My mother has days when she sleeps more and more, moving in and out of a twilight state of consciousness, as she approaches the end of her physical life. She experiences, thankfully, not a great deal of pain, but intense discomfort and sometimes fear as her late-stage lung cancer progresses. Over the past […]

Survival of the species depends on sex, so we have evolved to find intimate encounters pleasurable. But what is the role of sex in happiness and well-being, and why do some sexual experiences make us happier than others?
Virginia Lewis and DiAnne Borders (Lewis and Borders 1995) found sexual satisfaction to be the second strongest predictor […]

Over the last year, I have started to develop my stories. At first, they simply came out as part of speaking to audiences of lawyers about positive psychology. Eventually, I realized that I was just doing what many of those I admire do also. Marty Seligman has the “Nicky story” and Karen […]

In honor of Veteran’s Day, I have attached a letter my grandfather sent to my grandmother from the western front. It was dated November 7th, 1918, and she wrote on the envelope “Telling about the war stopped.”

I’m going to give you a choice.
You can either head to your local gym right now and bench press 500 pounds, or you can continue to read this article.
Are you feeling less than entirely autonomous? This is exactly the kind of “choice” that Western food industries have been feeding us for years. Here’s why.
Recent […]

Holidays, such as Thanksgiving, are times for tradition. The idiosyncrasies that make up my family’s holiday traditions are precisely the reasons I look forward to the holiday season all year. What would this fourth week in November be in America without turkey, football, and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade? My personal Thanksgiving favorites include enjoying […]

I had the pleasure of hearing Mike Morrison, VP and Dean of University of Toyota, speak at last month’s Global Well-Being Forum (formerly the International Positive Psychology Summit) at Gallup’s headquarters in Washington, DC. The room was jammed packed with both business and academic people interested in Mike’s talk “Personal Leadership: A Psychological […]

Make the most of your regrets: never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it comes to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh.Thoreau (1817-1862)
This semester at the UEL MAPP program, I’m working in a small team on a consultancy project with the aim of applying Positive Psychology […]

Europeans generally don’t celebrate Thanksgiving[1]; we have important, though quieter harvest festivals, and we wish you North Americans ease.  Sitting between Diwalli (Hindu) and Christmas (pagan in its timing), the Thanksgiving celebration of harvest brought in rests well.   Celebrations matter in the rhythm of life.
Goodwill is the hallmark of autumnal and winter festivals across the […]

I recently started reading Gail Sheehy’s (1974) classic bestseller Passages. The subtitle of the book, is “Predictable Crises of Adult Life.” Passages chronicles the different life stages men and women experience over the course of their adult lives. As the author was in her 30’s when she wrote the book, she stopped […]