to find your passion #2

If Monday’s post got you considering your own calling, you may be interested in this week’s TIME magazine article Happiness on the job, which asks the question: Which jobs make people happy? The answer, it seems, is not necessarily the best-paid ones. According to the article: – Americans are reasonably happy workers. About 90% rate… Continue reading Happiness Life Strategy: How to find your passion #2

The Pursuit of Happyness – redux

A couple of months ago I mentioned a review of the film The Pursuit of Happyness, taken from a positive psychology perspective. I reproduced the review’s 224-word abstract (journal lingo for short summary provided by the author), duly citing the author, source and relevant copyright notice. I even wrote a short blurb describing the publication… Continue reading The Pursuit of Happyness – redux

Happiness Life Strategy: How to find your passion

Looking back, there have been clues that I didn’t choose my ideal career. The fact that I was roused from a deep sleep (not study-induced) by an invigilator during a microeconomics exam should have been the first indicator that commerce may not have been my true love. Determined to make my way in the world,… Continue reading Happiness Life Strategy: How to find your passion

Happier: Learn the secrets to daily joy and lasting fulfillment [Book review]

Happier is based on Tal Ben-Shahar’s positive psychology primer – the most popular class at Harvard and attended by about 20% of all Harvard graduates. Ben-Shahar wisely suggests that a better question than Am I happy? is How can I be happier?, since this recognizes happiness to be an ongoing and lifelong process. He positions… Continue reading Happier: Learn the secrets to daily joy and lasting fulfillment [Book review]

7 Steps to Becoming a Happier Person

Web MD has an article called Strategies for Happiness: 7 Steps to Becoming a Happier Person By Tom Valeo. Reviewed by Cynthia Dennison Haines, MD. Here’s a quick summary of the 7 strategies from the article: Happiness Strategy # 1: Don’t Worry, Choose Happy First, make a decision to be happy. Then you can select… Continue reading 7 Steps to Becoming a Happier Person

Happiness: A guide to developing life’s most important skill [Book review]

Matthieu Ricard’s subtitle reveals his premise – that ‘achieving durable happiness as a way of being is a skill’ (page 7). Although some people are happier than others, he notes, such happiness is not durable and complete. How then is the skill of durable happiness achieved? Ricard – a Buddhist monk and both monk and… Continue reading Happiness: A guide to developing life’s most important skill [Book review]

Imagine if there were a happiness pill – would you take it?

‘What the angst-ridden, consumption-fatigued and world-weary 21st century soul is after is an instantaneous existential pill.’ So says AFR BOSS in its list of ’50 Big ideas to navigate tomorrow’ (June 2007). Under Big Idea #36: ‘Happy’, we’re told that although ‘happiness hunters are everywhere’, their quest is hopeless because ‘logic dictates that the hunt… Continue reading Imagine if there were a happiness pill – would you take it?

Roll upper Beethoven

This week’s Scientific American blog ‘Mind Matters’ reports that classical music can ease depression. Researchers at Alzahra University in Tehran took depressed participants and administered Beethoven’s 3rd and 5th piano sonatas in twice-weekly, 15-minute doses. Participants’ depression scores improved significantly – and without side effects. Mind Matters blogger David Dobbs notes that ‘if classical music… Continue reading Roll upper Beethoven