Do you love your life?If I’m honest, there have been many times in my life in which I didn’t love my life at all. My mind goes to dark places and it wants to stay there.I hate my lifeI want to dieWhat’s the point?This sentiment has been shared by many of the moms I coach and talk to a regular basis.Going through pain is hard, so it’s only natural that we don’t exactly love it when life is painful. However,…
Dr. Kathi Norman, MAPP ’17, is a physician assistant, international speaker, and founder of Positive Medicine. Her passion is the marriage of medicine and positive health including both sustaining the well-being of health-care providers and developing optimism and other positive health traits in her patients. Kathi has studied healthcare law, global medicine and healthcare administration completing her doctorate in medical science. Website. LinkedIn Profile. Kathi’s articles for Positive Psychology News are here.Tadpole in handBy the time I turned ten years…
1. Simulating a civilisation A far cry from the shoot-‘em-ups often blamed for corrupting young minds, Eco is a simulation game that challenges players to build a civilisation without trashing the planet. Gamers must work together to survive by developing a sustainable economy and laws that benefit the environment. Eco was developed by Strange Loop Games, which is a founding member of the Playing for the Planet Alliance, a group of studios that have agreed to address the climate crisis…
Please share our story on:This sweet donkey from Arizona is bringing lots of joy and love to his owners. Meet Walter – a little donkey who lives with his mom, dad, and three German Shepherds. Growing up around a bunch of dogs, it isn’t surprising that Walter has picked up some of their canine habits. But no matter what his personality is, his parents love him just the way he is. FacebookWalter was just a baby when Kelly and Brad…
In the past, I’ve talked about the power of persistence and what it takes to follow through on your goals. If you have the willpower and drive to pursue your goals NO MATTER WHAT, you can achieve anything you set your mind to. I’d like to take that one step further by teaching you how to develop the kind of relentless persistence — so you’re able to follow through on any goal you desire. The good news about willpower is, it’s not some…
Life comes with a ton of hurdles and challenges for all of us, so the least we could do is ease that burden for one another as best we can. Of course, we can’t solve everyone’s problems, but we can certainly take away some of the stress that plagues people on a daily basis. From cancer to mental health, we should all stick together. That’s what one man is doing, and he’s a great example for us all.James Anderson, a…
In the dawn of time, with the ebb and flow of the rhythm of life, the presence of change whispers. This is the first stirrings of a new beginning. This is the face of the New Year and regarding 2020, also a new decade. The word NEW echoes through as one chapter close and another one opens. The importance of a new year is the power it offers in a new beginning. The Power of Goal Setting to Activate Change…
Not all stress is created equal. An argument with your significant other has been found to be by far the most upsetting of all daily stressors. As one patient told me, fighting with his wife in the morning sets a negative tone for the rest of the day. He described it as a dark cloud that hangs over him and follows him around until the issue is resolved. In addition to taking an emotional toll, there is a physical cost to…
Healing conversations are an art form in peril of being lost to our busy lives.The ultimate goal of talk therapy is to enable the process of psychological and emotional healing along the continuum from the problematic toward a sense of greater mental wellbeing.Although we often come to therapy with a problem, we also come as persons who want to be heard and understood, who want to feel like we matter, who wish to learn self-compassion, and who want to find…
This piece is part of our Hope 100 series, telling the stories of the people and organisations creating hope for 2020 and beyond #94 London Borough of Waltham Forest Some 13.7 miles of segregated cycle lanes, 700 trees planted and cycle training for 15,000 residents; the Enjoy Waltham Forest project has created a ‘mini-Holland’ during the past five years, bagging it the 2019 Ashden Award for clean air in towns and cities. Various events are planned to encourage more people to…
Please share our story on:Millions of people are expected to watch the Super Bowl, one of the world’s biggest sporting events, to see who wins the National Football League championship between the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs. But what can match up to a heart-pounding game with a rousing and much-awaited halftime show? Why, a Puppy Bowl of course! Before sports enthusiasts huddle and cheer on their favorite team for Super Bowl LIV, pet lovers get to…
Once, I was a falcon, or at least I tried to be. Fast and focused, I was quick to act, quick to think, never a moment wasted. I wanted to fly the farthest and be the most ruthless. I carried with me always a sense of urgency, as if to say, “Look how much I care.” I thought the hard and hurried in me was my strength. I didn’t want anyone to know how soft I really was. Or how…
When it comes to setting goals, many of us can formulate a plan but have a hard time carrying out our vision. Perhaps it’s because goals take a lot of small steps and milestones to achieve, and many people don’t have the mental stamina or patience to follow through. However, the best breakthroughs happen when you stick to your goals rather than giving up on them before you get to the finish line. As they say, slow and steady wins…
My worldview is evolving. GGG @ TPPP is cutting back to bi-monthly as a result. Why? This writer is in a winter-hibernation-worldview-reflection time. The solitude is deafening, and yet necessary. Mastering contentment with silence is needed in order to truly know who we are in the big picture of how we can contribute. Our world is changing, or, maybe it’s just my lens on the world that’s changing, as I watch the world evolve. Change Happens The things that excite…
There are many things computers already do better than we do. In fact, a 2013 Oxford study forecast that machines might be able to perform half of all U.S jobs in the next 20 years. I never imagined my job could ever be “computerizable.” How on earth could a machine do a better job than I do in evaluating patients, providing therapy and recommending treatment? Well, in some cases, it can. By using cameras to follow subtle cues such as…
Much as I hate to admit it, I’ve never really been a try-er. If something comes easily to me or I only have to put in a moderate, not-totally-unenjoyable work, I’ll do it. When I encounter anything I’m not immediately decent at doing (or something that is out of my control in some way, I find myself putting in a minimal amount of effort, doing what’s needed to get things done (if I even do it at all). During a…
Stop whatever you are doing right now. On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your self-esteem? If one means, “I’m a complete and utter failure,” and ten means, “I’m at the top of my game in life, love, and work,” where do you fall? What you are about to discover, if you do not already suspect it, is that the above question, and that scale, probably are not reliable or valid. What you also will discover,…
What do you think of when you hear these words: pop, heat, snack, kernel, snack, salt, explode, crunchy, buttery? Popcorn, yes!!!It’s National Popcorn Day!!! Popcorn and the movies have been a thing since the late 1930’s, but today I have some fun tips on how to host a fun and cost-effective movie night right at your home.My daughters and I love to get comfy and cozy and enjoy family movie nights. A family movie night is the perfect day to…
Cordele Glass, M.A. 2018 holds a graduate degree in Positive Developmental Psychology and Evaluation from Claremont Graduate University. He works as an outdoor adventure guide, teambuilding facilitator, and positive psychology coach in Southern California. You can read more on his website, Upward Acts. Full bio. Cordele’s articles are here..How exactly can the natural outdoors affect your creative process? Creative people are often thought of as people who stay inside for long stretches of time, sitting in the dark staring at…
This piece is part of our Hope 100 series, telling the stories of the people and organisations creating hope for 2020 and beyond #64 Lucy Hughes, MarinaTex Lucy Hughes’s final university project ended up landing her £30,000 and a Dyson Award. MarinaTex, which Hughes created as part of her product design degree at University of Sussex, is a bioplastic material with the potential to replace single-use plastics in packaging. It is made from waste fish skin and red algae, making it…
Please share our story on:These Australian Army soldiers are given well-deserved break times from fighting the catastrophic bushfires, but instead of using it to rest, they spend it helping feed and comfort displaced koalas. FacebookWildfires have been ravaging the forests in New South Wales and Northeast Victoria in Australia since September. Amid this disaster, countless individuals and groups have been risking their lives fighting the blazes and providing humanitarian aid for both people and animals in need. Across the country,…
I haven’t written in 24 hours. I feel sick now. Like my brain is empty. Like maybe my brain has decided it will never write again. Like maybe I’m a failure now. All I’ve wanted to do for the past 30 years is write every day and now it’s finished. I can’t even feed my kids until I write. I’ve written every day for the past 20 years. I’ve written 22 books and thousands of articles. I’m always afraid the…
You’ve likely heard friends mention they are eating DASH foods, but you may not know what those letters stand for or mean. DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension.Moreover, cardiologists say that these DASH foods are essential for heart health. This diet effectively lessens the need to give medication for this blood pressure issue.With a healthy heart being so crucial to our lives, this diet could be life-saving. It isn’t difficult to incorporate into your diet, and you can…
What’s the hurry? There are many lessons to be learnt in life. Some take longer than others to master. For me, one of the hardest is patience. Patience is a nemesis that I still have to conquer. You could say that I am impatient to become the King of patience. The question is why am I like it? Woodwork Class I can vividly remember a time at school during a woodwork class. I was about seven years old and we…
“In happiness, as in so many other things, location is key.” According to research, a location that maximizes proximity to the natural world is one of the best ways to maximize well-being. Study after study shows a link between nature and wellness. Just 20 minutes outside can boost your mood, broaden thinking and improve memory. Even exercise performed in outdoor natural environments versus indoors has been shown to be associated with greater feelings of revitalization and positive engagement, decreases in…
Rational Emotive & Cognitive-Behavior Therapy, or REBT, is a style of short-term cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) that was developed in the 1950s by a doctor named Albert Ellis (The Albert Ellis Institute). Ellis trained as a clinical psychologist but found the options for treating his patients lacking. His dissatisfaction with the results he was seeing drove him to develop his own brand of therapy that emphasized action instead of talk. Read on to dive deeper into the theory behind REBT…
Ahhh Love! The word love (noun) comes from the Old English lufu “feeling of love; romantic sexual attraction; affection; friendliness; the love of God; Love as an abstraction or personification.” and the verb love originates from the Old English lufian “to feel love for, cherish, show love to; delight in, approve.” The dictionary defines love as “a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person,” “a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend,” “sexual passion or desire,” or “affection based…
Kathryn Britton, MAPP ’06, former software engineer, is a coach working with professionals to increase well-being, energy, and meaning in their work lives (Theano Coaching LLC). She is also a writing coach, facilitator of writing workshops, and teacher of positive workplace concepts at the University of Maryland. Her own books include Smarts and Stamina on using positive psychology principles to build strong health habits and Character Strengths Matter: How to Live a Full Life. Full bio. Kathryn’s articles are here.…
From a female explorer in the Sahara to the first black man from the UK to reach the magnetic north pole, eight people that give us hope for the environment This piece is part of our Hope 100 series, telling the stories of the people and organisations creating hope for 2020 and beyond #27 Greta Thunberg The climate activist who needs no introduction, Thunberg was recently nominated for a Nobel peace prize for putting the climate emergency on the political agenda…
Please share our story on:At 30 years old, Brett Korves seemed to have it all. A 10-year firefighter at the Swansea Fire Department in Swansea, Illinois, he shared a two-year old son named Brock with his wife Alex. Sadly, while on his way to work on April 4, 2019, his life was cut short by a driver speeding at 94 miles per hour. Nine months after, he was honored in a touching photo shoot by his newborn baby girl, whom…