Today is Memorial Day in the United States. Memorial Day officially commemorates people who died in military service to their country. In many families, it is a day for remembering anyone who has died. Families go to graveyards to tend graves and leave flowers. People mentally run through rolls of […]

Skiing for the first time in my life earlier this year, I was offered by my wonderful Italian ski instructor a new positive psychology construct I want to share with you. […]

Several years ago I was visiting with friends and we were all getting ready to go out for the evening. One of my friends came into the living room and I complimented her on how pretty she looked. Her immediate, almost unconscious response was, “You’re blind.” I was shocked. It felt like she threw this little compliment back in my face. Her response made the whole exchange a negative experience. I remember thinking that I would have been better off saying nothing. But I couldn’t leave it there. I stopped the conversation and turned it into a training session. I said, “Let’s rewind this exchange and try it again. This time all I want you to say is, ‘Thank you.’” I repeated my compliment word for word and she dutifully responded with a quiet “thank you.” […]

Last night I went to hear a child psychiatrist named Edward M. Hallowell give a talk on his new book “The Childhood Roots of Adult Happiness.” Dr. Hallowell has a practice and center in Sudbury, MA that takes a strengths-based approach to treating children with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Worry/Anxiety and Child Learning Disabilities. Despite working with a clinical population, Dr. Hallowell is a positive psychologist. (Well, really he is a positive psychiatrist, but that’s just as good!) In his talk he talked about how he is in the business of helping people “unwrap their gifts.” He explained that he often uses a metaphor with kids when explaining ADD. “You have a Ferrari brain; a really terrific and speedy brain,” he said, “the only thing is that you have Chevy breaks. We have to work on improving the breaks.” […]

Jennifer Aniston will be starring in a movie about Positive Psychology. The movie is expected to be called “Counter Clockwise,” and Aniston will play Harvard Professor Ellen Langer studying how to turn back the clock on aging. In 1979, Ellen Langer undertook a study in which she put elderly men into a setting that made them think that the year was 1959. According to the Harvard Crimson, “The magazines, newspapers, and music the men saw and heard were all 20 years old and the men themselves were told to behave and talk as if it were 1959. … Over the course of a week, signs of aging appeared to reverse and the men looked visibly younger. The subjects’ joints became more flexible, their posture straightened, and the lengths of their fingers, which typically shorten with age, actually increased.” […]

(Expand post for image.) That’s the response from sixty participants in a CLE ppresentation I made last week  At a presentation in January, 55% of MCLE administrators from around the country also agreed that a lack of lawyer commitment, energy, and engagement is at the route of most poor lawyering.   These are the folks who manage […]

Last month, I wrote about what I believe a leader must Do, Know, and Be. This month I’d like to use this same, three-part model to examine the role of a coach. The intersection of these three components, the shaded area, is where excellence in one’s profession can be found. It’s where action, feeling, and thinking are aligned and integrated into a consistent whole. […]

The approaching Memorial Day weekend marks, for us Americans at least, the official start of the summer season. And summer just might be the season of positive psychology. Beautiful, long days that allow for outdoor activities into the late dusk hours. The laughter of children playing baseball in the street. Festivals celebrating everything from art […]

Organizations are obsessed by the quick decision. Meetings have to have actions as an outcome, and that means decisions have to be made there and then. We all get used to hearing a presentation or proposal and having to decide.
Last Sunday was a warm balmy evening here in the UK (yes, really) and my husband […]

Humans gravitate towards creating and celebrating rituals in all sizes and forms - from a morning shower routine to the composition of a elaborate Thanksgiving dinner. Rituals are a way for us to recognize our values and connect to what creates meaning in our lives. Many believe that rituals are psychologically necessary to our daily life and that they give us a rhythm to connect to within our stressful and chaotic lives. So the idea is that by consciously or unconsciously engaging in ritualistic behavior we are able to more fully ground ourselves and reconnect to our values or with others. […]